The Morrigan review – spirit of pagan demon queen unleashed in Irish burial chamber horror
Archaeologists blunder into an ancient and unwittingly release a vengeful monster – with predictable and conventional results In Irish folklore, the Morrígan is a powerful
Archaeologists blunder into an ancient and unwittingly release a vengeful monster – with predictable and conventional results In Irish folklore, the Morrígan is a powerful goddess of death and war. This horror movie imagines her as an actual historical figure: a pagan queen massacred with her followers by Christians. A quick scene at the start of the film shows the dirty deed.
The Morrígan’s rage against misogyny has screamed down through the centuries – so it’s a shame the film frames her not as a feminist icon but a highly conventional horror movie nemesis; a malign vengeful female to be crushed and destroyed. There is nothing to punch the air about in the end. Saffron Burrows plays an archaeologist called Fiona who has been repeatedly passed over for tenure at her US university.
When Fiona presents her radical theory that the myth of the Morrígan may have a basis in real life, her slippery colleague Jonathan (Jonathan Forbes) is made the lead on the dig. Fiona is forced to bring along her rebellious teenager daughter Lily (Emily Flain), who has just been expelled from boarding school. And it is poor Lily who is possessed by the Morrígan when the archaeologists blunder into her burial chamber, unleashing demonic powers that were hidden underground by priests, like some pagan nuclear waste, 1,500 years ago.
Continue reading...
The BriefWire