Behind the Couch

Written and directed by Olivia Rose Beatty, Lived Once Buried Twice: The Legend of Margorie McCall  (2025) is a morbidly humorous short film which brings to life an old County Armagh folk tale about premature burial. It marks the directorial debut of Beatty, who grew up in Lurgan – the town where the tale originates. As the old yarn goes, some time in the 18th century a woman named Margorie McCall, who lived and worked in Lurgan, died after a brief fever. During her wake, mourners tried in vain to remove her wedding ring. Margorie was buried in Shankill Graveyard and, that very same night, was exhumed by robbers who had heard she was buried with her precious wedding ring. Also unable to remove the ring, the desperate ghouls tried to cut off Margorie’s finger. As soon as they began cutting, and the blood began flowing, Margorie awakened with an unearthly scream. Having scared off the graverobbers, Margorie proceeded to make her way home and give her husband the shock of his life... ...

Written and directed by Olivia Rose Beatty, this short film brings to life a spooky old folk tale from my hometown, Lurgan, County Armagh*. According to local legend, poor Margorie McCall died after a brief fever. At her wake there was much commotion concerning her wedding ring. Many of the mourners tried in vain to prise it from her finger, perhaps anticipating that grave robbers might attempt to steal it. Margorie was buried in Shankill Graveyard, and sure enough that very same night, her body was exhumed by robbers after her precious ring. Also unable to remove the ring, the ghouls tried to cut off Margorie’s finger, and as soon as they began cutting and the blood began to flow, Margorie awoke with an unearthly scream… Her headstone still stands in Shankill Graveyard to this day, and it bears the eerie inscription, 'Margorie McCall: Lived Once, Buried Twice.' This old tale has always been ripe for a filmic adaptation, and Beatty, in her directorial debut, has created a stri...

Written and directed by documentary filmmaker Paul Duane, All You Need Is Death follows two underground musicologists, Anna and Aleks, as they travel the backroads of Ireland recording and collecting traditional folk songs. Things take a turn for the sinister when they hear about a woman in County Armagh who can sing them an ancient song, never recorded or transcribed, but passed down through generations of women. Sung in a language older than Irish, the song unleashes an otherworldly force and Anna and Aleks find themselves navigating a shady realm of arcane lore and forbidden knowledge. With its tantalising premise involving the recording of ancient folk songs, and shadowy black markets in which eccentric collectors vie for the rarest recordings, All You Need Is Death is a darkly beguiling folk horror. The story unfolds in rural, backwoods pubs and small farmhouses, gradually straying into strange hinterlands and creepy urban edgelands of disused industrial spaces. The contemporaneou...

Mandrake tells of probation officer Cathy Madden (Deirdre Mullins), who is assigned to help with the rehabilitation of recently released ‘Bloody’ Mary Laidlaw (Derbhle Crotty), who had been incarcerated years prior for the murder of her abusive husband. Rumours have long swirled in the local area concerning Mary’s dabbling in witchcraft and involvement in cases of missing children. No sooner has she been released, than the bodies of several local children are found in the woods near her farmhouse. As Cathy and local police delve deeper, the veil between real and imagined starts to fray and Cathy is drawn into a dark world of occult ritualism and blood sacrifice. Directed by Lynne Davison and written by Matt Harvey, Mandrake is a delicious slice of witchy, Northern Irish folk horror, dripping with atmosphere and arcane lore. While Irish horror is having a moment right now, with acclaimed titles such as Aislinn Clarke’s Fréwaka and Kate Dolan’s You Are Not My Mother mining rich and cr...

When a conservationist encroaches upon an old wood to study a species of invasive fungus, he invokes the wrath of the Hallow – a clan of “faeries, banshees and baby-stealers” – igniting a terrifying chain of events and plunging his family into a hellish nightmare. Written by Corin Hardy and Felipe Marino, and directed by Hardy, The Hallow is a mean, moody, thoughtful creature-feature with strong elements of folk, eco and body horror. In the grand tradition of folk and fairy stories, Hardy’s film warns of the dangers of trespassing in places we have no business being, as well as offering commentary on the importance of protecting the environment and respecting the myriad other species – known and unknown – which co-habit this planet with us. Hardy and Marino’s screenplay eases us into the story, establishing the characters and spending time with them, thus ensuring later, horrific events are reinforced by a strong emotional core and skyward-rocketing tension. Adam (Joseph Mawle) and Cl...

