Filmmaker Aislinn Clarke, who became the first Northern Irish woman to direct a horror film with The Devil’s Doorwayreaches another milestone with Fréwakaa dread-infused folk-horror narrative that’s one of the first Irish-language horror films.
Memorable found-footage horror films are increasingly rare, but 2018’s The Devil’s Doorway remains a standout. It’s a 1960s-set tale of camera-toting priests investigating a miracle at a Magdalene laundry—but instead uncovering something much darker than even the cruel conditions weathered by the unwed pregnant women forced to dwell there.
While Fréwaka is set in the present day, it draws on similar themes of religion being twisted to serve a sinister purpose, as well as the ways trauma can become a multi-generational affliction. It’s also inspired by Irish folklore, an oft-used source for Irish horror filmmakers, but it pivots away from offering yet another variation on the changeling myth. Trickster fairies—known for their baby-swapping antics—do play a big role in Fréwakabut writer-director Clark is more interested in what her film’s title, which loosely translates to “roots,” represents to its characters.
After a pair of opening scenes that introduce seemingly unconnected tragedies, we meet Shoo (Clare Monnelly). She has a lot to look forward to, especially her upcoming marriage to Mila (Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya), who’s pregnant with their first child. But the past is clinging to her rather stubbornly. Her estranged mother has just died by suicide, leaving behind an apartment stuffed with Jesus portraits and plenty of bad memories, neither of which Shoo relishes sorting through.
When the home health care agency she works for pings with a temporary new posting, looking after a stroke victim, Shoo is relieved. She and Mila could use the money, but it’s also an outstanding way to avoid dealing with her own problems. Leaving Mila to handle clean-up detail—and wonder why Shoo doesn’t feel an ounce of sentimentality about her late mother’s belongings—Shoo heads to a remote village, where her Irish-language skills mean she gets to bust shit-talkers who mistakenly assume she can’t understand them.
The job may have whisked Shoo away from certain unpleasantries, but as fans of folk horror will immediately recognize, even picturesque small towns can hide creepy secrets. Following instructions that include taking “a short cut by the fairy tree,” Shoo finds her way to Peig (Bríd Ní Neachtain), who’s immediately hostile, refusing to even open the door to let her in.
Shoo assumes at first that this is just an elderly patient who resents an outsider barging in, and there’s certainly some of that at work here. But the more time she spends with Peig, the more she starts to wonder if there’s something to the old woman’s warnings about the mysterious “they” and “them” who lurk in the shadows intending to cause her harm. Is it just paranoia and superstition, or are the strange things Shoo herself is experiencing (whispered voices and other odd noises, to start) actually tied into some kind of supernatural threat?
As Fréwaka winds its way toward the truth about Peig’s fears, it foregrounds Shoo’s own struggles with mental health and the very obvious fact that her mother’s death—and the lingering bad blood between them—is bothering her more than she’s letting on. “She was your mother,” an increasingly impatient Mila tells her in one of their rare phone calls, owing to both Shoo’s reluctance to talk and the village’s spotty cell service. “You have to face it, whatever it is.”
When Peig sees Shoo trying to dump a box of personal mementos Mila thought she might want to keep, the older woman has her own advice: “Getting rid of it won’t get rid of it.” This is something Peig herself has learned first-hand over her long and unhappy life.
If Fréwaka‘s last-act reveals aren’t exactly surprising (including a brief mid-credits scene), the road to get there is suitably eerie, though viewers who’re hoping to have every little detail explained will have to be okay with mood winning out over exposition—and will maybe want to read up on Irish folklore to fill in some of the blanks.
Both Monnelly and Ní Neachtain infuse a certain spark into characters that might otherwise feel overly miserable, and Clark’s direction brings a gradual emotional intimacy to their initially prickly relationship. She also layers plenty of tension into the setting, making Peig’s ramshackle house feel like a barely guarded fortress against the unknown.
Fréwaka starts streaming April 25 on Shudder.
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