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www.bfi.org.uk
> Unlike other sub-genres, folk horrorโs very form is difficult to convey. Despite what its simplistic description implies โ from the emphasis on the horrific side of folklore to a very literal horror of people โ the termโs fluctuating emphasis makes it difficult to pin down outside of a handful of popular examples. > > The term first came to prominence in 2010 when Mark Gatiss used it as an umbrella theme to describe a number of films in his A History of Horror documentary for BBC4. Yet the term was used in the programme in reference to an earlier interview with the director Piers Haggard for Fangoria magazine in 2004, in which Haggard suggests of his own film Blood on Satanโs Claw (1971) that he โwas trying to make a folk horror filmโ. > > Since then, the term has spiralled out, largely thanks to social media and digital platforms, to include a huge variety of culture, from silent Scandinavian cinema, public information films and the music of Ghost Box records to writing by the likes of M.R. James, Susan Cooper and Arthur Machen. It is the evil under the soil, the terror in the backwoods of a forgotten lane, and the ghosts that haunt stones and patches of dark, lonely water; a sub-genre that is growing with both newer examples summoned almost yearly
screenanarchy.com
>We are very pleased to premiere the trailer for a new Mexican folk horror film called A Fisherman's Tale (Un cuento de pescadores). This is the new film from Edgar Nito the director of the Tribeca hit, The Gasoline Thieves. This time, with one of their co-writers from that first film, Alfredo Mendoza, they are exploring the legend of La Miringua. >A Fisherman's Tale is the cinematic adaptation of a Purรฉpecha legend that is passed down by word of mouth in the lake areas of Central Mexico. It tells the story of a spirit that takes the form of a woman to attract fishermen to the depths of the lake, where it bewitches them. La Miringua, whose name means forgetting or forgetting, confuses people, making them lose track of time and space, until they forget themselves...
rue-morgue.com
>Daniele Campeaโs slow burn, MOTHER NOCTURNA, joins the ranks of folk horror films that serve to remind us that there are certain inescapable and unknowable primal forces that can consume us and our loved ones. Based on Euripidesโ Greek tragedy, The Bacchae, this film is a family drama at its very core. Wolf biologist Agnese (Susanna Costaglione) is recently released from a long stay at a mental hospital. She reunites with her husband, Riccardo (Edoardo Oliva) and teenage daughter and dancer, Arianna (Sofia Ponente). Despite Riccardoโs best peace-keeping efforts, the reunion between Agnese and Arianna is less than happy, creating a mystery that slowly unravels until the filmโs climatic and tragic ending. MOTHER NOCTURNA taps into the fear of unearthing terrible truths about our own families. Like all horror, it uses metaphors to take that fear to the next horrifying level. >Nature is a character in itself in MOTHER NOCTURNA. Set in the Italian countryside, the film opens with shots of a forest that are both beautiful and ominous. Campea continues to intercut this idyllic landscape throughout the film, even when it takes a disturbing turn. Agnese, who was seemingly removed from nature during her stay at the mental hospital, becomes reacquainted with the neighboring forest and the wolves that inhabit it. Campeaโs use of still long shots of Agnese in rural settings tell a story in itself: Agnese cannot escape her dark past and will find herself succumbing to the same primal force that alienated her from her family once before...
www.highonfilms.com
>The folk-horror genre has been a perennial mainstay on screens for decades, with recent installments from films like Midsommar, Enys Men, and more recently Starve Acre revitalizing the genre. Harvest, which marks the English-language debut of Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari, continues this tradition but deploys it in more novel ways. The film utilizes its quasi-folk-horror sensibility to paint an elegiac portrait of a pre-industrial village in the Scottish Highlands. >The film, adapted from Jim Craceโs novel of the same name, follows a small community nearing the end of the harvest season, run under their master Charles Kent (Harry Melling), who inherited the estate their village is on from his late wife, and his right-hand man Walter Thirsk (Caleb Landry Jones). The village displays all the traditional trappings of folk-horror communities found in films like The Wicker Man. They consciously live outside the gaze of God, engage in bizarre practices, like banging childrenโs heads against rocks, and carry out pagan dances around a bonfire in elaborate animal masks. There is even a lot of wicker. >They are also highly wary of outsiders and those they believe donโt belong. This includes a mapmaker called Quill (Arinze Kene), whom Kent has hired to chart his land, and a trio of two men and a woman who they falsely accuse of burning down their barn. The village is forced to belligerently accept Quillโs presence but punishes the others for their supposed crimes. The two men are locked in pillories while the villagers shave the womanโs head and accuse her of witchcraft before she flees and begins stalking them in the dead of night. The film continually plays with the horror genre in this way, maintaining a creeping sense of dread throughout its runtime. However, it never dives headlong into all-out horror and opts to teeter on the edge of the sinister and the supernatural. Instead, Tsangari fixes the film closer to the ground to forge an earthly and elemental picture of pre-industrialized agricultural life...
