Wri/Dir: Aislinn Clarke | Cast: Clare Monnelly, Bríd Ní Neachtain, Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya| Ireland, Horror, Gaelic Irish 103’
The past comes back to haunt a young Irish care worker in this macabre fantasy horror from director and first time feature scripter Aislinn Clarke.
In rural Ireland Catholic guilt and fear remains an oppressive theme even today in the 21st century. And it certainly troubles a young bride who takes her own life on the night of her marriage, in the film’s opening scenes.
In this Irish Gaelic feature, billed as the country’s first horror outing in the language, Clarke, best known for her director debut The Devil’s Doorway, makes inspired use of all the evocative horror tropes connected to Irish folklore: horseshoes, Billy goats and dispossessed voices – not to mention a glowing scarlet cross. Clarke confident direction relies on atmosphere to string together a series of terrifying events in the domestic environment where women are struggling in difficult circumstances.
The main character Shoo, recovering from a personal tragedy, has a gruelling and unforgiving time as a trainee care worker tasked with looking after an agoraphobic patient in a remote country setting. You can’t help feeling sorrow for Shoo’s poor charge Peig (Brid Ni Meachtain) a tortured widow desperately missing her dead husband Daithi (Og Lane) and coping with early onset dementia and plagued by the Na Sídhe – sinister entities whom she believes abducted her decades before. Peig clearly just wants to be left alone in her own home and is plagued by But somehow the women’s past traumas intermingle with alarming results, despite Peig’s initial antipathy towards her young helper.
There are certainly shades of The Whicker Man and St Maud (2019) here but the accent is on female camaraderie and this Irish horror outing doesn’t quiet exert the same chill or twisted humour as Rose Glass did in her care-worker thriller with its unnerving sensory specificity, despite some impressive ideas and committed performances from TV and theatre actor Clare Monelly in the lead role. @MeredithTaylor
LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL 2024 | 7 -17 AUGUST 2024