Samantha Morton

Steven Mackintosh

Mhairi Anderson

David Bradley

Eva Birthistle

Brendan McCormack

Zoe Sheridan

Flora Montgomery

Orlaith Macqueen

Ron Donachie

Valerie O'Connor

Patrick Moy

Barry Barnes

Maire Hastings

Gary Murphy

Aisling Walsh

Lauren Mackenzie

David Julyan

Simon Kossoff

Chris Gill

Bryan Oates

Victoria Beattie

Orla O'Connor

Padraig O'Neill

Michael Moynihan

Cos Egan

Tristan Lynch

Dominic Wright

Aoife O'Sullivan

Meinir Stoutt

Graham Begg

Jamie Carmichael

Bethan Cousins

Michael Henry

Linda James

Alison Byrne

Horror

Drama

The Daisy Chain

ContentFilm International

United Kingdom

Ireland

They are saying she’s a Faerie Changeling.

The Daisy Chain is directed by Aisling Walsh and stars Samantha Morton, Steven Mackintosh, Mhairi Anderson and David Bradley.

Grieving over the loss of their first child to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, newly pregnant couple Martha and Tomas decide to leave England and live on the Irish coast. They settle in quickly and things seem to be going well, but when their neighbours house burns down, leaving young Daisy an orphan, Martha and Tomas decide to foster care for Daisy in spite of her being a little different and introverted. Soon enough bad things seem to befall people who come into contact with Daisy, leading to the locals to suspect she may be something terrible from Irish folklore.

Ok! There’s some pretty venomous reviews of this out there in internet land, but really it’s a very well constructed creeper that’s not without intelligence. Firstly it needs to be noted that this is not a horror film as such, anyone searching for a scare fest or Omen like shocks are in for the biggest of disappointments. Secondly, taking some time out to read something about the legends of Faerie Changeling’s will significantly improve your viewing experience. Walsh’s movie firmly deals in the realm of superstitious legend, adds in a heart aching strand involving surrogacy via grief, and then lets it play out in ethereal beats till the chilling conclusion is reached.

Morton and young Anderson are superb, the former stoic of motherly instincts but still emotionally cracked underneath, the latter a pallid and unnerving presence that haunts the picture even without much dialogue. The photography around the coastal hillside location is stripped back for realism purpose, it may be beautiful terrain, but there’s a greyness hanging in the air, suitably so as well. The musical score is a touch irritating, and Walsh is guilty of over doing the slow burn approach, but this definitely has more going for it than has previously been said. Not one to rush out and buy for sure, but certainly worthy of TV time on proviso you understand the Faerie thematics at work first. 7/10

English