I was lucky enough to see Banshee Blacktop at a private screening, and am still reeling from the experience.
The film concerns Dierdre (Kelly McAuley) and Fionn (Dylan Kennedy), a young couple from a secluded community who are forced to flee along a road in the Irish wilderness, pursued by two mysterious figures. One of them, an old woman in a fluttering nightdress, may be a creature from ancient folklore.
The action is inter-cut with the interrogation of a holy man from the island, Seamus Monkton (Liam Halligan), by detectives from the mainland. Monkton's guilt-wracked testimony gradually reveals the appalling secret behind the couple's flight.
Banshee Blacktop is writer/director Sean Garland's first dramatic feature (following his elegiac US documentary NokotaHeart) and is a triumph of mood and atmosphere. The funereal, rainswept expanses of the Irish countryside are rendered with a painterly, desolate beauty. Ancient stone circles, crumbling churches and the deserted titular road combine to evoke a time-stopped Ireland haunted by both the sins of the past and the forces of the supernatural.
The film has a quality reminiscent of M.R. James's ghost stories. The everyday world co- exists with a malign other realm, whilst a family is afflicted with a repellent secret, kept from the civilized mainland by the islanders. Needless to say, the action culminates in a truly unsettling denouement, the effect amplified by the inspired counterpoint of a jaunty folk tune.
The performances are strong across the board. McAuley and Kennedy are appealing protagonists, their moods flitting from passionate defiance to dread-filled resignation, whilst Halligan powerfully conveys a hushed sense of being genuinely haunted. Bernadette Carlin also deserves praise for her unsettling performance as 'Dead Kathleen', her shuffling, implacable progress across the island conjuring a presence at once corporeal and phantasmal.
Special notice should also be given to Frank O'Sullivan and Marcus Lamb as the two detectives, who help leaven the tone with some cutting one-liners. O'Sullivan in particular almost steals the film, a one-take recollection of a disturbing episode from his past being a stand-out moment.
Garland's cinematography and Jim McKee's sound design (completed at American Zoetrope) are both first-rate, and lend the film impressively high production values. Composer Dene Bola has crafted an atmosphere-drenched score which drifts from dreamily ambient to thunderously oppressive.
In all, Banshee Blacktop is a remarkably assured debut which should appeal to both discerning art-house audiences and mainstream genre fans, and I hope it receives the wide distribution it deserves.
The film concerns Dierdre (Kelly McAuley) and Fionn (Dylan Kennedy), a young couple from a secluded community who are forced to flee along a road in the Irish wilderness, pursued by two mysterious figures. One of them, an old woman in a fluttering nightdress, may be a creature from ancient folklore.
The action is inter-cut with the interrogation of a holy man from the island, Seamus Monkton (Liam Halligan), by detectives from the mainland. Monkton's guilt-wracked testimony gradually reveals the appalling secret behind the couple's flight.
Banshee Blacktop is writer/director Sean Garland's first dramatic feature (following his elegiac US documentary NokotaHeart) and is a triumph of mood and atmosphere. The funereal, rainswept expanses of the Irish countryside are rendered with a painterly, desolate beauty. Ancient stone circles, crumbling churches and the deserted titular road combine to evoke a time-stopped Ireland haunted by both the sins of the past and the forces of the supernatural.
The film has a quality reminiscent of M.R. James's ghost stories. The everyday world co- exists with a malign other realm, whilst a family is afflicted with a repellent secret, kept from the civilized mainland by the islanders. Needless to say, the action culminates in a truly unsettling denouement, the effect amplified by the inspired counterpoint of a jaunty folk tune.
The performances are strong across the board. McAuley and Kennedy are appealing protagonists, their moods flitting from passionate defiance to dread-filled resignation, whilst Halligan powerfully conveys a hushed sense of being genuinely haunted. Bernadette Carlin also deserves praise for her unsettling performance as 'Dead Kathleen', her shuffling, implacable progress across the island conjuring a presence at once corporeal and phantasmal.
Special notice should also be given to Frank O'Sullivan and Marcus Lamb as the two detectives, who help leaven the tone with some cutting one-liners. O'Sullivan in particular almost steals the film, a one-take recollection of a disturbing episode from his past being a stand-out moment.
Garland's cinematography and Jim McKee's sound design (completed at American Zoetrope) are both first-rate, and lend the film impressively high production values. Composer Dene Bola has crafted an atmosphere-drenched score which drifts from dreamily ambient to thunderously oppressive.
In all, Banshee Blacktop is a remarkably assured debut which should appeal to both discerning art-house audiences and mainstream genre fans, and I hope it receives the wide distribution it deserves.