Saga and Jon have left London behind for a house deep in the Finnish forest, the place where Saga spent much of her childhood. They plan to fill it with children. Then their first baby arrives, silent, unusually strong and covered in thick dark hair, and only Saga seems to think something is wrong.
Nightborn is the second feature from Hanna Bergholm, whose debut Hatching was one of the most striking horror films of recent years. Her English-language follow-up, which competed for the Golden Bear in Berlin, is gorier, stranger and funnier, but not quite as focused.
Nightborn turns every new parent’s secret fear into a creature you can see, hear and feed.
Movie at a Glance
- UK release: In cinemas from Friday 30 October 2026
- US release: Streaming on Shudder since 31 July 2026
- UK distributor: Picturehouse Entertainment
- Director: Hanna Bergholm
- Writers: Hanna Bergholm and Ilja Rautsi
- Starring: Seidi Haarla, Rupert Grint, Pamela Tola, Pirkko Saisio, Rebecca Lacey and John Thomson
- Runtime: 92 minutes
- Certificate: 15 (UK)
- Language: English and Finnish
- Genre: Folk and body horror
Viewer Match
- Best for: Fans of Hatching, Rosemary’s Baby and The Brood, and anyone who likes horror with a wicked sense of humour.
- Maybe skip if: You are squeamish about childbirth and breastfeeding on screen, or want a high body count.
- Mood and pace: Unsettling and blackly comic, with bursts of real gore across a brisk running time.
- Cinema or streaming? The sound design is a big part of the fun, so catch it in a cinema if you can.
- Spoiler level: Spoiler-free: we stop shortly after the baby comes home.
Something in the Woods
Bergholm and co-writer Ilja Rautsi draw on old Nordic beliefs about trolls and the forest without ever spelling them out. The woods press in on the house, older relatives mutter warnings that everybody else ignores, and the forest seems to answer Saga’s moods. The baby himself is brought to life with puppetry and an extraordinary chorus of grunts and guttural cries, and the sound team makes every feed, scratch and bite feel horribly physical.
What makes it work is how close the horror stays to real experience. A painful, bloody attempt at breastfeeding is played as pure body horror, but it is also something many new mothers will recognise. The film is at its strongest when it blurs the line between a monster movie and an honest picture of early parenthood.
Seidi Haarla Is the Heart of It
Seidi Haarla, so luminous in Compartment No. 6, gives a fearless, raw performance as Saga, a woman slowly coming apart while everyone around her insists that she is the problem. Rupert Grint is well cast as Jon, the cheerful, well-meaning husband who simply will not see what is in front of him, and a scene of him trying the old “here comes the aeroplane” trick at feeding time is a comic highlight.
The flip side is that the supporting characters are drawn very broadly. The family’s refusal to notice anything odd, even as things escalate, is clearly meant to feel like gaslighting, but it sometimes tips into cartoon.
Too Many Seeds
For all its imagination, Nightborn is overstuffed. Folklore, body horror, marital drama and a satire of modern parenting are all competing for room in 92 minutes, and the mystical side in particular feels underfed. Seasoned horror fans will also see most of the turns coming. It is not the knockout Hatching was, but it is bold, gross and frequently very funny, and Haarla makes it worth the trip.
A Folk Horror for Halloween Weekend
Nightborn arrives in UK cinemas on the Halloween weekend, after streaming on Shudder in North America over the summer. If its forest folklore appeals, read our Children of the Wicker Man Super Review on the family cost of a folk horror classic, and for more horror about motherhood gone wrong, try our Other Mommy review.
Spoiler-Free Verdict
Nightborn is a gory, darkly funny and often unnerving horror about the shock of new parenthood, with a superb performance from Seidi Haarla. It tries to do too much, and the folklore gets lost in the undergrowth, but it is never dull.
- Performances: 7.5/10
- Direction: 7/10
- Screenplay: 6/10
- Score: 7.5/10
- Cinematography: 7/10
- Entertainment Value: 7/10
- Overall score: 7/10
Star rating: 3.5/5
Verdict badge: One for Fans
One-line verdict: Not quite Hatching, but a gleefully grisly night out for horror fans this Halloween.
Watch the Official Trailer
Watch the UK trailer, if you dare to meet the baby.
Which horror film best captures the fears of becoming a parent? Share your spoiler-free picks.