Wake Wood
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | David Keating |
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| Music by | Michael Convertino |
| Cinematography | Chris Maris |
| Edited by | Tim Murrell |
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Release date
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| Country | Ireland United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | (£1,251) |
Wake Wood is a 2011 British/Irish supernatural horror film set in Northern Ireland. An Irish/British co-production by Hammer Film Productions,Wake Wood is directed by Ireland's David Keating. It stars Timothy Spall, Eva Birthistle, Ella Connolly and Aidan Gillen.
Little Alice Daley is mauled to death by a German Shepherd dog in the yard of her father Patrick's veterinary practice. After her death, Patrick and his wife Louise, a pharmacist, move to a rural village called Wakewood, where they struggle to cope with the loss of their only child (Louise cannot have any more children). The couple's car mysteriously breaks down one evening in the middle of nowhere and they go to the nearby house of Patrick's veterinary colleague, Arthur, to seek help. There Louise witnesses Arthur leading a strange and bloody pagan ritual but refuses to say anything to Patrick. It becomes apparent that something strange is happening in town and that Arthur knows that Louise saw the ritual.
Soon afterwards a farmer, Mick O'Shea, is accidentally killed by his own bull. Horrified, Louise and Patrick, who witness the accident, plan to leave, but Arthur, who needs their skills (and presumably doesn't want Louise telling what she saw), convinces them to stay by explaining that he has a ritual that brings back the dead, but only for three days, only within the boundaries of the townland, and only if the person has been dead for less than a year. This is the ritual that Louise witnessed. The couple agree to remain, excited to see their only child again.
The ritual requires a piece of the person to be resurrected, and the couple go grave-robbing, cutting off one of Alice's fingers and retrieving her necklace. The ritual also needs a fresh corpse. At Mick's wake, Arthur asks his widow, Peggy, to use his body, but she refuses, claiming there is something not right about the couple. However, Arthur persuades her by tacitly threatening her that if she refuses he will not resurrect Mick either.
The gruesome ritual goes ahead and Alice is reborn. However, Peggy is still not happy and frightens the little girl, who flees across the townland boundary. As soon as she does so, she collapses with the wounds that killed her appearing on her body. Her parents immediately take her back across the boundary and the wounds disappear. That night Arthur and other villagers come to see them, claiming that something is wrong and Alice must be sent back to her grave immediately. Patrick and Louise persuade them to allow her to stay for the final day.
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