Director: Chris Baugh
Release date: 2020
Contains spoilers
The legend of Abhartach is that of an Irish magician who was cruel and, when slain, became one of the unquiet dead, unwilling to remain buried. Some versions of the legend add in blood drinking to his habits. His alleged grave is still there, near the town of Slaghtaverty, and is known today as the Slaghtaverty Dolmen. The Dolmen, made up of one large and two smaller stones and a thorn tree, which is essential to keeping Abhartach in his grave.
Prof Bob Curran theorised that it was this story that inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula. In truth there is no evidence I’m aware of that Stoker was aware of Abhartach and certainly didn’t reference the legend in his notes for the novel.
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| spontaneous bleeding |
Which brings us to the film, which is about Abhartach and does carry the conceit that Stoker visited the location of the grave, heard the legend and wrote the novel because of that. It starts with an elderly couple watching TV. It’s rubbish, complains the husband and the wife suggests going out – perhaps to the Stoker (the local pub) but he dismisses the idea. A drop of blood falls into her tea, her nose has started bleeding… he has started bleeding from the eyes and the blood from both is being drawn towards the door… which opens…
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| the Stoker |
Two months earlier and we go to the Stoker – a cracking pub sign almost bringing the Slaughtered Lamb from American Werewolf in London to mind, simply by being a great horror pub sign. Friends Eugene (Jack Rowan) and Will (Fra Fee) are finishing their pints. Eugene asks barmaid, and Will’s girlfriend, Claire (Louisa Harland) for another round but she refuses. The landlord has told her to cut him off until he pays his bar tab. Will offers to get the drinks in.
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| Eugene and Will |
Obvious tourists (Canadian they surmise) come into the pub. Eugene engages them (and in doing so reveals he hasn’t read Dracula). There is a moment where “beware the moor” is mentioned, again intertextually tying to American Werewolf. They are looking for the grave and Eugene offers the help of himself and Will as guides – the grave is on Will’s father’s land – for the price of some cans of beer. They take them out and the grave (in this) is a stone cairn with a black sheep’s skull on top. They tell them about it drawing blood if you get too close and hearing voices close up. They encourage one to get close and a hairy hand reaches out from behind the cairn – it is their friend SP (Michael Hough) wearing a monster glove.
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| the cairn |
So, the council wants to build a by-pass and are looking to throw Will’s family off their land and it will mean that the cairn is levelled. It turns out it is Eugene’s father (Nigel O'Neill) who gets the contract for that. A drunken fight, about Will’s plans to go to Australia, between Will and Eugene one night sees Will pushed against the cairn, cutting his hand. He is fine but then an escaped bull gores him against the cairn, killing him. The death, along with his father’s involvement in the by-pass, sees Eugene barred from the Stoker and him deciding to work with his dad to get the money to leave the town.
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| still with stake |
Of course, Abhartach (Robert Nairne, Penny Dreadful & Vampire Virus) is buried under the cairn – we see Will’s blood absorbed into the earth when he is killed and the lore in this is really unusual. We discover that it is not a bite, but the stones, that turn someone (presumably due to their proximity to the vampire for so long). Staking might slow a vampire down but won’t kill it – in fact we get two unusual stakings in film. The first with a surveying pole, is great, the pole actually pushing the heart out of the back of the body – the vampire continues moving. The second I won’t spoil but it’s towards the end of the film and worth the entry fee all on its own.
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| unconscious victim |
Essentially the best thing to do is to bury the vampire and weigh it down by putting stones above it. Whilst it sounds hinky, if you follow it logically, it is clearly the symbolism of the stones that is important. The other great bit of lore was shown in the first scene with Abhartach able to draw blood from multiple victims, that blood then flows to his lair (which is not his grave) as the victims lie insensible. Of course, that makes getting near him dangerous. Amusingly, when they see him rise it is a leg, not an arm, that breaches the earth – this fits with one form of the legend that said he had to be buried upside down.
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| Robert Nairne as Abhartach |
I really enjoyed this. Billed as a horror comedy, the comedy aspect is not so much slapstick or absurdity but more in the dialogue and the craic between characters, if you are attuned to that humour it works so very well – a strength of both script and actors. The figure of Abhartach was nicely creepy and in some respects reminded of another Irish vampire film, From the Dark. The unusual lore was great fun too. This is a film that deserves some love. 7 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
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