TL;DR: Nightborn is a folk horror about motherhood, fear and the things hiding beneath family history - it has a fantastic atmosphere, a great lead performance and some genuinely disturbing moments, but it never quite brings all of its ideas together.
Plot
In a Finnish forest, Saga and her husband Jon embark on a new chapter as parents, but Saga's joy is overshadowed by a chilling suspicion about their newborn, unbeknownst to Jon, causing a rift as she alone grapples with the disturbing truth.
A Creepy Start With A Great Atmosphere
Nightborn immediately creates for you the kind of uncomfortable mood that you find a lot of horror films spend an entire runtime trying to build, featuring a remote Finnish forest setting, an old house and the feeling that something is quite not right, which all work really well together, especially the Finnish countryside, with that cold feeling of isolation.
The early sections of the film are where it feels most confident, where Seidi Haarla's performance as Saga is probably the highlight of the movie, bringing so much emotion to the role - she isn't just the person who knows what's happening while everyone else is clueless, and she isn't treated like someone who is obviously losing her mind either - she has this constant uncertainty around her situation, and Haarla does a great job keeping that balance.
Rupert Grint is also good as Jon, although I did feel like the character was a little underused - he works well as the other side of the story, someone trying to understand what is happening while also trying to support Saga, but there are moments where it feels like the film could have given him more to do.
One of the things Nightborn also does well is showing the uncomfortable side of becoming a parent, as it is not interested in making the experience look perfect or magical, it focuses on the exhaustion, fear and the feeling of being completely unprepared, and some of the scenes involving childbirth and caring for a newborn are seriously intense, where the film does not hold back.
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The Folklore Is Interesting But Underused
The supernatural side of Nightborn brings in some interesting ideas, and the connection to Finnish folklore gives the movie a different feel compared to a lot of modern horror films that go down the same familiar routes, give the story a real sense that it is connected to older myths and fears, and I liked the way the film uses that idea.
My only issue is that I wanted more from the folklore side of things, because there are some really interesting ideas here about family history, old beliefs and things being passed down through generations, but the film doesn't always explore them as deeply as it could have, and that's because it has too many different ideas fighting for attention.
There is nothing wrong with mixing styles, but here it sometimes feels like the movie isn't completely sure which direction it wants to take, and specially in the middle section, it also starts to drag a bit - the film has a strong opening and some excellent moments later on, but there are certainly times where it feels like it is repeating itself as well - it's a film that certainly has good moments, but you also feel like it could have offered that little bit more.
Final Thoughts
There is still a lot to like here though, where a strong atmosphere and great performance carry a film that just needed a little more focus, but if you have Shudder, it is worth a one time watch.