Lamb; Grade: B
Lamb tells the story about a couple out in Iceland named Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snaer Gudnason), whom are regular everyday lamb farmers. Maria on a regular day delivered some baby lambs, however this one particular lamb… Maria suddenly grows oddly attached to it. The animals including their dog have grown suspicious of this attachment, as we wonder why exactly is this couple now taking care of this lamb like it’s their own child?!
Hard Work Pays Off: I’ve worked immensely hard to avoid myself in watching trailers all year long, as sure enough it helped me in the long run. I say that because if I would’ve watched the trailer for Lamb, it would’ve honestly wrecked the entire experience for me, as it gave away TOO Much in the trailer. The only thing I knew about Lamb was it was an A24 film and the poster featured a woman and a baby lamb… Not sure what it all meant, but considering it was an A24 horror film, I knew it’s bound to be unique.
Early on when watching Lamb, I wasn’t too sure what it was all bound to be. I was fearing this was going to be another Gunda scenario, where it’s some kind of deep metaphor on not wanting to eat animals, as nothing happens in the film. Not much was happening at the moment, as we’ve seen the couple not talk much while we seen a bunch of animals acting like regular animals such as horses and lamb especially.
Once Maria takes a hold of this one particular lamb, we tend to question as to why she found some kind of odd attachment towards an animal she normally breeds and delivers new borns time to time?! Why is the husband also found some attachment towards this animal?! More importantly why are the animals acting so strange and staring at the couple, acting like they’ve gone completely insane?! We’re finally given an answer while Maria and the Lamb are out on the field, as once it’s revealed as to why and the plot starts to finally open up… This totally changed my entire mood on this film, as I grown a huge smile on my face and laughed my ass off, in the best way possible.
Lamb as a concept alone is such a bizarre yet neat little idea. Lamb isn’t at all scary, however I can understand why this would be categorized as a horror film. Lamb can sometimes be unsettling meaning what you’re watching can indeed be disturbing, however Lamb can also be unsettling as though you’re laughing at it, you’re not necessarily laughing at it because it delivers a great joke, you’re laughing at it because it’s just too bizarre to comprehend.
What I enjoy most about Lamb is this film begs you to question and create theories on what is the entire meaning with regards of the story being told here?! Like majority of the time while watching Lamb, my mind tends to create assumptions and theories of the lamb itself and especially the family as well. It’s hard for me not to create what theories went on my head because that would spoil the experience, but the fact this film tends to make my mind create theories in which are extremely abnormal… I mean for a concept like this, I felt that was sort of the intentions of the film maker behind this film.
The biggest flaw within Lamb most certainly has to be: I wanted more out of it. When I say I wanted more out of Lamb, I don’t necessarily mean I wanted to add a longer run time, I wanted more meaning I needed to see more of an explanation so this whole entire idea makes clearer sense. Especially the ending… Like where did this thing come from?! More time could’ve been given to that, than time was given where the couple just doesn’t really do much. There are also some scenarios and situations in which needed to explore more or to be justified more to where it can make much sense.
September brought us an odd yet entertaining horror film with Malignant, now in October we’re brought a weird yet intriguing folk horror tale with Lamb… It’s great to see horror films getting back to the days, where creativity and originality is a key factor.
Overall, Lamb is a solid film. I recommend this film, be warned this film is not for everyone, I don’t see myself recommending this to many of my friends/family unless they’re actual film geeks like myself. -Mitch Smietana