Thread of contemporary Irish horror films

Tis quite literally the season and I have been watching a ton of these recently so here’s a thread to promote our favourites, discuss the ones that don’t work and debate if Bord Scannán na hÉireann (the government’s agency for developing and funding films) really will fund any old shit (per user Sharivari).

There are going to be spoilers so feel free to tag or not, I personally don’t care.

A sample of films I have watched and/or liked recently. Pasting my reviews from elsewhere on ilx cos I’m lazy.

Fréwaka (pronounced like this, means “roots”) probably my favourite so far:

Watched Fréwaka(2024), a film I had never heard of, today. It’s…strange. Very reminiscent of Midsommar in its folk horror vibe but also pulls in references to Irish generational trauma, Church abuses, local mythology, how isolating tight knit rural communities can be.

The second I realised fairies were involved I was tense. There are so many myths and stories about them and their power and they’re a terrifying force. How did I explain this before? “People don’t really believe it but you’d just as soon not chance it.” The idea of the prehuman beings that hate people, that exist as purely malign beings with exceptional power, is one common across various mythoses, but I don’t know how many places will still have fairy trees or recognise/acknowledge these myths and accord them real power. You will drive through Irish countryside and see huge, ugly out of place bushes or trees taking up valuable grazing space and know them for what they are - fairy trees or forts.

The film skilfully weaves this in with rather more modern horrors - the Magdalene laundries, parental abuse, dark family secrets that don’t stay hidden. It’s a very good film and one that will stay with me a long time.

― triste et cassé (gyac), Sunday, 4 May 2025 18:26 (five months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Then recently I watched Oddity:

Oddity (2024)

Spoilers:

conversation between me (Irish) and my husband (English):

Me: The husband in this film is obviously sinister
Him: are you just saying this cos he’s English

But I was right! The husband in this film is not just English, which any normal non murderous person can be, he is sinister horror film English in a very particular way:

- cut glass accent
- sinister side parting
- strangely unbothered about living in the same house his wife was brutally murdered in
- strangely unbothered about moving in his fancy woman less than a year after his wife’s death

Some more classic Irish horror tropes follow:

- ignore someone with The Touch at your peril
- seriously you are taking your life in your hands living in a haunted building
- beware the warnings of the dead!

This was a lot more fun (fun?) and did a lot with not very much: Twin sisters, one is psychic, mental hospital Sinister English Husband works at nearby, an honest to God golem. A bit predictable as I say but not much damage done despite that.

Also features Carolyn Bracken as both twins!

― Marsee playground (gyac), Sunday, 28 September 2025 14:53 (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

I’m so sure I’ve fucked up the spoiler tags here but we ride.

You are not my mother (2021)

Changelings, freak me out. This was quite low key, maybe understated to the point of ineffective but touches on some classic Irish horror tropes:

- the aul wan knows Things
- ignore the person who Knows at your peril
- we are all less safe for forgetting The Old Ways

Carolyn Bracken (more on her later) has a stranglehold on these kinds of roles. Something compelling about the understated “Is this actually happening” of this whole film but in the end, I thought it didn’t do quite enough.

Also recently watched Caveat (2020). An almost abandoned home on a remote island, restrictive conditions, disrespecting the dead - there’s a lot of tropes pressed into service here. The director also did Oddity which was far better and more polished but Caveat does a lot with a little. The setting does a lot of the work but the main conceit of the film is interesting and I personally really liked it.

Tried watching The Devil’s Doorway but abandoned after five minutes as the Amazon stream doesn’t have dialogue. I’ll try again today.

The one I am most looking forward to is An Taibhse (“The Ghost”) which was released in various capacities last year but hasn’t yet popped up on any streaming services that I’ve seen. It’s Irish language and set in the post-Famine period which is like, hyper niche, but carving out your own space in a genre as self-referential as horror is always worthwhile trying I think.

I wanted to do a thread specifically about Irish horror cos I was interested in the mini-boom of these films, and also the tropes they draw on are familiar to me. Folk horror is very popular among these directors, there are a lot of myths that can be referenced that aren’t quite as well travelled. Some specific tropes this genre leans on:

- malevolent Catholic imagery
- do not ignore the aul wans who know The Old Ways
- this country has buried horrors beyond the comprehension of your so-called modern nation
- rural isolation is dangerous!

There’s also a BFI article that mentions some of these and more films here.

not got anything interesting to add other than of these movies: I've seen Oddity and it really stuck with me and was eerie as fuck and I thoroughly recommend it!

A Dark Song is one of the top five horror films of the last ten years, imo, and possibly the best, most ‘serious’, film about the occult ever made. It’s unfortunate that Liam Gavin doesn’t seem to have had an opportunity to do anything other than two episodes of a Netflix show since.

I have been sick and watching films.

A Dark Song (2016):

I didn’t like this one as much as user SV, but it’s pretty unique and I didn’t know where it was going until it went there. It’s slow, but it’s not really a criticism, more that it’s like a painting forming that took time to see emerging? This makes it sound like I liked it more than I thought I did and I guess that’s not inaccurate. I did wonder if there really are hints that he killed her son or if it’s just a red herring . I found the ending really moving, and memorable in a way I haven’t seen in some time. I’ll think about that for a while.

All You Need Is Death (2024)

This kind of feels like the inverse of A Dark Song in that I was riveted almost the whole time but the ending felt disappointing in a way, kind of amorphous. The concept is striking: two ethnomusicologists(?) are collecting archaic and unrecorded folk songs to sell to vastly wealthy American collectors. They scrape along until they hear about a particular rarity. This is a horror film, so nobody listens to the guidance of what you should do in this situation. Hits on a lot of classic Irish horror tropes, ending is striking but felt dissatisfying. Idk. I still really liked it.

A little bit older but I enjoyed Wake Wood (2009)... a pretty classic 'monkey's paw' adaptation and a meditation on grief, it's worth tracking down

I really like “A Dark Song.” I think it hit all the notes it was aiming for.

from the BFI article:

a slow, taciturn girl described by the matchmaker (Cyril Cusack) as “one of God’s infirmities”, meets the semi-fabled fairy fiddler Scarf Michael (Mick Lally

irishness intensifies

lol I watched this last night! I really liked it. Beguiling and an ambiguous ending that still has me thinking. Theres a Black Philip-esque moment that left me wondering if Robert Eggers saw this. Lead girl Mary Ryan (never heard of her before) is excellent. Mick Lally in stud mode.

All You Need is Death is worth a watch too. Im not as crazy about Oddity as some of my friends are but its a neat little chamber horror that does some unique things.

The film LG is referring to is The Outcasts from 1982

Will have to give this a go this weekend.

Just enjoyed Without Name (2016) on Kanopy.. kind of sold as folk horror but there aren't many references to the 'olden ways' (yet with a classic 'pub goes quiet' scene when the outsider enters)... it's really more dark nature with some lovely cinematography, and subtle nods to Blackwood's 'The Willows'. Great casting & acting, never too slow or boring, and very trippy. If you liked weird shit like Under the Skin or A Field in England, you might well enjoy this

(oh, and a well-deserved epilepsy warning at the beginning)