- AKA “An Taibhse” (2024)
- Directed by: John Farrelly
- Written by: John Farrelly
- Stars: Livvy Hill, Tom Kerrisk, Anthony Murphy
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr530umjFpk
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
After the Irish famine, 1850s, a father and daughter are caretakers in a remote mansion over the winter. It should be a simple job, but as the title hints, there are supernatural happenings that make things complicated and horrifying. It’s entirely in the Irish language, said to be a first for a horror movie, and it’s subtitled.
It’s beautifully filmed with great sound and a strong cast of two in an excellent setting. They made a very good movie. It’s slow moving and tense with a gradual build, pretty low on action, but still keeps you watching.
It’s really good!
Spoilery Synopsis
Maire and Eamon ride a carriage to the big, isolated house where they’re going to spend the winter. They’re father and daughter, and he shows her around the house in the morning. They’ve taken jobs as caretakers in the house for the winter, but there are rooms they aren’t allowed to use.
While doing the laundry, Mary hears a scream in the woods. And maybe footsteps in her room at night. She goes into the forbidden library and hears a voice, “Don’t be afraid.” She is very afraid.
That night, Mary hears banging from her closet door and investigates. No one’s there, of course, but it still seems like something is in there. Something grabs her from behind…
In the morning, Mary makes breakfast and looks at the knife and her wrists oddly. Eamon cuts himself in the foot with an axe, and Mary sees blood where it shouldn’t be. Mary tells him that Alexander is back, and he says there’s no such thing as ghosts.
That night, Mary’s bedroom door opens by itself, and she takes a lantern to investigate. She gets a weird vision, and then something grabs her and drags her off.
The next morning, Mary notices that she’s leaving blood puddles on the floor. She tells Eamon, and he’s much less argumentative about the ghost now. Since his foot is all bandaged up, now she needs to do his job too. It’s a lot of work for her alone. While he drinks excessively and plays a solitaire marble game.
Eamon gets drunk and accuses Mary of cutting and bruising herself; he still doesn’t believe in Alexander. That night, she sees Eamon walking around naked in the woods and then returns to the house to find a creepy doll in her bed.
Every morning, Mary wakes up dripping blood; is the ghost raping her, or is Eamon? She points out to him that it’s been a month since he hurt his foot, so it ought to be getting better; he has no idea how long it’s been. He denies having been in the garden last night and says it must be one of her fantasies.
They argue, and afterward, he admits his foot is much better now. He finds her work to be inadequate and rants about her laziness for quite a long time.
Snow arrives, and brings a scene of Eamon leading Mary with a rope leash. Then locking her in the room telling her he’ll be back in 20 minutes so she can make dinner. Then she’s locked in the kitchen for two hours to cook. She’s his prisoner or in sight of him at all times now.
Then a man arrives on a carriage. Mary escapes out her window, but Eamon grabs her and ties her up before she can get to the guy. He’s been sent to check on the property. Eamon denies Mary is there. After an inspection and awkward dinner, the steward stays the night. In Mary’s room.
In the morning, Eamon is nowhere to be found, so the Land Steward goes looking for him. He finds Mary tied up and gagged in the closet, but then Eamon kills him with an axe. Eamon then burns the man’s body in a huge bonfire– he’s gone completely insane.
Eamon wants Mary to wear her dead mother’s dresses and dance with him. Mary now sees the ghost as her mother telling her not to be afraid. She’s dragged into the library, where a secret door opens. She goes inside and finds her naked father, who chases her back into the main house.
Then we see that Eamon has been the monster all along using Mary for incest; “Alexander” was just her mental coping mechanism. She pulls the knife out from under her pillow and stabs him to death.
Brian’s Commentary
The location and sets are really good for such a low-budget film. It’s supposed to be the first Irish-language horror film (really? How is that possible?), and it was mostly filmed during Covid for around 3,000 Euros. Impressive!
Storywise, I kept seeing similarities to “The Shining,” although this one adds a lot of folk-horror elements. Eamon and Jack Torrance are equally bad at caretaking. I’m not sure if the ending was supposed to be a twist or if we were supposed to see that coming from early on, but it didn’t come as a surprise.
There’s not a lot of action, and it’s definitely a slow-burn film, but the atmospheric sets and visuals really keep it all interesting throughout. It was pretty great.
Kevin’s Commentary
Trivia says it was put together with a budget of just over 3000 Euro. It was clearly a team of talented people who ran a tight ship. The acting and production values are excellent.
As slow-moving as it is, I kept expecting boredom to set in, but not so. It kept my interest throughout.
Brian is correct about the “The Shining” elements that are there. No kid or actual “shining,” but isolated caretakers encountering the supernatural; him with a drinking problem making things worse; her fearful and getting more so. And he likes to use an axe.
I liked this one a lot.
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