Folk
Horror
What is folk horror? The
question is a bit like asking what is punk rock. You know it when you hear it,
but nailing it down to a definition is not so easy. Broadly speaking it is a horror sub-genre, like gothic horror,
body horror or slashers, which uses elements of folklore and often incorporates
particular themes.
The actual folklore involved
is what gives folk horror films their flavor. Horror usually plays on universal
anxieties; death, decay, alienation, etc. However, the way these horrors are
communicated varies greatly from culture to culture.
A simple example is a
comparison between the Dracula-esque vampires of the West and the very different
vampires of the East, whether we’re talking about Eastern Europe or East Asia. In Western Europe the vampires rise from
their coffins at night and live off the blood of innocents, But in Slavic folklore
it takes a perverse twist with the wurdulac. That’s a vampire that lives off
the blood of those it loved in life (as seen in Night of the Devils and Mario
Bava’s excellent Black Sabbath). In China the vampires take the form of the jiangshi,
or “hopping vampire.” In fact, you can find some form of a vampire in almost
every culture around the world, taking on the unique aspects of the culture
where it is found.
In this way, folk horror provides us with an insider’s look at cultures we might not be familiar with. It can also serve as a way to preserve local customs. Governments and regimes come and go but the folklore survives. A good example is the folk horror from Eastern Europe, which has produced many great films from countries that no longer exist, like Viy which was made in the now dissolved USSR. Valerie andHer Week of Wonders and Witchhammer were both made in the now nonexistent Czechoslovakia. Pumpknhead is a great example of horror infused with local flavor, in that case, rural Appalachia.
The rural setting is not an absolute
necessity for folk horror but it usually plays an important part. First, rural
areas are often where our folklore is preserved. In urban areas, where people are piled on top
of one another, customs, dialects and beliefs get homogenized. In the rural
setting, beliefs are allowed to “remain pure” and retain their unique flavor. The
rural setting also provides easier access to nature, which is often an
important element of folk horror. It also increases the menace of whatever
horrors may be lurking. Leatherface and the cannibals from Texas Chainsaw
Massacre are a lot scarier at the end of an old dirt road than they would be in
the middle of a crowded New York apartment building.
Folk horror usually incorporates
particular themes; community, isolation, superstition, sacrifice, witchcraft,
and conflicts between the old world and the new.
Community is the beginning
of civilization; groups of people, living together, with a shared language,
shared beliefs, and shared goals. From a practical point of view, community is
our first source of safety. It is also the birthplace of religion. Community is
the first place where we differentiate
between “us and them.” In folk horror, community, rather than being a source of
strength is a source of danger and menace. The community hides dark secrets.
The community doesn’t trust outsiders. In folk horror, the protagonists are
often the outsiders, finding themselves at the mercy of the community’s beliefs.
The best example of the danger of community is The Wicker Man, but other movies
about outsiders caught in a community’s horror include The Witches, City of theDead and the Lovecraft inspired Dagon.
The flipside of community is
isolation. If community provides protection and identity, then isolation
creates vulnerability and confusion. In folk horror, the isolation often comes
from being cast out from the community like in The Witch or Eyes of Fire. Here
the protagonists find themselves surrounded by nature. But rather than being in
a state of harmony they find themselves at odds with the natural forces, or
they find that nature harbors forces that are older and more powerful than the
civilized world that they have put their faith in.
Superstition is an important
part of folk horror. Superstition is, to quote Stevie Wonder, “When you believe
in things that you don't understand.” That superstition can provide armor
against the unseen forces, such as making the ward against the Evil Eye,
crossing oneself or throwing salt over the shoulder. The superstition often
provides a relatable, if illogical, explanation for things that seem to go
against what our common sense tells us is reasonable. For instance, I grew up
hearing old people say that if it was raining and the sun was shining, then the
Devil was beating his wife. In folk horror we see communities engaging in age
old rituals, often to the detriment of outsiders, for fear of what might happen
if they neglect those superstitions.
Sacrifice is a custom as old
as civilization, perhaps older. Even a child knows that you can’t get something
for nothing, and the more valuable a thing, the dearer the price. In order to
guarantee something as important as a good harvest or rain for the crops, or
victory in war, something valuable has to be given in return. In some cases
this might mean burning food as an offering or sacrificing an animal. But if
the need was dire, blood magic was the surest way to satisfy the powers that
be. As long as there have been humans, there have been human sacrifices. This
idea is used most effectively in The Wickerman and Midsommar.
Conflict is an inherent part
of all story telling. Conflict in folk horror is often between the old and the new. The old may take
the form of pagan beliefs, pagan, usually being pre-Christian. In these
stories, the old represents evil that had long been thought vanquished but has
survived to terrify us in the modern world. A great example of this is the
priestess in Lair of the White Worm, or the monster in Rawhead Rex. Sometimes,
it is the new that is the source of danger, usually in the form of the young.
The new generation threatens to wipe away the old, perversely by embracing even
older beliefs. The best examples of this are the cults of murderous children in
Blood on Satan’s Claw and Children of the Corn.
No single figure is more
important to folk horror than the witch. She is an all-purpose figure that can
be used as protagonist, villain, or plot device. I say “she” because the
witches in these stories are almost always women (2 good rare exceptions are
Warlock and Halloween 3). Sometimes the
witch is an old hag, a figure of both wisdom and death as seen in Punpkinhead. Sometimes
she is young and beautiful, representing both life and sexual desire. In Viy,
the witch is both, going back and forth between hag and maiden.
Sometimes the witch isn’t
even a witch as we see in the Inquisition sub-genre where young women are
accused of witchcraft as either a pretext for imprisonment, torture and rape, or
they are blamed for things for which they had no part (again returning to
superstition). The best example of this type of film is Witchfinder General
with Vincent Price. Other entertaining films are Mark of the Devil,
Witchhammer, Jess Frano’s The Bloody Judge and Paul Naschy’s inquisition.
The witch also represents
the wild, unknown aspects of nature, She lives in the woods, far from the eyes
of society’s righteous judgment. Who knows what she could be doing? The witch
also represents female sexuality and power, and the anxieties that they
produce. Long ago we worshipped moon goddesses, before the sun gods took over.
On some level, this image still connects with us.
If you are new to the
sub-genre of folk horror ,let me recommend the following 10 films as a kind of
must see list of the best that folk horror has to offer (click the link for a review):
If you are an old fan of
folk horror and looking for something you haven’t seen before, I’d like to recommend
the following (click the link for a review):
Antlers The Believers Black Magic Blair Witch Project
The Bloody Judge
Children of the Corn City ofthe Dead
Curse of the Werewolf
Dagon Dangerous Seductress
Elves Encounters of the Spooky Kind
Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil Eye of the Devil
Eyes of Fire Gretaland Hansel Halloween 3: Season of theWitch
The Juniper Tree Lair of the White Worm
Mexico Barbaro Nightof the Devils
Rare Exports Ravenous Rawhead Rex
Santa Claus vs. The Devil The Unnamable
Warlock The Witches Valerie and Her Week ofWonders
Also, anyone interested in the subject may find this
helpful or entertaining:
A Bestiary of Winter and Christmas Monsters
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