NEW FOLK HORROR DVD SET COMING SOON

“All folk horror is unified by a central theme: 

That contemporary society is a crust 

over something dark, inexplicable, other.

Folk horror, like the old ways, 

will find you before you find it.”

- Austin Chronicle

I heralded the first collection of Folk Horror from Severin a few years ago and was very impressed with the set that included films from all over the world. Now they're doing again, digging deeper into the international roots of the genre. If it's anything like Vol. 1, this one is sure to be a winner, too.

"The first ALL THE HAUNTS... was an incredibly ambitious set, but for this collection we wanted to go a bit further afield," says producer Kier-La Janisse. "I'm really happy with the broad range of regions and perspectives we were able to include, and the many international collaborators who made it all possible. I always try to dig deep thematically while also offering some real obscurities for our genre-savvy audience, and I think this new box set delivers on both counts."

"ALL THE HAUNTS… Volume One was a landmark collection for Severin, for the genre, and for home video," says Severin Films President/Co-Founder David Gregory. "With Volume Two, Kier-La and our team have now gone even deeper and further than before with a global collection that's equal parts discovery, exploration, and dark celebration of Folk Horror. We're enormously proud to unleash its spirit upon the world."

From Severin Films:

ALL THE HAUNTS BE OURS: A COMPENDIUM OF FOLK HORROR VOL. 2 [13-DISC BLU-RAY BOX SET + HARDCOVER BOOK]

• 13 DISCS
• 24 INTERNATIONAL FOLK HORROR CLASSICS 
• 55+ COMBINED HOURS OF SPECIAL FEATURES
• 252 PAGE HARDCOVER BOOK

Unquiet spirits have gathered once again: ALL THE HAUNTS BE OURS – VOLUME TWO brings together 24 films representing 18 countries for more of the best-loved, rarely seen, thought-lost and brand-new classics of folk horror, most making their International and/or North American disc debuts including the Worldwide Premieres of the Severin Films productions TO FIRE YOU COME AT LAST directed by Sean Hogan and the documentary SUZZANNA: THE QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC directed by David Gregory; 55+ combined hours of new and archival Special Features including trailers, interviews, audio commentaries, short films, video essays, historical analyses and bonus feature-length films; a 252-page hardcover of newly commissioned folk horror fiction by luminaries that include Ramsey Campbell, Cassandra Khaw and Eden Royce with illustrations by Drazen Kozjan; and much more, all curated and produced by WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED creator Kier-La Janisse.

Boxed set design by Luke Insect.

DISC 1

TO FIRE YOU COME AT LAST (SEAN HOGAN, UK/USA, 2023)

PSYCHOMANIA (DON SHARP, UK, 1973)

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR TO FIRE YOU COME AT LAST

• Audio Commentary With Director Sean Hogan And Co-Producers Paul Goodwin And Nicholas Harwood
• On The Lych Way – Corpse Road Chronicler Dr. Stuart Dunn Discusses The Pathways Of The Dead
• Trailer
• Short Films

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR PSYCHOMANIA

• Introduction By Film Historian Chris Alexander
• Audio Commentary With Maria J. Pérez Cuervo, Founding Editor Of Hellebore Magazine
• Stone Warnings – Dr. Diane A. Rodgers On Stone Circles And Standing Stones In Film And Television
• Return Of The Living Dead – Interviews With Actors Nicky Henson, Mary Larkin, Denis Gilmore, Roy Holder And Rocky Taylor
• The Sound Of PSYCHOMANIA – Interview With Soundtrack Composer John Cameron
• Riding Free – Interview With "Riding Free" Singer Harvey Andrews
• Theatrical Trailer

DISC 2

THE ENCHANTED (CARTER LORD, USA, 1984)

WHO FEARS THE DEVIL (JOHN NEWLAND, USA, 1972)

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR THE ENCHANTED

• Audio Commentary With Director Carter Lord And Camera Assistant Richard Grange, Moderated By Filmmaker/Author Kier-La Janisse
• Audio Commentary With Chesya Burke, Author Of Let's Play White, And Sheree Renée Thomas, Author Of Nine Bar Blues
• A Magical Place – Interview With Composer Phil Sawyer
• Hole In The Wall – Character Notes By Screenwriter Charné Porter
• Trailer
• Short Film SWIMMER

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR WHO FEARS THE DEVIL

• THE LEGEND OF HILLBILLY JOHN Alternate Opening Introduced By Actor Severn Darden
• Audio Commentary With Television Historian Amanda Reyes
• Crumble Will The Feet Of Clay – Interview With Producer Barney Rosenzweig
• Silver Strings – Interview With Actor/Musician Hedges Capers
• Manly Of The Mountains – Author David Drake Remembers Manly Wade Wellman
• Occult Appalachia – Occult Historian Mitch Horowitz On The Arcane Texts Of Wellman's John The Balladeer Stories
• Theatrical Trailer

