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10th December 2025
02:28pm GMT
The Ick, a fun new Irish short film, is available to stream at home now through the RTÉ Player.
25 minutes in length, the short was made for RTÉ and Screen Ireland's Storyland project, which provides a platform and space for new Irish talent to pitch, develop and produce unique dramas for the screen.
This is so that they can use this work as a jumping-off point to develop their careers further.
Storyland's short dramas are broadcast on RTÉ2 as well as RTÉ Player.
The Ick is the first of Storyland's four new films, which will all be released across December 2025.
Written and directed by Jason Branagan (The Doireann Project), its story follows Ella (an excellent Sophie Vavasseur, Flora and Son), an image-obsessed dater struck down by a strange new virus sweeping Ireland.
Dubbed 'the ick', the mysterious condition causes those it infects to embody the worst traits of their romantic rejections.
As such, Ella must confront her own superficiality and learn to live a life with the ick.
The short is very enjoyable, particularly the way it blends witty observations about Irish dating (Ella's hatred of guys with velcro wallets is a great gag) with a spoof of horror contagion stories like The Ring or It Follows.
Also co-starring in The Ick as Ella's sister, who's got far more important problems, is recent JOE interviewee Hannah Mamalis.
We spoke to Mamalis and director Aaron Chalke (who also produced and has a cameo in The Ick) last month about their other recent short film: The Death Notice of Eamonn McCarty (you can read about the excellent "cry-fi" right here).
Since we spoke to the pair, The Death Notice of Eamonn McCarty won the Best Irish Short award at the Foyle Film Festival in Derry, meaning that it can qualify for Oscar consideration in 2027.
Last month, when speaking to Chalke and Mamalis, we asked them about Storyland and The Ick.
In particular, the director was full of praise for Mamalis and Vavasseur's chemistry as sisters.
It was then that Mamalis joked: "Yeah, we play sisters. We look nothing alike, but that's fine. The magic of the movies."
Chalke added: "Their chemistry is so good, you overlook that," with Mamalis stating: "Yeah, different dads or something."
The pair were also asked by JOE what their favourite Irish movies ever are.
Mamalis answered as follows:
"I think my actual answer is probably An Cailín Ciúin just because it's so beautiful in so many different ways.
"Does anyone remember that movie Into the West?
"I remember f**k all about it, but there was a magic horse, and they were running around.
"There was a scene where they ate beans, and there was a scene where they were in the cinema.
"Anyway, it's glued in my brain that it was great... '90s movies, you can't beat them.
"And then I would say, Hugh Cooney's Accessorise was a seminal work, I would say. Do you know that?
"It was like a sketch that Hugh Cooney did years ago. It's one where he has beans coming out of his mouth, and he just keeps saying 'accessorise'."
Chalke, meanwhile, said:
"My childhood favourite one is The Quiet Man, because it's set in Mayo and… I am an old man at heart. It doesn't age well in parts, but there's some funny bits.
"I think my go-to favourite would be - it's a bit controversial if it's an Irish movie or not, but I'm claiming it back - In Bruges by Martin McDonagh.
"That blew my mind, that you could actually have that darkness mixed with laughing at the same time, the light and the dark together.
"So that was like a 'hook it to my veins kind of thing'.
"After that, then, I looked at Six Shooter as well, which was Martin's short film that won the Oscar… Those two probably would be [my favourite Irish movies]."
Explore more on these topics:
The JOE Film Club Quiz: Week 84
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