Lamb (2021) is the latest horror (or at least horror-adjacent) film from A24, the indie distribution juggernaut behind Ari Aster’s Hereditary and Midsommar, Robert Eggers’ The VVitch and The Lighthouse, and films like The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Climax. I mention these out of a catalogue of over 100 releases since 2013 because they all contain elements of different genres, yet have been marketed as horror. In the case of the aforementioned films, this isn’t a bad strategy. Boasting indie, arthouse bonafides, no A24 film is going to be excluded from a conversation about “real cinema,” and most moviegoers left The Lighthouse, for example, without feeling deceived by false advertising. 

Lamb is by no means a perfect movie, and it is indeed a horror movie, but it suffers from audience expectations. For starters, it’s a slow burn—about as slow as you can get. The principal cast for the bulk of the runtime consists of two married farmers and the half-lamb, half-human daughter that they raise as though she’s their own. If the dominant trend in early 2010s horror was the appearance of the supernatural, the second half of that decade through the early 2020s have been awash with films where characters must confront their grief and trauma. This one is no exception; the husband and wife are dealing with the loss of their own daughter, Ada, whose name they give their new lamb-child. 

It’s a relatively slow burn until the husband’s brother shows up, per screenwriting rules. A third player, an outsider, inevitably introduces drama, and the brother brings it in spades. Dialogue is sparse but revealing (the husband wishes to go back in time, the wife remarks that his brother has caused trouble before) until some drunken revelry in the third act brings the human drama to a head. The question of the lamb-child and where she came from is eventually answered, but the film abruptly ends soon after. 

Walking out of the theater, my friends and I were split on whether or not we liked it, and this split mostly boiled down to the ending. One common theme: those who wanted more out of this odd concept and felt that the script didn’t ultimately deliver on its premise also didn’t love The VVitch. And so, when I mention Lamb now, and am asked if I’d recommend it, I’ll say, “It depends. What did you think about The VVitch?” If you liked that one, you probably won’t be disappointed by Lamb. If not, hold off for streaming.