Wake Wood

The film opens with the young Alice Daley celebrating her ninth birthday with her parents, Patrick and Louise. Patrick, a veterinarian, gives her a pet hamster, while Louise offers a necklace as a keepsake. The moment establishes the close family bond and the ordinary life they hope to protect.

On her way home from school, Alice visits the yard of Patrick's veterinary practice where a German Shepherd attacks her. Patrick and Louise rush to help but are unable to save her, and she dies from her injuries shortly after the confrontation.

Grief-stricken, Patrick and Louise relocate to the rural village of Wakewood to cope with their loss. Louise learns she cannot have any more children, intensifying their sense of isolation and hope for a second chance.

One evening their car breaks down and they seek help at Arthur, Patrick's veterinary colleague. Louise witnesses Arthur leading a strange and bloody pagan ritual, but she says nothing at the time, wary of what she has seen.

A farmer, Mick O'Shea, is accidentally killed by his own bull, a chilling event that unsettles the town. Arthur explains that there is a ritual to resurrect the dead for three days, but only within the townland and only if death occurred within the past year, convincing the couple to stay.

Arthur details the ritual: it requires a piece of the person to be resurrected and a fresh corpse, and it must happen within the townland and within a year of death. The couple agree to participate to bring back their daughter, lured by the possibility of a second chance.

The couple conduct grave-robbing to obtain a piece of Alice, severing one of her fingers from her grave and retrieving her necklace from the opening scene. The ritual hinges on these relics to anchor the resurrection.

At Mick's wake, Arthur asks his widow Peggy for permission to use his body. Peggy initially refuses, sensing something is wrong, but Arthur persuades her through tacit threats, ensuring the ritual proceeds.

The ritual revives Alice, but as soon as she crosses the townland boundary, she collapses and bears the wounds that killed her. Her parents quickly carry her back across the boundary, and the wounds disappear, suggesting the boundary's power is both vital and dangerous.

That night, Arthur and the villagers arrive, insisting Alice must be sent back to her grave immediately. Patrick and Louise persuade them to allow Alice to stay for the final day, clinging to the hope that the strange circumstances might be resolved.

Alice begins killing and mutilating animals and reveals that she is pregnant, a detail confirmed by a pregnancy test conducted by Louise. The disturbing truth of her resurrection becomes clear as her actions spiral out of control.

Alice murders Peggy and several villagers before Patrick manages to sedate her. The family and locals carry her into the woods and bury her, realizing she has been dead for over a year.

Sometime later, Arthur resurrects a heavily pregnant Louise, suggesting the ritual's power persists beyond Alice's death and foreshadowing continued tragedy for the family. Patrick and Louise discuss their unborn child in the aftermath.

In the final scene, Patrick lays out surgical tools at home, hinting at ongoing experiments with the dead and the family’s moral boundaries being tested by the ritual's power.