We’re living in the Golden Age of Irish Horror and we’re dead excited about it. Throughout October we’re celebrating Samhain with interviews, reviews and retrospectives, that show how Ireland has risen to the top of the horror hierarchy.
You wait forever for a horror film as Gaeilge and then two come along at once. While Aislinn Clarke’s folk horror Fréwaka is eagerly anticipated, equally exciting is haunted house story An Taibhse, directed by John Farrelly.
An Taibhse stars Tom Kerrisk, Livvy Hill and Anthony Murphy, and it’s a film set in the bleak landscape of post-famine Ireland, exploring the profound hardships faced by its people. The narrative centres around Éamon and his daughter, Máire, who undertake the care of a remote Georgian Mansion through the harsh winter. Their task, initially serene, veers into terror as they encounter inexplicable phenomena.
The film explores the depths of human resilience in the face of unspeakable horror, presenting a nuanced portrayal of survival and the complex ways the mind adapts to protect itself.
The film has been making its way across the festival scene, including a recent US premiere at the 25th Newport Beach Film Festival, and will be one of the main features showing at the IFI Horrorthon, with Farrelly set to attend a post-film Q&A. Ahead of the horror’s arrival to Dublin, we spoke with Farrelly about making the film.
An Taibhse is very much an indie film success story, congratulations on getting it out there. Can you talk a bit about the origins of the film and how it came together?
It began in college, I did a course on cinematic arts in Derry as part of Ulster University. We had to make a 6-minute short horror film. I had an idea for An Taibhse for a while, but this gave me an excuse to make this into a short film. I already had a feature film script which we adapted into a short for the university assignment, which came out really good. When you’re trying to squeeze a feature down into a short, the pacing was all over the place, but the actual vision that we had for the film came across well on screen and we thought, you know what, why don’t we go back and shoot the actual feature? It was a bit of a bold move by us all! It was in the middle of the lockdown at the time. We shot the short in November 2021, and then we went back down and did the feature in January 2022.
It was basically a group of friends in university, it wasn’t a typical professional set, it was people wearing multiple hats. I was running to the shop to get breakfast or going to get a takeaway for everyone’s dinner and then when it came to being on set, I’d be operating the camera one second, then moving the lights. Same for the crew, like the boom operator and sound recordist, he jumped in for one of the roles at the beginning. We were in a really remote location in Shillelagh in Wicklow, so we couldn’t afford to bring an actor down just for a few hours and then send them back, so he stepped in. It was just everyone bringing their A Game, we had such an amazing cast and crew, we all just came together and had a vision for this film, and we made it with no money, it was difficult, but it was fun, and it was a good challenge.
What were some of those challenges, without a budget?
We didn’t really have any lighting, so we would use the sun. In the big house, we used an app for augmented reality where we could track where the sun would be during the day, so we would plan around that to make sure everything was backlit. Every day we would shoot scenes in order depending on where the sun would be, going from room to room.
Working on a final budget of €3000, with this close-knit group, did you find yourself more open to thinking of filmmaking in different ways?
In some ways it’s quite liberating to have all these restrictions, we would know we have an hour in this room with this light, let’s figure a way to shoot it in as few takes as possible. In terms of the style of filmmaking, it was a lot of one shots and that was down to the style in general, but also the time and the light.
There’s a tunnel sequence near the end of the film where there’s absolutely zero light. We were walking down to shoot that still figuring out how we would light it. Ross Power the DoP was walking down and holding an LED light close to his chest and just while we were heading down it looked really cool. We thought why not stick the LED light to the front of Liv with duct tape while she goes down the tunnel holding a lantern and adjust the hue so it matches the same colour as the lantern, then in the reverse angle strap it to her back. We went with the plan of boosting the ISO, get it all natural and maybe have another LED far in the background or behind the camera bouncing against the wall just to add a little bit more light. I suppose in those moments it’s seeing what you can work with and then coming up the best solution. These limitations and restrictions do actually force you to be even more creative.
At the same time, is it difficult to remain focused on the direction in a production when you are having to wear so many hats and work around restrictions?
That’s all down to the amazing cast and crew. We did extensive rehearsals on Zoom in preparation for scenes, so we always knew exactly what we were doing. For the actual locations and setting up, we made a plan in advance with every single scene on what equipment we would need for each shot and each location, down to every lens and tripod, and had a floor plan in the house of where everything would be. We could be wrapping up a scene in the dining room and then say to our camera assistants, gaffers, boom operators, when we might not need them all there, oh we’re shooting Máire’s bedroom next, and they would head off and we would know exactly how the setup would be when we got there. Then it’s just me spending time with the actors focusing on the performance.
I was co-DoP with Ross, so he would have the camera set up, discuss the movements, who to follow, then it’s just giving it to the rest of the crew, the responsibility of the lighting, the camera movements, all that. Even Rebecca Monaghan, who worked as a first AD as well as the Irish translator as well and so many other things, she would go and say, right, what does everyone want for food? We’re going to get Chinese tonight. Get your orders in. We had a plan and a system in place and we just stuck to that and it worked really efficiently.
