Folk Horror Films to Watch

Folk horror isn't about jump scares, it's about a slow-building dread rooted in isolation, geography, and ancient traditions

Folk horror has always felt like a label to me that doesn’t seem to sit still for very long, because it seems to change depending on who’s using it, a genre that seems to be defined almost completely by an emotional state and shape.

Which is exactly why it is so interesting as a genre, so here are some folk horror films I would recommend watching if you have not already to get you started.

The Wicker Man

The original, not the Nicolas Cage remake, bless his soul.

Anyway, I don’t really know how many more ways there are to say this is the starting point for folk horror, and is one of my favorite movies full stop.

The thing that always gets me when watching this is just how relaxed everything feels for so long, almost like you’re watching a different kind of film entirely, one where everyone is just slightly too comfortable with each other in a way that doesn’t quite add up if you think about it for too long.

And then it slowly becomes clear that the film doesn’t really change tone at all, it’s just been showing you exactly what it intended to the whole time, and you’ve been adjusting to it without noticing.

And the ending? Classic.

The Witch

A film where the isolation the characters feel should hit you hard, because it gives you no real sense that the family is connected to anything outside of itself in any meaningful way, and you feel that completely, or as said, should feel that completely.

It also doesn’t really give you anything modern to hold onto, which I know sounds obvious, but it does make a difference in practice, because you’re not being guided toward a familiar way of interpreting what’s happening, if you know what I mean!

Midsommar

With Midsommar, you feel like no-one has any place to hide, with the daylight setting that doesn’t make anything feel like a relief, because while you would expect brightness to make everything clearer or safer, it actually ends up doing the opposite.

And underneath all of that, the grief story isn’t really separate from the rest of it either, it just sort of sits there and slowly starts blending into everything else.

Incredibly unsettling to watch.

Kill List

You think this is a fairly straightforward crime story when you start watching it, or at least something in that space, but it then gradually shifts into something else without ever really stopping to tell you that it’s doing it.

By the time you notice the shift properly, you’re already too far into the earlier version of the film for it to feel like a clean transition, and your expectations are never given a moment to reset before the ritualistic madness of the second half.

Witchfinder General

A film that is all about people using authority and fear as a justification for what they’re doing, and it’s also probably one of the most direct films on the list in terms of discomfort, because there isn’t really any layer you can step back into to soften it.

Part of the British “Unholy Trinity” alongside The Wicker Man and The Blood on Satan’s Claw, which I haven’t included here, but is well worth a watch as well.

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A Field in England

Even though this mostly takes place in one location, it never also really feels contained in the way you’d expect, because the longer it goes on, the less stable everything becomes, including how you’re supposed to be interpreting what’s happening in front of you, which ends up feeling like a breakdown in how those events are being experienced.

Director Ben Wheatley managed to pull off a brilliant cinematic here, using a simple field and turning it into a claustrophobic, inescapable trap.

Apostle

There’s a constant sense in this one that the island and the community on it are being held together by something that isn’t particularly stable, and the more time you spend with it, the more that sense of strain starts to show through everything else that’s going on.

It never fully tips over though, but you’re always fully aware that it could, which is where all the tension comes from.

Anchoress

This is a film that feels like it’s been half-forgotten in plain sight, not because it’s obscure but more because it sits slightly outside the way people usually talk about the genre, and the interesting thing is how much of it is about people choosing confinement as much as it is about anything being forced on them.

It just lets belief, ritual, and other people’s certainty do most of the damage.

I suspect this one won’t be for a lot of people, but it is a very interesting watch.

What’s a folk horror movie you would recommend?

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