Love is the Monster (2026) A Handsome, Horny, Hopelessly Chaotic Horror

After the cultural success of Ari Aster’s Midsommar, I’m surprised there weren’t more Scandisploitation, English‑language horror movies. Just as countless people became fascinated with Norse mythology off the back of Chris Hemsworth’s now‑iconic turn, this too felt like the perfect set‑up for more. There have been a few, but the pickings are slim. One of that small group comes from Sound of Violence (2021) director Alex Noyer, in Love is the Monster, which is out now on VoD.

In this case, events take place at a camp in Finland during Midsommar, where we join what is set up as a group therapy session for strained couples, all framed through folkloric Finnish mysticism. We are introduced to the group’s organisers, Tiina and Petri, in a very DIY advert at the top of the movie, with numerous people championing the group’s success at mending fractured marriages and relationships. So far, so advertorial. At this point we meet the main couple attending the retreat: Ana (Madeline Zima) and Justin (Leonardo Nam). Other couples are also present, including familiar faces such as Moe Jeudy‑Lamour (Ted Lasso) and Sheila McCarthy (too many movies to mention) among the remaining trios of lovers. Of course, being a horror movie means very little goes as planned: birds are behaving weirdly, Blake (Kristina Tonteri‑Young) is at a couples retreat alone, and the organising duo are laying on their love for Finnish Love God, Lempo, very thick. After a surprisingly erotic dip in the fjord’s water, we are witness to relentless possessions signalled by golden, glinting eyes, the death of one of the couples, and plans of a decidedly satanic flavour.

I have to make an admission: horror movies that operate within the terms of therapy aren’t my favourite, yet if that is used to segue into a psychosexual piece of folk horror I can make allowances. That may not be easy for the chaste subsect of the movie‑going community who don’t want any “unnecessary” sex scenes in their movies and TV, as the opening 45 minutes is full of sex acts of a group whose libidos feel as if they’ve been hooked up to a supercharger. Even if eroticism isn’t an issue for me, it would be churlish to overlook how much Noyer (along with co‑writers Hannu Aukia and Blair Bathory) struggles to find a satisfying pace in this spell of Love is the Monster. I’d go as far as to say it’s a slow starter, which feels off given how carnal things become once Tiina and Petri start their book of tricks.

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Once things fully camp within the world of horror it takes some big genre swings; we are looking at a slasher, a fantasy movie, folk horror, and all the psychosexual permeations of what is going on. The most interesting aspect of Noyer’s dispersal of Finnish mythology and genre cinema comes when the group are cast under a spell or possessed by an ancient demon, with the script offering up some huge swings where the characters’ mood, personality, and motivation turn on a sixpence, and this is mere moments after the group were made paralytically horny by spiritual provocation. Credit where it is due, while it never explains where or what is happening to the group (until we get the bad guy exposition info dump) while they are under, it does take the characters on weird journeys, from mutual death from sex, to burning someone alive in a sauna, to making a huge effigy from a living person. Whilst the relationship to the slasher is tangential at best, if you want your death scenes to be varied, Love is the Monster has you covered.

It is funny how thin the dividing line is between fantasy horror and folk horror; in this case, it manifests in the attempts at forced demonic possession and an interconnected local cult, traits that are just as at home in folk horror but feel decidedly fantasy here. That comes down to tone: fantasy is over the top and flamboyant and makes no bones about it, while folk horror is more mundane, insidious, and earthbound. Both value sets appear in Noyer’s movie, but the movie ultimately leans into the absurd and campy side of fantasy horror, right down to an ending that surrenders itself to the ridiculous. The climactic battle between good and evil is literal rather than metaphoric or subtextual, and for some the growing camp will be a turn off and for others, well, who am I to kink shame?

For all its tonal chaos, Love is the Monster makes strong use of its Finnish setting. The forests, lakes, and long summer light give the movie a natural eeriness that suits both its folk‑horror ambitions and its more flamboyant fantasy detours. The cinematography captures that strange northern stillness exceptionally well; this is a handsome piece. Handsome, but ultimately a messy movie, thanks to a script that is trying — and struggling — to balance the profound and the playful. Yet Noyer’s Love is the Monster is far from uninteresting, as it commits to a peculiar blend of mythology, melodrama, and mayhem.

ROB’S ARCHIVE – LOVE IS THE MONSTER (2026)