Outcast

Released - 2010
Genre - Horror
Director - Colm McCarthy
Starring - Kate Dickie, Niall Bruton, Hanna Stanbridge, James Nesbitt, Ciaran McMenamin, Karen Gillan, James Cosmo

Fergal and his mother, Mary, are Irish travellers on the run. They decide to hide in the depressing Craigmillar scheme in Edinburgh but, Cathal, the man hunting them won't give up easily. Mary is a witch and the whole film is littered with rituals. Cathal is using magic to find them. Fergal hooks up with a local girl and his mother fears disaster but it's not clear why. This is bleak stuff, with a lesser known Edinburgh backdrop that has nothing to do with cobbled streets and magnificent architecture and everything to do with urban decay and deprivation. The cast are good, especially Dickie and Nesbitt, who are locked in a battle of wills over Fergal. It is pretty slow and there's no spoon feeding the audience, so not everyone is going to like this. It's really atmospheric, well-acted and, despite an underwhelming ending, definitely worth a watch.

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