When Irish folklore becomes a model of film horror

Above : Hazel Doupe and Ingrid Craggy star in the Irish film “You Are Not My Mother.” (Photo/Magnet Releasing)

Movie review : “You Are Not My Mother,” written and directed by Kate Dolan, starring Hazel Doupe, Carolyn Bracken, Ingrid Gracie, Paul Reid, Katie White. Playing in theaters.

There’s something about foreign cultures that tends to make the notion of ancient rituals feel more mysterious, and more menacing, than those native to the U.S. This likely has to do with a nagging sense of Old-World darkness.

Take the intriguingly titled Irish film “You Are Not My Mother,” for example. Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Kate Dolan , the film is set in the now but imbues its portrayal of domestic angst with the specter of ancient folk tales.

Overall, it’s a story of family dysfunction. Char (played by Hazel Doupe ) is a Dublin schoolgirl who along with her mother Angela (played by Carolyn Bracken ) lives with her grandmother Rita (played by Ingrid Cragie ). Already a lonely, inhibited girl, Char grows even more isolated as her mother’s depressive behavior becomes increasingly disturbing. And then when mom goes strangely missing, only to turn up a day later with no explanation, but acting even weirder, Char’s feelings of alarm grow ever stronger.

It’s not as if Char has anywhere to turn for solace or understanding. Despite the entreaties of a friendly teacher (played by Jade Jordan), which go mostly ignored, Char is harassed at school by a pack of mean girls (and the occasional guy). At home, her uncle Aaron (played by Paul Reid) is friendly enough, but his support pales in the face of the distrust that Grandma Rita has – for reasons that only gradually become clear – of Char’s mother

Finally, though, the conceit that writer-director Dolan uses to underscore this sense of domestic discord, schoolgirl torment and seeming mental illness involves Irish folklore: specifically the possible presence of a so-called changeling. It is that very possibility – which is introduced in a truly eerie opening sequence involving an abandoned baby and fire – that sets the stage for everything that follows.

Scholars tell us that the myth of a changeling dates from pre-Industrial Europe. It involves the substitution, ostensibly by fairies, of a human child with a creature usually bearing some deformity. Sources credit such beliefs as the reason why some European parents, the Irish among them, worried about the drain that a non-productive child would be to the rest of the family. Thus, the story goes, they resorted to infanticide – using superstition as the excuse.

In the case of “You Are Not My Mother,” the possible existence of a changeling is hinted at in that impressive opening sequence. And though the drama builds throughout, especially during a scene when Char’s mother shoves her whole forearm down her own throat, they aren’t confirmed until Grandma Rita explains the situation – which also tells us why there’s a so-called birthmark on Char’s face.

This, though, is where “You Are Not My Mother” misses the mark. Few things are scarier than when someone you know and want to trust – better yet need to trust – shows signs of an emotional breakdown. And the frightening quality of this is even more profound when such a breakdown is considered by otherwise rational beings to be the product of otherworldly spirits.

Dolan keeps us guessing for much of the film whether paranormal forces are at play before finally, and disappointingly, completing her slow reveal. The most haunting mysteries – to me, at least – are those that remain, so to speak, lurking in the dark.

If that isn’t problematic enough, so too is the improbable behavioral change of the would-be mean girl Kelly (played by Katie White), who becomes Char’s BFF a bit too quickly and whose appearance at a climactic point in the story gives new meaning to the term convenient.

All of which is too bad because the performances in particular of Doupe as Char and Bracken as her mother, not to mention the chilly gloom of Dublin itself, give “You Are Not My Mother” a sense of realism that is a horror-show all on its own.

For Dolan then to take the changeling myth seriously makes me wonder, not altogether facetiously, whether she ever considered casting a few evil leprechauns as well.