www.polygon.com
>The new micro-budget indie movie Falling Stars is billed as folk horror, and the premise makes it clear why: Itโs a story about three brothers who take a trip into the desert to disinter a witchโs corpse, and end up unleashing something frightening. But the film โ produced, directed, written, edited, and shot by Richard Karpala and Gabriel Bienczycki โ taps into a very different species of spookiness than you might expect from that description. >Falling Stars feels more like a UFO or alien-abduction story. The movie doesnโt deal in the creepiness of the dark woods, the muddy hamlet, or the haunted manor: Instead, it taps into a wide-eyed fear of the open sky at night. While watching it, I was often reminded of another low-budget production from a few years ago, Andrew Pattersonโs excellent 1950s-style UFO throwback The Vast of Night. Thatโs a much better-made movie than this one, but Karpala and Bienczycki have found such a unique blend of genre flavors in Falling Stars โ witchy folklore with starlit, they-came-from-above terror โ that itโs worth checking out...
www.thebulwark.com
>THE RESURGENCE OF FOLK HORRORโan ancient subgenre of horror that concerns itself with nature and the attendant superstitions that mankind has connected to itโin recent years has been largely cinematic in nature. Examples include Robert Eggersโs tremendous film The Witch (2015), or Ari Asterโs Midsommar (2019), the latter of which owes an immense debt to one of the towering folk horror films, Robin Hardy and Anthony Shafferโs The Wicker Man (1973). This is a welcome change in the horror film landscape, though in my experience, in horror literature folk horror has never really fallen out of style. Itโs always been there, though itโs been a while since it could be considered part of horrorโs mainstream. One of the most recent folk horror novels to enjoy widespread success is Stephen Kingโs Pet Sematary, and that came out in 1983. >This hasnโt stopped serious horror writers from taking their own swings at it. One of the best and most prominent folk horror writers working today is the English writer Andrew Michael Hurley. Before turning to novels, Hurley published two collections of short stories, neither of which are easily acquired (I simply canโt find them, affordably priced or not). But since 2014, Hurley has written three novels, all of them folk horror: The Loney, Devilโs Day, and, most recently, Starve Acre (a film adaptation of which has been playing festivals overseas, to positive reviews). Iโve read all three, and I recommend each without reservation. Today, I want to focus exclusively on his second, Devilโs Day (2017), which I believe in some key ways is one of the purest, and most interesting, examples of folk horror that Iโve encountered in some time...
www.mediaplaynews.com
>Severin Films is prepping a second boxed Blu-ray Disc set of international horror classics for Nov. 12 release. >The 13-disc All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, Volume 2 is a followup to the 15-disc original, which Severin says is the most successful boxed set in the companyโs history. >Volume 2 includes 24 folk horror films from 18 countries, with more than 55 hours of special features โ including trailers, interviews, audio commentaries, short films, video essays, historical analyses and bonus feature-length films โ and a 252-page hardcover book of folk horror fiction by such luminaries as Ramsey Campbell, Cassandra Khaw and Eden Royce. >Many of the films have never before been available on disc. The set also includes two new Severin Films original productions: To Fire You Come at Last, directed by Sean Hogan, and the documentary Suzzana: The Queen of Black Magic, directed by Severin Films cofounder David Gregory, which will have its world premiere at the Sitges Film Festival on Oct. 12... The films include: - To Fire You Come at Last (Sean Hogan, UK/US, 2023) - Psychomania (Don Sharp, UK, 1973) - The Enchanted (Carter Lord, US, 1984) - Who Fears the Devil (John Newland, US, 1972) - The White Reindeer (Erik Blomberg, Finland, 1952) - Edge of the Knife (Gwaai Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown, Canada, 2018) - Born of Fire (Jamil Dehlavi, UK, 1987) - IO Island (Kim Ki-young, South Korea, 1977) - Scales (Shahad Ameen, Saudi Arabia, 2019) - Bakeno: A Vengeful Spirit (Yoshihiro Ishikawa, Japan, 1968) - Nang Nak (Nonzee Nimibutr, Thailand, 1999) - Sundelbolong (Sisworo Gautama Putra, Indonesia, 1981) - Suzzana: The Queen of Black Magic (David Gregory, US, 2024) - Beauty and the Beast (Juraj Herz, Czechoslovakia, 1978) - The Ninth Heart (Juraj Herz, Czechoslovakia, 1979) - Demon (Marcin Wrona, Poland, 2015) - November (Rainer Sarnet, Estonia/Poland/Netherlands, 2017) - Litan (Jean-Pierre Mocky, France, 1982) - Blood Tea and Red String (Christiane Cegavske, US, 2006) - Nazareno Cruz and the Wolf (Leonardo Favio, Argentina, 1975) - Akelarre (Pedro Olea, Spain, 1984) - From the Old Earth (Wil Aaron, Wales, 1981) - The City of the Dead (John Llewellyn Moxey, UK, 1960) - The Rites of May (Mike De Leon, Philippines, 1976)
variety.com
>AMCโs genre streamer Shudder has picked up North American, U.K., Irish, Australian and New Zealand rights to โFrรฉwaka,โ billed as the first Irish-language horror. >Written and directed by Aislinn Clarke and starring Clare Monnelly, Brรญd Nรญ Neachtain and Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya, the film โ which features both the Irish and English language โ recently world premiered at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival, and will have its U.K. premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 11, 2024. โFrรฉwakaโ will debut on Shudder in 2025. >โFrรฉwakaโ following home care worker Shoo, who is sent to a remote village to care for an agoraphobic woman who fears the neighbors as much as she fears the Na Sรญdhe โ sinister entities who she believes abducted her decades before. As the two develop a strangely deep connection, Shoo is consumed by the old womanโs paranoia, rituals, and superstitions, eventually confronting the horrors from her own past...
