The Morrigan review – spirit of pagan demon queen unleashed in Irish burial chamber horror

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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 al...
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Big swings, big misses and big deals: what happened at this year’s Sundance?

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The 40th edition of the independent film festival saw some multimillion-dollar deals but also had attendees question if there was a drop in quality

The high bar raised by last year’s Sundance film festival had caused many to feel a little underwhelmed by this year’s edition, a commonly tweeted and spoken concern over just whether this year could truly boast a major breakout movie. Twelve months prior, the workplace thriller Fair Play, erotic drama Passages, nifty horror Talk to Me, romcom Rye Lane, timely documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, mother-son music tale Flora and Son and decade-spanning romance Past Lives caused waves that continued for the next year, an unusually robust lineup, fittingly given that it was Sundance’s big in-person comeback.

It was a slightly more muted affair over in Utah this year, some attributing a weaker lineup to 2023’s dual strikes, which prevented many productions from going ahead, but there were still enough gems amid the murk and a promising raft of major multimillion deals. Because while the strikes may have allegedly affected the roster, they also had a definite impact on the thirst of buyers, in frantic need of films to help repair lighter-than-usual release schedules. There might not have been anything as buzzy as Past Lives but this year’s crop of films continued to edge away from a reliance on A-listers to draw attention, a relief after a period of limp, star-led projects taking slots away from smaller, more deserving fare.

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