Here are the best films playing in Dublin this weekend – April 19th-21st

Mike Finnerty 18 Apr 2024

The weather is threatening to improve, but that won’t stop the power of cinema.

Dublin has no shortage of great cinemas, and thankfully cinemas also have the sense to show good films too.

We take a look at films new and old that are playing in Dublin’s cinemas this weekend, and where they are on.

This week’s big new release is Abigail, directed by the Radio Silence crew of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.

The pair are best known for their recent Scream films, and have stayed in the horror genre for their new flick.

Dublin native Alisha Weir stars as the titular Abigail, the daughter of a crime overlord who is kidnapped by bumbling criminals.

What the criminals don’t know is that Abigail is a vampire child, and she flips the script on her captors.

Filmed around Dublin last summer, Abigail is a chance to see blood splattered over our emerald isle – hurray!

Look out for Abigail across all mainstream cinemas.

The other big horror release this week comes from Dublin director Paul Duane.

All You Need Is Death is the latest in a long line of Irish creatives looking to use our folklore to scare the hell out of people.

Last April, fellow Dublin horror director Lee Cronin set the box office alight with Evil Dead Rise, and now Duane is getting his day in the sun with his first feature film.

Duane’s past in documentary filmmaking should make this an intriguing watch; Penelope Sphreeis went from documentary to comedy when she made Wayne’s World, so someone going from documentary to horror is a very fun prospect indeed.

Look out for the film at the Irish Film Institute and the Lighthouse.

Speaking of the Lighthouse, one of the all-time great films is playing there on Saturday night.

People who read our reviews know we have a fondness for the films of Jonathan Demme (if you take a shot every time we mentioned him in our reviews, you’d need a transplant) and his masterpiece, Stop Making Sense, is playing in the Lighthouse on Saturday night.

The iconic Talking Heads concert film is turning 40 this year, and based on the reaction observed at our screening last October the film still has the capacity to make an audience get up and dance.

There are very few film-going experiences like it; it is the perfect marriage of film and music, as Demme intended.

You won’t have a better night out in Dublin this weekend than dancing with strangers to the music of Talking Heads in front of a big cinema screen.

The IFI’s Abbas Kiarostami season continues with a screening of Taste Of Cherry on Saturday.

The Iranian auteur made an embarrassing amount of good films during his career, and Taste Of Cherry is right up there.

An esoteric road movie like no other, this is the film to seek out this weekend if you want a break from typical Hollywood schmaltz.

The Stella in Rathmines has an unlikely double bill on Saturday morning: Muppets Take Manhattan and Saving Private Ryan.

If people thought the Barbenheimer double screening was weird, they’ll love juxtaposing muppet magic with the brutality of the second world war.

Finally, for fans of classic Hollywood, a new 4k print of On The Waterfront will play at the Lighthouse on Saturday afternoon to mark the 70th anniversary of the film.

See the film that gave the world the iconic line “I could have been a contender!” and one of Marlon Brando’s finest hours.