DISC 3

THE WHITE REINDEER (ERIK BLOMBERG, FINLAND, 1952)

EDGE OF THE KNIFE (GWAAI EDENSHAW & HELEN HAIG-BROWN, CANADA, 2018)

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR THE WHITE REINDEER

• The Projection Booth Episode On THE WHITE REINDEER Hosted By Mike White And Featuring Kat Ellinger, Author of Daughters Of Darkness, And Talk Without Rhythm's El Goro
• Short Films A WITCH DRUM, THE NIGHTSIDE OF THE SKY,WITH THE REINDEER

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR EDGE OF THE KNIFE

• Audio Commentary With Directors Gwaai Edenshaw And Helen Haig-Brown
• RETAKE – Making The World's First Haida-Language Feature Film
• Short Films HAIDA CARVER, NALUJUK NIGHT

DISC 4

BORN OF FIRE (JAMIL DEHLAVI, UK, 1987)

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR BORN OF FIRE

• Igniting The Fire – Interview With Director Jamil Dehlavi
• The Silent One Speaks – Archival Interview With Actor Nabil Shaban
• Between The Sacred And The Profane – Archival Lecture On The Cinematic World Of Jamil Dehlavi By Dr. Ali Nobil Ahmad
• The Djinn Revisited – Director Dalia Al Kury Examines The Role Of The Djinn In Contemporary Arab Culture
• BORN OF FIRE And The Roots Of Pakistani Horror – Interview With Scholar Syeda Momina Masood
• Trailer
• Short Films TOWERS OF SILENCE, QÂF

DISC 5

IO ISLAND (KIM KI-YOUNG, SOUTH KOREA, 1977)

SCALES (SHAHAD AMEEN, SAUDI ARABIA, 2019)

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR IO ISLAND

• Audio Commentary With Archivist And Korean Film Historian Ariel Schudson
• Shaman's Eyes – Dr. Hyunseon Lee On Shamanism In Korean Visual Culture
• Short Film THE PRESENT

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR SCALES

• Telling Our Stories – A Conversation With Director Shahad Ameen And Producer Rula Nasser, Moderated By Filmmaker/Author Kier-La Janisse
• Trailer
• Short Film KINDIL

DISC 6

BAKENEKO: A VENGEFUL SPIRIT (YOSHIHIRO ISHIKAWA, JAPAN, 1968)

NANG NAK (NONZEE NIMIBUTR, THAILAND, 1999)

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR BAKENEKO: A VENGEFUL SPIRIT

Audio Commentary With Jasper Sharp, Author Of Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History Of Japanese Sex Cinema

Scratched – A History Of The Japanese Ghost Cat

The Vampire Cat – The Classic Folk Tale Read By Tomoko Komura With Original Music By Timothy Fife

Trailer

Short Film MAN-EATER MOUNTAIN

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR NANG NAK

• Audio Commentary With Mattie Do, Director Of THE LONG WALK, And Asian Gothic Scholar Katarzyna Ancuta
• Love And Impermanence: NANG NAK And The Rebirth Of Thai Cinema – Interview With Director Nonzee Nimibutr
• Trailer

DISC 7

SUNDELBOLONG (SISWORO GAUTAMA PUTRA, INDONESIA, 1981)

SUZZANNA: THE QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC BLU-RAY (DAVID GREGORY, USA, 2024)

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR SUNDELBOLONG

Hantu Retribution – Female Ghosts Of The Malay Archipelago

Short Film WHITE SONG

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR SUZZANNA: THE QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC

• A Conversation With Director/Co-Producer David Gregory And Co-Producer Ekky Imanjaya
• Trailer

DISC 8

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (JURAJ HERZ, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1978)

THE NINTH HEART (JURAJ HERZ, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1979)

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

• Audio Commentary With Film Historian Michael Brooke
• Archival Interviews With Director Juraj Herz And Actors Vlastimil Harapes And Zdena Studenková
• Short Film FRANTIŠEK HRUBÍN

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR THE NINTH HEART

• Audio Commentary With Kat Ellinger, Author Of Daughters Of Darkness
• The Uncanny Valley Of The Dolls – The History And Liminality Of Dolls, Puppets And Mannequins
• The Curious Case Of Juraj Herz And The Švankmajers – Video Essay By Czech Film Programmer Cerise Howard

DISC 9

DEMON (MARCIN WRONA, POLAND, 2015)

NOVEMBER (RAINER SARNET, ESTONIA/POLAND/NETHERLANDS, 2017)

