An Taibshe

The Plot: Years after The Great Famine and when death stalked the land, Eamon (Tom Kerrisk) and his teenage daughter Maire (Livvy Hill) are trying to make a living. They have been appointed winter caretakers of a decaying Georgian house while the family is away. They get down to their lonely business there, but Maire becomes convinced that they’re not alone. There’s someone, some thing, else in the house which frightens the living daylights out of Maire…

The Verdict: Being the first of anything is a welcome challenge to a filmmaker, particularly when it’s tapping into a trend that has already seen much acclaim, both nationally and internationally. There has been a resurgence of interest in Irish filmmakers telling homegrown stories in the native language, unafraid of the potential commercial limitations of subtitles. While there have been a number of recent contemporary dramas as Gaeilge like An Cailin Ciuin and Roise & Frank, genre filmmaking also wants a piece of the pie too – carved out with a bloody knife of course. This is where An Taibhse / The Ghost comes in as the first Irish language horror, though Frewaka isn’t far behind it either.

It’s perhaps surprising that it’s taken so long for this to actually happen, given Irish cinema’s long-standing relationship with horror or more specifically, folk horror. An Taibhse is a far cry from the rubber monster silliness of 1986’s Rawhead Rex though. At its heart, it’s a traditional ghost story set within a narrative architecture that eerily parallels the events depicted in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (as opposed to Stephen King’s book). A winter caretaker and his daughter start to lose their minds as they discover that there’s something else in the house. A presence that, with an ironic air of importance, whispers ‘don’t be afraid’ to Maire. Doors open by themselves, a creepy puppet appears in different places (never a good sign in a horror film), things go bump in the night and Eamon starts dotting the land outside the house with crosses as if he was preparing for a war memorial.

For a film that was essentially made on credit card money – just €3,000 – this micro-micro budget feature from writer / director and one-man filmmaking army John Farrelly has the air of a more expensive film. It’s quite frankly remarkable what he’s managed to achieve here on such a tiny budget. As with the superb Lies We Tell recently, all an Irish filmmaker needs is a single location (a country house), some decent actors (Livvy Hill in particular) and a good cinematographer (Farrelly with Ross Power) to evoke an atmosphere of, well, fear. The film looks ravishing, from sunlit forests that evoke a fairytale aspect, to the chilly onset of a desolate Irish winter and an inventive use of natural lighting with candles and lamps during intense indoor night-time sequences (an apparent nod to Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon). The atmosphere is further pumped up by clever sound design and an intimidating score by Ally Donald and actor Tom Kerrisk.

The film is at its strongest when Farrelly hints at the unknown as Maire goes exploring around the house, not stereotypically signposting some well-placed jump scares. It’s as unsettling as it’s meant to be, but Farrelly occasionally dissipates that tension by cutting away to the next morning as if nothing had happened (hmm…). The film gradually shifts away from the supernatural to the abnormal, as a more human element takes centre stage. It’s not nearly as interesting as before, building to a primal howl of a climax that is abrupt but still effective enough to leave a David Lynch-style impression. An Taibhse is a flawed film that doesn’t quite live up to its narrative potential. However, what it lacks in narrative it certainly makes up for in an atmosphere of wintry dread that evokes the stronger aspects of folk horror and the madness lurking underneath. A haunting film in which terror needs no translation.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Review by Gareth O’Connor