“Samahain”: Fantastic film that finally respects the Myth
“Samahain” reveals the talent of Irish director Kate Dolan in her first feature film.
Is the Ireland where she was born, rich in tales and legends, the source of the talent with which Kate Dolan approaches the fantastic in Samahain? It could well be, his first film dealing with the origins of Halloween, a Celtic festival dedicated to the spirits of the night. The title of the film is the Celtic name for November 1, the transition from summer to winter. All in suggestion, punctuated with pieces of bravery, Samahain, which is released on Wednesday December 7, will satisfy the most demanding fans of the genre.
Char’s mother, Angela, disappears a week before Halloween. Back the next day without explanation, the ghost no longer seems the same, she is disturbing, even frightening, as if she were someone else. On Halloween night, when evil spirits haunt the world of men, Char realizes that she might be the only one who can extricate her mother from this grip, even at the risk of losing her.
Samahain is partly worthy of its staging, attentive to the middle-class school and family setting in which it takes place. Kate Dolan takes her time and gradually introduces the disturbing strangeness that creeps into the house. The film however begins with an enigmatic shock scene which will be explained at the end. Constructed in flashbacks, the story is a modernization of the pagan “changeling” myth, where supernatural beings abduct babies to replace them with one of their own. A bad joke…
Ambiguity
The family is made up of Char, his mother and his grandmother, three generations whose family pillar, Angela, is in depression on lithium. Her daughter is no better off in this destabilized setting, left to herself and the head of her class. Is the change in behavior that Char sees in his mother psychiatric in origin, or the result of very real supernatural events? But wouldn’t it also be the neurotic vision that her daughter has of her mother? Directed from Char’s point of view, influenced by his grandmother, holder of ancient myths, Samahain can be taken at face value or as a metaphor.
“Family is the most terrifying thing in the world,” one of her comrades told Char, which would rather tip the scales in favor of the second interpretation. But the film takes the paths of a fantasy in the rules of the art, with a well-paced narrative progression, crossed by disturbing mood disorders. Samahain is a great success, the rare jewel of a fantastic adult served by a young filmmaker to follow.
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