Folk horror
Film subgenreWikipedia
32
MENTIONS
9
EPISODES
9
PODCASTS
Search complete. 32 mentions across 9 episodes found for "Folk horror".
Oct 2, 2026
Dave WatkinsGUEST
And this one's very unique that it, that it, it takes that Gothic horror and then it mixes it with psychological horror.
Dave WatkinsGUEST
And it's also got a little bit of folk horror mixed in and then it's a early slasher motifs as well.
Kevin L. PowersHOST
Yeah, you bring up a good point.
Kevin L. PowersHOST
It brings in a lot of different elements from a lot of different genres.
20 MINS LATER
Dave WatkinsGUEST
It's awesome though.
Dave WatkinsGUEST
It's like a, that's the part I was thinking about.
Dave WatkinsGUEST
It might as well be a folk horror.
Dave WatkinsGUEST
And they got, yeah, all the kids have these sticks and then the adults are banging drums and they're singing like a, They're singing like a song.
Matthew JacksonHOST
Moving on to The Wicker Man now.
Matthew JacksonHOST
The Wicker Man, the, the ur folk horror film.
Matthew JacksonHOST
Like, the whole-
Gretchen Felker-MartinGUEST
Yeah
Matthew JacksonHOST
...
Matthew JacksonHOST
the folk horror film against which all others are measured.
Matthew JacksonHOST
Uh, another movie I had spoiled for me-
Gretchen Felker-MartinGUEST
[laughs]
RevHOST
I love my pagan stuff.
RevHOST
I love folk horror.
RevHOST
For me, this is sort of just like such an exciting episode.
RevHOST
I remember once, one May Day, we decided we were going to watch The Wicker Man in the garden, me and some friends.
Andrew HendyGUEST
they're both actually 70 movies.
Andrew HendyGUEST
I suppose folk horror is just, it's a genre that I think I just like the stuff.
Andrew HendyGUEST
Like The Wicker Man and Wake and Fright are very similar films because they're both, they both in a way kind of show the absurdity of societal norms.
Andrew HendyGUEST
Like, you know, because everyone in The Wicker Man is acting totally normal while they're sacrificing people and You know, the policeman's going around being like, you heathens, you heathens.
Daniel ByersGUEST
Maybe a better way to describe it, and it's always funny trying to put your movie into categories because, you know, you make your movie, it comes, in this case, it came out of a lot of lived experience, and then you try and sort of figure out how to sort of characterize it to others.
Daniel ByersGUEST
I think maybe folk horror might be the better way to describe this film.
ThomasHOST
That was another one that I was debating in my head, whether I should call it folk horror or not, because to me, folk horror really has two sort of central aspects to it.
ThomasHOST
One is that it is about a specific location and the people who live there and what living there does to them.
ThomasHOST
And this is very much about that.
Daniel ByersGUEST
And I love that tradition of oral storytelling.
Daniel ByersGUEST
And I think that is kind of the core of what makes something folk is that it's passed down and passed around, whether that's music or whether that's a story.
Daniel ByersGUEST
So, you know, maybe this is the first step towards being a folk horror film, even if it's not quite there yet.
Josh LHOST
So this year, the festival technically did do that and had a night before, day before screening of a movie that I think some of you will have also been able to see too, but we're going to start the episode that way with a Korean...
Josh LHOST
Kind of a sci-fi horror action blockbuster called Hope, directed by Na Hong Jin, who is the director behind the genre-bending horror procedural, also like folk horror movie, The Wailing, from about 10 years ago.
Josh LHOST
So apparently he's been putting this movie together for quite a long time.
Josh LHOST
And my God, could you tell in terms of how it is shot and staged in terms of action?
3 HRS 17 MINS LATER
Josh LHOST
It's a very disturbing movie specifically because he filmed it with non-actors and children who had experienced wartime violence.
Josh LHOST
And it's very beautiful.
