Love Hurts: Madeline Zima and Leonardo Nam Meet a Finnish Goddess in “Love Is the Monster,” Hitting Prime Video June 23
Alex Noyer’s Finnish folk horror lures a troubled couple to a midsummer retreat with very bad intentions when it lands on VOD this June.
Couples retreats are supposed to fix things. Love Is the Monster is here to remind us that some of them make the infidelity look like the good old days. Cranked Up Films has set the official US release of Alex Noyer’s folk horror Love Is the Monster for June 23, when it arrives exclusively on Prime Video to rent or own, and on paper this is exactly the kind of festival-bred, mythology-soaked genre picture I tend to root for.
The film already has the receipts. Love Is the Monster made its world premiere at the 2025 Screamfest Film Festival back in October, then carried its dread-soaked road trip onward to Morbido and Night Visions. Now the rest of us finally get to check into the retreat from the relative safety of our couches.
Trouble in Paradise
Madeline Zima, of Californication and Twin Peaks: The Return, and Leonardo Nam, of Westworld and Descendants: The Rise of Red, headline as a couple whose marriage has already taken a hit before the real trouble starts. They head to Finland for a transformative retreat under the midnight sun, and fall straight into the clutches of a malevolent ancient goddess of love. The premise practically dares you not to wince in recognition before the supernatural even kicks in.
They are not suffering alone. Zima and Nam are joined in this disastrous onscreen adventure by Kimberly Sue-Murray (The Boys), Moe Jeudy-Lamour (Ted Lasso), Kristina Tonteri-Young (Warrior Nun), Milla Puolakanaho (Attack on Helsinki), and Sheila McCarthy (Women Talking). That is a deep, genre-literate bench for an independent horror picture, and it is part of why this one has been on my radar.
A Goddess Named Lempo
Here is the hook that sets Love Is the Monster apart from the festival pack. This is Noyer’s second feature after his 2021 debut Sound of Violence, the body-horror gem starring Jasmin Savoy Brown, and it is the first he shot in his native Finland, drawing directly on local mythology rather than borrowing someone else’s. Noyer co-wrote the script with his Sound of Violence collaborator Hannu Aukia and Blair Bathory, with Laurence Gendron joining Noyer and Aukia as a producer.
The mythology at the center is the real draw. The retreat is run by a shaman and healer named Tiina, whose teachings are inspired by Lempo, the ancient Finnish goddess of love and fertility. Folk horror lives or dies on the specificity of its source material, and pagan Finnish midsummer is fertile, eerie ground that English-language horror almost never touches. Count me intrigued.
From the Director
Noyer leaned into the timing, and I love the cheek of releasing a Finnish midsummer nightmare during actual Finnish midsummer.
“Releasing Love Is the Monster during Finnish midsummer couldn’t be more fitting, as it’s when our story unfolds. While a real trip to Finland is far less eventful, our devious goddess Lempo is ready to welcome audiences.” — Alex Noyer, writer and director
Where and When to Watch
Short and simple on this one, since it is a digital release.
- US release: Tuesday, June 23, 2026
- Where: Prime Video, exclusively
- How: available to rent or own
- Distributor: Cranked Up Films (a division of Good Deed Entertainment)
No disc edition has been announced yet, so for now this is a VOD affair. I will update this post the moment a physical release surfaces, because a folk horror this steeped in atmosphere is exactly the sort of title that belongs on a shelf.
The Vitals
The quick-scan version.
| Title | Love Is the Monster |
| Written and Directed by | Alex Noyer |
| Co-written by | Hannu Aukia, Blair Bathory |
| Starring | Madeline Zima, Leonardo Nam, Kimberly Sue-Murray, Moe Jeudy-Lamour, Kristina Tonteri-Young, Milla Puolakanaho, Sheila McCarthy |
| Produced by | Laurence Gendron, Alex Noyer, Hannu Aukia |
| Runtime | 86 minutes |
| Premiere | 2025 Screamfest Film Festival (October 2025) |
| US release | June 23, 2026, on Prime Video |
| Distributor | Cranked Up Films |
| Learn more | IMDb and Wikipedia |
The Official Synopsis
Following their marriage being rocked by infidelity, Ana and Justin attend an exclusive couples retreat in Finland, under the golden rays of the summer’s midnight sun. They join other international couples to experience the transformative teachings of the shaman and healer Tiina, inspired by the ancient Finnish goddess of love and fertility, Lempo. Despite her doubts and some ominous first experiences, Ana gives the retreat a chance, but the thrill is quickly replaced by a battle for survival as the influence of the divinity and the pagan rituals turn deadly. The couples’ problems lead to calamity, while Ana learns about the peculiar role she unwittingly plays in Tiina’s plans.
Where It Stands
Love Is the Monster hits Prime Video on June 23, and after a festival run that took it from Screamfest to Morbido to Night Visions, the streaming launch feels overdue. I will have a full review here at AndersonVision once I have made the trip to Lempo’s retreat myself. If you like your horror folkloric, your couples doomed, and your goddesses ancient and unimpressed, clear the evening of the 23rd.
