A24 has unveiled the first trailer for its upcoming folk horror film, Lamb, and folks, it looks horrifying. Described by the acclaimed production company as an “Icelandic folktale on top, Nordic livestock horror on bottom”, the film follows a childless couple in rural Iceland, who make an “alarming discovery” in their sheep barn.

As shown in the trailer, the couple carefully raise what initially seems to be a normal lamb. Cue: cute shots of it drinking milk in a tin bath, and going to sleep under layers of blankets, never revealing its body.

Things get messed up, of course, when it’s revealed that the creature is actually some sort of sheep-human hybrid, walking around the idyllic mountain landscape in a kid’s raincoat. In one scene, the mother (played by Noomi Rapace) is seen placing a flower crown on its head (think The Witch’s Black Phillip meets Midsommar).

The besotted couple “soon face the dark consequences of defying the will of nature,” explains a synopsis for the film.

Lamb is the feature-length debut from director Valdimar Jóhannsson, who co-wrote the script alongside Sjón (the Icelandic poet and novelist who also worked on Robert Eggers’ upcoming Viking film, The Northman).

The cast also includes Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, and Ingvar Sigurðsson, while the plot has been largely kept under wraps in order to preserve a “ludicrous central twist”, as described by Variety. The film premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and is set to hit cinemas on October 8.

“A script like this is rare and I directly felt that I had to do it,” Rapace said on joining the film in 2019. “I’ve never done anything like this before and I can’t wait to start filming and go back to my roots in Iceland.”

Watch the wild trailer for Lamb below.