FOR FOLK'S SAKE

Folk horror, UK Folk horror in particular, is everywhere. The latest episode of Inside Number 9 gave us the straw mask/crown and cult like villagers dispatching the outsider, as first placed in our consciousness by The Wicker Man.

We've had In The Earth, Midsommar, Kill List, and a variety of other versions of  the perils of paganism, with Alex Garland's Men coming shortly. There's been The VVitch and BBC's the  Witchfinder, not to mention Radiohead's clever video for Burn The Witch and a plethora of references to the bygone age of Catweazle, Children Of The Stones and seventies village mysteries. But what's the fascination?

Maybe we have all had our fill of slashers, cannibals, zombies, werewolves, cyborgs, viruses and vampires and are looking closer to home to give our fear glands a workout.

What Folk horror gives us is a taste of that innate fear of being an outsider, of not belonging. It speaks of the unspeakable hiding behind the mundane. In American life there is the 'behind the picket fence' syndrome, but in the UK there is a feeling that there are more sinister goings on out there in the forests and woods of little England than dogging and dog fighting. 

Our scandinavian friends have their fair share of pagan rites and rituals and share an appreciation of the changing of the season, dancing round a totem and tales of sacrifice and witchery. But, perhaps the puritans of early America are our nearest counterparts and their dark doings in the forests and woods of New England have real resonance. Great examples are The VVitch and American Horror Story: Roanoak.

This Century, that's getting on a bit now, may be for Folk Horror what the 40s were for Film Noir. There are many strange and ambiguous tales being told on the small and big screen and if you've not dipped a toe into these waters I would recommend the following as a glimpse into the past, present and future of Pagan Horror, this is a chronological list to set you on your way into the underbelly of the beast.

1. Häxan (1922)
2. Night Of The Demon (1957)
3. Black Sunday (1960)
4. The Witches (1966)
5. Witchfinder General (1968)
6. The Blood On Satan's Claw (1971)
7. The Wicker Man (1973) 
8. The Shout (1978)
9. Eyes Of Fire (1983)
10. Tilbury (1987)
11. Lair Of The White Worm (1988)
12. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
13. Wendigo (2001)
14. The Reaping (2007)
15. Wake Wood (2009)
16. Kill List (2011)
17. A Field In England (2013)
18. The VVitch (2013)
19. The Ritual (2017)
20. Border (2018)
21. Apostle (2018)
22. American Horror Story : Roanoak (2019)
23. In The Earth (2021)
24. Lamb (2021)
25. Men (2022)

*There are also a plethora of Asian Folk Horror Movies. More about them on a future post