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ABC News
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Fréwaka is the new Irish folk horror film. And it's full of surprises
Fréwaka, a word taken from the longer Irish word 'fréamhacha', translates to 'roots', which Irish writer-director Aislinn Clarke's sophomore film traverses all manners of. Fast facts about Frewaka What: An unsettling Irish folk horror film about the inheritance of trauma. Starring: Clare Monnelly, Bríd Ní Neachtain, Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya Directed by: Aislinn Clarke When: Streaming on Shudder from April 25 Likely to make you feel: Unnerved The roots of Ireland's collective historical trauma around the The roots of matrilineal, intergenerational violence. The roots of birth, death and everything between in a state where folklore, superstition and myth intermingle with the pervasive influence of the Catholic Church. The largely Irish-language film, featuring almost exclusively women, opens with two supremely unnerving scenes. In 1973, Peig (Grace Collender) is abducted from her own wedding, with her newlywed finding her ring abandoned on the ground and nothing else. Decades later in the present, an older woman's body is discovered, weeks after dying, by emergency service workers. "[Brid Ni Neachtain] is not as spiky as Peig, but she really brought her to life, phenomenally," Clarke told ( Supplied: Shudder ) Siubhán or 'Shoo' (Clare Monnelly, Small Things Like These) arrives at the home of her estranged dead mother with her bright-eyed, pregnant Ukrainian fiancée Mila (Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya) to clean up the detritus of her life. Shoo eyes her mother's possessions dispassionately before somewhat audaciously leaving Mila to deal with the mess — Shoo's a live-in care worker in training who's been dispatched to a remote Irish village to look after the very same Peig (Bríd Ní Neachtain, The Banshees of Inisherin) of the first scene, a now elderly woman ailing in the aftermath of a stroke and terrified of being visited by an undefined "them". Photo shows Close-up of Cillian Murphy wearing a beanie. This adaptation of Claire Keegan's Booker-nominated novel, tells a heartbreaking story of Ireland's infamous Magdalene Laundries. Thorny and recalcitrant, Peig has been diagnosed with paranoia, delusions and confusion, but the longer Shoo lives in the house and is intruded upon by apparitions of her dead mother, the more she begins to believe Peig when she says "they" are out to get her — to get them both. Fréwaka has all the classic tropes of a horror film. A sprawling, dilapidated house spread across two levels with a staircase utilised for maximum creepiness? Tick. Warnings from the local townsfolk to steer clear of said house, even as they themselves exude an unsettling otherworldliness? Tick. An absence of phone service? Tick. Fréwaka is less of a jump-scare film, and more one focused on the messiness of life — both in its living and the aftermath of death. Two scenes are so visceral you can almost smell the stink being depicted: Shoo gingerly opening a fridge containing the rotting remnants of her mother's life, and her chancing upon putrid broken milk bottles strewn across the entrance of Peig's house. Irish performance artist Die Hexen's score is startlingly piercing as it ratchets up to various apexes throughout, creating a sense of unease even when it's blindingly light outside. "My direct experiences in Ireland are of historical trauma," Clarke told The Hollywood Reporter. ( Supplied: Shudder ) Cinematographer Narayan Van Maele is intent on capturing characters in extreme close-ups, the action unfolding beneath or behind them blurred out as we're treated to the minutiae of their worries, hopes and desires. Similarly, the horror evoked by Clarke is highly personal even as it radiates to conjure something more all-encompassing. Religious iconography is rife and utilised to great effect; one of the most beautifully haunting scenes sees the motif of a red cross reflected in Shoo's wide irises. In the Ireland of Clarke's construction where the Catholic Church casts a pall over everything, religion is a source of discontent, not a salve — a glow-in-the-dark Virgin Mary and a looming portrait of Jesus seem more like portents of danger than redemption. When Shoo is haunted by her mother, it's religious verses she first hears — a reminder of moments of intense abuse. Irish fairy folklore is conjured to terrifying effect, as are menacing figures in medieval-looking straw masks — a sinister twist on festive 'mummers' — creepy goats a la The Witch's Black Phillip, and demonic figures trying to trespass the boundaries of a home similar to a vampire. "[Bríd Ní Neachtain] is such a joy to play with and to play opposite, and she gave it the absolute lash," Clare Monnelly (pictured) told RTE Radio 1. ( Supplied: Shudder ) The film is — at times very blatantly — a message that a continuing cycle of intergenerational trauma can only be confronted head-on. But Fréwaka's skilful, slow reveals — as we piece together the broader story of Peig and Shoo — are masterfully done. Peig's brittleness belies her emotional tenacity, while Shoo's quiet intensity, affected air of nonchalance and barely concealed anxiety call to mind the likes of Charlotte Gainsbourg. The slowly building rapport between the two as they manoeuvre their new-found dynamic is a joy to watch, particularly in their shared moments of levity that offset an otherwise heavy film. Catholic guilt, both on a personal and collective level, has found its eerie manifestation in Fréwaka — a film centred on the inheritance of Irish women's pain and suffering at the hands of the Church that bleeds into the present and lingers. Loading YouTube content Fréwaka is streaming on Shudder from April 25.