A motley crew of construction workers, led by a constantly squabbling father and son, unearth an ancient vampire when they demolish a stone cairn to make way for a new road on the outskirts of their sleepy, rural village. Written and directed by Chris Baugh, and co-written by Brendan Mullin, Boys from County Hell is as riotously funny as it is taut, grisly and atmospheric. Its use of an obscure Irish legend about a vampire provides it with a strange, unique feel, and Baugh and co. subvert typical tropes associated with the vampire, creating some fascinating lore of their own.  While the figure of the vampire is not as prominent in Irish myths and folklore as it is in the folktales of eastern Europe, there are still a few fascinating instances – such as the Dearg-due (which can be translated as ‘red thirst’ or ‘bloodthirsty’) of Waterford, and the Marbh Bhéo (the 'night-walking dead'). It’s also interesting to note that two of the earliest and most influential vampire novels wer...

Written and directed by Lee Cronin, and co-written by Stephen Shields, The Hole in the Ground tells of lone parent Sarah (Seána Kerslake), who, after relocating with her young son Chris (James Quinn Markey) to an isolated house beside a vast forest in rural Ireland, begins to suspect he has been abducted and replaced by an otherworldly imposter: a faerie changeling.  While Cronin’s film begins as so many horror films do, with a family moving into an old, creaky house beside a deep, dark forest, it soon becomes apparent that his studied approach, attention to characterisation and mining of creepy Irish folklore will take us deeper into the dark than most. Cronin draws us slowly into the story: Sarah and Chris struggling to settle in their new home; Sarah taking medication for anxiety, and the suggestion she’s escaped from an abusive relationship; the discovery of a massive sink hole in the forest beside the house; an older neighbour who claims faeries abducted her own son years bef...

When her daughter goes missing after venturing into the cellar of their new home, Kiera (Elisha Cuthbert) uncovers terrifying secrets concerning the history of their house and the diabolical practices of its previous inhabitant… Written and directed by Brendan Muldowney, The Cellar is based on his spine-chilling short film The Ten Steps (2004), which depicts a young girl’s haunting descent into the cellar of her home during a power-cut. This moment comes at the beginning of The Cellar , and from here Muldowney opens out the story to follow the mother’s frantic search and unearthing of the sinister history of the house. With elements of HP Lovecraft’s Dreams in the Witch House and William Hope Hodgson’s The House on the Borderlands, The Cellar is an immensely creepy, atmospheric work. It deviates from run of the mill haunted house narratives with its intriguing use of occult mysticism and mathematical alchemy to twist the laws of time and space. Spoiler alert: the previous owner of t...

After the tragic death of their baby daughter, Martha and Tomas (Samantha Morton and Steven Mackintosh) relocate from London to the tiny coastal village in rural Ireland where Tomas was born. They move into his old family home, a small cottage overlooking the Atlantic. When their neighbours perish in a fire, the couple take in their orphaned daughter Daisy, a young autistic girl with complex learning needs. Some of the locals believe Daisy is a faerie changeling, and when several strange accidents and deaths occur in the area, fear takes root within the community, further ostracising Daisy and driving apart Martha and Tomas. Written by Lauren Mackenzie and directed by Aisling Walsh,  The Daisy Chain  is a quietly haunting story of grief, otherness and the contagion of fear. It shares much in common with recent Irish horror titles, such as Aislínn Clarke’s  Fréwaka , with its ambiguous use of folkloric beings, social commentary regarding rural communities left in the dust ...

Isaac, a brooding drifter suffering from memory loss, agrees to look after Olga, the niece of his acquaintance Moe. A troubled woman prone to bouts of catatonia, Olga lives in an old, ramshackle house on an isolated island in the middle of a dark lake. Isaac agrees to wear a chained harness that prevents him from going into certain rooms. He gradually comes to learn of the unsettling history of the house and the unquiet dead it harbours within its walls... Written and directed by Damian McCarthy,  Caveat  is steeped in the Gothic tradition. With distinct echoes of the work of Edgar Allan Poe, it is ripe with a lingering atmosphere of morbidity and decay. McCarthy's screenplay toys with themes such as psychological rot, dark family secrets, and the aftermath of unspeakable violence and cruelty. The story unfolds within the creepy confines of the lonely, mouldy house, with myriad forbidden rooms, hidden passageways and concealed bloody secrets. The house itself is cut off from c...

Written and directed by Aislinn Clarke, Fréwaka (from the Irish ‘Fréamhacha’, meaning ‘roots’) is a chilling Irish-language folk horror that not only draws inspiration from Ireland’s rich well of creepy folklore, traditions and mythology, but serves as a startling rumination on the cruel, ill-treatment of women throughout its history. It tells of Shoo (Clare Monnelly), a troubled care worker sent to a remote village to care for Peig (Bríd Ní Neachtain), an older agoraphobic woman who claims the Na Sídhe – sinister, malevolent faerie folk - abducted her on her wedding night decades before...  Head over to Eye For Film to read my full review of this dark and haunting work. 