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR DEMON

• Introduction By Slavic Horror Scholar Dr. Agnieszka Jeżyk
• Audio Commentary With Film Historian Daniel Bird And Film Critic/Actress Manuela Lazić
• In The Shadow Of The Dybbuk – Video Essay By Peter Bebergal, Author Of Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story Of The Technological Quest For The Supernatural, And Filmmaker Stephen Broomer
• Trailer
• Short Film DIBBUK

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR NOVEMBER

The Supernatural Lore Of NOVEMBER – Archival Video Essay With Film Critic John DeFore

Kratt Test Footage

Theatrical Trailer

Short Films BOUNDARY, JOURNEY THROUGH SETOMAA, MIDVINTERBLOT

DISC 10

LITAN (JEAN-PIERRE MOCKY, FRANCE, 1982)

BLOOD TEA AND RED STRING (CHRISTIANE CEGAVSKE, USA, 2006)

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR LITAN

• Audio Commentary With Film Historian Frank Lafond
• Un Tournage LITAN – Archival Making-Of Made For Antenne 2
• Jean-Pierre Mocky, Un Drôle D'Oiseau – 1982 Episode Of Temps X

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR BLOOD TEA AND RED STRING

• Introduction By Director Christiane Cegavske
• 2021 Indie Scream Online Film Festival Q&A With Christiane Cegavske
• Production Stills And Concept Illustrations
• Trailer
• Trailer For SEED IN THE SAND, Cegavske’s Work-In-Progress

DISC 11

NAZARENO CRUZ AND THE WOLF (LEONARDO FAVIO, ARGENTINA, 1975)

AKELARRE (PEDRO OLEA, SPAIN, 1984)

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR NAZARENO CRUZ AND THE WOLF

• Audio Commentary With Adrian Garcia Bogliano, Director Of HERE COMES THE DEVIL, And Nicanor Loreti, Director Of PUNTO ROJO
• Short Film LOVE FROM MOTHER ONLY
• Audio Commentary For LOVE FROM MOTHER ONLY With Director Dennison Ramalho

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR AKELARRE

• The Realistic Inquisition – Interview With Director Pedro Olea
• Empowered Woman – Interview With Actress Silvia Munt
• Playing The Villain – Interview With Actor Iñaki Miramón
• Invoking The Akelarre – Dr. Antonio Lázaro-Reboll, Author Of Spanish Horror Film, On The Basque Witch Trials

DISC 12

FROM THE OLD EARTH (WIL AARON, WALES, 1981)

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR FROM THE OLD EARTH BLU-RAY

• Introduction To FROM THE OLD EARTH By Musician Gruff Rhys
• Getting A Head In North Wales – Interview With Director Wil Aaron
• FROM THE OLD EARTH By The Book – Welsh Folklore And O'R DDAEAR HEN
• A Sword In The Battle Of Language – Welsh Film Scholar Dr. Kate Woodward On The Welsh Film Board
• Short Films Introduction To BLOOD ON THE STARS By Gruff Rhys, BLOOD ON THE STARS, Reunion Hotel – BLOOD ON THE STARS Cast Reunion From Gwesty Aduniad, THE WYRM OF BWLCH PEN BARRAS

DISC 13

THE CITY OF THE DEAD (JOHN LLEWELLYN MOXEY, UK, 1960)

THE RITES OF MAY (MIKE DE LEON, PHILIPPINES, 1976)

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR THE CITY OF THE DEAD

• Introduction By Kay Lynch, Director Of The Salem Horror Fest
• Audio Commentary With Film Historians Kim Newman And Barry Forshaw
• Archival Audio Commentary With Film Historian Jonathan Rigby
• Archival Audio Commentary With Actor Christopher Lee
• Archival Audio Commentary With Director John Llewellyn Moxey
• Sir Christopher Lee Remembers THE CITY OF THE DEAD
• Archival Interview With John Llewellyn Moxey
• Archival Interview With Actress Venetia Stevenson
• Burn Witch, Burn! A Tribute To John Llewellyn Moxey – Video Essay By TV Historian Amanda Reyes And Filmmaker Chris O'Neill
• Trailer

SPECIAL FEATURES FOR THE RITES OF MAY

• Audio Commentary With Filipino Film Historian Andrew Leavold
• ITIM: AN EXPLORATION IN CINEMA – Archival Documentary
• Portrayal Of Guilt – Filipino Film Scholar Anne Frances N. Sangil On The Darkness Of THE RITES OF MAY

Pre-order from Severin Films HERE.

See more about Folk Horror HERE.

NEW SEVERIN FOLK HORROR FILM

Severin, who is known for their quality DVD's and Blu-Ray's, including their exceptional box set, ALL THE HAUNTS BE OURS, is expanding into producing their own films. This August, they are premiering a short folk horror film, TO FIRE YOU COME AT LAST. Following is the news:

Severin Films has announced the UK Premiere of Sean Hogan’s (The Devil’s Business) new mid-length film To Fire You Come at Last at Fright Fest on Saturday, August 26th at 6:00PM. The film has already been called “A satisfyingly wicked slice of British folk horror” (HorrorFuel) after its World Premiere at Bifan in South Korea earlier this month.

