If you’re a fan of folk horror, then this incredibly deep dive into the genre is an absolute must.
At more than three hours long, it’s ambitiously exhaustive at unearthing every folk horror film ever made around the globe.
The film begins in England with “The Unholy Trinity of Folk Horror:” Witchfinder General, The Blood on Satan’s Claw and The Wicker Man. (If for some reason you have never seen the original The Wicker Man, this doc will spoil it for you at length. Go see it, then come back and watch this film.)
A host of experts weigh in what makes a film “folk horror.” A sample of their observations:
“Folk horror is based on the juxtaposition between the prosaic and the uncanny.”
“Strange things found in fields, lights flickering in dark woods.”
“Folk horror ultimately asks, what if the old ways were right?”
The director of 1971’2 The Blood on Satan’s Claw, Piers Haggard (who is still with us at age 82), relates he was told, “Oh, you’re the man who invented folk horror.”
In an archival interview, Anthony Schaffer (screenwriter of The Wicker Man), notes, “Paganism has a habit of surviving, and it’s helped this film survive.”
The film connects the growing surge of folk horror in the ‘60s and ‘70s to the “Back to the Land” movement in England. It observes that so much of the genre is literally digging up the past, as in Quatermass and the Pit and The Blood on Satan’s Claw, or in the stories of classic ghost story writer M.R James, including “Oh Whistle and I’ll Come To You My Lad.” (His story “Casting the Runes,” was made into the great 1957 Jacques Tourneur film, The Curse of the Demon.)
In the ‘70s, the BBC adapted a number of James’s eeries into stories with its “A Ghost Story for Christmas” series. Among those who were influenced by these TV movies was Prevenge director Alice Lowe, who also cites some incredibly strange ‘70s British TV shows we missed here in the U.S.
The ‘60s hippie movement also led to such films as Psychomania, in which a gang of satanic bikers comes back to life to terrorize the living.
Among the many other British films and TV shows cited are the mini-series “Children of the Stones,” “The Daemons” episode of “Doctor Who,” The Stone Tapes, and Rawhead Rex. (Someone on Letterboxd has thoughtfully compiled a list of the more than 200 films mentioned in the film, an excellent place to begin your folk horror binge into the more obscure titles)
Part 4 focuses on American folk horror, including the backwoods inbreds of Deliverance, the creepy Children of the Corn, the “prairie horror” of recent films like The Wind, and the voodoo and hoodoo traditions in the Old South. Experts denounce the American horror trope of “Indian burial grounds” and note how the original Candyman draws from urban legends.
A later segment focuses on Australian horror films Kadaicha (aka Stones of Death), The Last Wave, and The Dreaming, which draw their inspiration from the mistreatment of the Aboriginal people by European settlers.
Janisse also touches on Poland, tying the 2015 film Demon to the Jewish tales of the Dybbuk, then skips to last year’s Mexican film La Llorana, then Russian Slavic horror such as Viy, and then the great tradition of Japanese horror films including Kuroneko.
While the depth of scholarship isn’t there for films from Laos or Iceland, Janisse includes notable genre films from each country, before circling back to Britain with 2017’s excellent The Ritual.
You might feel a bit foggy by the film’s end, but it’s hard to imagine a more extensive journey through the genre.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
* * * * *
Produced by Kier-La Janisse, David Gregory, Winnie Cheung
Written and Directed by Kier-La Janisse
Featuring Piers Haggard, Lawrence Gordon Clark, Jeremy Dyson,
Alice Lowe, Robert Eggers, Jonathan Rigby, Kat Ellinger,
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Adam Scovell, Maisha Wester
