All You Need is Death (2023)
Cursed Folk Song
A unique and original Irish variant on the Folk Horror genre about a couple who become wound up into the obsessive quest for a cursed folk song and the effect it has
Irish Cinema
Apocalypse Clown (2023)
Clowns in the Aftermath of Social Collapse
Not another killer clown film as you might initially assume, but a really funny Irish comedy about a group of dysfunctional clowns in the aftermath of the collapse of civilisation
Boy Eats Girl (2005)
Zombie Film
One of wittiest titles of the 2000s zombie revival fad – the suggestion of a high school love story gone really wrong. This actual film is a surprisingly ordinary and unexceptional effort
Boys from County Hell (2020)
Irish Vampire Film
Spiritedly entertaining vampire film, this transplants the basics of the genre to rural Northern Ireland with wry and highly amusing results
The Butcher Boy (1997)
Disturbed Irish Childhood
Neil Jordan makes a film about an abusive childhood that actually ends up asking us to cheer on the central character’s emergence as a murderer. Maybe the most cheerfully entertaining film ever made about child abuse.
Byzantium (2012)
Vampire Film
Neil Jordan makes a vampire film that stands at marked contrast to Twilight and Jordan’s earlier Interview with the Vampire. Jordan stamps the class of a mature filmmaker on what might have been a lesser work in another’s hands
The Canal (2014)
Possible Haunting
Ghost story that does an effective job of generating dread and eerieness while also existing in a place that leaves you unsure whether it is all not just occurring inside the lead character’s fraying sanity
The Cellar (2022)
Mysterious House
An Irish horror film that generates undeniably mysterious atmosphere after a family move into a new house and the teenage daughter disappears after going down into the cellar
Cherry Tree (2015)
Devil Worship and Pregnancy
From David Keating who made Wake Wood, this falls into the Folk Horror genre and becomes a well-made variant on Rosemary’s Baby as a schoolgirl accepts a Devil’s Deal to save her father
Citadel (2012)
Mutant Children of the Housing Projects
Irish-British production that depicts the social housing estates of Glasgow as a desolate netherworld inhabited by mutant children. Undeniably effective but the depiction of children of urban ghettos requires you to tune out any liberal instincts
The Cured (2017)
In the Aftermath of a Cure for the Zombie Apocalypse
One of the most original takes yet on the creatively exhausted zombie film that asks what would happen if a cure were found but the zombies returned to life with full memory of everything they had done
A Dark Song (2016)
Occult Ritual
This is an absolutely fascinating film about the efforts to perfect an occult ritual. It feels as though the filmmakers have dispensed with Hollywood cliches and has researched the real thing
Dead Meat (2004)
Irish Zombie Film
An enthusiastic Irish-made copy of the George Romero zombie film that vies between the amateurish and occasional moments of interest
The Devil’s Doorway (2018)
Deviltry at a Catholic Orphanage
Irish made Found Footage film where the investigation into a seeming miracle at a Catholic orphanage uncovers a case of possession and assorted deviltry taking place
The Eclipse (2009)
Irish Ghost Story
Not to be confused with the Twilight sequel, this is a quiet, modestly made Irish ghost story set around a literary festival where the strongest parts are the characters and performances
The Fantasist (1986)
Irish Psycho-Thriller
Robin Hardy, director of The Wicker Man, makes an Irish-set thriller in which a country girl moved to the city is stalked by a serial killer who sends his victims poetry
From the Dark (2014)
Creatures That Lurk in the Dark
A horror film stripped to the basics – just two characters at siege in a farmhouse from creatures that lurk in the dark – not even any explanation of what the creatures are
Ghost Machine (2009)
Malevolent Spirit Manifests Inside Virtual Reality
A Virtual Reality/horror film about a malevolent spirit incarnated inside a videogame. This churns all the Virtual Reality cliches as though nothing had changed since the tide of shabby 1990s Lawnmower Man copies
Grabbers (2012)
Irish Alien Invasion Comedy
The world’s first Irish alien invasion film – and a sideplittingly funny one too. Imagine a conceptual crosshatch between Tremors and the characters from Father Ted
Greta (2018)
Psycho-Thriller/Stalker Widow
Director Neil Jordan delves into the psycho-thriller with Chloe Grace Mortez being stalked by over-friendly senior Isabelle Huppert. Jordan makes an often contrived script into a gripping ride
The Haunting of Hell House (1999)
Supernatural Retribution
An Irish shot adaptation of a Henry James ghost story that was repackaged by Roger Corman to take advantage of the release of the remake of The Haunting
Hokum (2026)
Haunted Hotel
Irish director Damian McCarthy impressed a good deal with Oddity. In his equally spooky follow-up, writer Adam Scott travels to a hotel in Ireland only to become trapped in a haunted suite
The Hole in the Ground (2019)
Child Turns Evil
An Irish film that creates quite a reasonable degree of atmosphere in its story of a mother who believes her son has been replaced by something else
