This movie started weird for me. It is an Icelandic movie, so not in English. Hence subtitles. But when I started watching this movie on Tubi, I was very confused. There was a voiceover giving me all the details about the different companies involved in producing the movie. This is different… and interesting. Maybe Iceland is more in tune with wanting you to know what companies were involved. “We shall read the opening credits for you! So you can’t sit there not paying attention.” 

The opening scene then kicks in. A snowy scene. Wind blowing the swirling snow. You can almost feel the cold (or maybe it’s me, the church I live in is very cold) emanating through the screen. The voice continues explaining the scene. “A wild herd of horses approaches. The lead horse continues forward while the rest shuffle nervously” 

Is this some sort of Rod Serling Twilight Zone vibe they are going for? I kinda dig it. Don’t get me wrong, it is weird. And also a bit annoying. The writer in me keeps shouting “Show don’t tell!” I can see the horses doing exactly what you are telling me they are doing. Then we get to a scene inside a barn full of lambs. Apparently one is pregnant and there are two people there (Ingvar and Maria) helping the mother lamb give birth. (Can I deviate here more than normal? I genuinely don’t understand livestock farmers helping to facilitate births. Can’t the lamb do it on their own. Naturally? Animals are much more self sufficient than people, so why do people feel like animals can’t do it without their help? I could go on about this for 1000 words, but I should get back to the movie.) The voiceover continues… It was around this point where I thought it might be a setting. Although that doesn’t make a lot of sense. I watch a lot of movies on tubi and other places. Never had the bonus Rod Serling treatment on a movie. After a little searching, I did find a setting for voice over description. So I shut it off in order to let the movie play out naturally. Technically it was the alternate language track for the movie. Icelandic or English with voice over description. No basic English. Added weird because the Icelandic track was still there, just subdued as the Serling treatment played out.

Finally getting back to the movie proper. We go through the motions with them and lambs. A few births. And then a weird occurrence. A lamb is born and the two people seem very confused about it. They take the lamb inside and give it extra care. The ones earlier were left in the barn. This one gets bottle fed and swaddled in a blanket. Their property is very isolated. No neighbors. No buildings anywhere to be seen, beyond theirs. 

It takes a bit before we finally get a glimpse at what is so different. It’s not a lamb. It is a child with a lamb head extending to fur at the top of the chest and one arm is also lamb like, ending in a hoof. At this point in the story, things feel very awkward. It seems like there is a secret between these two. And it feels like the secret might just be that Ingvar had sex with the sheep leading to the birth of the hybrid lamb child. Which is a very different kind of unsettling plot dimension. We do get another player in the mix when Ingvar’s brother Petur shows up. But he really adds to the tension. He doesn’t approve of them caring for and raising Ada (the lamb child.) Especially because their daughter died recently, so it feels like they are using the lamb child to replace their deceased child.

This movie mixes a lot of awkward tensions and moments with gorgeous scenery. There were a couple moments where I thought I must have fallen asleep, so I rewound it and rewatched. Only to find that the scene in particular was just weird and made no sense. But I like weird. 

And this movie does go somewhere. Somewhere pretty interesting. And while technically Ada being half lamb half human might be considered a spoiler. It isn’t. Especially not compared to the spoiler I’m about to throw at you.

SPOILER

The movie ends with Ingvar getting shot and Ada being led away by her father. A large half goat half man. Which was a bit of a relief honestly. To know that it wasn’t a movie about a man having sex with a sheep. It was just a monstrous species we don’t see or hear about that live in some sort of seclusion.

This movie had a quiet slow burn feel to it. Something I enjoy in horror movies. But I kinda really want to see more. I want a sequel. I want the Goatkin to start a war with humanity. But that’s not what we have. What we have is a very intimate little story with a family and a young Goatkin. This was a good introspective thinky horror movie. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The director has said that it is a complete story and left vague and open intentionally. So it seems that an official Lamb 2 is unlikely. But for this, I am going to run with a rating of 8 stars.