‘Lamb’ Movie Review

Lamb is an Icelandic film about Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason), a couple who live/work on a sheep farm. After one of their ewes gives birth to an anomalous sheep-human hybrid, they decide to raise it as their child. But, as is typical of a movie like this, things begin to unravel as secrets are discovered.

Right off the bat, this is not going to be everyone’s kind of movie. It refuses to compromise in its unabashed strangeness. Even if you don’t like stuff like this, that’s always admirable, in my opinion. I thought this movie was great. A premise that bizarre, almost like some sort of tale from ancient mythology, isn’t always easy to pull off, but the movie totally commits, and it never feels like it’s winking at the audience. It plays it all completely straight, which lets some of the inherent absurdist humor speak for itself. I really have to commend the cast in this one, because it very easily could have backfired if they hadn’t played it as dryly as they did.

Speaking of the cast, Noomi Rapace is outstanding in this. She’s the only of the three prominent human characters who has already been established with American audiences, thanks to movies like Prometheus and The Drop, as well as having played Lisbeth Salander in the original Swedish version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. She plays the role of a struggling young mother quite well, despite there being such unusual circumstances. The other two primary humans played by Hilmir Snær Guðnason and Björn Hlynur Haraldsson. I really hope more Americans see this film, because these two actors are excellent, and I’d love for them to garner more international acclaim.

The story plays out very much like an old legend. It starts off normal, becomes abruptly supernatural, gradually gets darker, and ends with chilling comeuppance. The dark ending (which kind of comes out of nowhere) evokes the original, more sinister versions of classic fairy tales. If not for its present-day setting, it would feel right at home among the works of the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen.

This is absolutely not a traditional horror film. It really doesn’t even become horror until the very end. Leading up to that, it’s just consistently odd and uncomfortable. It’s similar to the film I’m Thinking of Ending Things in that regard. It has a very dreamlike feel to it, partly because of the gorgeous Icelandic setting, which is captured by some fabulous cinematography from Eli Arenson. Be warned: the pacing is very slow, but it feels very deliberate. This bizarre serenity almost makes the strangeness (and occasional creepiness) come off as natural. The design of Ada, the titular sheep-human hybrid, is somehow both adorable and off-putting at the same time. The effect seems to have been achieved digitally, but I don’t know how much was pure CGI and how much was simply compositing a sheep’s head onto an actual child. The way she toddles and swings her arms (one of which is hoofed) looks very natural, and you do gradually begin to view her as more human than sheep.

Lamb is a unique piece of modern folk horror that takes its time with its story and characters. The cast, as small as it is, manages to pack a punch with some incredibly emotional moments, and the strangeness of it all somehow almost makes sense within the dreamlike setting, which is brought to life beautifully by some truly stunning cinematography and gorgeous scenery. Not to mention, the idiosyncrasies of its story culminate in a jaw-dropping ending.

SCORE: 4.5/5