www.joblo.com
>As movies like Bone Tomahawk and Tremors 4 have proven, horror and Westerns are two great tastes that taste great together. I always like to hear that another horror / Western blend is in the works โ so I was glad to see The Hollywood Reporter announce that the folk horror thriller The Wolf and the Lamb, which is set โduring the western expansion of the 1870s,โ is coming our way. Cassandra Scerbo of the Sharknado franchise and Adrianne Palicki of The Orville star in the film, which is currently in production, with filming taking place in Montana. >The Wolf and the Lamb marks the feature writing and directing debut of Michael Schilf. Scerbo is taking on the role of a widowed school teacher searching for her only son, who is the latest child to go missing in a tight-knit mining camp. But when the son miraculously returns, he is more monster than man. Weโll have to wait and see what kind of monster action weโll be getting in this movie. Is this some kind of changeling, or something even worse?...
collider.com
>A great folk horror film usually hinges on the tension between modern protagonists and the eerie isolation of the countryside. This, combined with the depiction of ancient pagan traditions and strong local beliefs, creates an unnerving sense of dread. Through all of these elements, many unforgettable acting performances have enriched the realm of folk horror. >Folk horror films can be a very demanding job for actors, especially if they take on the leading role and have to masterfully convey the isolation, paranoia, and anxiety their characters face. From the stellar acting of Florence Pugh in the haunting film Midsommar to the impeccable collective performance of A Field in Englandโs cast, folk horror films shouldnโt be cast aside โ especially when it comes to superb acting performances. - โHagazussaโ (2017) - โThe Villageโ (2004) - โApostleโ (2018) - โThe Long Walkโ (2019) - โA Field in Englandโ (2013) - โThe Ritualโ (2017) - โThe Blood on Satanโs Clawโ (1971) - โMidsommarโ (2019) - โThe Witchโ (2015) - โThe Wicker Manโ (1973)
movieweb.com
>Anyone who has experienced profound loss will understand how grief is an inherent shape-shifter. It shows up in different forms for everyone, takes up space in different ways, and changes continuously as you move through (and beyond) the process of mourning. Shudderโs latest film, Daddyโs Head, tackles this very phenomenon, offering a folk horror-inspired tale that is as surprisingly heartfelt as it is definitively terrifying. Indeed, the creature design in Benjamin Barfootโs film is the stuff of nightmares โ just in time for spooky season โ but itโs the human characters that grab you in the end. >Daddyโs Head sees a young Isaac (Rupert Turnbull) reeling from the tragic death of his father (Charles Aitken), the only family he had left after his mother passed years ago. Though she has just recently married Isaacโs father, Laura (Julia Brown) becomes Isaacโs legal guardian, and must decide whether she will assume the role of his full-time caregiver or place him in foster care. As it turns out, Laura has her own baggage that makes her doubt her ability to be someoneโs parent...
> A24 is responsible for a number of the most haunting and thought-provoking movies of the last decade, none more so than 2021's Lamb, which acts as a dark inversion of one classic fairy tale trope. Lamb stars Noomi Rapace as an Icelandic livestock farmer who, in the wake of the loss of her own daughter, adopts a bizarre human/lamb hybrid child with mysterious origins. While it's classified as a folk horror movie, Lamb isn't necessarily as scary as it is disturbing. In fact, it resonates more like an ancient fairy tale come to life in the modern day than anything. > > Fan theories abound about Lamb's shocking ending, but no matter how a viewer interprets it, the story is rife with common fairy tale tropes. The Icelandic setting seems almost surreal and dreamlike, and haunting performances from Rapace as Marรญa and and Hilmir Snรฆr Guรฐnason as Ingvar help to escalate the story from a mere cautionary tale into something more eerie. However, at its center, Lamb takes one popular fairy tale trope and turns it on its head, putting the viewer in an unfamiliar place when it comes to sympathy and perspective. > > Kidnapping is a common trope in fairy tales, particularly when speaking about actual fairies, as opposed to the more general phrase indicating a story that's based upon imaginary characters or settings. Throughout much of European folklore, supernatural beings like fairies are said to steal children away from their homes and replace them with a being known as a "changeling", which mimics the child but with some differences. The stories originated as a way to explain and describe children with developmental disabilities or neurological deficiencies long before such medical diagnoses were possible. Beyond this point, spoilers lie.
>Itโs October. Some of your neighbors will spend this, the official first weekend of spooky season, going all-out with inflatable yard skeletons and ghosts. They will embark upon the annual attempt to make candy corn, aka high-fructose ear wax, a thing. Theyโll adorn their front porches with those cotton spider webs that look nothing like real spider webs and instead just make it look like they went and ritually murdered a white sweater so they could hang its dismembered corpse across their doorway as a grisly warning to all other knitwear. >For me, itโs a more simple, elemental formula: Hot cider, cider donuts, folk horror...
