Fréwaka

While gathering the left overs of her suicided mother's life, a woman is called away on a live-in carer's job for an old woman in an old house in the countryside. Where she finds a red door to the cellar, guarded by folk charms ...

Not really a horror, but a study in generational paranoid schizophrenia - with folk horror influences: The Wickerman and Penda's Fen come through strong in the climax. The plot device is the taking of children by the Sidhe, fairy entities that appear as goats and as humans too - but which are stand-ins for altogether more material demons from the past.

Interesting, with good performances, and some quality cinematography. But it is uneven. Early on there's a really striking image of the hanged mother in her wedding dress; later on, another wedding dress appears, but without any spooky touches - it's just there on a clothes hanger. And the folk horror details weren't delivered with enough style - think of the smile figures in the recent Smile 2 for the spookiness of good choreography. On the plus side, the visiting supervisor was just right in her buttoned down insanity - although her role trailed off into nothing. And the Father Ted style decor reeked of layered-on ignorance and obsession.

The dialogue is mostly in Irish, but lacking in lyricism - there is one powerful description by Peig of the other world, but otherwise the exchanges are quite banal, with lots of Ceart go leors ('alright') popping up. I noticed the phrase Geallaim duit ('I promise you') repeated 3 times, but the subtitles gave the final use a different translation even as the old woman marked it as the third time.

The outstanding element is the music and sound design: industrial folk doom, if that's a genre. Delivered by the mighty Die Hexen.

As a descent into madness, the story is good, but not of the first order since it shows us no way out. Not that the way out has to be taken, but its existence heightens this kind of drama. There is a little post-script after the end credits, which reinforces the theme of taking children, but too little to add extra enlightenment.

Overall: Interesting but uneven. And the title, so I'm told, is a phonetic version of the Irish for roots.

"Frewaka" immediately caught my attention because of its unusual name and interesting-looking poster. I expected something like a low-budget, Midsommar-like movie with Irish folklore sprinkled in, but unfortunately, that is not quite what I got.

We follow Shoo (Clare Monnelly), a care worker who is sent to a remote village in Ireland to look after an agoraphobic older woman. Soon, strange things begin to happen, and she finds herself the target of a sinister folkloric entity.

The movie is definitely a slow burner and really takes its time to tell the story. It is not particularly scary and relies more on atmosphere than on cheap jump scares, which is generally a positive choice. The film features some great cinematography, and the acting is solid overall, making this a technically competent production with some strengths.

Unfortunately, the overall themes have been done many times before in very similar ways. There are already a lot of movies like this, and Frewaka does little to stand out. Aside from the red door and a few costume designs, there is not much visual distinction, and the story does not offer much for the audience to connect with. It leans heavily on familiar genre tropes and stereotypical scenes, which further reduces its impact. I would have loved to see more about the Irish folklore but the movie sadly does not provide many answers or insights at all.

For fans of slow-burn horror, this folk horror film might offer some enjoyable moments. However, Frewaka ultimately lacks the originality and memorability to impress a more seasoned audience. [4.2/10]

