Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror

source: Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror

Featuring numerous excerpts from a broad range of folk horror movies throughout history, this is the most comprehensive study of the sub-genre imaginable. While it begins by covering 3 very significant examples of the subject in Witchfinder General, Blood on Satan's Claw and The Wicker Man, it goes on to profile an exhaustive list of films from all over the world. There are some beautiful transitional sequences animated by underground filmmaker Guy Maddin. Among the clips included are scenes from The Company Of Wolves, The Lair Of The White Worm, Wake In Fright as well as countless other treasures of this unique genre. While it is a fairly lengthy examination of its subject I, being a huge fan of horror films in general and folk horror in particular, was riveted.

If you're a horror fan, I have to recommend Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror now available on Shudder A documentary on how regional folklore has been used in horror films. Beginning with British cinema, then covers this type of horror around the world. It has some examples of this in early silent films, but is primarily how modern filmmakers, since the mid-20th Century have used lore and legends in their films. Often looking at older eras to point out problems in our own.

If you have even a passing interest in the world of folk horror, Kier-La Janisse's exhaustive exploration - which clocks in at 3 hours and 14 minutes and could have been thousands more if I had my way - is the film of a lifetime. From the unholy trinity that launched this trend on to screens - Michael Reeves' Witchfinder General, Piers Haggard's Blood on Satan's Claw and Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man - all the way through British television and films around the world, this movie is quite literally the last word in what folk horror is, what it means and how it's still part of the world of cinema today, perhaps more than ever before. With more than fifty major names in the world of horror and horror writing - everyone from Amanda Reyes, Piers Haggard, Adam Scovell, Jeremy Dyson Samm Deighan, Kat Ellinger, Robert Eggars, Ian Oglivy, Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer and around forty more voices appear with great insights - there's never been a more well-rounded approach to tackling a movie genre within a genre. This feels like the kind of film that I'll be coming back to again and again. Beyond the expected anchors of the genre, I was so excited to see lesser-known films get their due, like Alison's Birthday (which is on the gigantic All the Haunts Be Ours box set that Severin is releasing), beDevil, Dark August, Eyes of Fire (also being released by Severin), Grim Prarie Tales, Lemora (which seemingly has footage from the mysterious blu ray of the film that never materialized) and Zeder. This is the kind of material that you want to pause, write down, make notes on and keep updating your Letterboxd while you watch it. This isn't just a movie about films. This is a true celebration of the magical wonder hidden within the flickering image, an exploration of a genre of all the dark old things and a journey through how each country documents the unknown through their media. There aren't enough stars in the firmament out of ten to rate this one.

This is a documentary about the history of folk horror; while a good number of writers are cited (M. R. James, H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King), the focus is primarily on film and, in some cases, television programs. Starting with an exploration of such films in the UK and moving on to the very different origins of American folk horror, the film spends its last hour or so talking about folk horror films around the world, particularly in Australia, Brazil, Japan and parts of the former Soviet Union. It's a *very* long film, more than three hours, but the interested viewer will not feel that time drag at all, so engrossing is the topic and so fascinating are the talking heads - and, of course, so terrific are the film clips. I've been interested in folklore and mythology for, oh, 40 years or so now, but this is the first time I've seen such scholarship applied so rigorously to films, many of which were considered schlocky in their time, some considered classics now. Absolutely riveting - but watch at your own peril, because you will find yourself wanting to track down a massive number of films after seeing tantalizing moments from the hundreds referenced here!

Blah, blah, blah, & etc! Insufferable snobbish commentaries by self proclaimed know-it-alls who micro-analyze horror using trendy pop-psych platitudes ad nauseum until you either fall asleep or click off as I did! I used to enjoy many of these films before I was subjected to the pooled ignorance of these prattling "experts" telling me what and how to think about them! Why do these people feel they are somehow doing us a supreme service by droning on and on about why a film has social relevance or was ahead of its time or how it taps into this or that psychological aspect of the collective social consciousness?? What a snore!! If you like being told what to think and feel about this or that film by a bunch of self-important windbags, maybe this film will appeal to you. But as for me, include me out!!

As usual, people with connections got here first to give this flick a "10-out-of-10" rating, a dead giveaway that something is very wrong. I hate how these idiots have corrupted a good source of information, into a system where we have to return in 2-3 years when the rating has leveled off into a realistic number. Anyhow, the film's subject matter and movie poster promise an interesting foray into a form of fantasy and horror that I've always greatly enjoyed, folk tales. What you get, unfortunately, is a huge outpouring of uninteresting and even hard to follow "viewpoints" from a variety of "experts". A few of these people come from the school of "If I wave my hands about constantly while speaking, everyone will be captivated and assured that I'm absolutely fascinating". Believe me, they are not, in fact, most of what they have to say is recycled over and over until I finally said out loud "YEAH I GET IT!". I thought at the very least this "history" would turn me on to a few films I've missed, and I did get a couple names, but if that was part of their intentions, they didn't do a very good job. I'm disappointed, but hoping that someday someone else will create a much much better film.

There's a lot packed into 3 hours here and while some of it is repetitive, you will definitely see a ton of movies to add to your to watch list. It might have been better served to be a series with different episodes focusing on different countries, but overall it's still a rich source of information and films, so worth checking out.

I really enjoyed this documentary, especially considering that it made me aware of at least two dozen lesser known films that I've watched since then and enjoyed tremendously. However, I'm really annoyed by the way every single damn film is analysed against the backdrop of either race-relations or feminism. Not everything in art, especially the horror genre, has to be turned into some political talking point. Sometimes a great film is just a great film. I would have been a lot more invested in the thing if they'd focused more on the craft of folk horror, such as scenery, archetypal characters etc. But overall this was enjoyable and certainly worth a watch, if just for the niche films that are discussed rather than the (sometimes) unnecessary commentary alongside them.

It's a reasonably comprehensive look at folk horror, seen mainly through the lens of movies. The talking heads are all erudite and provide interesting bits and bobs throughout the hefty runtime. There is no real 'arc' to the story of the documentary - it's basically a chronological trek through selected folk horror stories from beginning to end. If you happen to already be a fan of folk horror then this will be absolutely perfect for you - it's an intelligent and respectful look at the importance of our myths. If you have only a passing interest, this doc won't make you love folk horror. It's humourless and only interested in chewing over the context and subtext of specific tales for hours and hours. Its narrow focus will likely bore some viewers to tears. So I'd recommend it with those caveats. It's good, but deliberately esoteric.