“Samhain: Roots of Halloween” Series Screens at the VIFF Centre Starting Friday

Think Halloween Was Born in America? Think again. This October, Vancouver’s getting a ghostly history lesson straight from the source (and on film). Samhain: Roots of Halloween, a week-long film series co-presented by the Consulate General of Ireland in Vancouver and the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), digs up the true origins of Halloween, right where it all began: Ireland.

From October 24 to 30 at the VIFF Centre, the series showcases the evolution of Irish horror cinema, from ancient folklore to modern feminist thrillers, while celebrating Ireland as the true home of Halloween.

“We hope audiences in Vancouver will understand the Irish origins of one of the most popular festivals in North America,” says Cathy Geagan, Consul General of Ireland to Western Canada. “Many people associate Halloween with the U.S., rather than realizing that Ireland is where it all began, several thousand years ago with the Celtic festival of Samhain.”

The week-long film series will educate on just that, screening five films from the Emerald Isle that promise a spooky, cinematic crash course in Irish horror.

You are Not My Mother, directed by Kate Dolan, opens the series on October 24. Char (Hazel Doupe) is a bright but trouble teenager. She is caught between her strict grandmother (Ingrid Craigie) and her depressed mother (Carolyn Bracken). When her family falls into crisis, Char is either convinced her mother has completely lost her mind or she has been taken over by something much darker.

Next up is Oddity, written and directed by Damian McCarthy (Caveat). One night, alone in the remote country side of Ireland, Dani (Carolyn Bracken) reuses to let a stranger in and pays the price. A year after Dani’s murder, her blind twin sister Darcy visit’s Dani’s widower, bringing with her a wooden mannequin that seems to take on a life its own.

In An Taibhse (the first horror film made entirely in the Irish language), director John Farrelly reimagines The Shining in post-famine Ireland. Widower Eamon (Tom Kerrisk) takes his daughter Máire (Livvy Hill) to a lonely Georgian manor, where she is haunted by ghostly forces that her father refuses to acknowledge.

Fréwaka, directed by Aislinn Clarke, follows Shoo (Clare Monnelly), a nursing student sent to care for an elderly woman, Peig (Bríd Ní Neachtáin),  in a quiet and remote Irish village. This movie draws a connection between Peg’s paranoia and Shoo’s own troubled past. Blending folklore with the real life trauma of the Magdalene laundries (institutions run mostly by the Catholic Church in Ireland from the 18th century up until the late 20th century), it’s a chilling, Irish feminist horror.

Finally, the festival wraps up with 1982’s The Outcasts, directed by Robert Wynne-Simmons, an early example or folk horror. Set in pre-famine Ireland, it tells the story of Maura (Mary Ryan), a misunderstood young woman blamed for her village’s troubles and her rumored link to the mysterious musician Scarf Michael (Mick Lally). The film explores, through fantasy and magic, how repression leads to violence.

The series’ final screening of The Outcasts will be followed by a panel discussion with Geagan in conversation with professor Sabina Magliocco, assistant professor Tim Frandy and professor Emeritus Brian McIlroy. Each will share their thoughts on the connections between folklore, film and Irish identity.

Tickets are available here: $14 for adults, $12 for seniors, $10 for students and $9 for accessible seats.

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