winteriscoming.net
>The latest season of Doctor Who was very much a mixed bag, but we can all agree that the episode "73 Yards" was one of the finest installments. The episode stepped away from science fiction to tell a chilling British folk horror story. >Set in rural Wales, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) is left alone after the Doctor vanishes. But exactly 73 yards away at all times, a mysterious lady follows her. The distant lady may not be an immediate threat, but she creepily lingers at the same distance. After folk in an inn put fear into her that she's disturbed an old fairy circle, Ruby learns that she must've let loose an ancient curse. Whoever Ruby speaks to about the lady either becomes incredibly hostile or flees in terror. >The episode was a high point for the series. It's currently the highest-rated episode of the new season on IMDb with a rating of 8.2/10. The secrets within its plot remain a mystery; even months after it premiered, fans are still trying to uncover elements of the story...
www.rockpapershotgun.com
>I do not wish to dwell overly long on the incredible stop motion sheep in the trailer for folk horror game Daemonologie, because itโs got so much else going for it - from the gorgeously haunting vocal and string melodies to the extremely dark character interactions that offer your witch finder the choice between 'talk' and 'torture'. And yet, living in Wales for the last decade must have rubbed off. The sweet sheep, they sing to me. The relative rarity of stop motion and other practical effects in horror media is surely one of the greater tragedies of our age, although not too surprising given the incredible amount of work it takes. Flock toward the trailer below, and Iโll see you on the other side of the pasture, hopefully as deeply altered by the experience as I was. >"Daemonologie is a short folk horror story influenced by the Scottish witch trials of the late 1600s," bleats the Steam page. It didnโt actually bleat, to be fair, but bleating is all I can hear now. Itโs a short one, apparently clocking in between 30 to 60 minutes for a single playthrough, but with secrets and other mysteries youโll have to dig for. Itโs from Katanalevy, who also made well-loved violin-em-up Symphony of Seven Souls. This one also started as an Itch project, though it looks to have come a long way in the intervening four years...
dailydead.com
>Available October 4th on VOD, Digital and on Film Movement Plus, we have an exclusive preview of The Wait, a new folk horror film from F. Javier Guttierez: >"Deep in the Andalusian countryside, Eladio (Victor Clavijo) has been hired to watch over the hunting grounds of Don Franciscoโs estate, somewhere in rural Spain. The estate is divided into ten hunting stands, spaced far enough apart to avoid incidents. After three years of service, Don Carlos โ Don Franciscoโs second in command โ offers him a bribe to add an additional three stands to the property. Eladio initially hesitates, but his wife eventually convinces him to take the money. Eladioโs greed has unfortunate consequences that drag his entire family to perdition, and plunges him into the depths of guilt, hatred, and revenge."
www.flickeringmyth.com
>Miracle Media has shared a poster and trailer for The Witch Game, an Argentinian folklore horror from director Fabiรกn Forte (La Corporaciรฒn) which is coming to the UK this October. Check out the trailer... >Mara (Lourdes Mansilla), a moody teenager obsessed with video games and the occult, would rather play than hang out with her family. So, when she unwraps a mysterious virtual reality game on her birthday, promising to teach her real witchcraft, she dives in without hesitation. But this is no ordinary game and what starts as a thrilling adventure quickly turns into a nightmareโฆ Caught in a sinister web of magic, can Mara cast the spell that will set her sister free from The Witch Game?
faroutmagazine.co.uk
>The thing with Midsommar is that the ending is no mystery. For eagle-eyed viewers, the fate of Florence Pughโs character, Dani, is revealed from the very beginning. Hiding in plain sight, the ending of Ari Asterโs 2019 folk horror is on the screen repeatedly as Easter eggs throughout make it clear how the tale will end...
www.flickeringmyth.com
>XYZ Films has shared a poster and trailer for Falling Stars, the upcoming folk horror from directors Gabriel Bienczycki and Richard Karpala. >The film follows three brothers as they set off into the desert to take a look at the body of a witch, but after accidentally desecrating the corpse, a terrible curse befalls their family. >The cast includes Rene Leech, Shaun Duke Jr., Andrew Gabriel, Diane Worman, and Greg Poppa. Watch the trailer...
>Enys Men is one of those movies that shows a stark contrast between critic and audience scores. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics gave the 2023 film an 86% fresh score, while audiences had a whopping 22% rotten score. This contrast makes sense, as anyone who went into Enys Men assuming it would be a modern, entertaining horror film was about to have their expectations thrown out the window. Enys Men, which is the Cornish translation for "Stone Island," is not fast-paced, nor explicitly horror, and not even a full comprehensive narrative. Itโs more so an experience โ a portal into a Cornish Island in 1973, witnessing the repeated mundane tasks of a scientist making daily nature observations on an island that becomes stranger each day. Director Mark Jenkin did this intentionally and wanted audiences to view the film and make their own interpretations of the themes, such as manipulating the concept of time and using repetition and nature as pieces to his intricate, unsolvable puzzle. >What makes Enys Men memorable and respected by critics is how well it transports audiences back to the 1970s. Jenkin not only directed the film, but also wrote, edited, and did the cinematography and music. His complete creative control resulted in a strong, unsettling mood and sense of isolation throughout its entirety. The cast is limited, with Mary Woodvine as the lead, only identified in the credits as โThe Volunteer.โ The only other notable characters are John Woodvine (โThe Preacherโ), Edward Rowe (โThe Boatmanโ), and Flo Crowe ("The Girl"). The cast is small, the cottage is tiny; hell, even the island itself is minuscule, helping reinforce the theme of isolation, which also limits what the audience has to pay attention to. The characters, everyday items used, clothing, setting, nature, edits, zooms, atmosphere, and sound all contribute to its vintage feel. Enys Men is not as much entertainment as it is a portal to another place at another time that is interchangeably familiar and foreign...
