The Outcasts - [Blu-ray]

THE OUTCASTS (1982, 95 min.) In the dark she felt the key turning in the latch and a voice spoke to her: open the door, whispers Maura (Mary Ryan), the odd, intense daughter of an impoverished rural family in early 1800s Ireland who is accused of witchcraft after she's seen consorting in the woods with a conjurer and fiddle player named Scarf Michael (Mick Lally). Her neighbors and even her own family become increasingly consumed by fear and superstition, as Maura starts to experience surreal, poetic flashes of her latent abilities. A major rediscovery for fans of folklore, fantasy and folk horror, THE OUTCASTS was the first feature directed by Robert Wynne-Simmons, famed for his work as writer on BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW. THE OUTCASTS plays like an ancient ballad somehow captured on film, filled with the sorcery of earth and woods, musicians hooded in pagan straw masks and skirts, prejudice, myth, religion and yes, ghosts - and everywhere the peat and the mud and the bone-chilling cold. There's a queer sweetness in the air. It's an unnatural state of affairs, as one character murmurs. Ryan delivers an unforgettable performance as Maura with her piercing, raven-like beauty, matched by Lally as the nearly-mythic Scarf Michael. Co-starring Cyril Cusack, with a superb, lyrical score by acclaimed traditional folk composer and guitarist Steve Cooney. Recently restored by the Irish Film Institute, THE OUTCASTS emerges as one of the great gems of Irish cinema - released for the first time ever in the U.S. by Deaf Crocodile.