2025 • Irish
A remote Irish house, a red door at the end of the corridor, and the sort of family debt no one should ever leave to the next generation. Frewaka arrives carrying goats, bells, fairy trees and Na Sídhe, which is more or less a full folk horror starter kit, but the Folk ’n’ Hell verdict is not quite the ritual celebration the film may have hoped for.
In this episode, Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall take on Aislinn Clarke’s Irish folk horror, a film whose title means “roots”, and which is very much interested in what gets buried inside families, houses and villages. Shoo, reeling from her mother’s death and dodging the difficult domestic work waiting at home with her pregnant partner, takes a placement caring for Peig, an elderly woman barricaded inside a rural house and terrified of both the neighbours and the old powers she believes took her long ago. “I found it to be almost unnecessarily complicated.” FolknHell host, David Hall
That becomes the spine of the discussion. Frewaka should be catnip for the show: isolated community, inherited trauma, Catholic guilt, folk belief, suspicious villagers, iron at the windows, and a fairy bargain with very bad small print. The hosts all agree that it comfortably qualifies as folk horror. It is not merely wearing the costume, although it does have some excellent costumes, including the sort of bag-over-the-head procession that might yet solve several low-budget fancy dress emergencies.
The trouble is clarity. David finds the film tangled, Dave thinks it has creepy moments but too much confusion, and Andy grows increasingly frustrated by a story that seems to hide a simple, potent idea under layers of obliqueness. The fairy lore, family relationships, flashbacks and Catholic repression all suggest a stronger film trying to get out, but the episode keeps circling the same problem: atmosphere is not the same as understanding.
There is praise here. The red door is sinister, the wake-house sequence has bite, and the film does produce genuine scares. But with scores of 6, 4 and 4, Frewaka ends up less a triumphant return of old Irish terror than a damp, knotted thing in the corner of the room. Intriguing, undeniably folkloric, and quite possibly worth discussing more than watching.
Shoo is a home help whose mother has recently died. Rather than stay at home to sort through the aftermath with her pregnant fiancée Mila, she takes a placement in a remote Irish village, caring for Peig, an elderly woman living in self-imposed isolation. Peig’s house is protected with iron, her behaviour is erratic, and her fear of the villagers seems tied to Na Sídhe, fairy beings she believes abducted her decades earlier.
As Shoo spends more time with Peig, the boundaries between family history, folklore and supernatural debt begin to blur. Old bargains, missing children, religious fear and village ritual all press in around her. The hosts spend much of the episode trying to untangle exactly who owes what to whom, and whether the film’s mysteries are enticing or simply too muddy.
On the central Folk ’n’ Hell question, there is very little resistance: Frewaka is folk horror. Andy runs through the show’s “highly scientific” criteria, namely a threat rooted in the environment, an isolated community or space, and a danger that comes from an earlier time. Frewaka hits all three with some force. “It’s definitely a folk horror. Whether it’s a good folk horror, we’ll come to that in a moment.” FolknHell host, Andy Davidson
The film is built from folk horror materials: a remote village, fairy belief, iron protections, old bargains, a fairy tree, rural hostility, masked processions, goats, bells and the sense that a private family trauma has been absorbed into the landscape. It also draws on Irish Catholic guilt and the treatment of women, particularly around pregnancy, shame and control, although the hosts feel those ideas are gestured towards more than fully explored.
Where the disagreement comes in is quality rather than category. Dave is the warmest towards it, finding it creepy, spooky and interesting despite the muddled storytelling. Andy and David are more irritated by the way the film withholds explanation, especially around the Na Sídhe, the family line and the rules of the bargain. So yes, it is folk horror. Whether it is good folk horror is where the ground gets boggy.
- Roots, bloodlines and unpaid debts Frewaka is fascinated by what passes from one generation to the next, especially when a bargain has been made and not honoured. The hosts see a simple, strong story in there, but one tangled in confusing revelations.
- The Na Sídhe and fairy abduction Dave identifies the film’s folklore as drawing on Irish fairy traditions, including stolen children and replacements. The frustration is that the film never gives the audience enough grounding in those ideas to make the horror fully land.
- Protection or abuse Shoo’s memories of her mother are painful, especially around being shut away and made to pray. The hosts question whether this was cruelty, protection, or both, which is one of the film’s stronger and nastier moral knots.
- Catholic guilt and women’s bodies The episode keeps returning to pregnancy, virgin imagery, shame and the historical treatment of unmarried pregnant women in Ireland. Andy and Dave both feel the film hints at this powerful context without quite giving it the dramatic weight it needs.
- Obliqueness versus atmosphere Frewaka has mood, ritual imagery and genuinely creepy moments, but the hosts argue that mystery needs reward. Without a clearer source of truth, the film’s ambiguity starts to feel less like dread and more like poor signposting.
- A village that has gone wrong Peig’s fear of the neighbours, the strange local behaviour and the final folkloric procession all suggest a whole community under old influence. The hosts like the idea, but again wish the film had done more to make the threat coherent.
The final score is 14 out of 30: Dave gives Frewaka a 6, while Andy and David both land on 4. That says a lot about the episode’s mood. Nobody dismisses it as worthless, and all three recognise that it contains proper folk horror elements, real scares and a potentially rich story about Irish folklore, Catholic guilt and inherited female trauma. “We watched that film, so you don’t have to.” FolknHell host, David Hall But the film annoys them. It is too vague when it needs shape, too tangled when it needs dread, and too reliant on late or partial explanations to make its emotional and supernatural stakes work. Dave is more forgiving, praising its creepy atmosphere and character interest, while Andy and David feel the field may contain better fairies. For committed folk horror completists, give it a cautious go. For everyone else, there are clearer paths through the woods.
How each host rated this film