horrorfuel.com
>Lee Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun) and Yoon Bong-gil (Lee Do-hyun) are a shaman duo that offers their services to those that are plagued by the vengeful spirits of deceased family membersโฆ like the one plaguing the wealthy Park family, and let me tell ya, this oneโs a fuckinโ doozy of a creepy case. >So complex is the job, that our heroes call in the help of geomancer Kim Sang-deok (Choi Min-sik) and his coroner partner Go Yeong-geun (Yoo Hae-jin) to assist in the exhumation of the relativeโs coffin via a traditional ceremony after which the coffin and remains will be cremated. >No matter how seasoned our shamans are, things go tits up with the quickness once a rain delay keeps that corpse from getting crispy (canโt burn โem on a soggy dayโฆ bad luck) and of course some ass just has to go and open the coffin setting the evill spirit free to go on a supernatural bender that spells bad times for the Parkโs. >But as horrible as events become, they donโt hold a candle to the hell thatโs unleashed from a second, rather large coffin that is found at the exhumation site. Do shamans have health insurance, because these folks are going to need it! >... Bottom line: Exhuma is a fantastic slice of Korean folk horror mixed with the dynamics of the modern world and shouldnโt be missed by lovers of the arcane!
>The legend of The Brahan Seer, the 17th-century Scottish farmhand who is said to have had powers to predict the future, is set to be brought to life on screen as a Gaelic language horror. Gaelic language folk horror Seaforth will be filmed on Lewis and Harris. >Stories of the so-called โHebridean Nostradamusโ, who was born on the Isle of Lewis, have inspired the project, which will be shot on Lewis and Harris. >The folk horrorโs writer and director John Murdo (JM) MacAulay, who is also from Lewis, will be drawing on stories about Coinneach Odhar, whose predictions were written about extensively in Alexander Mackenzie's 1877 book The Prophecies of The Brahan Seer... >... The synopsis states: "The film tells the story of the young Coinneach Odhar, as he was known then, who one day stumbles upon a seeing stone, which gives him the ability to see into the future. Now cursed with second sight, he is left to suffer the knowledge of everydetail of his life and death. >"Set in the Outer Hebrides, the story follows Lady Seaforth, the lairdโs wife, who summons the Seer, driven by fears of her husbandโs infidelity. This culminates in a fraught interrogation and her quest for the truth leads to broken promises, a struggle for power and a burning body in a whisky barrel."
bloody-disgusting.com
> Evil comes in many forms. In horror films, itโs often in the form of an inhuman creature or supernatural entity. With folk horror films, however, evil is often personified in people and their actions, seeing the sub-genre interrogate the dark nature of mankind. In The Severed Sun, writer/director Dean Puckettโs feature debut, a creature may go on a killing spree, but itโs far from the filmโs true evil. > > In an isolated British community led by a strict pastor (Toby Stephens, Die Another Day), religion rules the land. When his daughter Magpie (Emma Appleton) gruesomely murders her abusive husband, she inadvertently (or deliberately?) conjures a woodland creature that begins targeting the evil men in the village. As the bodies start to fall, suspicions start to rise, with particular attention being paid to Magpie. The rebellious woman, along with her sons Daniel (Lewis Gribben, Get Duked!) and Sam (Zachary Tanner), must battle the villageโs conservative ideals and elude accusations of witchcraft before the natives resort to violence. > > ... > > The Severed Sun is a solid entry in folk horror canon, with a clear message and some impressive effects work and a strong central performance. Pacing proves to be an issue, with Puckett struggling to fill a truncated runtime, but the sun certainly hasnโt set on this burgeoning filmmakerโs career.
geekvibesnation.com
>Newly restored in 4k and available for the first time in North America, Austrian auteur Jessica Hausner radically upends genre tropes and preempts the resurgence of folk horror with her second and most formally audacious feature, HOTEL. The deceptively simple premise of a young woman who takes on a job as a night porter at a remote Austrian hotel and encounters unexplained phenomena amounts to a grand treatise on the inhibiting potential of imagination, the fine line between banality and terror and the looming specter of fate. >Allusions to local myth, mysterious disappearances and haunted forests eschew generic conclusions and serve to illustrate and complicate the inner life of a young woman reckoning with the essential ambiguities of defining oneโs life. โAn intelligent fable about fear and desire,โ (Time Out) Hausnerโs sophomore feature is a haunting metaphysical horror film unlike any other...
bleedingcool.com
>Falling Stars: A Deconstruction of Folk Horror Witch Tales >Falling Stars is about folk horror and a deconstruction of the classic witch mythos. In an alternate reality where witches are very real, the night of the first harvest is when harmless traditional rituals are performed to placate witches in the sky. For the three brothers in the American Southwest, this year's event will be different. When they discover their friend has killed and buried a witch, they venture out into the desert to witness it for themselves. Whilst encountering the scene, they accidentally desecrate the body, setting in motion a sequence of perilous events. The only way they can put a stop to the curse set upon their family is to burn the corpse before sunrise. Accidentally desecrating a witch's body tends to happen in supernatural thrillers since nothing should ever go right in a horror movie. The only way to stop the curse on their family is a race against time, where the idiot brothers have to burn the body before sunrise. It's always a hassle when you have to rush to burn a body before sundown in the California desert. Care to bet whether they do it in time? That's the thrust of the movie...