Exclusively check out the official poster for To Fire You Come at Last below, which comes courtesy of acclaimed artist Candice Tripp. And read on for everything you need to know.

“In rural 17th century England, a group of men gather to carry a coffin on the long walk to the local graveyard for burial. A great deal of ancient folklore and superstition surrounds the route to the church, and several of the men are afraid to walk it after dark. Squire Marlow, the grieving father of the dead man, promises to double their wages if they agree to make the journey.

“The group comprises of Holt, a young carpenter from the local village, who was also the best friend of the deceased; Ransley, a drunken peasant; Pike, the Squire’s thuggish manservant; and the Squire himself. As they set out on the walk, their conversation quickly becomes argumentative, and even violent. In the course of their quarrelling, it is gradually revealed that Ransley and Holt had each wronged the dead man, and Squire Marlow threatens them with retribution upon their return to the village. 

“After the sun sets, they begin to be plagued by a series of unexplained events. An unseen hound – according to legend, an omen of ill fortune – seems to be following them, and Ransley starts to catch glimpses of what appears to be a spectral figure. Panic quickly sets in amongst the group, despite the Squire’s increasingly brutal attempts to maintain order. As the darkness closes in around them and further revelations come to light, the men eventually come to realise they may be the victims of a mysterious plot. But just who is behind the plot, and why? And will any of them survive to see the following dawn?”

Kier-La Janisse and Evrim Ersoy are producers on the film.

Sean Hogan is a writer and filmmaker based in the UK. His feature film credits include the critically-acclaimed The Devil’s Business, The Borderlands, and the documentary Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD. He has also published several books of cinema metafiction, including England’s Screaming and its sequel Twilight’s Last Screaming (both named as one of the five best genre novels of their year by The Financial Times). In addition, he co-created (with writer Kim Newman) the anthology plays The Hallowe’en Sessions and its follow-up, The Ghost Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, directing both their West End runs. He is currently developing a number of film and television projects and preparing a new novel.

THE STONE TAPE AT 50

Nigel Kneale's THE STONE TAPE was one of those BBC made-for-television Christmas ghost stories that have become respected films a half-a-century later. This story in particular has one of the most interesting concepts of the lot; stones that encode messages from the dead. Part folk horror and part paranormal science-fiction, while a bit dated, it's still worth a viewing (see below).

If These Walls Could Talk: The Stone Tape At 50

Nigel Kneale’s BBC ghost story still haunts the fields of parapsychology and cinema 50 Christmases since it first aired

By Sean McGeady | December 16th, 2022 | the quietus.com

Charles Babbage is best known as the father of the modern computer, but he had other ideas, too. In 1838, the mathematician and mechanical engineer wrote about what we would later call “place-memory”, theorising that our voices and actions leave permanent but imperceptible imprints on the environment around us.

In the late 1930s, Henry H. Price, a professor of logic at Oxford, posited that objects may possess memory traces played back only when handled by those sensitive enough to perceive them. In his 1961 book Ghost and Ghoul, Thomas Charles Lethbridge, an archeologist turned parapsychologist, suggested that stone might act as a recording device that could capture and play back historical trauma.

These are the foundations of the “Stone Tape theory” – ghosts are not wandering spirits, but lossless spectral recordings of past events made by our environment. The theory takes its name from Nigel Kneale’s The Stone Tape. First aired on Christmas 1972, the BBC teleplay tells the story of a mansion whose very building blocks are a memory bank for centuries of trauma, which scientists attempt to excavate by conversing with the stone.

50 Christmases since its release, it’s clear that The Stone Tape didn’t just popularise the idea of the “residual haunting”, it also continues to haunt cinema in various guises. Echoes of Kneale’s work are present in multiple contemporary films, rooting them to the same hauntological themes of sound, sentience and stone.

In Ben Wheatley’s phantasmagoric feature In the Earth, the first thing we see is a standing stone, the trees framed through its ‘eye’ as if we are viewing the world through its perspective. The framing is appropriate; the stone is alive.

Released and set in 2021 but suffused with a 1970s audiovisual aesthetic, the film follows scientist Martin (Joel Fry) and park ranger Alma (Ellora Torchia) as they journey into a forest with unusually fertile soil. Deep within the woods, they meet Dr Wendle (Hayley Squires), stationed there to study its mycorrhizal network. Likened to a “brain”, this vast fungal matrix controls the land from beneath the forest floor, and finds its nucleus at the ancient stone.

