Across global myth and folklore, tales recur of childless couples who appeal to gods, invoke fate, or strike uneasy bargains with otherworldly forces to obtain an heir — only to find themselves raising beings that aren’t fully human. Those stories often turn dark but typically reward the adoptive parents’ devotion in the end.
Valdimar Jóhannsson’s unsettling Icelandic folk-horror, Lamb, offers a bleaker variation on that pattern. The film centers on María (Noomi Rapace) and her husband Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason), solitary sheep farmers who discover an impossible newborn in their barn during lambing season and take it in as their child. Penned by the surrealist writer-musician Sjón, the screenplay follows familiar fairy-tale beats while complicating them: María’s fierce, possessive attachment to the hybrid infant, her sidelining of the lamb’s biological mother, and the unresolved mystery of the creature’s origin hang over the story like a slow, gathering threat.
Jóhannsson dresses the film in an unequivocally Icelandic palette — cold, mineral, and austere — and the result is a movie that feels tactile and immersive even when its characters push viewers away. There’s a moral fable at the core: given how the people in the story behave toward one another, the lamb-child, and the landscape that sustains them, you expect grim consequences. The film never offers easy consolation.
What makes Lamb so disquieting is the blend of mythic familiarity and strange human impulses. Rapace turns María into a figure who is at once protective and unnerving, arguably more frightening than the film’s darker elements. The animal presence is similarly discomfiting — Jóhannsson leans into practical methods and unvarnished naturalism, famously subjecting his cast to real, unpredictable lambing for authenticity. Those choices give the movie an almost hypnotic rawness that lingers like the best old folktales.
Where to watch: Lamb is available free with ads on platforms such as Fandango at Home and Xumo, and can be rented through Amazon and other digital retailers.
Polygon’s annual Halloween Countdown runs daily throughout October with short recommendations of standout horror films, series, and specials. Find the full calendar on Polygon for more picks across the month.
Source: Polygon
