All February long, I’ll be focusing on folk horror, which is one of my favorite subgenres. All my posts for this month will be collected here.
Due to unforeseen circumstances with work and general malaise, which put me in almost a week of no movie watching, I’ve only managed to watch three films this month so far. Here are some quick reviews.
DOGGED — Dogged is a 2017 British horror film about a University student who returns to the village where he grew up to attend a funeral for a local child. As I watched the film, I looked for the four elements of a folk horror film as defined by writer Adam Scovell. These elements are: landscape, isolation, skewed moral beliefs, and happening/summoning. Right away the film places itself firmly in the realm of folk horror with its story location: Farthington Island, a private and isolated location that can only be accessible when the tide is low. A secondary character is the village’s pastor, and the town appears to be quite religious in following Christianity. This interested me because I was seeking the “skewed moral beliefs” element and knew something must be lurking beneath. Sure enough, when the pastor says to his daughter, “So you can help your Mother prepare for the festival. We have much to give thanks for this year.” With those lines, I knew something – a happening or summoning! – was coming. No spoilers, but overall I thought the movie was average. It definitely nailed those four folk horror elements, but at the same time, it all almost felt formulaic. I wasn’t too keen on the stylistic choices of the movie, but the animal masks were a nice nod to folk horror’s most iconic film, The Wicker Man. Where the movie really failed me though, was the ending – again, no spoilers, but I was clearly missing something that I was supposed to get.
LORD OF TEARS — This one makes the most from its limited budget and cast. Only a few people appear in the film, and for the most part, it takes place entirely in this eerie home called Baldurich. The folk horror here is the Lord of Tears, represented by an owl. The owl mythology was new to me, and as someone who loves birds and particularly owls, I really dug it. The owl in the film is one of the coolest antagonists that I’ve seen; owls in horror films are an unfortunate rarity! While some scenes dragged on for too long, and certain aspects of the narrative were too obvious, I thought overall this was a strong folk horror. Unlike Dogged, in which the ending left me a bit puzzled, Lord of Tears had a great wrap-up.
THE SHRINE — Out of these three films, I liked The Shrine the best – which is funny, considering I randomly selected it and went into the film without much prior interest. But it had the most strikingly eerie moments, and the narrative went into a direction I was not expecting. The story takes place in rural Poland, where backpackers have been going missing. Clearly something sinister is going on, and there’s an excellent scene in the forest featuring one creepy statue. I thought the movie was an excellent blend of folk horror and supernatural elements. I was surprised to see The Shrine had so many bad reviews on Letterboxd – maybe it’s just me then.
I linked to Letterboxd throughout. If you’re on Letterboxd, feel free to add me – I log every film I watch.
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