Irish Independent
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Fréwaka review: Bloodcurdling folk horror hits home with its sideways glance at modern Ireland
Fréwaka, a blood-cooling saga about a carer arriving to a remote house to mind an elderly woman, has all the right ingredients – goats, sideways-glancing locals, arcane 'festivities' – while also reflecting real themes of isolation, abuse, and intergenerational trauma. Shoo (Clare Monnelly) and her pregnant partner (Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya) have just moved into a dingy Dublin flat when she is called away to a small village. Locals reluctantly direct her to the backlanes home of Peig (Bríd Ní Neachtain). Initially wary of Shoo, Peig slowly comes around but maintains a visceral paranoia about a presence circling the pair. Laced with ambiguity and climaxing with rare control and dread, Clarke hits a bullseye with a folk horror that nods to a modern Ireland haunted by its own past. Monnelly and Ní Neachtain are excellent, as is the sublime cinematography and sound design of Narayan Van Maele and Die Hexen, respectively.
Irish Times
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Fréwaka review: Aislinn Clarke's Gaeltacht horror mines Irish mythology for socially conscious spookery
Fréwaka Director : Aislinn Clarke Cert : 15A Genre : Horror Starring : Clare Monnelly, Bríd Ní Neachtain, Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya, Olga Wehrly Running Time : 1 hr 43 mins Just when you think the folk-horror vogue is all played out, along comes Aislinn Clarke's textured delve into Celtic mythology and intergenerational trauma. Siobhán (Clare Monnelly), known to her friends as Shoo, is a care assistant tidying things away after the suicide of her estranged abusive mother when she accepts an assignment in the Gaeltacht. Her reluctant patient is Peig (Bríd Ní Neachtain), an agoraphobic woman who believes the aos sí – the folkloric beings at the evil end of the fairy spectrum – abducted her on her wedding night decades earlier. Peig is concerned that Shoo and her Ukrainian fiancee, Mila (Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya), are expecting a baby. Births, marriages and deaths form thin spaces for malevolent otherworldly forces, she warns. In common with The Devil's Doorway, this writer and director's debut horror film, from 2018, Fréwaka ambitiously mines Irish mythology and history for socially conscious spookery. Peig characterises the underworld as a place of coffin ships, Magdalene laundries, blighted fields and violent streets. These national traumas are amplified by a revealing rummage around Irish iconography: mummers, Sacred Heart lamps and a goat that could be Black Phillip's transatlantic cousin are employed to unsettling effect. READ MORE Unfriendly whispering locals add to the forlorn heroine's distress. A creepy traditional ballad seems to play wherever she goes. Is the grief-stricken Shoo hostage to her older charge's delusions or is something monstrous in the 'house below the house'? Terrific performances by Monnelly and Ní Neachtain keep us guessing. Narayan Van Maele, the cinematographer behind the Oscar-winning An Irish Goodbye, sneaks along as Shoo wanders through spooky corridors and along deserted country roads. Nicola Moroney's production design decks branches with ribbons, scissors and other mysterious talismans. And never mind the straw men: Die Hexen's disquieting electronic score is the scariest thing in the movie. In cinemas from Friday, April 25th, with previews from Wednesday, April 23rd
