The Top 10 Best Folk Horror Movies
Y’all Don’t Go Up Thar’! That Thar’s Where the Folk Horror Movies Make Ther’ Home.
Folk horror movies embody some of the best aspects of horror by tapping into the primal power of storytelling. We’re a species that loves myths, legends, tall tales, and everything in between. However, folklore might be the most powerful of them all. They’re deeply engraved into the core of the communities that create them and are a dangerous way to create an “us versus them” mentality. Far more chilling than the devotion they inspire is the enduring nature of them that suggests something more than simply the local yokels is keeping them alive. That’s why I’m tackling the best folk horror movies this week with some truly chilling examples from the genre. These films are a reminder that while nature might be beautiful, it’s also terrifying and merciless. Plus, backwood extremists can be dangerous when they gather en masse. Now, let’s all head down to the Old Witch of the Wood’s shack and partake in some of the old ways with this list of folk horror movies.
10. The Hallow
Once upon a time, Ireland was nothing but pagans as far as the eye could see and paganism is a great place to start this list of folk horror movies. The Hallow takes place in a small village in Ireland, where a British conservationist has just arrived with his family for a study of local flora and fungi. Unfortunately, that’s about the worst thing you can do in folk horror movies because he discovers something primordial lurking within the forest. The Hallow earns a spot on this list due to its disturbing reimagining of fey folklore. Corin Hardy and Felipe Marino take on fairies and their nefarious, baby-snatching ways are rooted in a place where folklore and science. After all, the best folk horror movies cast doubt on everything we’ve dismissed as mere myth and superstition.
9. Pyewacket
Lots of teens go through occult phases in high school, but (hopefully) not a lot go through the trouble of actually performing a forbidden ritual to summon a demon to do their dark bidding. Now, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from folk horror movies, it’s not to go around trying to summon demons, devils, or hill folk, because it never ends well. Leah Reyes (Nicole Muñoz) learns that the hard way when she makes a deal with the demon Pyewacket to kill her mother. Why? Because her mom made her move away from her friends, which is, totally, like, not cool! Despite Leah’s stupid reasons for the deed, I wouldn’t wish what happens to her next on my worst enemy. Pyewacket is a delightfully creepy, mind-bending, edge of your seat movie with a shocking ending.
8. Apostle
Cults usually turn out to be nothing more than the product of a charismatic, narcissistic, socio/psychopath brainwashing a bunch of naive people into believing he’s got all the answers. In folk horror movies though, cults are much more sinister. Even if they don’t have anything supernatural to back up their beliefs, they are usually fanatical enough to have no problem performing acts of violence in the name of their gods. Since cults are such a big part of folk horror movies, Apostle seemed like the perfect fit for this list. Set at the turn of the 19th century, Gareth Evans’s film follows a man (Dan Stevens) sent to a small island to retrieve his kidnapped sister from a cult. Snooping around the island in search of his sister, he discovers some sinister truths about the cult and the goddess they worship. Apostle is a brutal and bloody action-horror film that is gut-wrenching on several levels.
7. Trollhunter
Most found-footage movies treat the framing technique as a gimmick rather than a narrative device. Unfortunately, that means most entries in the sub-genre are pretty terrible, but I still remember seeing Trollhunter in theaters back in 2010 and thinking “this is brilliant.” Filmed in Norway, it follows a group of college students who set out to film a documentary about a suspected bear poacher named Hans (Otto Jespersen). The only thing that Hans is hunting in the woods though is the trolls hiding within. It turns out that in Norway trolls are not only real but there’s an official Trollhunter on the government payroll. Despite trolls being bigger and deadlier than your average human, Hans proves to be one of the best monster hunters in cinema history. It’s not the scariest folk horror movie I’ve ever seen, but Trollhunter will always be one of my all-time favorites.
6. The Wicker Man (1973)
No, I’m not talking about the Nicholas Cage remake, and I’m frankly a little offended you’d even think I’d include a dumpster fire like it on a list of the best folk horror movies. I’m talking about the original disconcerting tale of modern paganism taken to an extreme. Police Sargent Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) is your typical Brit with a stiff upper lip and no time for nonsense like harvest gods and what have you. So, when he arrives at Summerville Isle in search of a missing girl, he’s taken aback that so many residents follow the old ways. It seems rather quaint at first, with harvest festivals, horticulture, and public sex in fields to appease the gods. However, it’s been a rough year for the folks of Summerville and they’re going to need more than “a romp in the hay” to please their gods this May Day. Good thing an outsider arrived just in time.