Woodlands Dark and Days Betwitched: A History of Folk Horror (Kier-La Janisse, 2021, USA)

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror is a truly monumental piece of work - a 3-hour documentary about the origins, history, and cultural impact of folk horror. What is folk horror, you may ask? One of the things about Kier-La Janisse’s documentary is that it demonstrates that folk horror as a genre is quite flexible. While it tends to bring to mind images of the English countryside and movies like The Wicker Man (1973), the documentary demonstrates that the genre is far more encompassing and durable than this.

Woodlands Dark is divided into separate chapters, but one feels that it is largely a geographic telling of the genre. The film starts in England, as one would expect, and focuses on the holy trinity of the genre - Witchfinder General, The Wicker Man, and The Blood on Satan’s Claw. These films coincided with a rejection of the Hammer style of horror and also social movements of the time that saw a return to the land and a desire for the pre-industrial age. The film then traces the influence of folk horror in the American context, with ample discussion of Stephen King and other major figures in the genre.

Perhaps most interesting is the discussion of folk horror in less traditional settings, such as Australia and Latin America, as well as a section devoted to Russian and Eastern European folk horror, countries where folk horror is simply the dominant form of horror. The final chapter of the film is devoted to the resurgence of folk horror in the works of some of the most influential directors of our era, including Robert Eggers (who also appears as a talking head in the film). Beyond anything else, the film is an amazing compendium of folk horror films from around the world to watch.

8/10