Jim Sheridan is a six-time Academy Award nominated producer who has worked on films such as In the Name of the Father. Sheridan’s latest film venture sees him partner with up and coming Irish talent, John Farrelly. Having already won several awards for his work in short films, Farrelly’s feature debut, Sleep Experiment, earned him a Jury prize at the LA Horror Film Festival. His second feature finds him sticking within genre cinema as he tells a chilling tale of things that go bump in the night with An Taibhse.
A bone-chilling tale, An Taibhse is set against the haunting backdrop of Ireland’s infamous famine era. 1852: Éamon (Tom Kerrisk) and daughter Máire (Livvy Hill) embark on a tranquil caretaker role at an isolated mansion during the unforgiving winter months. Their peaceful assignment unleashes a nightmare of supernatural proportions as a malevolent force awakens within the mansion’s walls, stirring dark secrets from the past. With every creaking floorboard and flickering candle, suspense tightens its grip, leaving sanity hanging by a thread.
John Farrelly’s An Taibhse will, given its ghostly undertones, rightly receive its international premiere at this year’s Pigeon Shrine FrightFest. The film makes artful use of light, shade, and shadows, making the stifling darkness of a FrightFest screening the perfect viewing environment. In addition to wonderful use of silhouette, An Taibhse is told entirely in the Irish language, a first for within the genre. During the days leading up to the screening on Friday 23rd August, THN were able to steal a few minutes with John Farrelly and lead actor Tom Kerrisk to unearth how An Tabihse came to be, and why the Irish language was the only language to tell the story in.
An Taibhse screens at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest on Friday 23rd August. More information on the film and tickets can be found on the FrightFest website.
