'Horror is international, and that includes Ulster-Scots': How the hamely tongue took a spooky turn for Halloween - and could hit it big on the silver screen

That’s because a series of short horror films in the hamely tongue goes up on BBC iPlayer on October 31, just in time for the spooky season to reach its height.

The projects comprise two four-part series, ‘Bogle Cove’ and ‘Haleve’ – the latter named after the Ulster-Scots word for Halloween itself.

‘Haleve’ draws on traditional Ulster traditions and scary stories connected with the date, comprising an anthology series of separate stories in different genres from found-footage frights to supernatural shocks.

For example, an episode called ‘Tha Lukin Gless’ sees a modern young woman use the ancient myth of girls being able to cast a spell to see the reflection of their future husband’s face on Halloween; here, she disrespects the ritual with terrifying consequences.

Another, ‘Ferntickle Weechil’, sees a new mother spooked by guisers coming round trick-or-treating, only to find the kids have secret plans for her baby and may not be children at all; or at least, not human ones.

All four parts comprising ‘Haleve’ were made by Northern Irish production company Beyond Visible Films, whose Dominic O’Neill and Will McConnell directed them.

Although recruiting actors fluent in the tongue could have been a challenge, Dominic told the News Letter that the wealth of talent on hand in the province made it a comparative breeze.

“Some of our actors had worked in it before, often in the theatre or reading poetry,” he said. “Some hadn’t but one of our writers, the poet and novelist Anne McMaster, was also our Ulster-Scots advisor, working with the actors to make sure they were confident in the language.

“As we developed the scripts we found a recurring theme was younger people messing with the old ways, not respecting the traditions and getting punished for it. So that was built into our stories; we have older characters speaking the language clashing with younger ones who get it wrong.”

It’s not Dominic’s first journey to Northern Ireland’s spooky side; two years ago, his found-footage feature film ‘Haunted Ulster Live’ was the spine-chilling tale of a 1990s TV broadcast from a ghost-infested house in Belfast that goes hair-raisingly wrong when the spectres turn out to be real.

While his work may gaze into dark shadows, he argues Ulster-Scots could have a bright future on the silver screen – especially if it sticks to the monstrous side of myths and traditions.

“Horror is international,” he said. “Audiences, and especially fans, don’t just watch movies made in English; they watch them in French, Japanese, Korean, anything. And that would include Ulster-Scots too, there’s no reason the language and culture couldn’t be up there.

“It’s a genre where budget isn’t an issue, you only have to look at this year to see that films made for smaller sums of money can be enormous hits. It’s also receptive to things like the works of [director] Robert Eggers; his films like ‘The Witch’ and next year’s ‘Werwulf’ employ historical dialects yet are major releases in the horror world.

“Personally, I find Ulster-Scots to be a very direct language; it doesn’t beat around the bush, it gets in and makes its point. In cinema, that’s exactly what you want.”