The menhir is linked to a local folktale, that of Parnag Fegg, said to be the spirit of the woods. Woodland wildman Zach (Reece Shearsmith) says Parnag Fegg is the spirit of an alchemist and necromancer hounded through the forest and “inducted into the stone”. Dr Wendle later produces a 15th-century book which says that, in the local dialect, “Parnag Fegg” translates as “sound”, “parnagus”, and “light”, “fegg”. Wendle doesn’t think Parnag Fegg was a person at all, but instead a process through which humans can communicate with nature. “There’s something in there [in the stone] and it wants to talk.”

Whatever “it” is, both Zach and Dr Wendle are desperate to communicate with it. Zach tries to do so through faith and art, while Dr Wendle employs sound and light. She plays frequency sweeps through speakers to try to coax the stone into conversation. Here, the monolith’s hole begins to look not just like an ‘eye’ with which to view the world, but an ear with which to hear it, and a mouth with which to make noise of its own.

It’s also not unlike a speaker cone, the stone an instrument through which the entity within can ‘amplify’ human perception until it clips, triggering sensorial oblivion. When Alma is hauled shrieking from the cloud of mushroom spores released from the earth, Martin asks, “What did you see?” The answer: “Everything.”

Whatever Parnag Fegg is, whether it be Zach’s bedevilled necromancer, an ancient deity or the embodiment of the natural world, it’s responsible for a residual haunting through which its victims experience “everything”, everywhere, all at once.

Enys Men, the Cornish-language title of Mark Jenkin’s sophomore feature, translates to English as “Stone Island”. Set in 1973, the brooding 16mm folk film follows a nameless wildlife volunteer (Mary Woodvine) installed on an uninhabited Cornish islet to observe a strange flower.

As the story unravels, so does time and space. The past unfolds alongside the present, “everything” happening all at once. The volunteer sees her own memories projected alongside those of the land – Cornish lives long forgotten by its people but remembered by its soil. Once more, the locus of remembrance and ontological horror is a menhir, but this one’s more walking stone than standing stone – it seems to move of its own accord.

In her book High Static, Dead Lines: Sonic Spectres and the Object Hereafter, Kristen Gallerneaux explores the Stone Tape theory, and the popular idea of the ghost and its ties to sound and objects.

“The poltergeist, as a ‘noisy spirit’,” Gallerneaux writes, “is the most cut-and-dry example of the sonic spectre, where the concept of the ghost is absorbed and flattened into the tiny ontological space of the material, eager to manifest itself in order to be heard again.” In The Stone Tape and In the Earth, the scientists want to hear what it has to say.

One of the ways the haunting manifests in Enys Men is via the volunteer’s radio. Its broadcasts seem to be from both the distant past and the near future, as if the airwaves have been hijacked by ghosts in the machine.

The most interesting audio aspects of Jenkin’s film, though, are non-diegetic. Enys Men boasts the director’s signature post-synced sound. Gallerneaux writes, “When we record sound, we store time, archiving our own impermanence. When we are haunted by voices that stand outside of the exactly here and now, it is because we are being touched from a distance.” In Jenkin’s films, sight and sound are never quite in sync. The audio touches the audience from a different distance to the images, resulting in an unshakably uncanny feel.

It stands to reason that the further the distance, the stronger the signal. That is, the older the object, and therefore the older its memories, the stronger the haunting, or the more ‘past’ its handler is exposed to. In The Stone Tape, the characters reach much deeper into the past than they realise.

Kneale’s teleplay follows a team of scientists searching for a new recording medium, who set up in a Victorian mansion. One of the rooms is supposedly haunted, and renovations within have uncovered remnants of an even older building: a stone staircase that leads nowhere.

As the scientists explore the chamber, they hear footsteps and screams. Jill (Jane Asher), a sensitive computer programmer, sees a vision of a young maid running up the stairs, as if hounded by some unseen force, and falling from the top to her death. Peter (Michael Bryant), the team’s headstrong leader, is sure that the stone itself is their new recording medium.

The scientists use audio technology to try to coax the stone – and, by extension, the past – into conversation, blasting the room with sound in an effort to trigger its playback and decipher its secrets. As in In the Earth, the stone only talks when it wants to, and is far older and more powerful than the flimsy scientists think.

The death of the young maid is dated to 1890, but it’s later revealed that exorcisms took place on the same site long before the Victorian edifice was built. The spectral phenomenon itself may be 7,000 years old.

In In the Earth and Enys Men, the sentient landscape literally takes root in the women at the heart of their stories. Jill is not so lucky. She eventually suffers the same fate as the maid, hounded up the stairs and to her death. But how could a fall from such a short height be so conclusively fatal? When Jill reaches the stairs’ summit, she finds herself somewhere else, at the mansion but also on the same land millennia before its first bricks were laid. Jill doesn’t just fall from the top of the steps, but also from somewhere deep in the past, the physical distance lengthened by the “distance” in time.

