3 Stars

Blood, Grief, and Mystery.

From one of our favourite independent filmmakers, Chris Shane Sanders (Ripper Revealed, The Haunted Studio, Bring Me a Skin for Dancing In), who has stepped away from his usual genre of horror to write a crime thriller. He also takes the lead in this family driven mystery. Directed by Satnam Purewal (Bullet Holes and Blood (Short)) who has taken the leap from Video’s and shorts to a feature. This film is doing well on Amazon Prime, with over 600,000 minutes streamed on the digital platform. So follow the trend and watch this crime drama.

Tristan McGowan (Chris Shane Sanders) has been away from his family for more than a decade, the one thing that would bring him back has happened, his mothers’ funeral. He has a beef with some of his family and the people that knew his mother. Why didn’t they turn up and show their respects at the funeral, and now he is at his stepdads’ pub to get some answers.

The burning question he has is, why wasn’t his sister Katie there?

His first point of contact at the Ned Ludd pub is Kelly (Claire Jared, Nightmare Box) the barmaid, and an old flame of Tristan’s. It turns out his mother was a bit of a player, making deals, some good, some bad, and she owed a few people money, so the description of his mother changes depending on who you speak too.

Tristan is eager to see his stepdad Brandon (Scott Alan Ward, Paradise Records) who’s upstairs. With questions burning in his brain he heads off to confront him.

His stepdad is a busy man with his fingers in many pies, including three strip clubs, which are just a front for more dodgy dealings. But one thing is certainly dodgy, all the different stories of where the location of his sister is, as everybody gives a different version.

With only Kelly helping, he has to get to the bottom of this story, but when you aren’t quite Irish enough, things are going to be difficult, and he may become the problem.

It’s great to see Chris Shane Sanders broadening his scope with this crime drama, and it’s a cracking story that will keep you hooked to the end.

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Irish Ashes is available on Digital Platforms