Reading List
Folk Horror
These films are aesthetically appealing, as well as a good watch. They frequently contain themes of either traditional witchcraft, the spooky pastoral, or land-eerie, all of which we can use; or to just pad out what we're Reading to keep us in the right sort of zone. I use the term "folk horror" expansively; I actually don't like the Straw-Dogsy focus on films about humans murdering one another and killing witches, I've a strong preference for pulling in themes of "supernatural + the landscape as character", for reasons which are obvious. I'd also add that inclusion on the Folk Horror list generally denotes that I don't find them altogether spiritually relevant or instructional, they're just films I've seen as part of my be-constantly-Reading practice that you might want for the same.
Midsommar (2019)
★★★
Film | I really enjoyed this, tho I wouldn't describe it as Fencraft-essential. I found it powerfully dissociative, though, so that's really part of the Lunar-Stellar path - if you've never exerienced dissociation before, it might be instructive to watch this. Besides that, it's a predominantly Solar film - about connectedness, the loss of it, and its perversion. Link to my review at the Herald.
The VVitch (2015)
★★★
Film | Really nice contemporary folk horror, drawn directly from witch trial transcripts - giving the mythos a strange, unfamiliar vibe. With a particularly Stellar current, relating to the inability of this family to survive the wilderness and its fears. Very scary, for fans of horror only, and of special interest to those who like traditional witchcraft.
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
★★★
Film | Classic Hammer horror, based on the Wheatley book, about a Holmes-ish aristocrat investigating Satanic goings on in the forest. Absurdly posh, but scary too.
The Witches (1966)
★★★
Film | Early folk horror - written by Nigel Kneale. Nice creepy rural village, good scene-setting for forms of community creepiness, great climactic scene; but pulpy and very racist. Review available at the link.
The Wicker Man (1973)
★★★★
Film | Review forthcoming, but its very good. It's a comedy. You can see why generations of pagans have taken this one to heart, the seductive realism with which Summerisle is created, a utopia always just out of reach. And it's soundtrack is gorgeous in its own right.
✪ We Don't Go Back (2018)
★★★★★
Book | I am desperate for a copy of this. Ingram is a phenomenal writer, who embarked on a project of writing and reviewing folk horror. So an excellent source of things to watch; but in its own right, also beautiful writing, the sort of film journalism that changes how you understand a film. Many of the posts are available on their blog. Ingram does periodic lectures online, which are very good as well.Link to the blog
✪ The Poacher (1982-1983)
★★★★
Serial | So, so good. Recommended as a meditation on Walking, the importance of just being present in the land for developing gnosis; a slow and steady, incredibly creepy little landscape horror story, I think everyone should watch this one.
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
★★★
Film | Review forthcoming. Children's movie, absolutely one of my favourites, you won't learn much from it but it's always good to have "cosy little villages with a creepy edge" content on your mental roster
Gwaed Ar Y Ser (1975)
Serial | Welsh-language only
O'r Ddaear Hen (1984)
Serial | Welsh language only
Psychomania (1973)
★★
Film | Suicide theme. Very good, though non essential, supernatural biker pulp flick. Acid dreams, stone circles, *surely* the true inspiration for the song Don't Fear the Reaper, and just incredibly watchable, anarchic, moreish. I'd probably categorise this as maybe psychedelic pastoral or psychedelic folklore rather than folk horror exactly, but you'll definitely know what I mean, it's British weird for sure.
Quatermass (1979)
★★
Film | It's that thing I like, and lots of it. Big computers, stone circles, hippy cults, post-apocalyptic landscapes, and just a pervasive strangeness; if you're uncertain about what I mean when I start discussing the weird 70s, you could do worse than watch this and ponder. And just a great film, as well. A professor is trying to find his missing grandaughter, in a near-future Britain which has become strange. There are ley lines.
Tarry Dan Tarry Dan, Scarey Old Spooky Man (1978)
★★★★
Serial | I really liked this one, recommended. A slowburn creepy story; review available here. You can't get it on DVD, more's the pity - it deserves a good restoration (though somebody is distributing a VHS rip), so watch it on youtube here
The Blood on Satan's Claw(1971)
★★★
Film | CW: strong sexual violence. One of three films identified as "the unholy trinity", establishing and defining the folk horror genre. BoSC was my favourite of the three, with an unsettling grungy mood and great traditional witchcraft imagery; but is definitely sexploitation pulp, with a nasty misogynist undercurrent. Still, it sort of works, because certain sexualised fears/hysteria about women have always been part of witchcraft in the cultural imagination, both in the Tudor period and in the witchcraft revival and now; and it's in a similar zone to The VVitch in capturing the sort of film a person of the 16th century might have made about witches. Recommended for fans of boobs.