Desperate to contact her murdered child, a woman isolates herself and a bitter occultist in her home for months to complete a set of intense rituals intended to summon her guardian angel.

What the folk is folk horror, you ask? Literature and film that draw on folklore, old religion, rural isolation, the power of nature and, inevitably, someone going up against those larger forces. I’m dipping my toes into some Irish folk horror with an under the radar debut called A DARK SONG (2016), which employs the Abramelin ritual from the 1600s, requiring months of seclusion, prayer, fasting, chastity and physical pain to reach an altered state that could allow a request from a higher dimensional being. Thanks Wikipedia!

Sophia hastily rents out a rural manor in Ireland and promptly meets with Joseph, a surly occultist she’s hired to live with her in the estate. He interviews her sternly, testing her preparedness, pre-ritual diet and fluency in other languages. Joseph is reprehensible and domineering, instilling in Sophia the mortal risk of what they’re about to attempt. Their plan is to perform months of arduous and cyclical rituals guided by Joseph so that Sophia might finally come to terms her anger regarding the senseless murder of her child.

During the arduous processes, Sophia wonders if Joseph is legitimate, if her misery is merely a cruel plan to manipulate and exploit a grieving soul. Is her suffering actually worth it? But over time, things begin happening to Sophia around the manor – commotion under the floorboards, shimmering gold shards raining inside, a sinister presence imitating her son’s voice through a door. It all burns slowly towards an astonishing penultimate scene.

This would make a fabulous stage play, minimalistic yet effective. It’s low on gore, heavy on emotion. Unbury this occult horror gem, why the folk not?