Top 10 Folk Horror Films Of All Time
Welcome to that time of year where we look at another horror sub genre and sit down with the ancient gods and unearth some cursed gems that will make your eyes bleed. Just pray you don’t upset the locals.
Let’s be honest, it’s a foregone conclusion. The Wicker Man wins hands down.
But what constitutes Folk Horror? Folk Horror simply would not exist without The Wicker Man that birthed an entire horror sub genre by setting horror within a religious conspiracy in rural communities - a symbiotic relationship between horror and a conflict of idealogies that leads to collective madness. I would argue that mythology sits at the heart of some of the best folk horror films where ancient gods must be appeased by sacrifice to guarantee local survival with a bountiful harvest, the grieving are granted their loved ones resurrection, religious persecution is rife, or people are spared an old testament threat when morality is questioned.
Still, it could be argued that the UK is not the only country to have evolved its own folklore traditions, religious persecutions, and collective madness, so welcome to that time of year where we look at another horror sub genre and sit down with the ancient gods and unearth some cursed gems that will make your eyes bleed. Just pray you don’t upset the locals.
Watch the Top 10 folk horror movies below.
In descending order of greatness:
10. KILL LIST
Ben Wheatley’s Kill List is a deceptive film that starts off as a cheap-looking British revenge thriller, and like most good folk horrors, descends into a different genre en route to hell.
Starring Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley, Kill List is an underated gem about two hit men take on a mysterious job that may or may not lead to their redemption, if they can live long enough. The final sacrificial scenes are strangely reminiscent of the infamous bohemian grove undercover documentary about George Bush’s membership of the skull and bones society’s worship of Moloch, the owl god, which no doubt influenced the director.
9. VIY [1967]
This obscure and beautifully shot early 1960’s fantasy horror was directed by Konstantin Ershov and based on russian folklore. It begins when a monk is summoned to keep a three night vigil of a local dead woman and the woman is revealed to be a witch who returns to life and invites the forces of hell to test his faith. Although not overtly similar to The Wicker Man, the main character has to endure a test of his faith, much like Edward Woodward, through the lens of russian folk tales.
8.The Witchfinder General [1968]
The Witchfinder General is the third in the unholy trinity of folk horror films first identified by genre scholar and author Adam Scovell.
Let’s not forget that according to early english religious belief systems, people really did believe that witches existed within society and were a threat from within. Women were maligned, drowned and burnt at the stake for practicing early medicines or denounced for not following strict moral codes laid down by the church and a patriacharal state. A collective madness which saw the introduction of witch finders in rural communities.
To be honest, I’ve always found this film a bit dour and boring in comparison to the superior Mark Of The Devil (also starring Vincent Price) which some of you may recognise as a Freudstein song. However, it’s Vincent Price’s villainous portrayal of the real life exploits of 17th-century witch-hunter Matthew Hopkins, that is worth the price of admission alone.
7. The Witch [2015]
The Witch was Robert Eggers breakout success which excelled at subtlety and confusion to obsfucate the viewer as a puritan family encounter a witch.
The film centres on Christian pilgrim settlers in 1630s New England as they seek to survive amid a new harsh and alien landscape where religious persecution is a threat from within. Anna Taylor Joy gives a pitch perfect performance, in her first big role, as a young girl who may or may not be a witch, in this atmospheric and psychological horor.
6. The Blair Witch Project [1999]
The Blair Witch Project is so infamous its almost too easy to dismiss it as just another 90’s horror film, but look closer and you’ll spot some of the tropes of folk horror, albeit an americanised version.
Local mythology tempts a group of teenager to dare to spend the night camping in the local woods where, rumour has is it, a witch still lurks in the lost village of Blair. They encounter pagan symbols tied to trees and something moving through the forest at night, and slowly descend into a collective madness.
The film’s low fi use of found footage catapaulted the film into the national consciousness and even created its own urban myths with a marketing campaign when the actors were listed as deceased on the internet and the found footage concept, first alluded to in Cannibal Holocaust, was reborn.
5. A Field In England [2013]
Ben Wheatley’s second entry into our top 10, A Field In England, is perhaps his most psychedelic period piece which literally take place in a field during the English Civil War. The folk horror trope of rural environments, religious persecution and a threat from within are all present but what makes this film so haunting is the creeping paranoia and terrifying performance from Reece Shearsmith.
This low budget black and white film is perhaps Wheatley’s most personal project with its focus on characters and dialogue as the characters slowly detach from reality due to shell-shock, religious beliefs, and some local magic mushrooms.
4. Midsommer [2019]
Midsommer is a direct descendent of The Wicker Man and is one of my favourite films directed by the talented, Ari Aster, who also made the harrowing Heriditary.
In many ways Midsommer is an inbred relative of The Wicker Man with a similar fish out of water tale that echoes the original when a group of teenagers travel to a Swedish mid-summer festival. It’s a modern take on the folk horror genre with a fictional swedish pagan mythology used to trap its victims in a cult as the festival slowly builds to a horrific, if somewhat predictable climax.
I particularly love the fact that the film, unlike most horror films, employs bright colours and comforting day time scenes to lure the viewer into safety, when horror resides in plain sight.
