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AMC’s genre streamer Shudder has picked up North American, U.K., Irish, Australian and New Zealand rights to “Fréwaka,” billed as the first Irish-language horror.

Written and directed by Aislinn Clarke and starring Clare Monnelly, Bríd Ní Neachtain and Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya, the film — which features both the Irish and English language — recently world premiered at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival, and will have its U.K. premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 11, 2024. “Fréwaka” will debut on Shudder in 2025.

“Fréwaka” following home care worker Shoo, who is sent to a remote village to care for an agoraphobic woman who fears the neighbors as much as she fears the Na Sídhe — sinister entities who she believes abducted her decades before. As the two develop a strangely deep connection, Shoo is consumed by the old woman’s paranoia, rituals, and superstitions, eventually confronting the horrors from her own past...

The BBC Weather website and app are suffering a data issue, meteorologists have said, after forecasts showed hurricane force winds hitting the UK.

Graphics show estimated wind speeds of 13,508 mph in London and overnight temperatures of 404C in Nottingham.

Presenter Matt Taylor said in a post on X: "Don't be alarmed folks - Hurricane Milton hasn't made it to us here in the UK! There's been a data glitch between our suppliers and the app/online. Folk are working to solve the issue"...

As movies like Bone Tomahawk and Tremors 4 have proven, horror and Westerns are two great tastes that taste great together. I always like to hear that another horror / Western blend is in the works – so I was glad to see The Hollywood Reporter announce that the folk horror thriller The Wolf and the Lamb, which is set “during the western expansion of the 1870s,” is coming our way. Cassandra Scerbo of the Sharknado franchise and Adrianne Palicki of The Orville star in the film, which is currently in production, with filming taking place in Montana.

The Wolf and the Lamb marks the feature writing and directing debut of Michael Schilf. Scerbo is taking on the role of a widowed school teacher searching for her only son, who is the latest child to go missing in a tight-knit mining camp. But when the son miraculously returns, he is more monster than man. We’ll have to wait and see what kind of monster action we’ll be getting in this movie. Is this some kind of changeling, or something even worse?...

Researchers have warned about the impact of 'climate tipping points' on the UK due to its position near the North Atlantic, as such an event could 'wipe out' domestic crop growing.

An assessment of climate threats to UK food security has put a spotlight on climate tipping points as a 'severely overlooked danger', a new report published today warns.

Researchers from the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) and others point to the fact that climate change is already playing a significant role in several threats to UK national security, including food supply.

But they warn that the government has a 'blind spot', as major climate threats are not adequately addressed in its national risk register, while some threats – like climate tipping points – are not included at all...

A great folk horror film usually hinges on the tension between modern protagonists and the eerie isolation of the countryside. This, combined with the depiction of ancient pagan traditions and strong local beliefs, creates an unnerving sense of dread. Through all of these elements, many unforgettable acting performances have enriched the realm of folk horror.

Folk horror films can be a very demanding job for actors, especially if they take on the leading role and have to masterfully convey the isolation, paranoia, and anxiety their characters face. From the stellar acting of Florence Pugh in the haunting film Midsommar to the impeccable collective performance of A Field in England’s cast, folk horror films shouldn’t be cast aside – especially when it comes to superb acting performances.

• ‘Hagazussa’ (2017)
• ‘The Village’ (2004)
• ‘Apostle’ (2018)
• ‘The Long Walk’ (2019)
• ‘A Field in England’ (2013)
• ‘The Ritual’ (2017)
• ‘The Blood on Satan’s Claw’ (1971)
• ‘Midsommar’ (2019)
• ‘The Witch’ (2015)
• ‘The Wicker Man’ (1973)

Anyone who has experienced profound loss will understand how grief is an inherent shape-shifter. It shows up in different forms for everyone, takes up space in different ways, and changes continuously as you move through (and beyond) the process of mourning. Shudder’s latest film, Daddy’s Head, tackles this very phenomenon, offering a folk horror-inspired tale that is as surprisingly heartfelt as it is definitively terrifying. Indeed, the creature design in Benjamin Barfoot’s film is the stuff of nightmares — just in time for spooky season — but it’s the human characters that grab you in the end.

Daddy’s Head sees a young Isaac (Rupert Turnbull) reeling from the tragic death of his father (Charles Aitken), the only family he had left after his mother passed years ago. Though she has just recently married Isaac’s father, Laura (Julia Brown) becomes Isaac’s legal guardian, and must decide whether she will assume the role of his full-time caregiver or place him in foster care. As it turns out, Laura has her own baggage that makes her doubt her ability to be someone’s parent...

