Irish horror film has definitely been undergoing a renaissance recently and so, for this St. Patrick’s Day weekend, I’ve created a list of the best recent Irish horror, ranked. They are all excellent, though. Click on the “Read more” link to get the full review and the trailer.
Bojana Novakovic as besieged mother in The Hallow
- The Hallow (Corin Hardy, 2015). Irish folk horror film, The Hallow follows a couple, Adam and Claire Hitchens (Joseph Mawle and Bojana Novakovic), along with their baby, Finn, who go to stay in a house deep in the Irish forest, which has just been sold for development. They discover there is a frightening truth to local folklore about “the hallow”—fairies and other supernatural creatures who want humans to stay out of their woods. Read more.
- The Devil’s Woods (Anthony White, 2015). In the Irish folk horror film, The Devil’s Woods, four friends (Keith, Jen, Jay, and Katie) head from Dublin to a music festival in the country, with the intent of camping in the woods. On the way, they run afoul of some unfriendly locals in the wonderfully-named local pub, The Hatchet Inn, and then, once in the woods, they are inexplicably terrorized by strange figures in masks. Read more.
The Devil’s Woods
- The Hole in the Ground (Lee Cronin, 2019). Written by Cronin and Stephen Shields, Irish horror film, The Hole in the Ground is a wonderful slow-burn story that relies on the formidable talents of its lead actors—Seána Kerslake as Sarah O’Neill and James Quinn Markey as her son Chris—as well as the beauty of the enveloping landscape. Cinematographer Tom Comerford and director Cronin make the most of their locations in Kildare and Wicklow, Ireland—and the forest, surrounding the hole at the center of the narrative—is itself as good as a character. The Hole in the Ground is an incredible entry in what seems to be a veritable renaissance in Irish horror. Read more.
Seana Kerslake and James Quinn Markey in The Hole in the Ground
- Wake Wood (Arthur Keating, 2009) stars Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones), Eva Birthistle (The Children), and Timothy Spall (Harry Potter, Mr. Turner). Bereaved parents move to a rural community in hopes of moving past the death of their child. They discover that the locals engage in a ritual that enables the return of the dead. The ritual comes with very specific rules, however, which the parents find themselves unable to follow. Read more.
Unholy rituals in Wake Wood
- The Devils’ Doorway (Aislinn Clarke, 2018). Stellar Irish horror film The Devil’s Doorway is the first feature film from Clarke, a writer and director from Northern Ireland. It’s a found-footage horror, shot by Father John Thornton (Ciaran Flynn) as he and the older, disillusioned, Father Thomas Riley (Lalor Roddy) visit a Magdalene Laundry after the local Bishop receives an anonymous letter from one of the Sisters at the home claiming that a statue of the Virgin Mary is bleeding. Father Thomas and Father John are instructed to document “everything” as they search for proof of the miracle. They do so, and they find not only a miracle but something less sacred and much darker. The statue bleeds in the chapel but, far under the chapel, other bodies bleed too. Read more.
Secrets in the cellar in The Devil’s Doorway
- Don’t Leave Home (Michael Tully, 2018). Written by Tully and shot on location at beautiful Killadoon House in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, Don’t Leave Home features excellent performances by its three leads—Anna Margaret Hollyman as Melanie Thomas, Lalor Roddy as Father Alistair Burke, and Helena Bereen as Shelly. Don’t Leave Home is eerie horror. It builds dread and has moments of jarring creepiness. It veers into non-narrativity at times, as resonant images fade and dissolve into each other. It is beautiful. It makes you think: I watched it and then had to watch it again, and I’m still not sure I understand it—not in a frustrating way but in a way that makes you realize there’s simply more to be understood. The enigmatic Don’t Leave Home will stay with you long after you’ve finished watching it. Read more.
Strange rituals at the heart of Don’t Leave Home
- Without Name (Lorcan Finnegan, 2016). Without Name follows Eric (McKenna), a land-developer, as he travels from what is clearly a soulless life in Dublin to a beautiful natural wilderness where he is measuring and assessing land. He’s under contract with a man (Morgan C. Jones) whom we only ever see on the screen of a laptop, but who, from what we do see, seems to be engaged in some shady land dealings. Eric soon learns from the locals that the land he’s surveying (which is called Gan Ainm, or Without Name) is private, but there’s also a growing sense in the film that this land belongs to no one. No one has ever been able to create a map of it; it persists in defying human efforts to control it. Read more.
The eerie, enigmatic ending of Without Name
