‘Nightborn’ Brings Troll Folklore and Maternal Horror This Weekend

The first year of parenthood becomes something altogether more unsettling in Nightborn, the new dark fantasy horror from Hatching director Hanna Bergholm, which arrives in Picturehouse cinemas and on Shudder on 30 October with Rupert Grint and Seidi Haarla at the centre of a family beginning to fracture under the weight of a terrifying suspicion.

Set deep in the Finnish forest, the film follows Saga and her British husband Jon as they move into the isolated house where she spent much of her childhood. Their plan is to build the perfect family life, but that dream begins to unravel almost immediately after the birth of their son.

While everyone around her offers reassurance, Saga becomes convinced that there is something deeply wrong with the child. As the baby grows and the pressure on the couple intensifies, Jon struggles to understand what his wife is experiencing, while Saga becomes increasingly certain that the truth about their newborn is something nobody else is willing to see.

Bergholm co-wrote Nightborn with Ilja Rautsi, continuing their collaboration following Hatching, which premiered at Sundance in 2022 and later won awards at festivals including Gérardmer and Sitges.

The new film again uses bodily transformation and horror to explore anxieties that are deeply rooted in family life. Bergholm has said that the story grew from her own experiences as a mother and from a desire to examine the more difficult, complicated and sometimes uncomfortable sides of parental love.

Nordic folklore also plays an important role. The film draws on old stories of trolls living in the forest, but rather than simply reproducing traditional mythology, Bergholm uses those ideas to explore difference, identity and the fear of discovering something unfamiliar within your own family.

Haarla, who won acclaim for Compartment No. 6, stars as Saga, while Grint plays Jon. His recent genre work has included Servant, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities and Knock at the Cabin, adding another horror role to a career still closely associated with the Harry Potter films.

The production also reunites Bergholm with several collaborators from Hatching. Gustav Hoegen, whose previous credits include Star Wars and Jurassic World, created the animatronic work used in the film, while two-time Oscar-nominated make-up artist Conor O’Sullivan and his team handled the special make-up effects.

Bergholm has also cited films such as David Cronenberg’s The Brood and Lars von Trier’s Antichrist as useful points of comparison, even if they were not direct inspirations, with Nightborn similarly interested in the uneasy relationship between family, nature and physical transformation.

Nightborn premieres on Shudder and in Picturehouse cinemas on 30 October 2026. The trailer is available to watch now (below) ahead of tomorrow’s release.

Nightborn trailer