Humanity has missed its chance of keeping global warming below 1.5C and it will take “heroic efforts” to stay below 2C this century, the scientist leading the global effort to understand climate change has warned.

Jim Skea, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said a failure to sufficiently curb carbon emissions had left the world on track to warm by 3C by 2100. This average masks variations between land and sea, with western Europe and the UK facing even greater warming – perhaps as much as 5C by the end of the century.

“We are potentially headed towards 3C of global warming by 2100, if we carry on with the policies we have at the moment,” said Skea...

The Met Office has tried to project the UK impacts. By 2070, it says, winters will be up to 4.5C warmer but 30pc wetter, meaning more flooding. Summer will be up to 6C warmer, with frequent droughts and surging numbers of heat-related deaths.

Skea said: “It’s very clear climate change is no longer decades in the future. It’s very obvious it’s happening now, so we need to adapt.”

“One of the biggest risks in many regions will come from the combination of heat and humidity.

“It will just be difficult to live and to work outside. In some parts of the world, that will be really a showstopper for some kinds of economic activity.”

Europe faces some of the biggest challenges. Other scientists have predicted Scotland becoming a centre for wineries, that Poland will struggle to grow staple crops such as potatoes and Italy might no longer be able to cultivate durum wheat – used to make pasta.

Skea warned of deserts appearing in southern Europe. He said: “The whole of Europe is vulnerable and especially the Mediterranean. We are already seeing desertification taking place, not only in North Africa, but some of the southern margins of Europe, like Greece, Portugal and Turkey.”

Humanity has missed its chance of keeping global warming below 1.5C and it will take “heroic efforts” to stay below 2C this century, the scientist leading the global effort to understand climate change has warned.

Jim Skea, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said a failure to sufficiently curb carbon emissions had left the world on track to warm by 3C by 2100. This average masks variations between land and sea, with western Europe and the UK facing even greater warming – perhaps as much as 5C by the end of the century.

“We are potentially headed towards 3C of global warming by 2100, if we carry on with the policies we have at the moment,” said Skea.

“Obviously temperature rises over land will be higher than over the ocean. We don’t know how warm it will get [over land] but I know it may be more than the global average.”

The Met Office has tried to project the UK impacts. By 2070, it says, winters will be up to 4.5C warmer but 30pc wetter, meaning more flooding. Summer will be up to 6C warmer, with frequent droughts and surging numbers of heat-related deaths...

Consumer pocketbooks are taking the heat. Climate change is no longer a theoretical issue that will happen at some distant point in the future, like 2050 or 2100. Already, unprecedented climate change is happening on a regular basis and clobbering the American capitalistic system via consumer pocketbooks. People can’t afford ordinary life. They’re priced out of the market. Everything is getting more expensive by the year, every year.

“We’re no longer in a world where climate change affects the economy, or where voters prioritizing economic or inflationary concerns are responding to something distinct from climate change—we’re in a world where climate change is the economy.”(Source: Everything’s About to Get a Hell of a Lot More Expensive Due to Climate Change, Wired, June 22, 2024)...

It’s October. Some of your neighbors will spend this, the official first weekend of spooky season, going all-out with inflatable yard skeletons and ghosts. They will embark upon the annual attempt to make candy corn, aka high-fructose ear wax, a thing. They’ll adorn their front porches with those cotton spider webs that look nothing like real spider webs and instead just make it look like they went and ritually murdered a white sweater so they could hang its dismembered corpse across their doorway as a grisly warning to all other knitwear.

For me, it’s a more simple, elemental formula: Hot cider, cider donuts, folk horror...

Rescue teams are searching for survivors after flash floods and landslides hit parts of Bosnia, killing at least 16 people and injuring dozens more.

Construction machines worked to remove piles of rocks and debris covering the central town of Jablanica after the rainstorm early on Friday.

Huge volumes of rain fell in the area around Jablanica and nearby Konjic, causing sudden flooding that inundated people’s homes as they were sleeping...

... Human-caused climate change increases the intensity of rainfall because warm air holds more moisture. This summer, the Balkans were also hit by long-lasting record temperatures, causing a drought. Scientists said the dried-out land had hampered the absorption of flood waters.

Flooding was also reported in Croatia and Montenegro in the previous days but caused less damage and no fatalities.

Human remains have been found under the patio of a sheltered housing site.

Hertfordshire Police was called to St Mary's House, Hemel Hempstead, on Thursday after the remains were discovered by builders digging up the patio.

The force said officers were making inquiries as to why the remains, which they said were "very old", were at the site.