Frewaka

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.

As someone who liked the VVitch and Midsommar but was left feeling like something was lacking.... This film hit all of my right notes. An Irish language (no small feat in its own right) film that hits the foklore feel better than anything I've watched in ages. There's a serious boom in Irish cinema right now, Caveat. Boys From County Hell, Hallows all leading the way, Frewaka drops right into that, if anything it's the creepiest of the lot that I've seen so far. It owes the least to American cinema where the rest make at least a passing nod to what we do for horror over here. It builds on top of every piece of groundwork it lays down, and never fully telegraphs what's coming down the pike.

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.

When I have great anticpation to see a film, it generally ends up with disappointment. Come to think of it, when I don't have great anticipation it pretty much ends the same way. Frewaka was that rare film fulfilled my hopes. I'd only seen "The Devil's Doorway" a few weeks ago and the promise I saw in that film (which had some great moments but was weighed down by the anchor that is "found footage ") was realized here.

I probably know a little more about Irish folklore than most, so that helps., but this is a really coherent cohesive work. If you're like me, when the film is over you'll go back and re examine the beginning and you'll find that this is a well thought out tale that holds together. First rate performances by all enhanced by strong camerawork, most importantly it sticks the ending unlike 95% of horror- though you'll have to endure the credits to find out how. Didn't give it a 10- because I never give out 10's.

Frewaka is a slow, slow burner with a very cool premise involving Irish folklore. The camerawork, framing, and music/sound create an extremely atmospheric movie that isn't afraid to take its time. Realistically, it probably should have shown /a little/ restraint in this aspect. While I liked this at first, I felt myself growing impatient by the end. I appreciated the absence of jump scares, which are always cheap.

The plot progression is another story. While individual scenes are constructed well, they don't feel properly connected. As if things were left out or cut, causing what's there to feel oddly disconnected. It also feels like it should be explaining things more/better. It's not like there's a veil of mystery, it's more like a character will talk about something without explaining what it is in the first place. There were more than a few times that I wasn't sure what someone was talking about and rewound to make sure I didn't miss something. I suspect this movie was written with the assumption that the viewer has pre-existing knowledge of some specific Irish folklore. And if you don't have that familiarity, it creates a feeling like they're forgetting to explain things. Or maybe it's just bad writing. I honestly have no idea, but I overall enjoyed the movie either way.