I will spoil this movie because there are many reviews that do not, and they really cannot tell you anything because it will just give away too much. Mainly because there isnt much taking place. Yet there is so much to write about as you have to examine random scenes from the movie to piece some sense of it. This is probably the longest digest for a movie i have ever written because it is a bit of a puzzle we have to work with.
In general I will say this movie tries too hard, shoots too deep and flops being unable to close the holes and convey the storyline it wants with an impact. A classic conundrum of being too simple trying to tell too complex of a story. We have an isolated couple sheep herders who are going through a personal crisis over children. Not too clear if they cannot have any or lost a child. Either way makes no real difference to the movie. That is all the background of characters you get as a viewer.
One day a sheep gives birth, like we seen before, but this time, they decide (the couple) that this lamb is special. They take it away from the sheep, bring it into their lives and treat it like an actual human baby.
We are shown human hands with lamb hands, upright posture, clothes etc. But a mute lamb head with no human vocal abilities. They name it ADA.
And that is all there is to it besides 2 somewhat creepy dreams they have involving sheep demons and what not. The entire action revolves around them doing things with ADA on the daily like you would with a real kid. But, is it a real kid? The way ADA is shown as a character it does not feel like it is; the woman acts as if it is and the man plays along, for her sake and perhaps for his own as well.
Around the middle of the movie a 3rd character appears at their farm and that is where the script pretty much confirms, through his comments and interactions with ADA that it is in fact, just an actual lamb they pretend is their kid because it makes them (mainly the woman tho) happy. There is some friction over that and him wanting to reality check them and what not, but he just ends up taking the bus out of there.
And now the part where it unravels somewhat and why i cannot rate it higher. The movie goes full supernatural with a goat hybrid adult man taking revenge on the couple and taking ADA home, with him. Whatever home is, wherever home is. We are never told. Confused? Good. Let's backtrack a bit and try to make sense of this here. The opening scene at this point infers that this man hybrid is roaming the landscape like yeti and is what spooked the herd of wild animals. It is also implied that he sneaks in their farmhouse and breeds with the sheep, so ada is actually his child. Foreshadowing attempt but a failed one.
Back to the end, before he takes the ADA with him, he shoots the husband while the wife is away dropping the earlier mentioned guest off at the bus stop. Husband bleeds out as he watches ADA being taken away and his wife makes it back to him just in time to essentially witness him lying in the field injured... but he cannot tell her what happened.. he says.. nothing. Keep that thought.
This scene makes no sense, because now we are back to where we were at the start. If ADA is an actual sheep, what was that whole sheep man hybrid all about? My theory is that it is simply a coping manifestation due to mental illness and obsession they both have with this sheep. He cannot tell her what happened because something happened while she was away that he did, or he doesn't want to hurt her by telling her ADA is "gone".
To clear this up, let us examine the storyline of the sheep that birthed ADA and its purpoted relationship with man sheep demon dude. Mom sheep kept coming to the house and calling out her lamb (that can be seen through the window staring back) on the regular. The woman chases the sheep mother away from there often, until one day it strays away from the pasture and ada follows it, likely through an open house door or something. Meltdown happens and the couple go recover ADA after a search. The whole search is shot in a frenzy like vision effect which i find very fitting. Good job here.
The next time we see mom sheep again, she is back at the window of the house making calling noises to the lamb. Woman gets angry sheep is calling her lamb (woman considers it her child, dont forget that) and will not let go of it. Woman gets up shoots mother sheep (with same gun sheep demon man later shoots the husband with) and buries it out back. Eliminating the competition. This is important, because it shows she understands the sheep gave birth to a sheep yet she is threatened and envious of a sheep doing sheep things to the point she has to eliminate it mob style. A nice glimpse at her mental state right there.
Skip forward again, we have the breakfast scene with the husband alone with ADA while the wife is driving the stranger to the bus stop. We are shown ada bringing plates and using hands like a human. It is important to note here that the husband is alone in this scene. No stranger, no wife. Just him and ADA.