bloody-disgusting.com
>Barfoot draws from folk horror, both in setting and storytelling, for his unique creature feature. That means that the horror builds slowly, relying on atmosphere and the isolated, stunning wooded setting to create unease as Lewis and Laura struggle with their loss. Neither handle it well; the quiet Lewis has retreated into himself as Laura relies heavily on their wine cellar to cope with the empty nights. Itโs an emotionally fraught environment perfect for horror to take root, further sowing division between son and stepmom. >That horror comes slowly, with Barfoot strategically escalating the creatureโs invasion. When the creature does appear, always obscured enough to retain mystery, itโs effectively chilling. The filmmaker has a strong sense of editing that only enhances the visceral terror of the entity, though he is prone to pulling punches. The action cuts away on more than one occasion just as Barfoot dangles the possibility of full-throttle horror, opting instead to preserve the enigmatic nature of this particular creature... >... Daddyโs Head is handsomely crafted, with a creature design thatโs pure nightmare fuel. Barfoot knows exactly how and when to employ it for maximum discomfort, though he is prone to cutting the horror scenes too early. The final coda, while sweet, doesnโt quite hit its intended note, either. Barfoot isnโt interested in spelling out everything, working heavily in its favor. While that ultimately makes for a sparser story, itโs one that rewards more depending on how much work youโre willing to put in as a viewer to decipher its details and clues. Whether youโre on this movieโs wavelength or not, one thing is certain: Daddyโs Head is creepy as hell.
bloody-disgusting.com
cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17829450 > > Nick Frost is no stranger to horror comedies, having starred in such modern classics as Shaun of the Dead and Attack the Block. This year, the actor has already starred in Krazy House (review), and now he is reuniting with that filmโs director Steffen Haars in Get Away, a frequently amusing folk horror comedy that relishes in bloodshed almost as much as it does cringe comedy. > > > > The Smith Family, comprised of patriarch Richard (Nick Frost), matriarch Susan (Aisling Bea), sister Jessie (Maisie Ayres) and brother Sam (Heartstopperโs Sebastian Croft), is spending their holiday on Svรคlta, a fictional Swedish island with a dark past tied to Susanโs ancestor. Despite warnings not to from quite literally everyone they cross paths with along the way, the Smiths arrive on the island and are greeted with immediate hostility from the mainlanders, especially from the skeptical town elder (Anitta Suikkari), who is busy directing a play for their annual Karantan festival. Upon arriving at their AirBnb, the Smith family starts to notice strange occurrences happening on the island, as well as a few too many coffins being loaded onto boats at the harbor, leading to a comically violent fight for survival as Karantan draws near. > > [IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10449276/)
www.theguardian.com
> Withered Hill by David Barnett (Canelo, ยฃ9.99) > > A young woman stumbles naked out of the woods, into the village of Withered Hill. She knows her name is Sophie, but she doesnโt remember anything about her previous life. The locals are friendly but strange. Attempts to escape meet with failure, but her new friends promise that she will be able to leave when the time is right. The dual timeline moves between Sophieโs life in London in the month before her arrival, and what happens in Withered Hill, as she uneasily adjusts to its odd customs and seasonal celebrations. At times this folk horror, while engaging, may seem a bit predictable, but the narrative rug is pulled out from under the reader with a terrific unexpected twist.
thegeekshow.co.uk
>... The Severed Sun is a deeply immersive and atmospheric folk horror in the truest, traditional sense โ unlike some recent additions to this subgenre. It isnโt a cash-in based on the success of something like Midsommar as itโs a work truly stepped in distinctly British (or European), horror, nor is it a movie that simply presents the conventions of the genre in a neat fashion without any inclination to examine them or approach them in any meaningful, creative way (yes, Iโm looking at you Lord of Misrule). A deeply ambiguous movie, The Severed Sun intentionally presents its audience with a puzzle to savour and return to โ one which affords them the opportunity to create their own interpretations and ideas about what they might have seen. Itโs a remarkable achievement considering its time restraints and budget, and the filmโs experimental and unnervingly atmospheric electronic soundtrack, written and performed by Brain Rays adds to the experience. Itโs an auteurโs work โ a beautifully considered movie in which all its key components work in harmony and has Puckettโs fingerprints all over it, and once again Iโm left hoping to see more in the future.
>The British-American series The Third Day, created by Felix Barrett and Dennis Kelly (who made the masterpiece Utopia), is a 2020 psychological thriller-folk horror series that should certainly have gotten more recognition, especially for fans of disturbing cults in horror, as it is one that will have your jaw on the floor. The story follows a man and then a woman on their separate journeys, but arrive at the same island at different times; what happens there is far more shocking than they had anticipated. For those who have forgotten about The Third Day, here's a recap, and for those who don't know, let's find out what it's about and why it should be one to remember...
