Irish Filmmaker Aislinn Clarke returns with another dose of eerie Irish Horror in her sophomore feature Frewaka, a story about family, and marriage….and monsters that want to eat your children. Clarke’s debut feature, a 16mm Found Footage chiller entitled The Devil’s Doorway (2018) introduced the horror community to her ability to craft a good scare, but it’s her short film Childer (2017) (still one of my personal favourites) that I think really sets the scene for the atmospheric dread of Frewaka. Which is to say that if you’re a fan of brooding unsettling Horror, creepy shadows whispering from the recess of the crawl space, or ominous goats(!), you might want to invest in a bright night light before braving the rural superstitious nightmare that is Frewaka.
Clare Monnelly stars as Shoo, a care giver sent to a remote village to look after the elderly Peig, played by Brid Ni Neachtain (The Banshees of Inisherin) who is reportedly suffering from dementia. Shoo is requested urgently thanks to her fluency in Gaeilge, but the posting comes amid a personal tragedy that continues to haunt her while she looks after her patient. Peig is a tough-as-nails recluse that is spoken of in hushed whispers around town because of something unbelievable that happened on her wedding night. The old woman is seen as nothing but a kook by the locals but as Shoo gets pulled further and further into her madness she too begins to see the signs and here the whispers of a petrifying reality come to ensnare them both.
“You might want to invest in a bright night light before braving the rural superstitious nightmare that is Frewaka.“
The Irish invented Folk Horror. I don’t care if that’s not actually true, it feels like a fact. And even if Folk Horror truly originated in some other far-off land (and Kier-La Janisse’s Woodlands Dark and Day Bewitched makes a pretty strong case that Folk Horror is universal BUT), after hundreds of years of creepy, doomed storytelling about powers and peoples beyond our own perception, the Irish have surely claimed Folk Horror for their own.
Irish Folk lore and cautionary tales of terror are about as Irish as potatoes and Guiness beer. Barroom legends and bedtime stories that give children nightmares are the Emerald Isle’s equivalent of baseball and warm apple pie. And thanks to Independent filmmakers, we are currently in a boom of Irish Folk Horror at the cinema, including Kate Dolan’s You Are Not My Mother (2021), Damian McCarthy’s Caveat (2020), Paul Duane’s All You Need is Death (2023), and now Aislinn Clarke’s Frewaka.
“[…] without you even noticing this clever creeper gets its hands around your throat and ever so slowly starts squeezing”
Clare Monnelly and Brid Ni Neachtain deliver two brilliantly haunted performances amid a nonstop Horror ride of spooky supernatural Horror. The majority of the movie is just these two women talking about their lives, and their fears, and it’s all expertly crafted dread. Like classic Horrors of the silent era, the mood and atmosphere their conversations are able to conjure often rivals the surprise appearance of a ghost or creeping creature. Tone is one of Frekwaka‘s biggest strengths and without you even noticing this clever creeper gets its hands around your throat and ever so slowly starts squeezing. For fans of simmering, brooding stories, or those of us that just want to feel the hairs on the back of their neck stand up, Frewaka is your next Folk Horror fave.
Aislinn Clarke’s Frewaka is an official selection of Panic Fest 2025 and will be available to stream on Shudder April 25. Click HERE to follow our continued coverage of the festival, and be sure to let us know what you thought of this haunting Irish Folk Horror (and share all your favorite spooky Irish Folk Stories) over in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord!
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