Ireland is filled with dark myths, legends, and history. Previous to 800 years of suffering under English rule, Ireland was known as “The Island of Saints and Scholars,” and to this day has a rich spiritual and story-telling culture. Irish filmakers draw from chilling folktales of the Banshee, fae so notorious ahighway was built to divert around a famous fairy tree, and the famous changeling mythos.
However, there are so many films from the USA, Japan, and other giants in the industry that sometimes we miss gems from the Emerald Isle. Here are 7 Irish horror films you may not have seen yet—but you should definitely add to your list.
Fréwaka (2025)
In the wake of her mother's suicide and against the wishes of her pregnant fiancée, Shoo (Siubhan) takes a homecare placement with Peig, a stroke survivor who believes that the creatures who abducted her on her wedding night will one day return. Shoo has been chosen because she is a fluent Irish speaker, and she and Peig speak Irish for the majority of the film. More than a match for each other, the women slowly reveal the traumas that have led them to where they are. Outside their door, though, something is trying to get in.
The shadowy history of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries hangs over this film. These institutions were run by the Catholic church. Unmarried women who became pregnant were taken to the laundries to work while their children were stolen. In some cases, children died in the institutions and were denied proper burials. Ireland is still reckoning with the legacy of the laundries, the last of which closed in the 1990s.
Frewaka is an anglicization of “fréamhacha” which means “roots” in the Irish language.
An Taibhse/The Ghost (2024)
Notably, this film is the first horror movie to released as gaeilge (in the Irish language). It follows a father and daughter in post-famine Ireland (year 1852) as they caretake an old manor. (Shining fans, this is one to take note of!) But all is not right, and sanity begins to unravel for the two. The real and horrifying historical background supercharges this movie with terror.
The use of the Irish language gives the film another layer of authenticity and proves that while Gaeilge may have been repressed for years, it isn’t going anywhere.
We’re still waiting for this one to appear on major streaming services, so keep an eye out for it!
Oddity (2024)
This one has a few jumpscares that really get you! One year after her sister’s death, Darcy appears at her brother-in-law’s remote house with a trunk containing a life-size wooden man, his face frozen in a shriek. Darcy, a blind psychic, is determined to find out what happened to her sister that night, and whether it was really an escaped mental hospital patient who brutally murdered her with a hammer.
As the night continues, tension builds between Darcy and the woman her brother-in-law almost immediately started dating. Slowly, through flashbacks Darcy’s gift allows her to glean from objects, we piece together the events that led to her sister’s death.
The Hole in the Ground (2019)
This film leans on the absolutely bone-chilling changeling myths – the belief that your child could be spirited away and replaced with an exact replica from the fae. A single mother with a struggling son notices that his problems are disappearing with no apparent cause. He’s friendly with former bullies and seems less withdrawn at school – but he also can’t remember their family games and eats food he used to hate. She’s inexorably drawn to the conclusion that this is not her son. And if this creature has replaced her real child, can she find and save him?
If she does, how can she be sure she has the real child?
Extra Ordinary (2019)
A horror comedy that ends in a bawdy (but satisfying!) twist, Extra Ordinary is the tale of a driving instructor who gets roped into preventing a satanic ritual. From a spirit poessessing a rubbish bin a madcap adventure to collect ectoplasm, the film is funny and full of heart. With the dry wit characteristic of Irish culture, Extra Ordinary delighted critics and audiences alike. And because it isn’t quite as scary as some of the other films mentioned, you can share it with your horror-shy friends and family.
The Lodgers (2017)
With nods to Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, this film is superbly atmospheric. Post WWII (a war Ireland remained neutral in), a set of twins live isolated in a crumbling manor. Edward and Rachel’s lives follow strict rules, enforced by mysterious voices, and eventually, they’ll be expected to begin an incestuous union to prolong the family’s curse. Unsurprisingly, the twins are hated by the townspeople – and so is Sean, an Irishman returning from the war, where he fought against the Axis as a member of the British army.
When Sean and Rachel’s worlds collide, they glimpse an opportunity for a new life. But will the Lodgers let Rachel go?
This film was shot at Loftus Hall, in County Wexford – a building with its own ghostly history.
The Hallow (2015)
Both a nod to ancient legends like changelings and a modern contagion horror, The Hallow riffs on Ireland’s deep cultural attachment to land. When a British researcher brings his family to rural Ireland, he’s about as unwelcome as a person can get. Still, he’s determined to investigate a mysterious fungus that seems to possess supernatural powers. But despite their skepticism (and iron bars on the windows), this family may not make it out of the forest alive.
The flora and fauna of Ireland is a character with plenty of agency in this film. Invasion, colonialism, and a land that remembers feature as strong themes, giving us a story both relevant and historically significant.