Returning to our final scene of him being injured, ADA gone and woman finding him, we have to draw closure as to what is real and what is not real in this movie. So far i have only not talked about the dog. That is coming right up.
What actually happens in this movie? Really. All of that text above was to link the significant scenes as evidence. Deep breathes.
It is a movie about mental illness. Childless couple (inclined to say they lost a child at this point) desperate for their own child sees sheep delivering lambs day in and day out. A grinding obsession develops. To satisfy her motherly needs the woman takes a lamb one day and raises it like a human. The husband understands this is very important for her to come to terms with reality and is a phase that will pass.
As time goes on, he however begins to forget reality himself and believe the madness his wife does. He realized this is getting out of control and that his wife will not get out of that stage (confirmed by her words to the stranger before he boards the bus), and he cannot continue like that. He is losing himself in this charade and must act now, now, while he is alone and still able to mentally do something. I think the trigger point was the breakfast scene where he realized he is seeing things not there; things not possible - until now it was just his wife doing that. He shoots the dog (so it cannot track ADA like its trained to), tries to kill himself but misses and lies there in the field. ADA got spooked by the gunshots and ran off. This was his way of helping his wife out of her crisis state. It is really the only way to try to save his sanity and recover hers. Or in a less thought out version, he just cannot keep going like that and wants out.
That only leaves the question of what is the sheep demon? A manifestation of mental illness and our inner demons. He is the proverbial inner struggle that sometimes wins over people and we do things we probably should not. Dissociative personality if you will.
But the human hands of ada you say.. upright walking... human naked body (we see this once).. The movie shows us ADA through the eyes of the cast. That is the point. We never see ADA in the real form, just in the form the couple perceive it. That is all! A metaphor and the foundation of driving home to the viewer that none of this is right... none of it. It is not sustainable, not logical, not healthy. There is no way for this to work once you lose yourself like that.
There you go viewers, the movie. Explained.
You should still watch it, even if you read this. Maybe you will see something I did not. Who knows. Sometimes movies are what we make of them. And this one is somewhat open ended but this theory is the only evidence based one that is plausible.
In general I will say this movie tries too hard, shoots too deep and flops being unable to close the holes and convey the storyline it wants with an impact. A classic conundrum of being too simple trying to tell too complex of a story. We have an isolated couple sheep herders who are going through a personal crisis over children. Not too clear if they cannot have any or lost a child. Either way makes no real difference to the movie. That is all the background of characters you get as a viewer.
One day a sheep gives birth, like we seen before, but this time, they decide (the couple) that this lamb is special. They take it away from the sheep, bring it into their lives and treat it like an actual human baby.
We are shown human hands with lamb hands, upright posture, clothes etc. But a mute lamb head with no human vocal abilities. They name it ADA.
And that is all there is to it besides 2 somewhat creepy dreams they have involving sheep demons and what not. The entire action revolves around them doing things with ADA on the daily like you would with a real kid. But, is it a real kid? The way ADA is shown as a character it does not feel like it is; the woman acts as if it is and the man plays along, for her sake and perhaps for his own as well.
Around the middle of the movie a 3rd character appears at their farm and that is where the script pretty much confirms, through his comments and interactions with ADA that it is in fact, just an actual lamb they pretend is their kid because it makes them (mainly the woman tho) happy. There is some friction over that and him wanting to reality check them and what not, but he just ends up taking the bus out of there.
And now the part where it unravels somewhat and why i cannot rate it higher. The movie goes full supernatural with a goat hybrid adult man taking revenge on the couple and taking ADA home, with him. Whatever home is, wherever home is. We are never told. Confused? Good. Let's backtrack a bit and try to make sense of this here. The opening scene at this point infers that this man hybrid is roaming the landscape like yeti and is what spooked the herd of wild animals. It is also implied that he sneaks in their farmhouse and breeds with the sheep, so ada is actually his child. Foreshadowing attempt but a failed one.
