10 Folk horror films you need to watch
Folk horror films are usually about city dwellers who venture into unfamiliar rural landscapes.
Folk horror derives its name from folklore and folklore. But it’s not just based on folklore. It uses ancient legends to illustrate the conflict of values between the present and the past. Folk horror plots typically involve conflicts between modern and primitive, urban and rural, global and local. Rural areas are usually forests and islands, and visiting townspeople are often seen as unwanted invaders who meet a cruel fate. According to Dawn Keatley, director of Horror Homeroom, all of these films are loosely based on a typical folk-horror plotline… Strange Faith. These beliefs are often ingrained in popular culture and even pagan and pre-Christian religions, and those who invade rural communities generally do poorly. They are marginalized and often become victims of violence.”
The genre became popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s with films such as Wicker His Man, Witchfinder His General, and Satan’s Blood of His Claw. Starting around 2012, he experienced a revival with movies like his Kill List, The Hallow, The Ritual, Midsummer and Hereditary.
Here are 10 folk horror films that embody genres from the silent era to the present day.
Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922)
This Swedish silent film is an innovative blend of fact and fiction, drawing and movement. It attempts to trace the roots of witchcraft and draws what one might see as dubious parallels between ancient witches and the contemporary notion of “female hysteria” at the time in Eastern Europe.It has seven chapters. The part about the Spanish Inquisition is notable for its extreme brutality, as it depicts the persecution of witches.
Kwaidan(1965)
Shot in bold, surreal color, Kaidan tells four Japanese folktales, all of which have something of the supernatural in them. In Kurokami, a samurai divorces his beloved wife and marries a rich woman, but when he returns to his old wife, something mysterious changes about her. In “The Woman in the Snow,” a lumberjack trapped in a snowstorm is rescued by a ghostly woman who saves his life as long as he promises not to tell anyone about her. Breaking it makes his life worse. “Miminashi Hoichi” tells the story of a blind musician in a monastery whose singing is pleasing to the ears of the undead living in the building and slowly kills them. And in the “tea ceremony”, the samurai sees the face of the former samurai in the tea and is possessed by the spirit of that face.
Viy(1967)
A young Ukrainian monk, returning home for Lent, was ordered to pray for three nights as he stood over the body of an elderly woman in a local church. On those long, dark, cold nights, the spirits of the dead come to life and begin to torment him. The dead woman’s body was also resurrected in the form of a young beautiful woman, and the monk realized he was a witch. The witch summons the demon Viy to take revenge on the unfortunate monk.
10 Folk horror films to you need to watch
Kuroneko(1968)
A looting group of itinerant samurai invade the home of a peasant woman named Yone and her daughter-in-law Shige. After taking advantage of the women’s food, they rape and kill them. The woman then returns as a vengeful spirit (Onryo) who takes on the characteristics of a black cat and lures wandering samurai to a haunted house so that she can kill them in her nightly revenge routine. A man who is fortunate enough to become a samurai is tasked with eliminating the spirits, not knowing that they are his wife and mother. Kuroneko is one of many films based on the Bakeneko (kaineko) prototype found in Japanese folklore. During the bloody English Civil War (1642-1651), Matthew Hopkins (Vincent Price) takes advantage of the confusion to identify and pretend to torture a witch. With the help of his accomplices, he traveled from village to village, coercing confessions from alleged “witches” and becoming rich in the process. However, her girl’s fiancé plots revenge on the Witchfinder when he tortures her young woman, sexually exploits her, and kills her uncle.
Witchfinder General(1968)
When the Duke of Richelieu (horror legend Christopher Lee) and his best friend Rex visit their friend’s son Simon, he discovers that he has 13 guests at the party and a live chicken is kept in the closet. I noticed that there is Horrified, Duck discovers that both Simon and his girlfriend Tanis are about to join a Satanic cult. However, Dak, being an expert in the occult, takes it upon himself to fight the evil Mokata, the leader of the Order, in a desperate attempt to save Simon’s soul.
The Devil Rides Out(1968)
The Blood on Satan’s Claw, a folk horror film set in 17th-century England. A landowner finds a hairy, one-eyed skull in a field. On her wedding day, a young woman lost her mind and was sent to an asylum, her fiancé finding that one of her hands had been replaced with her claw. The same young man wakes up from a nightmare to find a claw that attacks him, but he cuts it off and finds himself amputating his own hand. , rapes or kills other people.
The Blood on Satan’s Claw(1971)
A mix of folk and environmental horror, Doomwatch tells the story of an island off the coast of England where a chemical spill pollutes the surrounding waters. Islanders who eat fish caught in polluted waters mutate and become violent. Dr. Shaw (Ian Bannen) visits the island to investigate, but soon discovers that he is not welcomed by the locals. Finding the girl’s dead body in the woods, he returns with a police officer, only to find his body removed. After testing the waters off the coast, he discovers that the dumped chemicals were the result of failed animal testing, causing the animals to become violent and deformed. it was done.
Doomwatch(1972)
Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) is a devout Christian police sergeant who arrives on a remote Scottish island in search of a missing girl, but is informed by locals, including the girl’s mother, that she is the girl. I was told it didn’t exist. As he began to believe they were lying, he also realized that they practiced a primitive pagan religion that worshiped the act of reproduction. Sergeant Howie begins to suspect that the girl was murdered to appease the previous year’s failed apple harvest. He then becomes horrified that he could be the next victim of the island’s cult. Wicker Man was remade in 2006.
The Wicker Man(1973)
Ken Russell’s surreal folk horror follows a Scottish archaeologist hired to excavate the ruins of an abandoned monastery. During the course of his mission, he finds a strange and mysterious skull. He also meets Sir James Dumpton, heir to a family whose legendary ancestor is said to have killed the Dumpton Worm (a huge, white, dragon-like creature) by cutting it in two. He also learns that “worms” were worshiped as gods in ancient times. I begin to suspect that she intends to use it for sinister purposes.
The Lair of the White Worm(1988)
Ken Russell’s surreal folk horror follows a Scottish archaeologist hired to excavate the ruins of an abandoned monastery. During the course of his mission, he finds a strange and inexplicable skull. He also meets Sir James Dumpton, heir to a family whose legendary ancestor is said to have killed the Dumpton Worm (a huge, white, dragon-like creature) by cutting it in two. He also learns that “worms” were worshiped as gods in ancient times. I begin to suspect that she intends to use it for sinister purposes.