3. The Blood On Satan’s Claw
This often overlooked Hammer Horror classic, Blood On Satan’s Claw, is the second in the unholy trinity of folk horror films first identified by genre scholar and author Adam Scovell.
Blood On Satan’s claw is a Hammer Horror classic B movie with its creeping, mysterious atmosphere building to a crescendo as a teenage occult worship develops in Medieval England. The isolated rural setting and strange belief systems are ever present as timeless fears of teenagers and the corruption of youth from outside forces cause adults seek to fear and uproot the threat from within.
2. The Shout [1978]
The Shout is a relatively unknown British cult classic starrring John Hurt, Alan Bates and Susannah York. I would argue that this an unconventional folk horror which begins as a simple love triangle when a stranger enters a couples lives, hell bent on stealing the main protagonist’s wife, then descends into a meditation on magic and loss based on aboriginal folk lore.
The stranger, played by Alan Bates, who may or not be a magician, is a spellbinding presence who threatens the protagonist’s morality in a small rural village. His refusal to leave their home leads to a plot twist and finale that is incredibly subtle, quintisesentially english, and ahead of its time with the use of a unconventional narrative struture.
Madness or magic? Although there is no larger conspiracy at play on the part of the local village, the rural setting and heavy leanings towards psychological horror, magic and folklore, make this worthy of cannon.
The Wicker Man
It’s no surprise to find Robin Hardy’s debut film at the top of our list. This is the first in the unholy trinity of folk horror films first identified by genre scholar and author Adam Scovell. The Wicker Man was based on David Pinner's 1967 novel, Ritual, and its unpredictable climax is so memorable its like psychological lightning in a bottle.
The film perfectly sets out the first tropes of folk horror with its literal slow burning execution, when a Christian policeman (Edward Woodward) is sent to a remote rural community in the outer hebrides to investigate the disappearance of a local girl, when his faith is tested. He soon encounters pagan beliefs and meets Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), an atypical villain who is neither fearsome nor dramatic, but an eloquently spoken and thoughful cult leader, concerned for the survival of his community.
The Wicker Man features a wonderful soundtrack composed by Paul Giovanni which was so convincingly conceived that the songs and lyrics are believable as traditional english folk songs about fertility and sacrifice. It’s a personal favourite.
The Wicker Man is so steeped in english folklore and psychological horror that it seems believable that somewhere out there a community of Summerisle pagans still exists, practicing ancient sacrifices to ward off bad harvests, famine and evil. It is a reminder of our recent past, our collective madness, that makes you question if society really has progressed past its prejudices and old belief systems. Are we really so enlightened?
Watch it and burn.
Top 10 Haunted House Movies Of All Time
What's always intriqued me about the haunted house genre isn't so much the ghosts and monsters who lie in wait when the electricity fails and the lights begin to flicker, it's the concept that the house itself is alive. In the best entries on this list, the house becomes a malevolent force, manifested by grief or madness as the residents become quietly unhinged. It feeds on their deepest fears, reflecting them back like a mirror.
How much money would convince you to spend the night in a haunted house?
It's a simple but effective premise which has been the main trope of the haunted house genre for years. Typically, a group of sceptical guests are invited to spend the night at a mysterious benefactor's haunted house in order to collect a huge prize. But what if the house really was haunted? Another trope involves new homeowners who discover they have to exorcise its ghosts by solving the riddle of a past, heinous crime. Whether its the solution to a decades old murder that took place there or the discovery of the house being illegally built on hallowed ground.
But what if a house was haunted by its guests?
What's always intriqued me about the haunted house genre isn't so much the ghosts and monsters who lie in wait when the electricity fails and the lights begin to flicker, it's the concept that the house itself is alive. In the best of the genre, the house becomes a malevolent force, manifested by grief or madness as the residents become quietly unhinged. It feeds on their deepest fears, reflecting them back like a mirror. Driving them to leave or die.
Watch the Top 10 haunted house movies below and pray you’ll still be alive, and sane enough, to collect the prize in the morning.
In descending order of greatness:
10. House (1985)
I remember watching this film when it first came out on direct to video when I was barely a teenager, and it certainly wasn’t age appropriate. The orginal House film was hugely entertaining and a runaway home video success that spawned countless sequels which never bettered the original formula of one man alone in a haunted house that he could never escape.
The sheer inventiveness of the practical effects on display and creativity was pretty astounding for a low budget straight to video affair. In fact, the bathroom scene where the protagonist breaks the bathroom mirror and finds a portal to an alternative dimension on the other side freaked me out for years. I’ve never liked shaving ever since.
9. The Innocents (1961)
Despite the same title, this early classic is not to be confused with the excellent Norwegian film The Innocents from 2022.
This original The Innocents (1963) film is a slow burning creepy British classic based on an original ghost story by Henry James. It concerns a governess hired to look after two children who experience disturbing events which may or may not be in their own imagination.
8. The Amityville Horror (1979)
It’s a long time since I’ve watched this horror movie which was rumoured to have been based on a true story. It begins when a newly married couple purchase a house whose previous owners were murdered in their sleep. Evil still dwells in the house, invading the owners thoughts until they are no longer safe from each other. They obviously didn’t know about mindfulness in the 1970s.
