Folk Horror Appreciation Thread
- Thread starter RileyOBlimey
- Start date
RileyOBlimey
Well-Known Member
There’s a lengthy documentary on the way: Home - Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched
Here’s an interview with the producer…
Here’s an interview with the producer…
I just came across this guy, who sells folk-horror themed lino prints for a very reasonable price (he seems to be a graphic designer who's done a lot of work making things for Dr Who, that recent Dracula thing and the like. Nice stuff anyway)
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
Hare and Tabor do folk t-shirts if your fancy wearing something neat. I have the Mummers one and a couple of others, not sure where my Uffington one went...
Reno
The In Kraut
I thought that like most Ben Wheatley films, it starts out great and then looses its way. Kill List is still the only film of his which worked for me from beginning to the end.
I watched The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) for the first time a few days ago and really enjoyed it. Together with The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General it's considered one of the founding films of the genre. It's atmospheric and often creepy even if the plot gets a little muddled.
I believe it was Mark Gatiss who came up with the folk horror label and named those three films. We were talking about this on another thread. I honestly don't see Witchfinder General as folk horror. It's a film with lots of countryside but its not something in the countryside or the folk residing there that's the horror, it's plainly the witchfinder and his henchmen who are the badies. But then I'm not entirely sure what folk horror is exactly.
I really like four of Ben Wheatley's films - Kill List, Siteseers, A Field in England and Free Fire. I think there is something very special about Field in England though - the ambiance of it, and the characters - although I suppose it teeters on the pretenscious, I really, really enjoy it. I tend to really like the soundtracks to his films, they're definitely on my wavelength.
Reno
The In Kraut
I happily defer to Gatiss, he knows is stuff. I've come across these three films being considered among the founding films of folk horror in reference books and genre magazine articles before. There are a few films which came before and which could be considered folk horror, the Danish Häxän from 1922 for instance. It's a loosely defined genre but a rural setting and pre-christian religions like paganism (interpreted as satanism/witchcraft by christianity) tend to feature. The witches in Witchfinder General weren't of the satanic kind, they were healers, etc, innocent victims of christian persecution with no supernatural powers.
Jim William's scores are usually my favourite thing about Wheatley's films, my favourite score of his is from the excellent French-Belgian (non folk) horror film Raw.
Last edited:
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
That was me I think. So good and icky
Oh my god is it good. I actually find it insanely funny in a weird transgressive way. Also Jim Williams score.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
The waxing scene is so funny while also making you wince
Yep. Enough to make you wax lyrical about it.
Reno
The In Kraut
A Dark Song is an underrated Irish horror film about a woman who employs an occultist to recreate a ritual from The Book of Abramelin to summon her guardian angel. Of course things go wrong. Steve Oram is great as the crankiest medium ever.
Mostly set in a suburb of Edinburgh, Outcast draws so much on Celtic mythology that I think it passes as folk horror.
Mostly set in a suburb of Edinburgh, Outcast draws so much on Celtic mythology that I think it passes as folk horror.
I think it's a serious attempt to tell a 1630's puritan story about witchcraft as the characters in the story would have seen it, with their ideas, mythologies and biases. And that's why I think it's endlessly fascinating. But it does require a bit of atuning. I didn't think much of it on my first watch either.
RileyOBlimey
Well-Known Member
Aye, there’s some superb footage dug out and spun in. Definitely worth a watch if folk horror works for you.
RileyOBlimey
Well-Known Member
I’m a fan of his but this was a disappointing effort. It didn’t feel like a Ben Wheatley, more like a Black Mirror episode that lost it’s way. In its defence it was filmed during lockdown which must have been a challenge.
RileyOBlimey
Well-Known Member
I appreciated the tripping scenes. Representation of LSD experiences are usually cartoonish or just not convincing. They did good.
RileyOBlimey
Well-Known Member
A decent podcast episode covering 20th century folk horror:
RileyOBlimey
Well-Known Member
The 70s didn’t have a monopoly on kids folk horror. Moondial (1988) ticks the right boxes (rural setting, outsider, isolation, and supernatural shenanigans).
en.wikipedia.org
Moondial (TV serial) - Wikipedia
Reno
The In Kraut
One thing about the most famous folk horror films I've noticed is that there is no supernatural activity or if there is, then it's often experienced by characters subjectively. Even if there are supernatural shenanigans, superstition/religious zealotry still tends to the most destructive force.
I saw Penda’s Fen when it was first broadcast and still remember how much I enjoyed the story.
hot air baboon
Well-Known Member
bit of a high-jack you may well be priviliged to be in at the birth of a new coinage here - "folk-sci-fi". Stuff that has "folk" over-tones but not strictly FH.
Like FH it has a very strong 70's vibe to it & seems more of a tv thing - maybe because the British film industry was moribund at the time : - the bbc children's tv show The Changes based on the Peter Dickinson books. The Pertwee era Dr Who episodes like The Daemons. The 1979 Quatermass series. There was the Doomwatch tv spin-off film which had a strange Wicker Man vibe to it. Survivors at a pinch.
I think you could probably say Nigel Kneale was one of the orginators of the "genre" as he definitley liked to do mash ups of sci-fi & horror themes - like The Stone Tape
Back O/T : Eye of the Devil (1966) is an interesting one as its actually set in rural France rather than England & pre-dates the Wicker Man obvs. Sharon Tate met Polanksi while making it & self-styled king of the witches Alex Sanders acted as "adviser" to make sure it was all totally authentic !
Like FH it has a very strong 70's vibe to it & seems more of a tv thing - maybe because the British film industry was moribund at the time : - the bbc children's tv show The Changes based on the Peter Dickinson books. The Pertwee era Dr Who episodes like The Daemons. The 1979 Quatermass series. There was the Doomwatch tv spin-off film which had a strange Wicker Man vibe to it. Survivors at a pinch.
I think you could probably say Nigel Kneale was one of the orginators of the "genre" as he definitley liked to do mash ups of sci-fi & horror themes - like The Stone Tape
Back O/T : Eye of the Devil (1966) is an interesting one as its actually set in rural France rather than England & pre-dates the Wicker Man obvs. Sharon Tate met Polanksi while making it & self-styled king of the witches Alex Sanders acted as "adviser" to make sure it was all totally authentic !
Similar threads
