MovieSalt's Esoteric Analysis of 'Lamb'

Lamb, released in 2021, written and directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson and co-written by poet and lyricist Sjon, is a story about a husband and wife who raise sheep and horses on an isolated farm in rural Iceland. The original title, Dýrið, which means “the beast” gives perhaps a glimpse into the film’s obscure narrative.

Lamb shares the minimalist, art-house, Dogme 95 aesthetic made famous by director and screenwriter Lars Von Trier and adds another heathen-inspired presentation in the newly resurrected folk-horror genre that first emerged during the counter-culture and new age movements of the 1960s and 1970s. With films like the original The Wicker Man released in 1973 or The Blood on Satan’s Claw released in in 1971, the genre intended to invoke fear in its audience using elements of isolation, religion, and the power of nature in a rural farmland setting at the hands of people with a dramatically different worldview and their behavior against the ones who attempt to come against them. The A24 catalog includes films like The VVitch, Ari Aster’s Midsommar, and now Lamb adding another interesting fable with a twisted Yuletide, or should I say Christmas tale.

What distinguishes pagan-inspired folk tales like Lamb with Pan the goat-god or The Witch with Black Phillip or Midsommar’s death cult fertility rituals from standard-issue satanic Hollywood fare that engages in its long tradition of sorcery, counter-culture rebellion, pop-culture occultism and witchcraft and relentless bashing of the Christian faith?

Nothing.

In this video, I provide an esoteric analysis of this film and what I've found might surprise you.