Even now I wonder if I imagined the basement scene with James Brolin when the walls start to bleed. It horrified me for years. Either way, this 1970’s film is surpisingly bleak and oppressive, even now.
7. Poltergeist (1982)
Directed by Tobe Hooper of The Texas Chainsaw movie fame, Poltergeist is ostensibly a family friendly film until the family’s youngest daughter, Carole Anne, seemingly becomes possessed. In the infamous night time scene, she communciates with the static of their TV set to a dead channel, revealing the house has been possessed by a poltergeist.
This big budget horror film was written by Steven Spielberg and succeeds on many levels. It even spawned a catalogue of sequels with the memorable medium who communicated with Carole Anne once she was sucked into the after life by the spirits of the house. The sequel was even weirder and the series entered into social myth after the death of its young leading actress and other cast members.
6. The Legend Of Hell House (1973)
This film could almost be described as a modern remake of the original The Haunting film from 1963. There are so many similarities, it’s uncanny. Both films share the same premise when a group of people with varying motives enter a haunted house to investigate the possibility of life after death.
Roddy McDowell gives a compelling performance, as always, and the climax ramps up the sheer tension with crazy sound effects and over the top hysterics, buts its oddly compelling.
5. Hausu (1977)
I have to admit that this crazy Japanese movie is the least scariest haunted house film on the list, but it deserves a special mention thanks to its wild and creative take on the genre. A group of school girls are forced to spend the night in a haunted house and are murdered by ghosts they have disturbed in more and more bizarre ways. I mean, for gods sake, it features an animated sequence of disembodied fingers playing a piano that devours its victims.
I’ve probably watched this film about three or four times just to reassure myself that it actually exists. It’s truly bonkers and you would be forgiven for thinking Director Tim Burton directed this quirky little number, despite predating his career by twenty years.
4. Dark Water (2002)
From director Hideo Nakata of the original Japanese Ringu ‘Ring’ (1998) film, comes Dark Water, his natural and logical progression within the genre. This oppressive haunted house film takes the viewer on a journey through one woman’s grief as she searches for her lost daughter in an apartment building.
Dark Water is a precursor to The Babadook and Heriditary which would later use the themes of externalising inner grief with supernatural demons some 12 years later. It was easily ahead of its time and a truly harrowing emotional experience.
Nakata’s film is a better and more atmospheric film than the original Ringu film, and one that has been sadly overlooked.
3. The Shining (1980)
Some would argue that Kubrick’s The Shining is the greatest horror film of all time. But I would argue that it isn’t the greatest haunted house movie of all time. Sure, its incredibly atmospheric with Kubrick’s cold and technical use of tracking shots and pure, unadulterated tension, but the ghosts are subtly pushed to the background. Right up until the moment the viewer sees the final shot of the Ballroom photo from over a hundred years ago and you realise Jack Nicholson has been here before, and is actually haunting himself. For me, this film is more about the breakdown of the family unit and the fear generated from within, explored through the fearful eyes of Danny. The Overlook Hotel is the catalyst to domestic abuse. It’s one hell of a movie and one of my favourite films of all time.
Stephen King famously hated this film because of its cold, clinical interpretation of his story and characters, which deviates from his original novel.
2. The House By The Cemetery (1981)
It would be remiss of Freudstein if this list didn’t mention the classic movie which inspired our band name and all our musical death dreams, The House By The Cemetery.
This isn’t an orthodox haunted house genre film because Italian Horror simply doesn’t play by the rules. Lucio Fulci’s masterpiece features more scares for your money with a haunted house, zombie serial killer, incredible soundtrack, shocking deaths and buckets of realistic gore. The story follows the familiar trope of a family moving into a house in Boston only to discover there’s something lurking in the basement, and soon realise their new home was built on the site of an old graveyard. The protagonist’s son, Bob, is also receiving premonitions much like the character of Danny in The Shining.
House By The Cemetery is the third in Lucio Fulci’s Gates Of Hell Trilogy and features amazing practical effects, a wild and sometimes incoherent storyline, and one of the best zombie monsters in living dead history.
Dr Jacob Freudstein is ready to see you in the basement, now.
A stone cold classic.
1. The Haunting (1963)
Based on Shirley Jackson’s classic novel, The Haunting (1963) is a film steeped in dread atmosphere and sheer tension with its use of skewed camera angles, fish eye camera lenses, and eerie sounds effects to summon the supernatural. These techniques epitomise the haunted house genre as it slowly, and believably, disorientates its viewers. We experience the world from the house’s point of view through the eyes of Eleanor as she descends into madness, and we come to believe the house is truly alive. And in control.
Some may decry the lack of horror and violence in this creaking old classic. The director, Robert Wise, instead implied the presence of a house possessed, and never revealed the ghosts which drive its residents to madness and despair. Instead he leaves this up to our own imagination, using camera work that Sam Raimi, the original director of the Evil Dead, would go on to borrow when he relocated the story to that other famous trope, the cabin in the woods.