Imagine The Shining, but set in mid-19th century Ireland shortly after the potato famine. Instead of the Overlook, a large, chilly Georgian manor house. Widower Eamon (Tom Kerrisk) signs on as winter caretaker, and brings with him his teenage daughter, Máire (Livvy Hill). It’s Máire who’s disturbed by supernatural emanations, especially at night — though her father angrily denies them. There’s plenty of subtext loaded into this atmospheric frightener, the first horror film made entirely in the Irish language.
Edited to a taut, busy 92 minutes, the film works itself into a symphony of niggling submelodies: blood, religion, familial abuse.
Donald Clarke, Irish Times
A brilliant debut from Farrelly, An Taibhse is filled with well executed frights.
Kat Hughes, THN
A particularly harrowing take on the haunted house film, every creaking floorboard and pitch-black doorway pregnant with malice and dread.
Joel Harley, Starburst
Supported by
John Farrelly
Livvy Hill, Tom Kerrisk, Anthony Murphy
Ireland
2024
In Irish with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Saturday October 25
Sunday October 26
Wednesday October 29
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
David Bond, John Moss, Juan Pablo Reinoso, Jim Sheridan
Producer
John Farrelly, Tom Kerrisk
Screenwriter
John Farrelly
Cinematography
John Farrelly, Ross Power
Editor
John Farrelly
Original Music
Ally Donald, Tom Kerrisk
Also in This Series
This series pays tribute not only to the season, but to an exciting surge in remarkable Irish horror films we’ve witnessed in the last few years.
Fréwaka
A Dublin nurse is sent to a remote Irish village to care for a reclusive woman. Haunted by a dark past, her night terrors invade her reality. Aislinn Clarke delivers a chilling, feminist folk horror that favours atmosphere over jump scares.
The Outcasts
One of earliest examples of "folk horror", The Outcasts (1982) draws on Irish mythology and folktales to eerie effect. Simple Maura is rumoured to have spent the night with the mythical fiddler Scarf Michael, with dire consequences for all... Screening followed by a panel discussion on Irish horror.