Interview With The Vampire to Oddity: 10 Irish horror films for Halloween
Clockwise from left: Vivarium, Interview with the Vampire and Oddity feature among our Halloween films from Ireland
Irish filmmakers have long had a knack for delivering frights in the most inventive of ways. In recent years, a new wave of scary movie storytellers has branched out, unsettling us - and making waves internationally - through well-placed shocks, references to our ghostly past and the Irish language. Among them is a Cork filmmaker credited with making two of the best-reviewed horror films of recent years. As Halloween approaches, we look at some of the strongest new Irish horror and psychological-thriller filmmakers, where audiences can see them, and throwback to some of those who brought earlier classics.
Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan managed to line up two of the biggest movie stars on the planet - and a young star in the making - for his international hit. Adapted from Anne Rice’s vampire story, the movie chronicles the adventures of Louis (Brad Pitt) and the vampire Lestat (Tom Cruise) and their time together. The film proved to be a star-making turn for a young talent named Kirsten Dunst, Golden Globe nominated for her role in the film.
Neil Jordan has often peppered his films with a sense of the shocking and supernatural, and he’s rarely been on better form than in this film adapted from the novel by Patrick McCabe. It centres on Francie Brady (an excellent Eamonn Owens) as he struggles to cope with a tough childhood and his tendency to project violent thoughts into reality. Not a conventional horror by any means, the film uses a playful tone to deliver some truly shocking moments. Jordan and his young lead are aided and abetted by an on-form cast that includes Stephen Rea, Brendan Gleeson and Fiona Shaw.
Grabbers takes one of the wackiest premises ever presented in an Irish horror comedy and has a blast with it. When a coastal community is invaded by giant bloodsucking sea monsters, some locals discover the creatures are allergic to alcohol. The only way to survive being attacked by them as humans is to drink. That presents a challenge for a teetotal local garda (Ruth Bradley) amid the chaos that follows. Filmed mostly on location in Co Donegal, Bronagh Gallagher and David Pearse also star in Jon Wright’s funny and well-executed creature feature.
Seána Kerslake shines as a young mother faced with a spooky dilemma in Lee Cronin’s edgy supernatural horror. She sets out to new beginnings with her young son, making their home in an isolated house in rural Ireland. But when the development of a mysterious sinkhole nearby coincides with changed behaviour in her boy, she begins to wonder whether he’s her son at all. Hollywood took notice - Cronin went on to direct Evil Dead Rise and a forthcoming new movie in The Mummy series.
Cork actor Éanna Hardwicke - soon to play Roy Keane in the forthcoming Saipan - shows early promise in Lorcan Finnegan’s unconventional psychological thriller. The story was filmed in Ireland, where a young couple (Jessie Eisenberg and Imogen Poots) have reluctantly agreed to view a house in a large suburban estate. When they go to leave, all roads lead back to the same house, leaving them trapped. Events take an ominous turn when a box containing a baby is left outside the house with the message: “raise the child and be released”.
Debut Irish filmmakers Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman bring on the laughs in this eccentric, spooky comedy horror set in the midlands. Maeve Higgins channels the deadpan wit that has made her a standup star to play Rose, a small-town driving instructor who plays down the talents she inherited from her psychic father. Despite her best efforts, everywhere she goes, the other world communicates with her. And when a US rock star (Will Forte) plans to do a dangerous deal with the devil to secure a hit, Rose’s special skills are badly needed.
West Cork-based filmmaker Damian McCarthy makes an impressive debut with this horror mystery, shot on location at his hometown of Bantry. A loner accepts a job to look after his landlord’s niece for a couple of days - on condition his movement is restricted to certain rooms. Secrets lie within the walls and many genuine heebie-jeebies ensue in a film that shows McCarthy’s natural early knack for surprising and drawing in an audience.
Kate Dolan’s eerie horror leans into fairy culture and Irish ghost story traditions, set as it is in the run-up to Halloween. Hazel Doupe and Carolyn Bracken do a fine job of keeping the suspense up in the tale of a troubled mother who disappears - only to return to her daughter’s side with no explanation or apparent recollection of what had happened to her.
Damian McCarthy followed up his film Caveat with this scary movie which has proved an international audience and critical hit. Oddity, which combines well-orchestrated frights with a murder mystery and revenge thriller, is one of the smarter and more suspenseful horror thrillers. Shot on location at Bantry House, a woman is brutally murdered at the house she was renovating with her husband. Suspicion falls on a troubled local man - prompting the woman’s sister, a blind psychic who collects artefacts - to investigate. The film helped prompt Severance actor Adam Scott to travel to West Cork to shoot McCarthy’s next film, the forthcoming Hokum.
The Irish language is undergoing an onscreen revival followed by the success of An Cailín Ciúin and now scary storytelling is being brought into the mix. Filmmaker Aislinn Clarke does a fine job of blending our culture and history of horror, as well as our language, into her film. Clare Monnelly plays a woman, haunted by personal tragedy, hired to care for an agoraphobic woman (Bríd Ní Neachtain). The care required proves to be more challenging than expected. Much of the older woman’s troubles stem from a fear of Na Sídhe - a sinister force she is convinced abducted her in the past. Both Irish and universal in its storytelling, Fréwaka made waves beyond these shores.
