‘The Weepers’ is a 30-minute short film that playfully explores Scotland’s relationship with the Gothic horror genre. Drawing on a variety of cultural reference points, including Scottish myth, haunted house movies and Doctor Johnson’s trip to the Hebrides, the film is a surreal exploration of Highland culture post-Clearances, where the number of sheep has gradually exceeded that of the human population.

Shot entirely on the Isle of Mull, the video follows The Doctor, an uptight, mainland bureaucrat, on a trip to Duart Castle, where he is to seize the assets of the failed wool-wear company of the eccentric Lady Maclean. While taking an inventory of the castle, the Doctor comes upon a number of ‘distractions’, not least of all the strange hauntings of the Weeper, a sheep-like phantom loosely based on the Gaelic myth of the Bean Nighe.

Script by Andrew Cattanach
Logo by Stephen Kelman
Commissioned by Comar, An Tobar, Mull