'Fréwaka' review: Folk horror passes down a sinister fairy tale

Shudder

Possible sightings of supernatural beings? Well, this seems like a case for someone who wants to get to the root of the issue. Pour some whiskey to your morning coffee with sugar and cream because we're checking out Fréwaka (or, alternatively, Frewaka like the title cards say), which buys us a one-way ticket to Ireland. Meet Siubhán a.k.a "Shoo" (Clare Monnelly), a care worker who has recently lost her mom and is getting ready to become a mom herself since her partner Mila (Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya) is pregnant. Shoo gets sent on a work assignment to a rural village where she is meant to temporarily care for an elderly lady, Peig (Bríd Ní Neachtain), who is agoraphobic and believes that the aforementioned supernatural beings known as Na Sídhe have been and are tormenting her. Soon enough, Shoo finds herself questioning if this is true when her sense of reality comes under threat.

With her sophomore feature, writer-director Aislinn Clarke is tackling folk horror and as far as the hallmarks of the genre go, Clarke and her teammates use them to concoct a grim slow burn, which isn't afraid to get mean at times either. You get your simmering crescendo that won't be everyone's cup of poitín, religious undertones, pitch-black basements, some underwhelming relationship drama and unsettling encounters with people as well as creatures—pretty much everything you'd expect.

Despite these typical ingredients, the cast and crew establish a steady mood filled with gloom and foreboding that makes for an enjoyable 100-minute expedition to the horror realm. Clarke and cinematographer Narayan Van Maele can certainly arrange eerie imagery to pay off some of the doom-and-gloom, and together with an effective sound mix that balances composer Die Hexen's score of ambient music, different bits of dialogue and accentuated noises that haunt Peig's house, the film is designed with great skill to make you want to turn on the lights in your own home after you've seen it.

Digging below the surface, the movie continues to be quite predictable when it comes to themes and emotions as you can see the twists and turns coming from a mile away based on the title and subject of motherhood. Clarke's script delves into generational trauma and mental health, although the result isn't as affecting as it could be. Monnelly and Neachtain share good rapport for the most part, only occasionally going a bit too big with their performances, and both portray their characters' fear and hurt well, but the dialogue they are working with does work against them. To be fair, some of this could be due to translation, but both the text and subtext do oftentimes feel unnatural and clumsy, which hinders relationships between the characters, especially between Shoo and Mila. Thankfully you can always rely on visual storytelling instead.

Fréwaka is nonetheless a respectable addition to the folk horror family tree and you could easily recommend it to anyone who doesn't have the attention span of a hamster. It definitely takes its sweet time getting to its destination, but the last 20 minutes and the last few shots possess a lot of fury, even if you come to the conclusion that life isn't always fair.

Smileys: Atmosphere, sound mixing

Frowneys: Dialogue

No wonder everyone becomes salty in this house.

3.0/5

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