Folk Horror Appreciation Thread
- Thread starter RileyOBlimey
- Start date
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
No. Look it up folks ffs
krtek a houby
Anger is Hi-NRG
It's a loose anthology of folk tales, referencing Red Riding Hood. And it's horror. That'll suffice for me.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
It may, but it would be wrong
Ground Elder
Well-Known Member
This is folk horror, Company of Wolves isn't, hth 
Last edited:
RileyOBlimey
Well-Known Member
This is folk horror, Company of Wolves isn't, hth
Excellent. Bill and Ben on a rough comedown. The size of their pupils.
krtek a houby
Anger is Hi-NRG
If you say so
seeformiles
Lost in the wood
This radio programme is worth a listen Fear in the Furrows
Pogles Wood should get a mention - it had certainly prepared the ground for me by the time I got to watch The Wicker Man
The witch in Pogles’ Wood terrified me as a kid. She frequently put Tog into trances and made him do evil stuff
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
Posted the Melbourne Cinematheque seasons on British Horror before but they are probably better placed on this thread. (The second set are not really folk horror but the two seasons went together)
OLD, WEIRD ALBION: BRITISH SUPERNATURAL AND GOTHIC HORROR CINEMA FROM THE 1950s TO 1970s
Drawing upon a folkloric tradition with roots stretching back to before the Roman invasion, Britain has a rich heritage of supernatural tales. In cinema, this has translated to a powerful if eclectic body of work exploring the idea that something older, and undoubtedly malevolent, lies just below the modern surface (often literally, in an archaeological sense).
Once disturbed, these weird, unfettered forces will manifest as a direct threat to the precarious rationalism of our era’s disconnection from the natural world, folk traditions and the elemental fears of death and the afterlife. With the exception of Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General, chronicling the brutal activities of a witch-hunter – played by Vincent Price – during the Cromwell era, the films chosen for this season follow in the tradition of the ghost stories of M. R. James (whose short story “Casting the Runes” forms the basis of the earliest film in our season, Jacques Tourneur’s extraordinary Night of the Demon), forsaking historical settings to reveal terror erupting amongst contemporary communities. This season – a sequel to our 2018 focus on British psychological horror – explores an atmospheric but similarly psychologically motivated legacy of eerie cinema. From Jack Clayton’s masterful and influential adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, The Innocents, onwards to The Wicker Man’s terrifying encounter between the old, pagan Britain and the veneer of modern Christianity that replaced it, this is a season promising lashings of cinematic strangeness, dread and unease.
TWISTED NERVE: BRITISH PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR OF THE 1960s AND 1970s
Although the British horror genre is often defined by the rich legacies of gothic literature, Shakespeare, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, the ghost stories
of M. R. James, the films of Hammer and a range of other influences and precedents, there is also a rich vein of “psychological horror” that emerged in late 1950s British cinema and betrays the impact of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, the fractured post-war psyche, the reportage of true-crime mass and serial murders, shifts in censorship, and the arrival in the UK’s rapidly changing film industry of European and American directors such as Roman Polanski, Richard Fleischer and Wolf Rilla. This season focuses on a range of the most provocative, potent and obsessive of these films, exploring the dark and disturbed psychology and psychosis of modern British society. It opens with one of the most notorious and influential works of the subgenre, Michael Powell’s profoundly cinematic, deeply personal and patently disturbed Peeping Tom, a film that met with outrage and derision on its initial release. The film’s portrait of the damaged, murderous and poetic psyche of its lead protagonist, a focus puller working in the British studio system, provides a point of comparison and contrast with the other movies included in this season – such as Nicolas Roeg’s extraordinary Don’t Look Now and Fleischer’s truly chilling portrait of serial killer John Christie, 10 Rillington Place – and its focus on the impact of trauma, environment, sexuality and tradition on an increasingly cracked national consciousness. These films also reflect a deeper tradition of British horror literature, ranging from cryptographer Leo Marks’ original script for Peeping Tom to seminal mid-century writers such as Daphne du Maurier and John Wyndham.
OLD, WEIRD ALBION: BRITISH SUPERNATURAL AND GOTHIC HORROR CINEMA FROM THE 1950s TO 1970s
Drawing upon a folkloric tradition with roots stretching back to before the Roman invasion, Britain has a rich heritage of supernatural tales. In cinema, this has translated to a powerful if eclectic body of work exploring the idea that something older, and undoubtedly malevolent, lies just below the modern surface (often literally, in an archaeological sense).
Once disturbed, these weird, unfettered forces will manifest as a direct threat to the precarious rationalism of our era’s disconnection from the natural world, folk traditions and the elemental fears of death and the afterlife. With the exception of Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General, chronicling the brutal activities of a witch-hunter – played by Vincent Price – during the Cromwell era, the films chosen for this season follow in the tradition of the ghost stories of M. R. James (whose short story “Casting the Runes” forms the basis of the earliest film in our season, Jacques Tourneur’s extraordinary Night of the Demon), forsaking historical settings to reveal terror erupting amongst contemporary communities. This season – a sequel to our 2018 focus on British psychological horror – explores an atmospheric but similarly psychologically motivated legacy of eerie cinema. From Jack Clayton’s masterful and influential adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, The Innocents, onwards to The Wicker Man’s terrifying encounter between the old, pagan Britain and the veneer of modern Christianity that replaced it, this is a season promising lashings of cinematic strangeness, dread and unease.
