Mythology from all over the world is full of fairy tales about childless folk who pray to the gods, unwisely invoke fate, or bargain with the supernatural for a child — only to wind up raising something that isn’t human. These stories are often dark, but they generally turn out well for the adoptive folk, whose parental loyalty and love is rewarded in the end.
And then there’s Lamb.
Valdimar Jóhannsson’s unsettling Icelandic folk-horror fable focuses on childless sheep-ranchers María (original, and still best, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Noomi Rapace) and her husband, Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason), who witness something strange being born in their barn during lambing season, and adopt it as their child. The story, by surrealist musician Sjón, follows some of those familiar fairy-tale beats. But María’s possessive, protective attitude toward her new half-sheep child, the way she elbows the creature’s real sheep mother out of the picture, and the ongoing question of exactly what fathered the newborn all loom threateningly over the story.
Jóhannsson gives Lamb a visual texture that’s all Iceland — chilly, stony, crystalline, and beautiful. It’s an immersive, visually compelling movie even when the characters seem to be doing their best to push the audience away. There’s a morality-tale element to all of this: It’s the kind of film where you may expect everyone to die unpleasantly, and unmourned, given how they treat each other, the lamb-child, and the natural world that surrounds and supports them, but clearly doesn’t love them.
But the mixture of familiar fairy-tale elements and startling, more alien aspects of human behavior is compelling even when there are no heroes or rooting interests in this edgy fable. Rapace is fierce and frightening in Lamb, almost more so than the monsters who surround her. Even the sheep are unnerving — and Jóhannsson knows it. He threw his cast into the deep end on their first day of shooting, giving them hands-on experience with the bloody, unpredictable process of sheep birth. His commitment to practical effects and the authentic rawness of nature makes Lamb a hypnotic experience, one designed to stick with you just as long as the classic fairy tales that inspired it.
Where to watch: Lamb is free to watch with ads on Fandango and Xumo, and available for rental on Amazon and similar digital platforms.
Polygon’s annual Halloween Countdown is a 31-day run of short recommendations of the best horror movies, shows, TV episodes, and online specials to stream for the Halloween season. You can find the entire calendar here.
