Mick Jordan reviews All You Need Is Death.
All You Need Is Death stars Simone Collins and Charlie Maher as Anna and Aleks, a couple who are touring Ireland collecting old and forgotten songs, saving them before they disappear completely – and then selling them on for a profit. They hear of one old song, known only to one old woman, that has been passed down from mother to daughter and from mother to daughter through several generations – until now. This old mother has only one son. It is an ancient song in a language that predates Irish and must never be written down and must never be recorded. Our two heroes set out immediately – to write it down and to record it.
And so All You Need is Death starts out with that most basic trope of so many horror films – someone breaks the rules and unleashes all hell or suchlike. But unlike so many horror films, this film does not just throw everything at the audience bombarding them with frights and shocks, instead there gradually builds up a real sense of dread and fear that takes over the film slowly but surely – and just keeps on doing so right to the end.
At a recent Q&A at the IFI the writer and director Paul Duane explained how he had been in part inspired by the Powell & Pressburger film I Know Where I’m Going, which features a secret ancient curse that actually brings about a happy ending just as it is finally spoken out loud. He wanted to show something similar with a secret ancient song but with quite a different outcome.
Obviously then, when the central premise of the film is the terrifying power of music the soundtrack is going to be a pretty crucial element of the overall production. In this instance, that is provided by Ian Lynch of the folk group Lankum and it is one that complements the film perfectly. It is constantly there, maintaining a perfect sense of creeping dread and never resorting to sudden bursts of screaming violins or banging drums telling us “this is very scary now.” And, of course, the main song itself pops up a lot but in different interpretations until we finally get a translation of what is actually being sung.
There are some comic moments to lighten the pervading darkness – Olwen Fouéré as Rita the old woman and keeper of the song speaks to Anna and Aleks from inside a wardrobe because they are told “she likes to be mysterious”. When she is asked to sing the song she makes her dramatic entrance – by opening the wardrobe.
Fouéré is excellent in the part, laying on all the thickness it requires, while Nigel O’Neill as her son, Breezeblock (yes), is wonderfully calm and reserved as he goes about both confronting and contributing to the mayhem that surrounds him. As the thoughtless instigators of it all, Collins and Maher truly engage our sympathy as they go from crafty grifters to the ultimate tragic victims.
Duane also said at the Q&A that horror fans “watch a lot of films” and so will reject something where they’ve seen it all before. As one of those horror fans himself, he set out to make sure this didn’t happen with his efforts. He largely succeeds with a film that brings you in with a great concept and keeps you there with its compelling atmosphere and mood.
