Horror As Folk: Just What Is Folk Horror, Anyway? (Redux)

Here we are, at the end of our second year of dissecting folk horror on film, and finally (after many digressions, as promised) at the end of Severin’s first All the Haunts Be Ours boxed set. As luck would have it, we’re reaching this spot just as Severin premieres a second volume, featuring even more movies, from even more countries, spanning even more approaches to folk horror.

Back when I launched this column in 2022, I opened it with a question: Just what is folk horror, anyway? Have we answered that question, in the subsequent years? Probably not. We’ve certainly looked at a lot of movies, some of which were definitely folk horror, some of which definitely were not, many more of which… remain a murkier proposition.

Through it all, we’ve struggled with that question and maybe haven’t drawn much closer to an answer than we were when we started. In fact, perhaps my favorite answer to the question of “what is folk horror” came about not directly as a result of the column at all, but through a largely unrelated conversation with my friend Stu Horvath, publisher of Unwinnable and author of Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground.

We were debating whether or not something was folk horror – I don’t even remember what anymore – and Stu said, “I don’t see the past rising up to prove the lie of modernity’s certainty through death and suffering there, really.”

Is that an absolutely foolproof definition of folk horror? No. If we’ve learned anything over the last two years, it’s that there probably isn’t an absolutely foolproof definition of folk horror. But I think it is a pretty good one, an interesting one, a compelling one, and, perhaps most important for our purposes, a useful one. I think you can ask that question of most movies – is the past rising up to prove the lie of modernity’s certainty? – and if the answer is “yes,” then you’re probably watching a folk horror movie.

And if you’re not sure whether or not the answer is “yes,” well, welcome to the uncertain and liminal landscape that is folk horror, in a nutshell.

Unfortunately, our journey across this rich and varied landscape is drawing to a close. Despite the release of that second volume of All the Haunts Be Ours, we won’t be exploring it – at least not together. Due to factors outside of my control, this will be the final installment of Horror as Folk. I hope you all enjoyed the journey that we’ve undertaken across these last two years. We’ve visited a dozen or more countries on at least four continents, and we’ve watched a lot of movies that are folk horror – and a few that definitely aren’t.

The oldest movie that we covered here was released in 1957 while the newest came out earlier this year. Our adventures have introduced us to old classics and some movies that are maybe not so classic. We’ve explored any number of possible permutations of the idea of just what folk horror is, and does; what it has been and what it could be.

When I started this column two years ago, we were in the midst of what Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched described as a “folk horror revival.” Are we still? Perhaps, given that, as I write this, I’m seeing notifications about the reveal of a poster for a 2024 film called The Damned that is being actively billed as folk horror.

Certainly, between new releases and old, there are no shortage of movies that could be described by that appellation. Even Robert Eggers’ new remake of Nosferatu – which should be in or near theaters by the time this goes to print – could probably be described as a movie about “the past rising up to prove the lie of modernity’s certainty,” as could just about any half-accurate adaptation of Dracula.

So, whether the folk horror revival is, itself, an artifact of the past or something that is still going strong, folk horror has been with us for at least as long as modernity itself, and odds are it will be with us for a long time yet to come.

I just won’t be here to navigate its darkened woodlands and crooked byways with you anymore. This is the point in the journey where our paths diverge, and from here on out you will have to find your own way through the dark.

I won’t be gone completely, though. I’ll be launching something brand new next month, right here at Signal Horizon, so come back and see me on the other side. Until then, be safe, be well, and watch your step…