There’s something deeply unsettling about waking up to faces you don’t recognize, in a place you’ve never been, carrying a child you can’t remember conceiving. This is the nightmare that greets Anna in Alan Friel’s debut feature WOKEN, and for much of its runtime, the film mines this premise for genuine psychological terror.
Friel, who cut his teeth directing commercials and shorts including CAKE with Maxine Peake, understands the power of atmosphere. His windswept Irish island, filmed across County Clare and County Limerick, becomes a character unto itself—all howling winds, dripping cottage roofs, and flickering candlelight that casts dancing shadows on walls that seem to hold secrets. This is a world stripped of modern conveniences, where paraffin lamps replace electricity and wood-burning stoves fight against an endless chill. The absence of phones, televisions, or any connection to the outside world feels deliberate, calculated even.
Anna awakens to this pre-digital purgatory after what she’s told was a terrible fall, though we’ve witnessed something far more disturbing—her desperate flight toward a cliff edge, pursued by unseen forces. Screen Star of Tomorrow Erin Kellyman, known from SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY, brings a raw vulnerability to Anna that makes her confusion and growing paranoia palpable. She’s surrounded by people who claim to love her—her supposed husband James, played with careful ambiguity by Ivanno Jeremiah, and the nurturing Helen, embodied by Peake with just the right balance of maternal warmth and underlying menace.
Friel demonstrates a keen eye for the sinister potential lurking within the mundane. The rhythmic hammering of crab shells during dinner becomes a percussion of dread. A collection of identical yellow baby jackets, hand-knitted with obsessive care, transforms from touching preparation into something deeply unsettling. Even the arrival of strangers on a absurdly incongruous swan-shaped pedalo manages to feel threatening rather than whimsical.
The director skillfully plants seeds of doubt about everything Anna encounters. Are the photo albums and home movies genuine memories or elaborate fabrications? Is Helen’s cardigan-clad concern authentic or performance? The whispered conversations Anna overhears, the glimpses of hidden firearms, the growing certainty that escape from this island sanctuary might be impossible—all contribute to a mounting sense of paranoia that keeps both Anna and the audience off balance.
Go behind the scenes of PRESSURE!
Veteran Karl Lambert sits down with Andrew Scott, Damian Lewis, writer David Haig and director Anthony Maras to talk making the film — and how history was decided by a weather report. 🌊
Watch now via 🔗︎ in bio.
A new trailer has landed for THE LOST CHILDREN OF TUAM — and it`s every bit as devastating as expected 💔
Directed by @frankberryfilm (MICHAEL INSIDE) and written by @rlenkiewicz1968 (THE SALT PATH), the film is based on @danbarry1958`s New York Times article.
Watch now via 🔗︎ in bio.
NORTHERN IRELAND JUST WENT ELECTRIC AT THE EMMYS 🏆
A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS just took home Outstanding Stunt Performance at the 78th Creative Arts Emmy Awards — for the episode "In the Name of the Mother" 🗡️🔥
And it`s not over yet — A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS is also nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the Primetime Emmys on Sep 14 - Tune in and cheer them on!
Caitríona Balfe graces @tatlermagazine `s October cover!
From modelling for @chanelofficial to OUTLANDER`s Claire Fraser, and now two major literary adaptations on the way: SENSE AND SENSIBILITY and REBECCA. A career built on reinvention, one deliberate step at a time.✨
Full interview via link in bio 🔗︎
Forget everything you know about Fassbender!
In HOPE, he goes full motion-capture as an extraterrestrial invading a remote Korean village, starring alongside real-life wife Alicia Vikander as part of the alien family unleashing chaos.
HOPE hits US theaters Sep 9 🎬
🥊Who`s watching Saturday?
Barry Keoghan just gave Katie Taylor the send-off she deserves ahead of her final fight this Saturday at a sold-out Croke Park.
Watch now via 🔗︎ in bio.
In ELSINORE, Andrew Scott steps into the shoes of Ian Charleson — a gay actor preparing for the role of a lifetime while quietly living with AIDS, at a time when simply being himself could have ended his career.
Scott, who came out publicly in 2013, doesn`t treat this as just another role. It`s personal. It`s full circle. And it`s a tribute to an artist who never got to tell his own story on his own terms.
"I wanted people to understand he was trying to live — it`s not about fetishizing his death."
First look trailer via 🔗︎ in bio.
Aisling Bea is going home. 🇮🇪✨
The beloved Irish comedian steps in front of WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? cameras to trace her roots back through Laois, Limerick and Kerry.
No forced tears. No manufactured melodrama. Just Bea being Bea — sharp, funny, and quietly moved as she digs into her family`s ties to the Easter Rising and the revival of the Irish language.
Watch now via irishfilmtv.com.
Netflix is expanding the TOP BOY universe 🎬
Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan steps into the role of Irish gangster Jonny McGee in JONNY BOY, a five-episode prequel.
Both begin filming in 2027 - Irish talent leading the charge in one of TV`s most gripping crime sagas 🔥
Full details via link in bio 🔗︎