The mansion is built of Kentish ragstone. It’s the same greensand, we’re told, upon which much of mediaeval London was built. Kneale asks us to consider how many of the Big Smoke’s sightings might be attributed to such residual hauntings – endless death memories embedded in rock. The standing stones in In the Earth and Enys Men are older still, their histories entangled with ancient practices we know precious little about.

The ontological horror at the core of these stories is that the stone – which represents the natural world and the uses we carve out for it – is unknowable. It’s been here, affecting the land, whether erected as a monument or laid as bricks, for longer than we can fathom, and its inaccessible past has some frightening bearing on the present. Unlocking the secrets of these stones exposes the mind, audibly and visually, to thousands of years of recorded trauma. The stone tape triggers a cataclysmic playback that overloads the psyche. The ultimate reminder of our own “impermanence” is the vast archive of others.

The The Stone Tape’s end credits unfold over images of its characters superimposed on green stone, their tale eager to manifest itself in order to be heard again. Unlike the playback loops in Kneale’s story, however, his ideas are not “just a dead mechanism”. Fifty years on, they’re still being rediscovered, reprojected and reinterpreted. In the Earth and Enys Men are abstract, elliptical, and offer few answers. We never find out what spirits live in their stones, but of one thing we can be sure: Nigel Kneale is one of them.

'THE WENDIGO' BY ALGERNON BLACKWOOD

Many of Algernon Blackwood's supernatural stories appeared in the pulp magazines of the day. One of his most famous, "The Wendigo", was published in the June, 1944 issue of FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES. It's interesting to note that this magazine was on the stands around the time the Allied invasion of Normandy that would be the beginning of the end of World War II. Blackwood's otherworldly tales, and indeed stories in the multitude of other pulp 'zines offered readers a respite from the horrors of war.

MUST- WATCH FOLK HORROR FILMS

You know I am a big folk horror fan. The genre has increased in popularity over the last few years and a growing number of filmmakers are dipping their toes in the water by experimenting with the characteristic themes.

This post from cbr.com lists seven "must-watch" folk horror films. While not all on the list can be considered "the best", most of them qualify for required viewing.

7 Must-Watch Folk Horror Movies, From Midsommar to The Witch

By Richard Craig | July 2, 2022 | cbr.com

Folk horror is the latest buzzword in film studies, and here, we explore a selection of must-see movies from the burgeoning genre.

The term 'folk horror' was first used by Piers Haggard to describe his classic The Blood on Satan's Claw. Mark Gatiss later used it in his documentary A History of Horror to refer to a string of British horror films from the 1970s. These films have since become affectionately known as the 'Unholy Trilogy' of folk horror: The Wicker Man, Witchfinder General and The Blood on Satan's Claw. The subgenre was formed in hindsight, not truly recognized until a modern revival brought the themes of cults, isolation, landscape and folk belief to modern audiences. For those curious about the subgenre, here are some must-watch movies that provide a broad overview of the world of folk horror.

Midsommar Brought Director Ari Aster together with Florence Pugh

Following the death of her parents, Dani (Florence Pugh) travels with her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) and a group of friends to Sweden. Journeying to a remote Swedish village to witness a midsummer celebration, the group quickly becomes entangled in the cult-like community before meeting a grisly end. Directed by Ari Aster, 2019's Midsommar was distributed by folk horror powerhouse A24 and arguably kick-started the modern folk horror revival. Drawing on Swedish folklore, Aster subverts many classic horror tropes while still paying tribute to previous folk horror movies. Perfectly balancing drama with horror, the moments of terror truly take the audience unaware, and the gore is always gut-wrenchingly surprising.

The Wicker Man, The 1973 British Classic Starring Christopher Lee

The paradigm of the genre, Robin Hardy's classic, The Wicker Man, terrified audiences in 1973 and is still influencing movies to this day. Police Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) travels to Summerisle, a remote Scottish island, to investigate a missing girl. Upon his arrival, he discovers the locals are preparing for a May Day celebration under the watchful eye of the sinister Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). As Howie investigates, he finds that the islanders have adopted a form of Paganism that disturbs the devoutly Catholic Howie. Hardy horrifyingly interprets British folklore, lifting many scenes from James Frazer's account of European folk tradition, The Golden Bough. An unsettling May Pole scene and fire dancing sequence have become so quintessentially folk horror that reinterpretations can be observed throughout the genre, most notably in Midsommar. Paul Giovanni's score is a particular highlight, masterfully combining traditional tunes with contemporary folk music.