I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016)
Teenage Serial Killer vs Shapechanging Monster
Unique and quite remarkable film about a teen in a nowhere town who recognises the traits of a serial killer in himself and then discovers that aging neighbour Christopher Lloyd is actually a shapechanging monster
The Inside (2012)
Found Footage/Underground Lurker
Found Footage film involving something (it is never clear) stalking people around disused cellars. Direction consists of a handheld camera vaguely waved in the direction of what is happening
Isolation (2005)
Parasitic Infections
Irish horror film about a series of deadly parasites amok on a rural farm. Playing like a serious version of the NZ comedy Black Sheep (but with cows), this has a grim, grimy atmosphere to it that does produce some undeniable effect
The Last Days on Mars (2013)
Expedition to Mars/Alien Zombie Infection
This starts out offering a fine astrophysically credible depiction of Mars only to reach for the playbook of Alien cliches to essentially become Zombies on Mars
Let the Wrong One In (2021)
Irish Vampire Comedy
An undeniably amusing Irish comedy in which a drunken dimwit ends up being transformed into a vampire. The film comes working at you in its goofy way
The Lodgers (2017)
Irish Ghost Story
A beautifully shot period set Irish ghost story that does a superb job in building atmosphere but is all fascinating mystery that ends without explaining a single thing
Nails (2017)
Haunted Hospital
Film that takes place with the heroine confined to a hospital bed unable to move as a malevolent ghost enters her room
Nocebo (2022)
Mysterious Nanny/Folk Horror
Film that develops a Folk Horror vibe as Eva Green hires a nanny with mysterious healing powers. The horror version of Mary Poppins
Oddity (2024)
Clairvoyant Mystery
An Irish film that develops an incredibly uncanny atmosphere as a blind clairvoyant turns up at the home where her sister was murder and deduces the truth about what happened
On the Nose (2001)
Severed Head Predicts Horse Races/Comedy
Irish-made comedy with Robbie Coltrane who has a Aborigine head in a jar that can predict horse races
Ondine (2009)
Man Fishes Up a Selkie
Neil Jordan directs a beautifully earthy Irish fairytale in which Colin Farrell fishes up a possible selkie woman
Outcast (2010)
Dark Sorceries
Absolutely fascinating Irish-Scottish film about people hunting each other with arcane sorceries on a rundown Edinburgh council estate … Compulsively fascinating in its often enigmatic approach, while depicting magic on screen in a way unlike anything we have seen before
Robot Overlords (2014)
Earth After Invasion by Alien Machines
While the title sounds like a cheesy faux B movie, this a surprisingly serious work. Taking undeniable influence from tv’s The Tripods , it is a YA work about the fight to free Earth following a machine invasion that proves far more entertaining than anything one expects of it
Sea Fever (2019)
Sea Monster/Parasitic Infection
The title suggests more a sea adventure but this is a surprisingly good monster movie about the crew of a fishing vessel attacked by a sea creature and infected by parasites.
The Secret of Kells (2009)
Animation/Celtic History and Mythology
Beautifully made animated film that won surprise recognition at the Academy Awards. More a festival film than necessarily a box-office one
Shrooms (2007)
Drug Hallucinations/Backwoods Horror
A group of friends travel to Ireland and go on a tour searching for magic mushrooms. In between assorted drug hallucinations, someone or thing begins slaughtering the group
Son (2021)
Sinister Cult/Devil Child
This seems a variant on the plot about a cult pursuing a child for their purposes but expectations soon get twisted on their head in interesting ways
Song of the Sea (2014)
Animation/Selkies and Celtic Mythology
An Oscar nominees for Best Animated Film – a unique and exquisitely drawn dive into Celtic mythology that comes with wit, humour and the emotional tenderness of a Hayao Miyazaki. This deserves to be seen far more widely than it ended up being
The Tiger’s Tail (2006)
Doppelganger Film
John Boorman makes a film where Brendan Gleeson has his life taken over by a doppelganger
Unwelcome (2022)
Faerie Creatures at the End of the Garden
Irish horror about a couple who inherit a house with faerie creatures at the end of the garden
Vivarium (2019)
Couple Trapped in a Strange Suburb
A real mindscrew of a film in which Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg are a couple who enter a strangely unreal suburb of identical houses and find they can’t leave. Then things start to get really strange.
Wake Wood (2011)
Resurrection of the Dead
Another entry from the revived Hammer Films, an intelligent and effective variant on Pet Semetary that manages to delve into some dark and chilling places
WolfWalkers (2020)
Animation/Werewolves
The third film from Irish animator Tomm Moore, a beautiful Princess Mononoke-like tale of a girl’s friendship with persecuted werewolves in the forest
You Are Not My Mother (2021)
Missing Mother Returns Changed/Folk Horror
An unsettlingly effective Irish Folk Horror film about a teen whose mother disappears and then returns ‘changed’