1428elm.com
>A camp excursion takes a deadly turn in Lore, a gruesome and acclaimed anthology horror film from directors James Bushe, Patrick Ryder, and Greig Johnson. >Premiering at last year's FrightFest, Lore is now available to stream exclusively on the Icon Film Channel and will be shown in select theaters in the United Kingdom beginning on Friday, September 27. For those unable to access the movie via those two methods, it will be available on home entertainment in October in the UK. >Starring Richard Brake (Hannibal Rising), Andrew Lee Potts (The Witcher), Bill Fellows (Ted Lasso), and Rufus Hound (Hounded), Lore centers on a group of friends on a fun and fright-filled camping excursion led by their mysterious guide, Darwin (Brake). Around the campfire, Darwin encourages everyone to exchange scary stories, but they're unaware that telling tales about demons and spirits could have dangerous repercussions for them all. >Based on the trailer and early photos, it looks like Lore will feature popular folk horror tropes, menacing stalkers, ghostly hauntings, and more. Some reviewers have compared it to classic Hammer horror films mixed in with a dash of Black Mirror. >Check out the full-length trailer...
collider.com
>Back in 2020, Collider did a deep dive into the artistic work of Didier Konings, an accomplished concept artist, digital painter, and visual effects artist whose work featured in the likes of Wonder Woman, Rampage, Stranger Things, and Mouse Guard, to name just a few. Since then, Konings has been a busy man, and there have been exciting developments in his career. Last year, Konings teamed up with Make Way Film for his first feature-length project, Heresy, which Collider is delighted to reveal, is set to have its U.S. premiere this week at Fantastic Fest. Since relocating from his native Netherlands, Konings has spent the last ten years working as a concept and VFX artist and, as we've previously noted, his contributions to major studio projects shouldn't be ignored. >His extensive experience in VFX and design played a critical role in Heresy, where he personally handled much of the visual effects work. After directing two award-winning short films over the last four years, Heresy (also known as Witte Wieven) serves as a return to his native Dutch roots, bringing audiences a gripping folk tale of revenge and redemption, mixed with just the right amount of horror thrills. The film received critical and audience acclaim at its world premiere in Rotterdam during IFFR this past January. >The official description of the project gives you an indication of what to expect from the Folk Horror: > "Didier Koningsโ simmering medieval horror Witte Wieven explores the confluence of religion and patriarchy in an excessively puritanical Dutch village. Blamed by her community for being childless, Frieda immerses herself in prayer and ritual. When she returns unscathed from the forbidden forest surrounding the village, having evaded a lecherous butcher, she is condemned as an agent of the devil. Frieda, however, finds new faith in the dark powers that inhabit the woods. Shot in a reduced color palette at the edge of visibility, Koningsโ gripping film constructs a convincing pre-modern society whose practices it elucidates with patience and attention. Although set in the Middle Ages, Witte Wieven displays an unmistakably contemporary spirit, crafting a feminist parable about women discovering new ways of understanding their lives and the world"...
>Haunted by a personal tragedy, home care worker, Shoo (Clare Monnelly) is sent to a remote village to care for an agoraphobic woman (Brรญd Nรญ Neachtain) who fears the neighbours as much as she fears the Na Sรญdhe โ sinister entities who she believes abducted her decades before. As the two develop a strangely deep connection, Shoo is consumed by the old womanโs paranoia, rituals, and superstitions, eventually leading her to confront the horrors from her own past...
www.bfi.org.uk
> The Outcasts, which tells the story of a โmadโ young woman in pre-famine Ireland who meets a feared shaman and has her powerful true nature revealed to her, is the great lost classic of Irish cinema. Combining gritty realism in its depiction of rural Irish poverty, sexual frankness and mythic grandeur, it had a tremendously powerful effect on Irish cinephiles of a certain age, myself included, but has been impossible to see in any decent form in the four decades since its release. > >A beautiful new restoration by the Irish Film Archive is finally putting this right, and a generation of folk-horror fans are about to get the opportunity to see this poetic, unforgettable work for the first time. > >I spoke to its writer-director, Robert Wynne-Simmons, who also scripted the classic British folk-horror The Blood on Satanโs Claw (1971), about the production of the film and his feelings about seeing it rediscovered by a new generation.
collider.com
> The 2020s have already been great for folk horror, but the current folk horror revival really got its start in the previous decade. The niche subgenre, which had been around since the 1960s and 1970s, didn't get a name until actor Mark Gatiss of Sherlock fame used the term "folk horror" in 2010 to describe a trio of influential films in his BBC documentary series, A History of Horror. Suddenly, a generation of writers and filmmakers who had grown up on the old British films and television programs were inspired to revisit the rural terrors of their youth. > > Folk horror, which was initially recognized as a British phenomenon, became closely associated with imagery from the British Isles, such as stone circles, druids, and the green man. However, the modern folk horror revival has been more inclusive, as filmmakers from around the world draw inspiration from their countries' history and folklore. From Indonesia to Austria, these are the best folk horror movies of the 2010s. 1. Midsommar (2019) 2. Kill List (2011) 3. The Witch (2015) 4. The Borderlands (2013) 5. The Wailing (2016) 6. The Ritual (2017) 7. Impetigore (2019) 8. La Llorona (2019) 9. Hagazussa: A Heathen's Curse (2017) 10. A Dark Song (2016) Warning: the image used dod The Ritual is a massive spoiler - go watch it first, it's worth going in blind. See also: * [10 best Folk Horror movies of the 2020s (so far)](https://feddit.uk/post/16878588)
www.theguardian.com
"Watch enough genre movies and you will realise that grief is inevitably a doorway to all kinds of darkness. Daniel Kokotajloโs creepily atmospheric adaptation of Andrew Michael Hurleyโs novel is the latest in a long list of films (including The Babadook and Donโt Look Now) that harness bereavement in the service of horror. Juliette (Morfydd Clark) and her archaeologist husband, Richard (Matt Smith), have returned to his family home in 1970s Yorkshire. But then a tragedy leaves the couple vulnerable to an ancient evil that lurks in the land. A slow-burning folk-horror, the film is a marked change of direction for Kokotajlo, whose debut, Apostasy, dealt with a crisis of faith in a Jehovahโs Witness community. Starve Acre is steeped in arcane rituals and underpinned by the layers of pagan mythology that lurk beneath our thin veneer of civilisation. The brooding atmosphere is as oppressive as the haunted-looking wallpaper in the coupleโs farmhouse. Some pleasingly icky special effects add to the general sense of mouldering menace. Where the picture stumbles, however, is in its almost total lack of effective scares."