Nominated for Best International Short at the International Women in Horror Festival and the Nightmares Film Festival, Childer (an Irish colloquial word for children) is written and directed by Aislínn Clarke ( The Devil’s Doorway , 2018). It tells of Mary (Dorothy Duffy), an introverted single mother, who suspects she and her young son are being stalked by feral children living in the woods surrounding her home. She spends her days obsessively cleaning, trying to maintain order, and preventing her son from playing with the forest-dwelling children. Clarke’s screenplay explores ideas concerning parenthood, obsession, loneliness, and mental illness. The spectre of Shirley Jackson drifts throughout proceedings as domestic, homey spaces become veiled in quiet menace and the seeming innocence of childhood takes on sinister qualities. The beautiful photography by Ryan Kernaghan and art direction by Claire Fox help imbue the story with an eerie fairy tale quality: the little house, neat and ...

When her missing mother reappears, teenaged Char begins to suspect she is an otherworldly imposter. Written and directed by Irish filmmaker Kate Dolan, You Are Not My Mother taps into some truly primal fears – parental abandonment, being harmed by those meant to protect us, and being ostracised from our community. The carefully nuanced screenplay ensures an enthralling ambiguity throughout. Char’s mother has a history of depression and mental health issues – are the changes she exhibits due to her ill health? Her medication? Or something more unnatural ? Dolan’s writing and direction are bolstered by incredibly strong, compelling performances, particularly from Hazel Doupe as Char and Carolyn Bracken as her mother Angela. Char is a subdued, quiet girl with no friends. Doupe’s ability to convey so much internalised emotion, worry and pain is especially captivating. Bracken also delivers a memorably striking performance, the physical aspects of which create a sense of unease and eventu...

A dark revenge fantasy with echoes of Stephen King’s Carrie and Firestarter , Dark Touch tells of a young girl with terrifying powers that are conjured through pain and rage. When her parents die violently and in mysterious circumstances, Niamh (Missy Keating, who provides a truly compelling performance) is taken in by her neighbours whose own young daughter has recently died. Niamh insists her parents were killed when the house came alive, but authorities dismiss her claims and attribute the deaths to a violent home invasion. Before long though, her neighbours begin to sense that something unusual is now happening in their home, too.  The work of writer and director Marina de Van frequently explores themes such as the vulnerability of the flesh, body dysmorphia and psychological turmoil, and with Dark Touch , she explores the devastating effect of child abuse through the tropes of the evil/demon child sub-genre. Such films (including titles like The Bad Seed, Orphan, Village of ...

Written and directed by Neasa Hardiman, Sea Fever unfurls as a slow-burning, dread-fuelled nautical tale of terror. As a mandatory requirement for her studies, introverted marine-biology student Siobhán (Hermione Corfield) joins the close-knit crew of a fishing trawler as they head out from the west coast of Ireland. They become marooned out on the Atlantic when they encounter an unfathomable life-form that ensnares the boat. As members of the crew (which include Dougray Scott and Connie Nielsen) gradually succumb to a deadly infection caused by contact with the parasitic creature, Siobhán must win the trust of the increasingly paranoid crew and find a solution before it’s too late.  With its central themes of isolation, infection and paranoia, Sea Fever echoes sci-fi horror classics such as The Thing (1982), Alien  (1979) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), but Hardiman’s approach - grounded in realism and science - well developed characters, and favouring of insidio...

Northern Irish film director Aislínn Clarke’s feature debut tells of two priests sent to investigate an alleged miracle at a remote Magdalene laundry in the Irish countryside. As well as witnessing the shocking mistreatment of the young women incarcerated there, the two men uncover sinister happenings that suggest occult practices and diabolical rituals are afoot. Before long, they realise they are dealing with a genuine case of demonic possession. Magdalene Laundries were state endorsed workhouses, sanctioned and ran by the Catholic Church. They were cruel and secretive places where Ireland’s ‘fallen women’ were locked away and subjected to forced labour. Many also suffered sexual, psychological and physical abuse at the hands of their custodians. Prostitutes, unmarried pregnant women and mothers, orphans, women with mental health issues or physical disabilities, and women who had suffered abuse were all locked away, deemed to be society’s shameful, ‘dirty secrets’. With the dev...