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.
My previous post discussed Dogged, Lord of Tears, and The Shrine. Here are four more folk horror films I’ve watched.
DABBE: CIN ÇARPMASI — I actually should have included this in my previous post, but I forgot. Which isn’t to say this is a bad movie – on the contrary, it’s actually quite good with atmospheric dread and scares. I’ve been fascinated with djinn as of late (and if you are intrigued by the concept, I highly recommend checking out a podcast called Spirit Box, which I discuss in this post, because the podcast delves into the subject quite often) and was excited to watch a movie about a djinn possessing a bride. I like possession themed movies, but finding one that’s not about Catholicism seems to be a rarity. It’s a Turkish film, and I’m pretty sure my first Turkish film ever. It’s presented in a found footage style, which was a pleasant surprise to me – I love found footage. Generally, I don’t get motion sickness from that style of filmmaking; however, it took a bit to adjust to the camerawork due to the many handheld scenes. I did notice a few times that the POV switched to standard narrative and I’m not sure if this was a mistake. Otherwise, the found footage approach worked, and I liked that the two main characters were a skeptic and a believer. It provided a nice tension of whether or not the events were truly supernatural.
THE SHOUT — When I was preparing for this month, I stumbled across a post from BFI on lesser known folk horror films. This is one of a few films from that list that I sought out; it’s currently streaming on Prime. It’s a bizarre slow burn. After the movie was over, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but certain scenes keep replaying in my mind. It’s a movie that’s stuck with me long after it ended. The best performance in the film is Alan Bates as the character of Crossley, who claims to have magical powers. He’s super creepy and believable in the role. It’s a nightmare-ish movie with a lot of dread. There’s a shot in the beginning of the film of these sand dunes with someone coming down, and it instantly set the tone for a dreamlike, eerie story. I’m surprised it took me this long to find out about The Shout, but I’m really glad I watched it!
THE APPOINTMENT — Another movie from the aforementioned BFI list. To be honest, I’m not quite sure I buy the folk horror connection here. The plot is very simple – there’s a foreshadowing of the father in a car crash, and the film builds up to him driving to the appointment. There’s definitely a supernatural, possibly occult element to the story but there’s so much ambiguity, and the typical elements that make up a folk horror film seem to be missing from the narrative. Something interesting and folklore-ish about the movie is that three black dogs who appear to be malevolent are featured prominently. The demonic black dog is a motif in British folklore so I would bet that the dogs’ inclusion in the story is no accident. I also thought it was neat because I’m currently reading a book called Black Dog Folklore about this topic. Although I didn’t plan it this way, The Appointment worked well as a double feature with The Shout. Both films are weird, sinister stories shrouded in mystery. I personally liked the ambiguous aspect of The Appointment, although I imagine to others it would be frustrating.
THE BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW — One of my goals for the month was catching up on some classics of folk horror that I hadn’t seen yet. One such film was The Blood on Satan’s Claw. It’s cool to watch these older movies and see how they’ve influenced contemporary horror films.
I link to Letterboxd throughout. If you’re on Letterboxd, feel free to add me – I log every movie I watch.
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