- THE HAUNTING Robert Wise (1963) 111 mins – PG
- THE INNOCENTS Jack Clayton (1961) 100 mins – M
- THE WICKER MAN: THE FINAL CUT Robin Hardy (1973) 94 mins – M
- WITCHFINDER GENERAL Michael Reeves (1968) 86 mins – R 18+
- NIGHT OF THE DEMON Jacques Tourneur (1957) 95 mins – PG
- NIGHT OF THE EAGLE Sidney Hayers (1962) 90 mins – PG
TWISTED NERVE: BRITISH PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR OF THE 1960s AND 1970s
Although the British horror genre is often defined by the rich legacies of gothic literature, Shakespeare, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, the ghost stories
of M. R. James, the films of Hammer and a range of other influences and precedents, there is also a rich vein of “psychological horror” that emerged in late 1950s British cinema and betrays the impact of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, the fractured post-war psyche, the reportage of true-crime mass and serial murders, shifts in censorship, and the arrival in the UK’s rapidly changing film industry of European and American directors such as Roman Polanski, Richard Fleischer and Wolf Rilla. This season focuses on a range of the most provocative, potent and obsessive of these films, exploring the dark and disturbed psychology and psychosis of modern British society. It opens with one of the most notorious and influential works of the subgenre, Michael Powell’s profoundly cinematic, deeply personal and patently disturbed Peeping Tom, a film that met with outrage and derision on its initial release. The film’s portrait of the damaged, murderous and poetic psyche of its lead protagonist, a focus puller working in the British studio system, provides a point of comparison and contrast with the other movies included in this season – such as Nicolas Roeg’s extraordinary Don’t Look Now and Fleischer’s truly chilling portrait of serial killer John Christie, 10 Rillington Place – and its focus on the impact of trauma, environment, sexuality and tradition on an increasingly cracked national consciousness. These films also reflect a deeper tradition of British horror literature, ranging from cryptographer Leo Marks’ original script for Peeping Tom to seminal mid-century writers such as Daphne du Maurier and John Wyndham.
- PEEPING TOM, MICHAEL POWELL (1960) 101 MINS – M
- 10 RILLINGTON PLACE, RICHARD FLEISCHER (1971) 106 MINS – M
- VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED WOLF RILLA (1960) 77 MINS – PG
- SYMPTOMS JOSÉ RAMÓN LARRAZ (1974) 92 MINS – M
- DON’T LOOK NOW NICOLAS ROEG (1973) 110 MINS – M
- REPULSION ROMAN POLANSKI (1965) 105 MINS – M
Aladdin
Well-Known Member
rubbershoes
not the only raver in the village
Any mention of Dead of Night yet?
Highly recommended for anyone who hasn't seen it
Highly recommended for anyone who hasn't seen it
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
I think people need to look up Folk Horror
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Where to begin with folk horror
A beginner’s path through the haunted landscapes of ‘folk horror’.
www.bfi.org.uk
Folk horror - Wikipedia
Aladdin
Well-Known Member
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
What do you think about Julie Burchill?Nothing wrong with a bit of off topic tangential posting.
Anyway, a fairly niche question, but if anyone's read the short stories of EM Forster, particularly The Story of a Panic and Other Kingdom, I'd be interested to know if they think they count as folk horror, and why or why not. (For anyone who missed the other thread, did also ask about The Secret History but the consensus seemed to be that it wasn't.)
Aladdin
Well-Known Member
I don't.
krtek a houby
Anger is Hi-NRG
She can folk off
Aladdin
Well-Known Member
Was that a trick question then?
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Not meant as a trick question as such, more a joke based on the fact that there was a Julie Burchill thread that got derailed and turned into a massive discussion of folk horror.
RileyOBlimey
Well-Known Member
Folk Horror: A Beginners Guide
Aladdin
Well-Known Member
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
The Wicker Man chat starts somewhere around here, fwiw: Julie Burchill forced to apologise for twitter comments , and pay out a fat wedge . Although it does veer off from being a folk horror discussion to a kosher/homemade elderflower wine one at some point.
kittyP
Pluviophile
There was a recent updated adaptation of The Children of the Stones on BBC Sounds, I quite liked it.
www.bbc.co.uk
BBC Sounds - Children of the Stones - Available Episodes
Listen to the latest episodes of Children of the Stones on BBC Sounds.
www.bbc.co.uk
rubbershoes
not the only raver in the village
There was a recent updated adaptation of The Children of the Stones on BBC Sounds, I quite liked it.
BBC Sounds - Children of the Stones - Available Episodes
Listen to the latest episodes of Children of the Stones on BBC Sounds.
So I'm hoping all you lot inform your family that tea is ready by flinging up your arms and announcing
IT IS TIME
Nope? Just me then
krtek a houby
Anger is Hi-NRG
HTV's Robin of Sherwood could fit in there, especially with the episodes concerning The Swords of Wayland, Crom Cruach, etc.
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
Even though its on the wrong thread, thanks for that. It was an enjoyable way to pass a couple of hours. I liked the stone house toward the end, complete with storage areas and a little nook to set things next to the bed.
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