PASTE MAGAZINE REVIEW
"Whatever the culture, whichever the hemisphere, folk horror tends to teach viewers the same message: Respect the old world, or the old world will bite you on the ass. Irish folk horror distinguishes itself especially by measuring the tragic toll levied on the poor schmucks who shrug off their ancient and rich cultural heritage, then regret their neglect when the heritage comes calling. The “horror” part is self-evident, baked into visitations from goblins and faeries and banshees and other bogeyman, so the “abiding woe” receives special emphasis. There’s little more Irish than a story that concludes in its protagonist’s seismic ruin; on the Emerald Isle, misery loves company"
By Andy Crump | September 27, 2023
FANTASTIC FEST 2023
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"There exists a profound sublime in the devilish details of a good ghost story. Their eerie effect is so often methodically cumulative, as the most memorable ones plant a disquieting thought that gradually blossoms into a nightmare with implications so overwhelming they quicken the heart and rattle the nerves. Such foreboding seeds are sown in this double feature of chiaroscuro hauntings from independent filmmakers who skillfully spin their ghostly yarns with minimal resources, but an assured and measured momentum that evocatively stir the spirits, both literal and figurative.
In Adam Mann and Skye Mann’s elegiac feature-debut A GUIDE TO BECOMING AN ELM TREE, a grief-stricken man named Padraig sets out to build a coffin for his late wife. Under the austere instruction of an enigmatic carpenter, Padraig studiously applies himself to the laborious work, but is reluctant to adhere to his mentor’s insistence that he familiarize himself with the dense history of the trees that they will fell for their timber. However, when a book in the carpenter’s library promises a supernatural salve to Padraig’s sorrow, the widower starts down a path he will soon regret.
In adapting Skye’s novella of the same name, the Mann’s have conjured a beguiling Irish folk fable; simply, but strikingly photographed, and with judicious infusions of Carlos Solares’s stark and sinister score. Most compellingly, there is an exquisite patience to the film’s grim trajectory. Deploying a kind of nesting egg of portentous parables throughout, each one unravels the psyche of its pitiable protagonist, just as it is sure to unsteady the film’s most susceptible spectators. (PETER KUPLOWSKY)
A GUIDE TO BECOMING AN ELM TREE screens with LETTERS TO THE POSTMAN. Both films are official selections of the BURNT ENDS sidebar, which celebrates micro-budget oddities from outlier filmmakers who provoke and defy conventions of aesthetics and taste. Like BBQ “burnt ends”, these films are a delicacy to film fest connoisseurs in search of unique perspectives and unusual sensibilities"
Peter kuplowsky - film curator 2023
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