[3] The story revolves around a grieving couple, Patrick and Louise, who move to a rural village after the tragic death of their daughter, Alice.

They encounter strange rituals led by Arthur, a veterinary colleague, that can bring the dead back to life for three days.

The film opens to little Alice Daley celebrating her ninth birthday with her parents Patrick, a veterinarian, and Louise, a pharmacist.

The couple's car mysteriously breaks down one evening, and they go to the nearby house of Patrick's veterinary colleague, Arthur, to seek help.

Horrified, Louise and Patrick witness the accident, and decide to leave town, but Arthur, who needs their skills (and presumably doesn't want Louise telling what she saw), convinces them to stay by explaining that he has a ritual that brings back the dead, but only for three days, only within the boundaries of the townland, and only if the person has been dead for less than a year.

The ritual requires a piece of the person to be resurrected, and the couple go grave-robbing, cutting off one of Alice's fingers and retrieving her necklace (from the opening scene).

At Mick's wake, Arthur asks his widow, Peggy, for permission to use his body, but she refuses, claiming there is something not right about the couple.

[4] The selection of Sweden as a shooting location was because of David Keating's love for the Swedish horror film Frostbite.

He mentioned that, in his opinion, Wake Wood includes some references to Lucio Fulci's film City of the Living Dead.

[14] A novelisation of the film was written by K. A. John and published by Hammer Books in association with the Random House Group in 2011, ISBN 978-0-09-955618-3.