10: Ireland – The 10 Greatest Horror Movie Nations On Earth

Welcome to Ranking Horror. We have been talking about European horror a lot this week. This lead me to a question – what are the 10 greatest horror nations on earth? Well, I am aim to answer that question in an epic series of articles that I call The 10 Greatest Horror Movies Nations on Earth. Let’s start by looking at number 10 – Ireland.

This ranking measures horror nations by sustained influence, modern relevance, and impact above expectation, not just historical legacy.

I had originally put this list together in just a couple of articles but I figured that meant I couldn’t give each country the respect it deserves. Some of these countries have so much horror history that absolutely needs talking about. I couldn’t do that properly in articles featuring more than one country.

Every day for the next 10 days I will be adding a new country to this list. We are going to be looking at a few key factors that could lead to this list looking a little different from what you may, or may not, expect. While other lists weight their rankings by historical importance, we aren’t doing that. We are ranking consistency, historical impact, current impact, and impact above expected.

We are kicking things off with the nation at number 10 – Ireland.

10: Ireland – An Emerging, Underrated Horror Nation

Everyone always forgets about Ireland when people discuss brilliant horror nations which is a crying shame and I will show you why. I imagine, at the end of this article, you are going to be shocked at just how many brilliant horror movies come out of this tiny little island.

Ireland doesn’t have what you might refer to as a distinct wave of horror pre-2000s. We aren’t going to be talking about any ultra significant directors or a marquee era of movies that changed horror forever. That just didn’t exist in Ireland before the 2000s.

Ireland’s Scant Horror History

Pre-1960s Irish horror cinema was a barren wasteland that struggled for funding. The infrastructure just wasn’t there and the demands of horror fans from the Emerald isle could always be met by films from countries like the USA, the UK, Canada, and Australia. You really have to dig deep to find the 1952, Orson Welles narrated, horror short Return to Glennascaul for something noteworthy. This certainly didn’t indicate an upcoming trend, however, and its impact was minimal.

The 1960s and 1970s saw no demand for horror movies. The period known as the “troubles” were at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

The demand was for socially conscious, historically significant, dramas that reflected real life Irish voices. Not for horror movies that offered scares, titillation, and little more. Ireland was consistently exposed to British produced films that didn’t reflect the experiences of the people living there.

International productions (predominantly American and British) were quick to film their movies in Ireland, taking advantage of cheaper labour and locations. Horror was still an afterthought, though, and there are very few movies of note that fell under the flag of actual Irish horror.

A Slight Boost in the 80s

The 80s saw a few international horror productions that actually featured Irish themes. The absolutely terrible British horror Rawhead Rex (1986) featured a monster from Irish folklore and was filmed entirely in County Wicklow, Ireland.

Supernatural comedy High Spirits (1988) was an international co-production between the UK, the USA, and Ireland. Despite being horror-adjacent, it features a distinctly Irish castle, a number of Irish actors, and was directed by Irish director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Interview With a Vampire) before he made his way to Hollywood.

The 90s continued this trend with dramas, historical movies, and comedies that reflected Irish voices and experiences taking centre stage. Horror was simply not seen as a genre that was desirable to Irish filmmakers and so the output was scant. That was all going to change in the next 20 years, though.

A Turning Point for Irish Horror

The 2000s ushered in a turning point for the Irish horror industry. Whereas the years leading up to the turn of the millennium were almost completely devoid of movies. The 2000s quickly saw a change in the desire of Irish filmmakers to produce genre movies like horror. There were a number of reasons for this.

• Increased Film Funding: The Irish Film Board (Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland) played a huge role in getting Irish voices out there in the movie making world. Funding was keenly offered to filmmakers regardless of the type of movies they were making. This was a big boost to genre films like horror.
• Talent: Irish filmmakers, writers, and actors were able to take advantage of increased funding and their inclusion in the Anglosphere to aim for the clouds. Irish talent exported extremely well around the world and their success, particularly in Hollywood, prompted young people to jump on board.
• Fresh Perspectives: Irish voices offered fresh perspectives that focused on Celtic folklore and mythology. Something which was very refreshing to horror fans universally. Irish filmmakers managed to blend these ideas with traditional horror tropes to create new and exciting horror concepts.
• International Collaboration: Distinctly Irish horror movies were often propelled forward by international collaborations with countries like the UK and Canada. This helped to secure additional funding and wider distribution.

Irish horror felt extremely fresh as the world just hadn’t been exposed to it before. The blending of Celtic mythology and folklore like Changelings, Faeries/Aos Sí, Banshees, and Paganism, with modern stories of grief, mental illness, and the country’s past history with religion, felt like a meeting between the old and the new. Irish horror finally had a voice and it was shouting for everyone to hear.

A New Wave of Irish Horror

In the past 15 years, or so, Ireland has put out an absolute ton of fantastic horror. While they lacked a truly a-tier title up until last year’s release of Oddity, the consistent quality deserves special praise.

• Dead Meat (2004)
• Isolation (2005)
• Shrooms (2007)
• Wake Wood (2009)
• Citadel (2012)
• Grabbers (2012)
• The Canal (2014)
• Let Us Prey (2014)
• The Hallow (2015)
• Without Name (2016)
• A Dark Song (2016)
• The Lodgers (2017)
• The Devil’s Doorway (2018)
• The Hole In The Ground (2019)
• Sea Fever (2019)
• All You Need Is Death (2020)
• The Boys From County Hell (2020)
• You Are Not My Mother (2021)
• Mandrake (2022)
• Nocebo (2022)
• Unwelcome (2022)
• Double Blind (2023)
• Fréwaka (2023)
• Oddity (2024)

Ireland’s frequent genre bending horror stands out for how daring it is. The mix of movies based on Ireland’s rich cultural history along with the country’s distinctive folklore and mythology is extremely impressive. I count a bunch of the movies on this list among my favourite recent horror films.

I could go on and on and this is with a population of around 7.5 million people. It’s utterly incredible when you really think about it. The only knock on Ireland is the lack of horror history and the fact that many of their movies are highly collaborative efforts with the UK and many other European countries.

At least half of the movies listed above are collaborations and it is hard to quantify how much the specific countries contributed. With that being said, the majority of the films do feel distinctly Irish and that counts for a lot. Ireland would rank much higher on this list if we were only counting modern horror.

Countries like Thailand and Germany narrowly miss the cut not due to a lack of importance, but because their most influential horror moments belong firmly to the past, whereas Ireland’s impact is unfolding right now.