Nerdly » Frightfest Glasgow 2024: ‘All You Need is Death’ Review

15th Mar2024

Frightfest Glasgow 2024: ‘All You Need is Death’ Review

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Simone Collins, Charlie Maher, Olwen Fouéré, Barry McKiernan, Nigel O’Neill, Catherine Siggins | Written and Directed by Paul Duane

A young couple records and collects folk songs in rural Ireland, selling them to a mysterious, rich buyer. When rumours of a song never-before-heard reach the couple, they find themselves in an uneasy alliance with a music professor to discover an ancient song, a taboo ballad that may end up unlocking some dark truth from the forgotten past that will alter all their isolated lives.

Folk-horror is a term that sends shivers down my spine. And with good reason, it’s often used as a catch-all for stories that are more atmosphere than plot (by the same token I think “found footage” is often little more than an excuse for bad camerawork). And that’s certainly the case with this film – a music-centric terror tale, All You Need is Death is definitely more style than substance – even the title has more style than the final film (and has nothing in common with what happens either).

All You Need is Death story is inter-cut with flashbacks to a pre-Irish Viking era, flashbacks that are little more than an attempt to add some depth to a story that is essentially about a song that summons demons. And that’s it. There is otherwise little explanation as to what is actually happening, things left to the audience’s interpretation and as such it doesn’t feel like a film that knows what it is, almost as if the filmmakers were flying by the seat of their pants, placing ideas above anything else.

Thematically this is very much an “Irish” film, playing on the tight-knit communities and the heritage that the people carry with them, a lineage that in this case is carried in song. Focussing on that tradition means the film’s early going feels fresh, something that seems original. And there’s a strange aura about those early moments, seeing people hunting songs, meeting in secret to share them – but then when the supernatural aspect is added to the mix everything falls apart.

Speaking of the supernatural, the driver of All You Need is Death’s second half is a death at the hands of a black-gloved killer, a killer that turns out to be a spirit. One of many spirits. None of whom really have any impact on the film’s proceedings. At all. It’s as if there was an attempt to add MORE supernatural elements to the film outside of the “song that kills” but it’s a failure, more red herring than anything else. That’s the film in a nutshell though – it’s all one bug red herring. Presented as if you’re going to get a great terrifying Irish folk horror that hits on deep on the rich history of the isle, but instead presents it’s audience with a film that has some great visuals but zero story.