Share
27th March 2025
05:59pm GMT
This week marks the cinema release of An Taibhse, which is being billed as the first-ever Irish-language horror feature film.
You can read JOE's thoughts on the movie (which are very positive!) and check out our interview with its writer-director John Farrelly and its stars Livvy Hill and Tom Kerrisk right here.
During the conversation, we asked Farrelly about working with six-time Academy Award nominee Jim Sheridan (In America, In the Name of the Father, My Left Foot) on the Irish language horror, with the latter serving as executive producer.
In response, the writer-director said: "We got a chance to show Jim the film. It was a really early cut. It was two hours long.
"Whenever he watched it, he really liked it. And then he gave us some tips on what to do with the edit and maybe some reshoots.
"He's a hero of mine, so to have Jim even watch the film and talk about it was just amazing. Then, he agreed to come on board as an executive producer.
"Just to be working alongside my hero from growing up, it's surreal."
As for what those specific tips from Sheridan were, Farrelly explained, laughing:
"Jim texted me that night after [he watched] it and just said: 'Needs to be 90 minutes.' It was 2 hours!
"And I was like: 'Okay, if Jim says it, then you know you have to.' So I got it down to 92 and a half.
"So yeah, he said that and then a few more suggestions regarding how certain scenes play out in the edit.
"Yeah, he was right to get it down to 90 minutes. You just get so immersed and attached to the actual project that you realise after a while, you don't actually need some scenes, and then we cut them out."
Farrelly says it can be difficult when working on a movie for so long to remove certain scenes. However, he added that watching An Taibhse with different audiences helped him work out what needed to be excised or trimmed.
"I do find whenever you watch a film with an audience, it's a different experience," he said. "You feel the energy of the room and I can tell when people are getting bored.
"I was like: 'Oh, God, that needs to be cut down.' And then I kept cutting it down. And then I took a frame or two off every single shot in the film, and then that got it down by like three or four minutes, which is a lot of things just to get it down - so the pacing was good.
"It's watching it with audience members, inviting them in, sitting down with them and watching it with them, and then you just feed off their energy... We did that a good few times until we got it to the cut that it is now."
Read more:
Explore more on these topics:
The JOE Film Club Quiz: Week 84
movies tv
