THE OUTCASTS
Dir. Robert Wynne-Simmons, 1982.
Ireland. 95 min.
In English.

Spectacle is thrilled to host the United States premiere of a new restoration of Irish filmmaker Robert Wynne-Simmons’ long-unavailable gothic masterpiece THE OUTCASTS.

Rich in earthy pastoral detail, THE OUTCASTS is a slow-burning feminist film disguised as a piece of folk horror. Set in 1810, the film depicts a remote farming community which is thrown into crisis by the arrival of a charismatic, wandering fiddler named Scarf Michael (Mick Lally). Most enamored by him is Maura (Mary Ryan), the daughter of an impoverished farmer, noted and often ridiculed among the townsfolk for her slowness and shyness. Maura gravitates to Scarf against the wishes of her family and neighbors, and is soon suspected of practicing witchcraft in her own right. As she suffers scapegoating from her community for being “mad”, Maura pushed further to the margins.

Before making his directorial debut with THE OUTCASTS, Wynne-Simmons was one of the screenwriters on Piers Haggard’s infamous THE BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW (1971), a similarly windswept cult film steeped in mythology (albeit on the British, not Irish, countryside.) Seamus Corcoran’s telephoto cinematography and the unfakeable locations of Ireland lend THE OUTCASTS the quality of a 95-minute dream (or nightmare) sequence in the vein of McCABE & MRS. MILLER or PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, like a fairy tale hazily remembered. Ultimately, THE OUTCASTS is an unsparing and mesmerizing parable of stigma, prejudice, faith and tradition, interrogating how and why people become monsters in the eyes of others.

At the time of its release, THE OUTCASTS was the first fully Irish-funded film in over half a century. Spectacle is honored to host the United States premiere of the new 2K digital restoration by the Irish Film Archive for IFI’s Digital Restoration Project, painstakingly scanned from original 35mm negatives (which were, themselves, printed from blown-up 16mm film.) The restoration was funded by Screen Ireland/Fís Éireann with further support from Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE) and EU Creative Europe MEDIA programme.

Special thanks to Robert Wynne-Simmons, Eleanor Melinn and Sunniva O’Flynn (Irish Film Institute), and Dennis Bartok and Craig Rogers (Deaf Crocodile).