Back to the end, before he takes the ADA with him, he shoots the husband while the wife is away dropping the earlier mentioned guest off at the bus stop. Husband bleeds out as he watches ADA being taken away and his wife makes it back to him just in time to essentially witness him lying in the field injured... but he cannot tell her what happened.. he says.. nothing. Keep that thought.
This scene makes no sense, because now we are back to where we were at the start. If ADA is an actual sheep, what was that whole sheep man hybrid all about? My theory is that it is simply a coping manifestation due to mental illness and obsession they both have with this sheep. He cannot tell her what happened because something happened while she was away that he did, or he doesn't want to hurt her by telling her ADA is "gone".
To clear this up, let us examine the storyline of the sheep that birthed ADA and its purpoted relationship with man sheep demon dude. Mom sheep kept coming to the house and calling out her lamb (that can be seen through the window staring back) on the regular. The woman chases the sheep mother away from there often, until one day it strays away from the pasture and ada follows it, likely through an open house door or something. Meltdown happens and the couple go recover ADA after a search. The whole search is shot in a frenzy like vision effect which i find very fitting. Good job here.
The next time we see mom sheep again, she is back at the window of the house making calling noises to the lamb. Woman gets angry sheep is calling her lamb (woman considers it her child, dont forget that) and will not let go of it. Woman gets up shoots mother sheep (with same gun sheep demon man later shoots the husband with) and buries it out back. Eliminating the competition. This is important, because it shows she understands the sheep gave birth to a sheep yet she is threatened and envious of a sheep doing sheep things to the point she has to eliminate it mob style. A nice glimpse at her mental state right there.
Skip forward again, we have the breakfast scene with the husband alone with ADA while the wife is driving the stranger to the bus stop. We are shown ada bringing plates and using hands like a human. It is important to note here that the husband is alone in this scene. No stranger, no wife. Just him and ADA.
Returning to our final scene of him being injured, ADA gone and woman finding him, we have to draw closure as to what is real and what is not real in this movie. So far i have only not talked about the dog. That is coming right up.
What actually happens in this movie? Really. All of that text above was to link the significant scenes as evidence. Deep breathes.
It is a movie about mental illness. Childless couple (inclined to say they lost a child at this point) desperate for their own child sees sheep delivering lambs day in and day out. A grinding obsession develops. To satisfy her motherly needs the woman takes a lamb one day and raises it like a human. The husband understands this is very important for her to come to terms with reality and is a phase that will pass.
As time goes on, he however begins to forget reality himself and believe the madness his wife does. He realized this is getting out of control and that his wife will not get out of that stage (confirmed by her words to the stranger before he boards the bus), and he cannot continue like that. He is losing himself in this charade and must act now, now, while he is alone and still able to mentally do something. I think the trigger point was the breakfast scene where he realized he is seeing things not there; things not possible - until now it was just his wife doing that. He shoots the dog (so it cannot track ADA like its trained to), tries to kill himself but misses and lies there in the field. ADA got spooked by the gunshots and ran off. This was his way of helping his wife out of her crisis state. It is really the only way to try to save his sanity and recover hers. Or in a less thought out version, he just cannot keep going like that and wants out.
That only leaves the question of what is the sheep demon? A manifestation of mental illness and our inner demons. He is the proverbial inner struggle that sometimes wins over people and we do things we probably should not. Dissociative personality if you will.
But the human hands of ada you say.. upright walking... human naked body (we see this once).. The movie shows us ADA through the eyes of the cast. That is the point. We never see ADA in the real form, just in the form the couple perceive it. That is all! A metaphor and the foundation of driving home to the viewer that none of this is right... none of it. It is not sustainable, not logical, not healthy. There is no way for this to work once you lose yourself like that.
There you go viewers, the movie. Explained.
You should still watch it, even if you read this. Maybe you will see something I did not. Who knows. Sometimes movies are what we make of them. And this one is somewhat open ended but this theory is the only evidence based one that is plausible.