All February long, I’ll be focusing on folk horror, which is one of my favorite subgenres. For the uninitiated, this post will serve as a basic introduction to what folk horror is – keeping in mind that this is my opinion, and others may differ!
Fair warning: There may be light spoilers for films.
Defining “Folk Horror”
With thanks to Ari Aster and his 2019 film Midsommar, folk horror has seen a recent surge in popularity. But what is “folk horror”?
“I suppose I was trying to make a folk horror film.”
Piers Haggard, director of The Blood On Satan’s Claw (1971), in an interview for Mark Gatiss’s BBC documentary, A History of Horror, 2010.
Beginning in the late 1960s, there was a wave of British horror films establishing the subgenre now called folk horror:
- Witchfinder General (1968)
- The Devil Rides Out (1968)
- The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)
- The Wicker Man (1973)
As Dawn Keetley points out in her paper, Introduction: Defining Folk Horror, these films are considered folk horror’s first wave. Keetley identified a second wave beginning in the late 2000s, with movies like Ben Wheatley’s Kill List. Of course, the British are not the only ones making folk horror films: The US has enjoyed its own brand, like the 1989 Pet Semetary adaptation, the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project, and, of course, Aster’s Midsommar.
Because Midsommar is one of my favorite films, I will use it here as a guide to what makes a “folk horror film.” In the film, a group of American students, two of whom are in a struggling relationship, travel to Sweden to observe and participate in a small, isolated community’s Midsommar rituals. Of course, things are not as idyllic as they seem. There is a clash of ideologies between the students (outsiders) and the community (Pagan cult members, called the Hårga). These outsiders are killed off, and the girlfriend character is manipulated into joining the Hårga. In short, Midsommar is about a rural, isolated community, with centuries-old beliefs and rituals, that clashes with urban outsiders, resulting in sacrificial violence.
While those key elements (italicized) to Midsommar‘s narrative can often be found in other “folk horror” films, they are not strictly necessary. There’s no requirement that such a film has to involve Paganism and rural Britain, although those are elements seen in some of the more iconic films. Consider, for example, the recent Netflix release His House. A Sudanese folklore tale is central to the horror, in which a couple who escaped their native Sudan to London are being tormented by “apeth”, a night witch. The story isn’t set in rural Britain but an unwelcoming urban London, and more specifically, their haunted house. Given the ties to folklore, I’d include His House as folk horror. But now here’s another caveat that complicates things a bit: folklore isn’t necessarily a required element, either! Some folk horror stories center on the occult or witchcraft. The point, to me, seems to be that the characters or community in a folk horror film hold beliefs and customs.
Part of the problem as to why “folk horror” may be hard to pin down is because many discussions about the subgenre are centered on British films. Which, in light of the discussion above about the subgenre’s roots, isn’t surprising. But a discussion should expand beyond a British context; for example, the American film Candyman is certainly folk horror, but it’s not rural, British, and Pagan.
For purposes of my Folk Horror February, I will hopefully be watching a diverse range of films to appreciate a deeper look into the subgenre.
Robin Hardy’s THE WICKER MAN (1973). Courtesy: Rialto Pictures/ Studiocanal 
Folk horror is not a term with a rigid definition – which is exactly what I like about it. For me, it’s kind of one of those “you’ll know it when you see it.” If you’d like to see the movies I consider folk horror, I’ve put together a list of over 100 films on Letterboxd.
Popular Folk Horror Films
By no means an exhaustive list.
- Witchfinder General (1968)
- Robin Redbreast (1970)
- The Wicker Man (1973)
- Pet Semetary (1989)
- Candyman (1992)
- The Blair Witch Project (1999)
- Hot Fuzz (2007)
- Wake Wood (2009)
- Kill List (2011)
- The Witch (2015)
- The Wailing (2016)
- Midsommar (2019)
Citation
Keetley, Dawn. “Introduction: Defining Folk Horror.” Revenant: Critical and Creative Studies of the Supernatural 5 (2020): 1–32. Print.
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