Netflix's Apostle Starred Dan Stevens and a Scary Micheal Sheen

Traveling to a small community on a remote Welsh island, Apostle focuses on Thomas (Dan Stevens) searching for his missing sister, who has been kidnaped and is being held for ransom by the islanders. Thomas infiltrates the community by posing as a convert, where he meets the enigmatic leader, Malcolm Howe (Michael Sheen). Malcolm informs Thomas of the cult's belief that their land was made fertile for farming through blood sacrifice, endowing Sheen with an opportunity to portray a truly unsettling character. A slow-burn, atmospheric movie, Apostle effectively cultivates its tone, building its tension exponentially. Toying with the genre's themes of Paganism and Christianity vying for cultural dominance and a belief in a 'Harvest Spirit,' Gareth Evans's 2018 period horror piece is a necessary inclusion in folk horror studies.

Estonian Fairy Tales Are Turned Horrifying and Beautiful in November

Based on a compilation of Estonian folk tales, Rainer Sarnet's 2017 masterpiece exemplifies the connection between folk tales and folk horror. Indeed, some have previously noted a prevalent tone in folk horror movies is that of a sinister fairy-tale. Combined with the black and white visuals, some aided by the stark use of infra-red cameras, November employs a magical tone that is as beautiful as it is unnerving. Set in a 19th-century Estonian peasant village, the plot centers around the young Hans, who, despite being previously betrothed to Liina, falls madly in love with the daughter of the local landowner. As Liina turns to witchcraft to reclaim her love, their fellow villagers are faced with the return of the dead on All Souls' Day, a plague infestation warded off by placing their trousers on their heads and kratts, which are mythical servants made of bones and discarded machinery.

Häxan Has Provided 100 Years of Witchcraft and Folk Horror

The 1922 Swedish documentary about witchcraft has been a horror cult classic for years. Since the recent revival of folk horror, many now consider Häxan the first movie in the subgenre. Released in 1922 as a film essay, Häxan was written and directed by Benjamin Christensen to depict the history of witchcraft from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Using a combination of historical sources in a documentary style and narrative dramatizations, Christensen's movie inadvertently became a must-see for horror movie buffs through its highly unnerving imagery and chiaroscuro style. The whole effect is compounded by the aging film stock, which only adds to its otherworldliness. Depicting live-action scenes taken straight from a Medieval witch-hunting guide, watching Häxan with modern eyes truly highlights the connection between folk horror and historical folk belief.

A Field in England Is Ben Wheatley's Psychedelic Trip Into the Past

Fleeing from battle during the English Civil War of the 17th Century, four men venture through the English countryside in search of freedom and an alehouse. After stumbling upon a trove of magic mushrooms, the men are soon captured by a sinister alchemist (Michael Smiley), who believes a great treasure is buried under the field. Directed by Ben Wheatley (Sightseers), 2013's A Field in England is a psychedelic ride that challenges its viewers with complex visuals and an oppressive, rich score. One particularly distressing scene depicts an entranced Reece Shearsmith emerging from a tent under the control of the alchemist. Fully exploiting the use of black and white visuals, the scene manages to be horrifying through performance and style alone. Highly complex and layered, Wheatley's masterpiece is a must-see.

The Witch Was Robert Eggers' First Historical Horror Movie

Robert Eggers has quickly become one of the most highly regarded directors in the folk horror genre. Eggers' work includes The Lighthouse and the recent The Northman, which saw him reunite with the star of his breakout hit, 2015's The Witch. After her family is banished from a New England colony, Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) and her family move to the edge of an ominous forest. Following the disappearance of her youngest brother, Thomasin's family believes there is a witch residing in the woods and targeting the family. Slowly, the family begins to break down as tragedy follows tragedy, all under the watchful eye of the family's infernal pet goat, Black Phillip. Eggers employs a tone that feels as gradual as it is shocking, with a muted color palette and focus on historical accuracy that will carry throughout Eggers' career. The Witch not only demonstrates the beginnings of Eggers' work but has also set a tone to which most modern folk horror films adhere.

FOLK HORROR REVIVAL

You know from past posts here that I am a vocal proponent for folk horror films. The sub-genre is elusive and insinuates itself in many ways into the context of many movies.

This article explains the phenomenon and how it recently re-emerged in popularity.

A scene from the film, Midsommar.

We Are Going Through a Folk Horror Renaissance

It’s like cottagecore, but with murder. 

October 29, 2021 | nofilmschool.com

There is a chill in the air as you spot animal skulls hanging in the trees and the sound of many quiet voices calling for you in the still woods. The night is falling, and whoever is watching you doesn’t want you to leave. This impending threat is quite normal in one of the most chilling subgenres of horror out there: folk horror.

Folk horror is a subgenre that achieved a spot in the general public in 2010 after the BBC Four documentary, A History of Horror, used the term to describe a series of nihilistic British genre films focused on the occult, paganism, and ritualistic sacrifice in a rural landscape. Since the term’s debut, the subgenre has expanded to include a multitude of offerings from suffocating silence to samurai ghosts. 

