28. FREWAKA (2024)

Released on April 25, 2025, and streaming on Shudder from DoubleBand Films and Wildcard Films!
Directed/Written by Aislinn Clarke.
Check out the trailer here!!

After her mother’s suicide, Shoo (Clare Monnelly) leaves her pregnant fiancée Mila (Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya) to pack up her mother’s apartment and takes a temporary job to take care of an elderly woman because the couple needs the money. Shoo arrives at the house of the elderly woman named Peig (Bríd Ní Neachtain) and though she was under the impression that she was working with a stroke victim for a short period of time, Shoo soon finds that Peig suffers from mental illness, specifically agoraphobia, hallucinations, and delusions that there are ancient beings from Irish lore out to get her. But the longer Shoo stays with Peig, the more she realizes that these delusions may be all too real.

While it takes its sweet time to get there, FREWAKA is a terrifying little folk horror filled with all kinds of unnerving imagery and paranoia so thick you couldn’t cut it with the sharpest knives. Reminiscent of the slow creep Polanski doles out in ROSEMARY’S BABY, the signs are all around Shoo as she gets comfortable in Peig’s large house in the countryside. The neighbors give Shoo sideways glances. The tree outside is decorated with strange ornaments. There’s an annoying goat that keeps on popping up out of nowhere. And Peig herself speaks of something out to get her in her basement. Adorning the entranceways of Peig’s home are horseshoes and other totems meant to protect her from these creatures and though Shoo is skeptical, Peig makes a pretty convincing argument that something definitely is amiss. It all unfolds slowly and while, yes, I knew it was a horror movie I was watching, I found myself intrigued to find out just what kind of horrors are tormenting this lonely elderly woman or if there was anything there at all and both Shoo and Peig are suffering from some shared psychosis. I won’t reveal which it is, but the answers are effectively terrifying.

But you have to stick with FREWAKA to be rewarded with those answers and the escalating paranoia that unfolds from it. I know those who are used to more fast paced modern storytelling will clock out of this one pretty quickly as much time is taken to get to know Shoo and Peig. Both of them present themselves as pretty unlikable characters with Shoo refusing to take part in packing up her dead mother’s things and leaving it for her fiancée to do and Peig being brassy and downright violent to Shoo and anyone else who crosses her doorstep. Still, the longer we get to know these two different, but surprisingly similar characters, you find out just what made them such damaged people. Clare Monnelly is tough to get to know and tougher to like as Shoo, but by the end, I was rooting for her. Same goes for Bríd Ní Neachtain’s Peig as whether or not the monsters in her basement are real, she is a sad and lonely woman. Most of the movie unfolds with these two actors in the middle of the frame as the terrifying things pile up around them and they carry the film well.

The imagery that shows up in nightmares, hallucinations, and in the really-real world in FREWAKA are bone-chilling. Sure, the sack headed stalker is always one of my favorite looks for a monster, but the ones that show up here take the cake. Add on some folksy reed and stick masks and that creepy goat and you’ve got some moments that really are going to be burned into your brainpan. But sit back and relax with this one. It needs to simmer in order to be best digested. I myself was getting a bit anxious at the halfway point, but thankfully, the hour mark things really get rolling into nightmare town and the chills start happening fast.

There are some familiar beats in FREWAKA. If you know your folk horror, the ending is not really going to come as a surprise, but it is done confidently and has an effectively strong emotional punch. Writer/director Aislinn Clarke also did the faux documentary/found footager THE DEVIL’S DOORWAY from a few years back. I haven’t seen it, but after seeing how Clarke deftly orchestrates some great scenes of building tension and some downright nail-biting moments of sheer terror, I think I’ll be checking that one out soon. As is, if you have the patience, I think this Irish folk horror is going to burrow its way under your skin if you sit with it long enough.

Worth Noting: THE SURRENDER (2025)

Released on May 23, 2025, and streaming on Shudder!
Directed/Written by Julia Max.
Check out the trailer here!!

Robert (Vaughn Armstrong) is terminally ill and relies on his daughter Megan (THE BOYS’ Colby Minifie) and wife Barbara (Kate Burton) to take care of him in his final days. When Robert passes, Megan tries to move on, but Barbara believes that she is able to resurrect him with the aid of a shaman (Neil Sandilands). Megan thinks her mother is simply avoiding reality but thinks this is her way of processing her loss, so she concedes to take part in an extensive ritual.

While bearing some strong similarities to the rituals that show up in the Philippou Brothers’ recent film BRING HER BACK, THE SURRENDER is a much more intimate look at grief and loss. Both have demons, protective circles, and rituals requiring specific steps in order to achieve a resurrection, the perspective of both films are completely different, making THE SURRENDER and BRING HER BACK a near perfect double feature.

THE SURRENDER zooms in close on Megan’s plight, opening with her screaming in frustration and choking down a quick smoke before running back inside to help her mother and ailing father. Right from that beginning, you know there’s conflict happening here and it’s fleshed out so realistically in the first half-hour, you don’t realize that aside from a few weird totems Megan finds by her father’s bedside, there really is nothing supernatural going on. You’d never know that this film will soon drag you kicking and screaming by the short hairs to the dankest pits of hell. This drama is played straight and real, and it’s all carried by actor Colby Minifie as Megan. She does a wonderful job as the anxiety ridden assistant to the supes in THE BOYS, but here she handles a myriad of emotions—some that don’t put her in a good light but still manages to make you feel for her all the way through. Kate Burton does a great job as Barbara, a desperate woman grasping at straws to have a few more moments with her husband, but it’s Minifie’s Megan that really functions as the eyes and ears of the audience—doubting what is going on but attempting to go with the flow for the sake of those she loves.

THE SURRENDER could be a stage play, as the bulk of it takes place within Megan and Barbara’s home. I love the small scope of this film, allowing the performers to take the center stage. This helps in the final half hour when all things go to hell as the women perform the ritual and end up within a witch’s protective circle on the edge of the underworld looking for their lost father/husband. This is one of the most chilling depictions of hell I’ve seen in ages, since BASKIN, which sports one of my favorite hellscapes in film ever. In THE SURRENDER, hell is lonely and desolate, filled with blind souls just waiting to pull you in to join them. While this might be considered a slow burner, THE SURRENDER ramps up the speed to break-neck, wrapping up with a solemn and poignant ending.

THE SURRENDER is a touching film about loss but also sports some scenes of utter nightmare. It’s on a much smaller scale than films like HEREDITARY and BRING HER BACK but deals with some of the same heavy themes. I highly recommend this heart-wrenching and spine-tingling little gem.

The Best in Horror Countdown 2024-2025
#31 – GET AWAY (DARK MATCH)
#30 – PABRIK GULA (#MISSINGCOUPLE)
#29 – YULE LOG 2: BRANCHIN’ OUT (THE LAST VIDEO STORE)
#28 – FREWAKA (THE SURRENDER)