Nightborn
A horror film about postpartum anxieties set in the Finnish forest.
Nightborn (Finnish: *Yön lapsi*) is a 2026 fantasy horror film directed by Hanna Bergholm, marking her first English-language feature. Bergholm co-wrote the screenplay with Ilja Rautsi. The film stars Seidi Haarla and Rupert Grint as a couple raising a newborn in the Finnish forest. It premiered in the main competition of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival on 14 February 2026, earning a Golden Bear nomination.
The story follows Saga and Jon, who visit a derelict house in the forest that belonged to Saga’s late grandmother. Inside, they find a tree growing through the floorboards of the bedroom Saga once shared with her sister Taru. Jon suggests renovating the house into a family home. In the surrounding woods, Saga embraces a tree with a trunk shaped like a pregnant belly, and the couple have sex. Saga’s childbirth is difficult—her birth canal tears severely, and the baby boy is eerily silent. In the maternity ward, the infant only cries when the curtains are opened. Breastfeeding leaves Saga’s breast bloodied and swollen, and the baby is covered in thick black hair.
After renovations, Saga’s childhood bedroom becomes a nursery. When her mother and Taru visit, Saga worries something is wrong with the baby, referring to him only as “it.” Her mother dismisses this, even after the infant forcefully tears an earring from her earlobe. At a naming ceremony in the garden, guests are unsettled by the baby’s appearance and piercing cries. A gust of wind from the forest blows a cover over his stroller, shielding him from sunlight. Saga announces the baby will be named Kuura, upsetting Jon, who wanted to name him Christian after his father. Saga notices sunlight has left deep burns on Kuura’s skin.
Kuura begins behaving strangely. One night, Saga falls asleep while trying to settle him and wakes to find he has escaped his cot, transfixed by the tree regrowing through the nursery floorboards. The next morning, Jon finds the floorboards torn up and Saga asleep among the tree’s roots, cradling Kuura. When Saga accidentally cuts herself on broken glass, Kuura sucks up her blood. At a baby clinic, a clinician dismisses her concerns, saying Kuura is advanced for his age, and refers her for counselling. Saga secretly begins feeding Kuura blood instead of milk.
While helping Jon dismantle rusted cars in the garden, Taru recalls their grandmother’s warning that the
- Release year
- 2026
- Director
- Hanna Bergholm
- Country of production
- Finland (with UK and Lithuanian co-production)
- Language
- English
- Genre
- Fantasy horror
- Runtime
- Not specified in article
- Festival premiere
- 76th Berlin International Film Festival (14 February 2026)
Lore & Background
The plot follows Saga and Jon, who visit a derelict house in the Finnish forest that belonged to Saga's late grandmother. They find a tree growing through the floorboards of the bedroom Saga shared with her sister, Taru. Jon proposes to renovate the house into a family home. After a difficult childbirth, their baby boy, named Kuura, exhibits increasingly violent and supernatural behavior, including feeding on blood and causing harm to others. The film culminates in a confrontation where tree branches fatally impale Jon, and Saga and Kuura feed on his blood and heart. Kuura then runs into the garden, where a humanoid figure separates from a tree and approaches him.
Reader's Guide
Nightborn is significant as Hanna Bergholm's English-language debut and her second feature film, following her acclaimed film Hatching. The film explores themes of postpartum anxiety and maternal horror through a supernatural lens. It received mixed to positive reviews, with a 75% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 55 critics. Critics praised Seidi Haarla's performance as unnervingly raw, while some found the film unsubtle. The film's production involved grants from Eurimages, the British Film Institute, the Finnish Film Foundation, and the Lithuanian Film Centre. It was released on Shudder in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand on 31 July 2026.
Did You Know?
- The film received a €475,000 production grant from Eurimages in November 2023.
- Principal photography took place in Lithuania for forty-five days and wrapped in December 2024.
- The film was screened in the Kinoscope section of the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival in August 2026.
- Rupert Grint plays Jon, Saga's English husband.
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