The Morrigan is a gothic folk horror about a team of archaeologists excavating an ancient burial site in Ireland. Site lead Jonathan is confident they’ll find only ancient Christian catacombs; his assistant Fiona is looking for the Morrigan.
While the Morrigan in real Irish mythos is a goddess primarily associated with war and fate, Fiona believes she was an ancient queen whose remains are yet to be found. Unfortunately for her, and the whole cast, they find an ancient casket that holds much more than the remains of a long-dead woman.
Director Colum Eastwood states in the film’s press release that The Morrigan is a deeply personal story for him and one that draws from the stories and landscapes he grew up with. Many scenes from this film are shot on site in Northern Ireland, and the use of natural landscapes in the film’s first half is impressive. The music, too, helps set the mood. James Everett’s soundtrack is very much the same vibe as the Velen theme from The Witcher III: moody, Celtic, and just a little unsettling.
The story follows a pretty standard formula similar to the later Conjuring movies: haunted object found, haunted object is messed with by a naive person, then they are possessed. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this kind of story, but a predictable format relies more heavily on the performances to make it memorable. The performances here range from okay to devoid of emotion, and it’s particularly difficult to watch in more emotional or climactic scenes.
This movie establishes the theme of gender inequality early with Fiona, our central character. The excavation was her idea, but Jonathan was put in charge due to her lack of experience. We’re told by other members of the cast that she’s been his assistant for years, and despite her hard work, she has still not received tenure. This, combined with the search for a mythical female queen, sets a thematic trend we expect the movie to follow. Unfortunately, this movie struggles to stay thematically consistent and long abandons this idea by the movie’s final act.
The other idea presented is the way that men sexually prey on women. This storyline, primarily regarding Jonathan and Fiona, which is shown only in fuzzy flashbacks, is utterly lacking in any nuance and falls completely flat. Its culmination is the brutal sexual assault of another male character, a move that both feels unearned, cruel, and ultimately pointless to the film’s overarching story.
While I don’t personally have a horse in this fight, it’s worth noting that the lore choices in this film have caused a very negative reaction from the pagan community. The Morrigan, in any interpretation of her folklore, is not evil or a demon, and some pagans found this portrayal particularly distasteful. While the priest character isn’t exactly fleshed out, he follows more expected tropes, while the Morrigan is painted as pure evil and beyond saving.
The Morrigan ultimately fails in what it is trying to do in multiple ways because so many elements are poorly executed. The monster herself is hard to look at, most of the film’s deaths appear off-screen, and a story so simple that it should work feels tired due to mid-level performances and some strange thematic choices. Truthfully, I didn’t enjoy this movie.
If you’re interested in checking The Morrigan out for its Celtic horror vibes, the movie will be released on video-on-demand on February 3, 2026.