Finnish director Hanna Bergholm’s creature-feature debut stirs the simmering conflict between a controlling mother, her fragile daughter and a rogue doppelgänger.

By contrast, in Finnish director Hanna Bergholm’s compellingly creepy first feature, Hatching, the syrupy sweet mother is a suffocating presence; her fixation with creating a pristine picture of domestic harmony instead contributes to the birth of a monster.

Cast: Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkilä, Jani Volanen, Oiva Ollila, Reino Nordin.

Director: Hanna Bergholm.

Screenwriter: Ilja Rautsi; story by Rautsi, Hanna Bergholm.

In one house, 12-year-old gymnast Tinja (Siiri Solalinna) goes through her stretching exercises while her mother (Sophia Heikkilä) flutters about with a camera and selfie stick, shooting scenes for her video blog, “Lovely Everyday Life.” She’s Mary Poppins as a Real Housewife.

Tinja’s mom busies herself editing a new intro to her blog, with idyllic slo-mo scenes of the family at play and saccharine images of mother and daughter wearing matching floral crowns right out of Midsommar.

When Tinja walks in on her mother kissing the handyman, Tero (Reino Nordin), she explains to her daughter that he’s a “special friend” who fulfils needs that her effete father doesn’t.

Those uncontrollable instincts seem to stem directly from a psychic connection with Tinja, whose crueler impulses are manifested with shocking brutality, putting everyone from Reetta through Tinja’s mother in danger

Cast: Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkilä, Jani Volanen, Oiva Ollila, Reino Nordin, Ida Määttänen, Saija Lentonen

Director: Hanna Bergholm

Screenwriter: Ilja Rautsi; story by Rautsi, Hanna Bergholm

Casting: Kiia Kuivalainen, Hanna Bergholm