www.bfi.org.uk
Gwledd/The Feast (2021) got the number one slot in the [best folk horror movies of the 2020s listicle](https://feddit.uk/post/16878588) but there isn't a post on it, so here is one from 2022. > Where did the inspiration for this project come from? > > Iโve worked with screenwriter Roger Williams quite a bit on a number of television projects, and weโre both passionate about horror. We were also passionate about creating a piece of horror cinema in the Welsh language, with the ambition of having it travel the world. We decided to delve into the long history of Welsh literature, which is inherently horrific in many ways, and use that as a springboard to tell a story about contemporary Wales, weaving in the global theme of climate crisis. > > ... > > Now that the film is about to be unleashed on the world, what are your hopes for it and the Welsh industry at large? > >I have big hopes for our little film. I would love it if it were to kickstart some kind of industry in the Welsh language. Thereโs absolutely no reason why we shouldnโt have a thriving film industry. But it seems to me that we need to be pragmatic in establishing the kind of brand that we sell to the world, and itโs about identifying what we do really well. Our culture, our literary heritage is full of these brilliant, fantastical stories. I think thatโs a really good base for us to start from. There is no reason why Wales canโt be as renowned for horror as somewhere like South Korea. For it's reception see: * [Gwledd (The Feast) on track to become most successful Welsh language film of all time](https://nation.cymru/culture/gwledd-the-feast-on-track-to-become-most-successful-welsh-language-film-of-all-time/) * [The Feastโ review: A keen-edged, slow-burn Welsh-language horror that takes no prisoners](https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/the-feast-review-gwledd-1234933161/) * [The Feast is a chilling Welsh-language eco-horror](https://www.dazeddigital.com/film-tv/article/56788/1/the-feast-welsh-language-eco-horror-lee-haven-jones) * [The Feastโfolklore meets gore in this environmental horror film](https://socialistworker.co.uk/reviews-and-culture/the-feast-folklore-meets-gore-in-this-environmental-horror-film/) [Trailer](https://youtu.be/jPOTraOsGLY) [IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10738906/)
> Folk horror has only recently been recognized as a distinct subgenre, even though some of its most famous works--including Witchfinder General, The Blood on Satan's Claw, and The Wicker Man--came out in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Many folk horror movies focus on isolated communities that get swept up in dangerous superstitions, while others highlight the darkness in aspects of folk culture, such as music, stories, and rituals. Over the decades, what was once considered a British phenomenon has flourished into a worldwide fascination. > >The 2020s, in particular, have seen an explosion of folk horror movies. It's hard to say exactly what inspired the trend, but the popularity of Ari Aster's Midsommar (2019) and rising interest in folklore seem to be contributing factors. The folk horror movies of the last few years have proven that the genre is more than just pagans and stone circles; from the glacial valleys of Iceland to the ancestral burial grounds of South Korea, the settings of modern folk horror are more diverse than ever. They are: 1. The Feast (2021) 2. You Wonโt Be Alone (2022) 3. Exhuma (2024) 4. Starve Acre (2023) 5. Enys Men (2022) 6. Lamb (2021) 7. Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022) 8. The Devilโs Bath (2024) 9. Hellbender (2021) 10. All You Need Is Death (2023)
> Austria in the 18th century. Forests surround villages. Killing a baby gets a woman sentenced to death. Agnes readies for married life with her beloved. But her mind and heart grow heavy. A gloomy path alone, evil thoughts arising. [IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29141112/)
www.empireonline.com
> You've heard of Candyman. You've heard of Batman. You've heard of Bicentennial Man (actually, maybe not that one!). But did you ever hear of Bagman? A child-snatching nightmare figure from Latin American, Eastern European, Asian, and African folklore, the Bagman โ or Sack Man, as he's sometimes known โ is a Pennywise-like force of evil who takes innocent kids and stuffs them, well, in his bag. And he's the central figure looming over The Girl With All The Gifts director Colm McCarthy and writer John Hulme's aptly titled folk chiller Bagman, which is set to see Sam Claflin, Antonia Thomas (The Good Doctor), and Aftersun breakout star Frankie Corio among others come face to face with the eldritch terror. Watch the creepy first trailer below: [Trailer](https://youtu.be/slrzCgYIUPM) on YouTube