In recent years, the folk horror genre seems to be going through a renaissance with slow-burner hits like Midsommar. Let’s see how folk horror came to be, and how it has found a revival in modern-day cinema. 

What is folk horror? 

While most of the horror genre focuses on the horrors of people, folk horror finds its roots in the land. It is difficult to convey the form that specifically makes a folk horror film, but the emphasis on the evil that has seeped into the soil, the terror of the unkempt woods and forgotten lanes, the ghosts that haunt stones and patches of dark waters are key factors in the subgenre. 

Folk horror takes the romantic notion of the natural world as a restorative, tranquil paradise and releases the dark potential of the landscape. The woods are hostile, with the earth filled with bones of the past. The seclusion becomes maddening as the mind is filled with local legends, myths, and old-world beliefs. Viewers have conditioned themselves to not judge those who are different from our modern lifestyle and put down their guard to welcome the beauty of nature, but once that guard is down, the dark underlayer releases its violence. 

The unholy trinity of folk horror

As Adam Scovell states in his article for BFI, there is a trilogy of British films made with various ideas of the counter-culture era fueled by the flower-powered highs of the 60s and the dying optimism in the mid-70s. 

The first of the trilogy, and possibly the most nihilistic of the three, is Micheal Reeves’s Witchfinder General. The film is a disturbing tale that follows a Puritan Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, as he is empowered to travel the countryside to collect a fee for each witch he extracts a confession from during the English Civil War. The film shows a sadistic and cynical view of Puritanical efforts to purify the earth by dismembering those who are deemed wicked. 

The second film is Piers Haggard’s The Blood on Satan’s Claws, followed by the more optimistic of the three, Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man.

These unholy three defined the subgenre by emphasizing the natural landscape which isolates its communities and those within those communities. They also focused on the skewed moral and theological system that causes violence, human sacrifice, torture, and even demonic and supernatural summoning. By unearthing the darker side of cult-like communities and the occult, these three films would set the groundwork for what elements made up the folk horror genre. 

The revival of the genre

There has been a recent boom in the folk horror genre. This recent wave of folk horror is largely due to people’s longing for a way to escape technology and the pressures and emptiness of everyday life. The feeling was more present than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic which left people searching for a way of escapism through the cottage-core aesthetic. 

The subgenre is fixated on history and tradition, and placing purpose on a communities’ or individual's actions can bring a sense of comfort to the viewers. The viewer begins searching for familiarity in their own daily lives once they realize that they could never survive in the situations characters find themselves in in folk horror films. 

It is also our fascination with the occult or cult-like communities that draw us into these bizarre worlds. We find ourselves deeply invested in stories of terror as the characters try to find a sense of happiness in pastoral life. 

Modern-day folk horror still focuses on the darkness of the land, isolation, and the creatures that lurk in the forest, but these films also try to create empathy toward those who are suffering and find comfort in their found community.

Some of the defining movies in the revival of the subgenre include Ari Aster’s Midsommar, Robert Eggers’ The Witch and The Lighthouse, Lamb, It Comes At Night, The Wailing, and Kill List. The bizarre surrealism and otherworldliness of the films keep us just at the edge of fully understanding how the world of the film functions, requiring the watcher to fully immerse themselves into the film for the entirety of its run time. 

Many of these films are inspired by folklore, myths, and customs that directly contrast our digital world. The modern-day folk horror films heavily focus on the distant relationship humans have with nature and the greed that consumes us when we do interact with the land. Some people may be looking at the land as a thesis statement to help them graduate or provide a new life or job that rewards them for taking care of the land. How the humans in the story interact with the land will ultimately lead to their deaths or rebirths.

Sure, some of these modern-day folk horror films are not necessarily terrifying, but they break down the audience's expectations to tell a much larger story that relies heavily on the relationship between humans and nature.  

With production companies like A24 dominating the folk horror landscape, there is good reason to believe that folk horror is going through a revival. More and more people find themselves connected to the characters in folk horror. It encourages audiences to not isolate themselves in the woods or on an island away from society. Sometimes, isolation can be nice, but allowing that dread to consume you is a whole other monster. 

Folk horror will continue to flourish, as it is one of those subgenres that allow filmmakers with any budget to create beautifully terrifying projects that feed off of a very prevalent escapist fantasy. All you need is a camera, a character, any isolated location, and a menacing presence that allows the main character to achieve their emotional arc. Combine all those elements, and you'll have a pretty darn good folk horror film in your hands.

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Honestly, I had to look up the term, "cottagecore", and here's what I found: "Cottagecore, also known as farmcore and countrycore, is inspired by a romanticized interpretation of western agricultural life. It is centered on ideas of simple living and harmony with nature".

The release of the 2015 film, THE VVITCH was Robert Eggers' directorial debut and it was critically acclaimed. This review is from the April, 2016 issue of SIGHT AND SOUND.