Josh LHOST
And this is his first attempt at doing like what seems like kind of just like a supernatural horror film somewhere between kind of the modern haunted house kind of family trauma horror film you've seen before but also a level of like surreal italian horror weirdness that i really wasn't expecting out of this movie uh when we watched it at like nine in the morning or whatever it was because it's essentially sort of like kurdish folk horror in terms of this idea of like there's a sense of punishment or reincarnation through trees that you become a tree when you die and then you get a second life as the wooden object carved out of a tree when the So it's a pretty cool idea, and it's handled in this very bizarre way, in this very uncanny way, I found, where essentially Eva Green is playing the lead of the film.
Josh LHOST
And she is dealing with this family history that is resulting in these surreal ghost story sequences happening, including a guy... there's like a final destination kind of scene with some logs there's some abusive mothers turning into like toilet witches at a certain point eva green is literally fighting a possessed chair because the chair is a wooden object that's been possessed and she's literally like just holding an axe fighting a flying chair so there's really crazy stuff in this movie um that i was kind of charmed by um even if i'd everyone is hating this movie it's worth noting yeah um
Joe McCormickHOST
Anyway, uh, uh, Kieran says, "I was also wondering if you liked Pentangle.
Joe McCormickHOST
I noticed a real reverence for their sound regarding the folk horror run of films on Weird House.
Joe McCormickHOST
Not psych rock/metal, but perhaps the psych with a twist of folk will suffice? A recommendation for Joe: an album from Kiwi psych rock duo Earthtongue's Dungeon Vision, which was, uh, produced by master of the fuzz pedal, Ty Segall.
Joe McCormickHOST
Uh, they're doing a US tour currently, but, uh, didn't see Atlanta mentioned.
Robert LambHOST
I did remind myself that they factor...
Robert LambHOST
Their music factors into the 1970 film Tam Lin.
Robert LambHOST
This is the Roddy McDowall-directed folk horror film, uh, I think his only directorial feature, um, but one that's...
Robert LambHOST
I, I've, that I've not seen but has been on my list for a while to, you know, potentially check out for, for Weird House.
Jim MoonHOST
Rather, this is a movie that asks you to go along with it and piece together what's happening, as Angus himself tries to make sense of what's actually going on around him.
Jim MoonHOST
You may well see this film described as being folk horror, which I would say is broadly accurate.
Jim MoonHOST
However, I would stress that folk horror doesn't mean this is some sort of camcorder rerun of The Wicker Man.
Jim MoonHOST
There are no cultists or witches flitting between the trees here.
Jim MoonHOST
Rather, Loner very deliberately avoids all the usual clichés we associate with folk horror.
Jim MoonHOST
And I would say it's folk horror in a more cerebral or even perhaps spiritual way.
Jim MoonHOST
It's very much about the hour of the countryside and how we relate to landscapes.
Jim MoonHOST
In particular, the somewhat conflicted modern relationship we have with the natural world.
Rebecca McKendryHOST
I will start with a YA horror, or a horror novel.
Rebecca McKendryHOST
Um, this was put out by the same company that's putting out Pretty Evil, which is how I got an early copy of it, um, which is Simon & Schuster Teen, Simon Teen This one was great, um, called Local Gods, and it's by a writer named Melinda Sal sis- Salisbury, and it's folk horror, but it's folk horror for, like, a teen.
Rebecca McKendryHOST
And it's about a girl who, um, lives in this tiny, tiny New England town, and her father is this banker who is really kind of brought down by the town.
Rebecca McKendryHOST
Like, it fin- you find out that he's been stealing money from everybody in the town, and he goes away to jail, and that's kind of our opening of the book.
Rebecca McKendryHOST
And does she even wanna save it? 'Cause she hates everybody.
Rebecca McKendryHOST
They're pieces of shit in this town.
Rebecca McKendryHOST
So yeah, this was a YA one, but it was just a really great folk horror read.
Rebecca McKendryHOST
Um, so that was called Local Gods.