Fréwaka: Bleak Irish Folk Horror involving Fairy abductions, these Fairies however are very much of the Pagan variety and the film has a touch of The Wicker Man about it. In a prologue set in 1973, Mummers wearing straw masks crash Peig's wedding, they bring a goat with .them. Peig goes outside and disappears, her husband Daithi just sees a goat. Dearg Doom by Horslips is playing in the background. 99% of the dialogue in this film is as Gaeilge (in Irish). The present day, we see a woman commit suicide, to be found weeks later. Her estranged daughter Shoo turns up with her pregnant partner Mila, to clear out the apartment. Shoo is called away to care for a now invalid and isolated Peig, locals are reluctant to visit or deliver goods to her. Shoo has to force entry and finds the house filled with metal objects, salt and urine to keep the Fairies out. The cellar door has a horseshoe and other iron pieces attached. Peig believes that she was taken by the Fairies to another house underneath her own and Daithi made a deal to get her back and then committed suicide. Most of the locals are standoffish but one tells Shoo that Peig was in an asylum or Magdalene Laundry. The house itself is a character. A minor stately home, although its furnishings e.g. Stuffed animals would be more typical if those from an ascendency background, neither Peig or Daithi seem o fit that mould. It is large and rambing with the ever present cellar door providing both an attraction and a danger. A visitor might be a Fairy, at least Peig thinks so. Most of the horror here is psychological, it is suggested rather than shown except when Peig and Shoo reveal their scars (both physical and mental) to each other. There are some violent scenes though. Shoo's relationship with Mila also becomes strained. There is a question about how much that Shoo observes is real and we have reason to question it. Goats are a constant motif as is a strange boy, along with Catholic religious imagery and statuettes.. All of the threads eventually tie together suggesting to me at least that there is an occult explanation for the events. As well as Horslips, Die Hexen provides a haunting score. I thought Horslips' version of King of the Fairies would have fitted better than Dearg Doom but everyone's a critic these days. Written and directed by Aislinn Clarke. 8/10.

I recently watched the Irish film 🇮🇪 Frewaka (2024) on Shudder. The story follows a woman trying to balance a new job as a caretaker, a budding relationship, and haunting flashbacks from a troubled past. As the visions intensify, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish reality from memory-or perhaps imagination-as her two worlds begin to blur.

Written and directed by Aislinn Clarke (The Devil's Doorway), the film stars Clare Barrett (Sacrifice), Tara Breathnach (Dune: Part II), Grace Collender (Blackshore), and Dorothy Duffy (The Magdalene Sisters).

I had mixed feelings by the end. While the film is a slow burn, the caretaker role and domestic dynamics are well developed. The performances are authentic and emotionally resonant, effectively conveying the protagonist's mental strain. The house itself provides a mysterious, unsettling backdrop, and the cinematography enhances the psychological tension with subtle visual cues that blur the lines between reality and delusion.

That said, I found myself wanting more from the narrative. The film builds to a strong twist, but I felt it could have been pushed further to deliver a more lasting impact.

In conclusion, Frewaka has enough well-executed elements to maintain your attention, but it ultimately falls short of its full potential. I'd give it a 6/10.

Called away to a remote village, a care worker tasked with looking after a dementia-riddled patient in a remote village comes to suspect something more sinister is going on with her repeated claims of something living in the house that soon proves more deadly than she expected.

Overall, this was a rather fun and likeably chilling slow-burn folk horror effort. Among the better features to be had here is the immensely chilling setup that manages to touch incredibly well on the nature of guilt and loss. The main setup to bring them together involving the need to offer her care in her home in the remote village and bringing about the slow discovery of the terrifying instances within the house that aren't just related to the dementia prognosis she's there to treat makes everything rather straightforward with how it reveals everything going forward. With the revelations about what's happened to her over the years from the others in the village who know about what happened to her and what it meant that led to her current condition which points direct fingers at the oppression inflicted by the Church at women years ago, there's a great base here involving the traumatic past coming back to haunt someone at the present. This is all nicely tied together to the concurrency backstory involving the growing sense of unease that comes about with how the connection to the workers' traumatic past comes into play. Realizing that the entire episode is a means of allowing her to come to gripes with the inappropriate manner in how her relationship with her mother hindered her in the latest stage in her life before her life, the connection allows her to explore the stories being told to her which brings about the discovery of the initial incident that occurred decades ago that left the woman in her care the wreck that she is. Although this leads to an immensely chilling and creepy setup, there's far too much going on before this is accomplished, which leaves the film rather one-sided, as the first half builds everything up with little to no payoff. The film is a bit blander than its setup warrants, with very little happening to denote overt and obvious instances of something happening due to the more subtle nature showcased. It's not detrimental, but it does bring it down slightly.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.