You mentioned having this idea knocking around even before you were working on the short film, and there are a lot of aspects of this story that are resonant to Irish audiences in particular. What elements were coming most strongly to your mind in writing the film?
When the COVID lockdowns began I was thinking about abuse and how with everyone trapped in their houses, how rampant that must be. That spawned the idea of a horror story about abuse – I thought a ghost would be a perfect metaphor for that, the past haunting the present.
We started exploring the concept of transgenerational trauma, how one event that creates trauma can continue to pass on for generations, that’s where we settled on actually setting it during the Great Famine. A lot of terrible things happened, and the traumas that occurred during that time has been passed on, the death of half our population and then the long-term effects of that and other traumas that have been passed on through generations that have been still prevalent today. Using the Famine setting and using the ghost as a metaphor for hiding the actual, true evils that are around allowed us to explore those ideas.
One of the ways that the film balances the horror and those dark themes of the film is the performances, from Tom and Livie, and from Anthony Murphy also. How did you work with them to bring those performances to those heightened and real places while staying sensitive to the dark themes you’re covering?
All the actors are just phenomenal. As people and actors they’re amazing and they were able to switch on, switch off. For Liv and Tom getting to those places, we were prepping it a lot and then once we knew we were ready it would be one take. That’s why we shot a lot of it through those big wide shots or medium shots where there are no cuts.
For shooting the more intense scenes, we made sure that there was no one else on set to make sure the actors were comfortable. Sometimes it was just me, Ross and the actors, or sometimes just me and the two actors and no one else. Everyone had to leave the room once it was set up, so it was just us in a comfortable space. Then we wouldn’t record sound until later through ADR again just to make sure there was no one on set for some of the more difficult scenes.
We did make sure the set itself was fun and that we always had each other’s back, if anyone was down, we were always there to help each other and support each other, again because it was basically a group of friends making this film. It made it easier to work on a film with dark subjects, as soon as we have would have a break, we’d be cracking jokes, just getting the mood up the spirits up, so that when we were on set filming delicate and difficult scenes, it wasn’t as bad because we had each other.
One of the aspects of making this film that really shows that commitment and effort and unity, am I right that Livvy doesn’t actually have Irish and she learned the Ulster Irish for her part phonetically?
Yeah, she learned all her lines phonetically, which is insane. I don’t know how she did it, but it just shows how great of an actor she is and how dedicated she was, especially with not having a lot of time to do it. She knew every single line for every single scene.
And does that involve Rebecca, as translator, being quite closely involved day-to-day between takes with everyone to work on lines and how to say certain things?
Rebecca was there at all times, both for Tom because he didn’t have Ulster Irish and Liv who didn’t have any at all. She would work with them while, let’s say we’re setting up camera on the set, she’s going over pronunciations. Rebecca was also involved in every rehearsal and Zoom call during prep to make sure that they were saying their Irish correctly. She recorded herself saying all the lines in the film so that Liv could listen back to it and understand how it sounded as well. Liv would then write down the Irish, the English, and then break down the syllables and what she would say.
You’ve described this as the first Irish language horror. We’re seeing a gradual rise in the use of Irish in filmmaking and also a more diverse range of the kind of films that are being made in Irish, across genres. With that performance from Livvy in particular are you hopeful this film will be encouraging for different kinds of filmmakers and artists to use Irish, even if they see themselves as not having the language?
It’s a beautiful language, it’s our language, and I think more and more art should be made in it. For people worrying about not being completely fluent, not all our crew were completely fluent but by the end of the shoot, our Irish had improved significantly. I went to an all-Irish primary school, but when you’re not speaking it every day, you start to lose it a bit. But because of the film, we all were immersed in a world where we were only listening to Irish and speaking Irish, so then all of our Irish improved. It does show that it shouldn’t be scary and it’s all right if you make a mistake, the most important thing is that you make an effort.
Especially with Liv having no Irish at all to now like having a decent quality of speaking Irish, it just shows that like anyone can go in and learn.
The film is now going across the festival circuit and being presented to audiences, what is the main takeaway that you hope viewers have with An Taibhse, both nationally and internationally?
I think for the themes of abuse, the main thing is that idea ná bíodh eagla, don’t be afraid, if you are in a situation like Máire or anything similar, it’s not a permanent thing and you can escape and you can leave. As hard as it is, there’s always hope.
In terms of the film itself being in Irish, when we played it in London, a lot of people said afterwards that it was the first time they’d watched a film in Irish and I think it’s great to promote that as well, that more and more people internationally are hearing the language. Films like Kneecap and An Cailín Ciúin are putting Irish on this international stage, and I think it’s important to see more and more of the language in an international setting.
An Taibhse screens at the IFI Horrorthon on Saturday, 26th October.