You won't be disappointed!

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Now this is storytelling! With all of the drivel out there trying hard to pass itself off as Horror, in comes this film with its superb acting and terribly terrifying plot. Ireland has never seemed so scary! (I lived there for a year, saw some strange things, etc. but thank God never saw anything like this!) I give this one a 10 because there are no flaws, and the finale is both tender and utterly shocking! There's been no film made like this before, and it would be a good thing not to begin a trend or franchise with this one. Leave it as the singular gem it is, and enjoy!

This had to be one of the worst movies I have seen. From beginning to end it was predictable I can't remember the number of times I was able to "call" what happened next.Plot and Script very "High School". Would advise anyone not to bother and take a pass on this one.At the beginning I had hopes for something like "The Wicker Man" but the similarities ended at the accent.I don't know what more I can say about this movie I feel like I just wasted the last hour and 20 min and I hope this review will dissuade at least one person from wasting there time watching it. This is a definite pass 3 thumbs down in this room.

Female directors are too rare, particularly those willing to approach the horror genre. Walsh uses the beautiful Western Irish coast to create a bleak atmosphere of isolation and vulnerability. The plot is somewhat obvious, a young couple move away from the bright lights of London to raise a family, the wife is pregnant, and the husband has inherited his childhood home in Ireland, but the neighbour's child Daisy is suspected of being a fairy changeling, born in a fairy ring on Halloween. The Neighbour's son is killed under mysterious circumstances and the parents are soon to follow, the child is then adopted by the London couple, the motivation for this aspect of the plot is addressed but remains unconvincing. The superstitious locals become increasingly scared of young Daisy. The film lacks originality but has some redeeming qualities, the child actress Mhairi Anderson who plays Daisy is remarkable, providing a genuinely disturbing performance, the cinematography and score combine to give the film a unique character that is tense and compelling. The theme of fairies and the supernatural remains unaddressed which is frustrating, it is never made clear whether the girl suffers from autism, is very disturbed or is really a fairy changeling, a question left unanswered deliberately by the director, but in a clumsy way, that doesn't encourage the audience to feel sympathy for the girl, who is properly identified neither as victim nor as aggressor. Despite the flaws The Daisy Chain, a combination of Straw Dogs and the Wicker Man, is a beautiful and at times moving addition to the horror genre.

The above Q and A took place after last night's debut screening at the Raindance film festival in London, an abrupt exchange between an audience member and the film's director, Aisling Walsh. And frankly, for me, her disbelief is the problem. For if she doesn't believe, how can she expect us to? (I have not included spoilers for the film's ending; I only tell the basic set up.)The Daisy Chain is set in a remote corner of Ireland, but even here the locals (bar your one token nut who nobody's ever going to listen to) do not believe in fairies anymore. Nonetheless, living amongst them is a 'fairy changeling', an autistic 10-year old Daisy who, with no more reason than that of a petulant child, is using her supernatural powers to kill off anyone who would get in the way of her mission to find someone to play with. Schoolteacher (Stephen MacIntosh) returns to his hometown with his heavily pregnant wife Martha (played by a heavily pregnant Samantha Morton); they are escaping from London, where their first child died aged only 3 weeks. Very soon Daisy's little brother and parents die in mysterious accidents and Martha, against her husband's escalating alarm, is stepping in as foster mum. If you think you know where this is all heading by now, you're probably right. Comparisons with The Omen are inevitable. Apart from the setting and substituting a fairy-changeling for the Devil, this is basically a copy, with pretty much the same clichéd twists and psychological 'thrills'. The difference is in the level of belief. OK, so The Omen was made in the Dark Ages (1976) when many people still at least half-believed in the Devil. Today nobody does. But however silly the story, every highly-researched detail of The Omen carries utter conviction in its pompous, claustrophobic self so that even today, the viewer is still compelled to suspend disbelief and take that ride. The Daisy Chain clearly lacks belief in itself (or much apparent research) as is evident from unnecessarily sloppy plotting, and from supporting characters and subplot strands that insubstantially manifest out of nowhere and go nowhere. Ironically, Ms Walsh (the director) seems to have lost sight of all this as a result of herself being mesmerised by the beguiling face of promising newcomer Mhairi Anderson (who plays Daisy), just as Martha in the film falls helplessly under Daisy's spell. Mhairi's perfectly fairy/urchin-like face and unsettling stare dominates the film but, as effective as she is, this cannot make up for the lack of scripted thrills. I sensed that much of the audience's enthusiasm afterwards was projected toward Mhairi's presence. Certainly, those around me with stretching necks looked eager and relieved to confirm that Mhairi is actually a sweetly charming and not-at-all evil young lady. Phew!The post-viewing Q and A session held one other surprise that possibly explains some of these problems but prompts other questions. Watching the film, it was immediately apparent that Samantha Morton (whose films I usually always love) was heavily pregnant during the making of the film. Was Samantha boldly (and unsuperstitiously) taking method acting a step beyond? No. It turns out that in the original script Martha was NOT pregnant, and that the script was re-written at a very late stage to embrace this casting coup. This revelation left me reeling. For, as the film now stands, Martha's pregnancy is absolutely central and essential to the entire story. In fact, without it, there would be nothing left but Daisy's face.And I still don't get why it's called The Daisy Chain.