
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, so the saying goes. I don’t know… I was there in 1997 to see my friend get married to the world’s biggest asshole and, if my memory was good enough to remember more details, I’d tell you everything because it wasn’t terribly exciting. I’m not a gambler or a heavy drinker. Mostly we did sight seeing and toured hotels to see their themes. Whoopee…
But we’re not going to talk about Vegas… We’re going to talk about what happens when you’re not feeling well, lying on the sofa and binge watching movies… Well, it doesn’t stay on the sofa. Not in this case, anyway. No, dear readers, it ends up in a random blog written by yours truly. And the reason for that is simply this: I’ve seen some pretty fucked up movies in my day, a penchant me and my friend M&M have, but this movie takes the prize for most fucked up ever…

I am, of course, talking about the 2012 Icelandic film Lamb. M&M sent me that link for the trailer and, when I was done watching it, I simply texted her, “Wtf did I just watch?!” Seriously, watch that trailer and try not to say that out loud. You won’t succeed… And as if it wasn’t odd enough, choosing The Beach Boy’s “God Only Knows” made it downright creepy as fuck and incredibly disturbing. Of course, M&M replied, “We have to watch this!” Well of course we did! She and I are movie buffs and the stranger the movie seems, the more intrigued we are to watch the thing. Lamb was one we couldn’t pass up…
I had actually forgotten all about this movie until I saw Amazon was showing it on my Fire Stick. Well… what was I going to do, not watch a movie that looked so incredibly fucked up that I just had to know what the fuck I had watched in the trailer? Hell no! I was going to watch it! So I did… and spent the entire time saying, “What the fuck did I just watch?!” and at the very end saying, “Seriously, what the fuck did I just watch?!?”

Spoiler Warning for those who don’t want to know and want to watch for themselves. Stop reading…
The story follows the life of a couple, Maria and Ingvar, who own a sheep ranch in the middle of bumble fuck Iceland (there seems to be a lot of bumble fuck Iceland). The story begins on Christmas (or Christmas Eve) when we see the sheep watching as one of the other sheep seems to be having some sort of issue and Maria looking out the window towards the barn as the sheep are a bit noisy. Personally, I thought the poor sheep was going to die… Anyway, fast forward to a greener time of year and Maria and Ingvar are working the land and helping the ewes birth the lambs. We also get to see that their relationship is more than a little strained. They rarely speak, even to each other, and we can see Maria is the most melancholy person you’ve ever met. Of course what does she really have to be happy about? Bumble fuck Iceland and sheep…

Anyway… The sheep in the beginning who looked like it was dying wasn’t, but she’s largely and uncomfortably pregnant. Maria and Ingvar have to help her deliver and, when they do, they both have shocked expressions, yet Ingvar looks a bit horrified. Eventually, Maria wraps the lamb in a blanket, takes it in the house and puts it in a metal tub full of blankets. She feeds it with a bottle, leading you to believe perhaps it’s a runt. But then we see Maria holding it and coddling it like a baby, smiling and happy… And then Ingvar brings a crib out of storage from the barn and puts it in their bedroom for the lamb to sleep in. Okay, so now you’re getting the idea. Maria obviously had a baby, it died and she’s taking care of this lamb as if it were a baby to fill the void. Or you think that until you see a blurry vision of something standing in the crib and you say, “What the fuck did I just watch?!” And all the while, mother ewe is constantly standing outside the bedroom window, bleating away as if telling Maria and Ingvar to give her her baby back. This is just the beginning of the weirdness that is Lamb…

One day Maria goes out to do chores and asks Ingvar to stay inside and watch “her” (our first indication the lamb is a female). He lays her down on the sofa for a nap and goes out into the garage to do some work (great parenting, there). When Maria returns, the front door is wide open and the lamb is gone. They check the house then run outside calling for Ada (the first time we hear her name). Unsurprisingly, she’s with mother ewe… The couple go to collect Ada and when they pick her up to wrap her in Ingvar’s coat, we see she has the head of a lamb, part of her chest and one arm are that of a lamb, but the rest are human. Again, “What the fuck did I just watch?!” This was followed by me saying, “Oh my god, the husband was fucking the sheep!!!” I’m sorry, at that point, what else could you think?! Anyway, they take Ada home and put her in some footie pajamas (why they never put clothing on her before, I don’t know) and get her all warm and snug. And I’m just baffled…

Fast forward a bit… Ingvar’s dead beat brother, Pétur, comes to work on the farm. He arrives late at night, so he just sleeps in the barn and wakes early, just in time to see Maria’s cheese slide off her cracker as she finally gets fed up with mother ewe wanting her baby back, drags her off, shoots her and buries the carcass. Odd, but he just blows it off. When it’s late enough in the morning, he knocks on the door, Ingvar invites him in and they sit down to have breakfast… and Ada joins them. Obviously Pétur is probably thinking the same thing, his brother is thinking the same thing, his brother has been fucking the sheep. When he does confront Ingvar about what’s going on, Invar’s only response is, “Happiness…” Pétur tries convincing him it’s an animal, not a human (in some cruel ways) and even takes Ada out to shoot her (which was a really tense moment), but he can’t do it. Eventually he accepts his “niece” for what she is and all seems happy.

Or it is until the adults get drunk… Ingvar gets hammered and goes into the bedroom to pass out with Ada at his side. While he’s sleeping one off, Pétur is making passes at Maria, which she’s not into. So he tries to blackmail her by saying, “Does Ada know you killed her mother?” Maria pretends to give in, but pushes Pétur into a room and locks him in for a while to sober up. Once he has, she tells him he has to leave. She gets money and takes him to the bus stop. While they’re gone, Ingvar gets up and takes Ada with him to go fix a tractor that had broken down far out on the property. When Maria returns home and begins calling for them, she hears gunshots. Flash over to Ingvar who is bleeding from his neck and chest. Little Ada is looking at him, confused. Then they show who shot him. It’s what can only be called a ram man, at which point I thought, “How long has he been fucking these sheep?!?” The ram man takes Ada’s hand, Ingvar takes the hoof hand, trying to stop him, but he can’t. Ada is led away. Maria finally arrives to find Ada gone and Ingvar dead. She freaks out and cries before standing and closing her eyes. That was how the movie ended.

I’ve read an interview with the creator and, apparently, Ingvar was not fucking the sheep, but then it just makes the appearance of the ram man a bit too random and just tossed in there. I’m not are I’m convinced. The only thing I can say is it was fucked up… And, weird as Ada was, she was really cute. It also makes for some fun now that Easter is nearing and there happen to be a lot of stuffed lambs on the shelves. There are Ada jokes to be had when shopping with friends…




















