[REVIEW] Fantastic Fest ‘23: In A GUIDE TO BECOMING AN ELM TREE Irish Folklore Comes to Life

Through its somber, yet violent tones, Irish ghost story A GUIDE TO BECOMING AN ELM TREE had its US debut at Fantastic Fest as part of the Burnt Ends series. Writer, director, and producer partners Adam and Skye Mann have crafted a glorious symphony of grief that is literally rooted in all that Irish lore and cultural tradition has to offer. It’s a stunning hour and 15 minutes of aching for a past that is dead and gone while it warns its audience of the dangers of trying to conjure the past back to life.

Protagonist Padraig (James Healy-Meaney) seeks out a man named John (Gerry Wade) to guide him through building a coffin for Aoibheann (Jordon-Dion Scanlon) who has died and is already buried. Along the way, John gives Padraig insight into Irish folklore regarding tree spirits, and so Padraig makes contact with these spirits in order to live out more days with the spirit of his wife. In the end, all Padraig does is pass a deadly disease onto the elm tree possessed by Aoibheann, which forces him to cut it down.

In A GUIDE TO BECOMING AN ELM TREE, Aoibheann's presence is felt seeping into every aspect of the film as she represents not only Padraig’s past, but also perhaps Ireland’s. As the tree spirit, Aoibheann can only exist in the myths and legends of Ireland and though she is contained within the Earth of the country, she cannot be resurrected, much like pre-colonial Ireland. Padraig is putting in the labor to build a proper coffin for her, a symbolic and proper send-off so he would be able to make peace with his grief. The issue is that Aoibheann is already buried, so in order for him to give her a coffin he would need to dig her up, disturbing her final place of rest.

Although Padraig never gets far enough in his project to give Aoibheann a coffin, he does spiritually disturb her out of her resting place. This past version of Ireland is already dead and buried, and though we have John and Padraig (and a local townsman named Liam (M.J. Sullivan)) working to keep the traditional Irish language and folklore alive, there are consequences in Padraig reviving the past for his own personal comfort. There is an unfortunate reality that as much as we may try to dig up a past in order to fix our own mistakes, that past may not want us any longer.

A GUIDE TO BECOMING AN ELM TREE is a ghost story, but it is also a reminder that Ireland’s tradition still exists all around the island, even though it can never be fully brought back to life. John is a character who warns Padraig that he must respect and carefully care for his past and leave his wife to rest. What’s done is dead and gone and Aoibheann has only been further damaged by her husband’s selfish pursuits. 

The filmmaking team of the Manns clearly care deeply about Ireland and its culture which is incredibly evident in their filmmaking. A GUIDE TO BECOMING AN ELM TREE provokes an unsettled feeling with its careful and slow progression: showing us every step along the way. The Manns have injected Irish folklore and history into a seemingly simple story to fill it with a taunting, fresh look at grief. There is not much action within its runtime, but there is clearly so much for these characters to grapple with in building a coffin from a tree in Ireland. There is a cultural implication and a deep history running through the roots of every single thing that happens, much like any piece of Irish art. 

A GUIDE TO BECOMING AN ELM TREE is fascinating and provoking in all the right ways and the Manns have proven themselves to be a team to watch out for in the experimental horror space.