Background on the Folk Horror Genre:
(This one has spoilers for some of this week's films - so you might want to wait until after you have watched your film)
This week's film options:
The Blood on Satan's Claw (UK: Piers Haggard, 1971)
MB: Considered one of the pivotal early Folk Horror films, it draws on a British interest in and fear of its pre-Christian pagan roots.
Film description: "The accidental unearthing of Satan’s earthly remains causes the children of a 17th-century English village to slowly convert into a coven of devil worshipers."
Resources for after you watch the film:
Bradley, S.A. "Addendum of Doom: The Folk Horror Edition." Hellbent for Horror #2.5 (March 23, 2016) [Discussion of the films The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), Wake Wood (2009), and Kill List (2011).]
Handorf, Jen and Mike Muncer. "Folk Pt. 2: Witchfinder's General (1968) and The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971)." The Evolution of Horror (2021)
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #5: The Human Sacrifice." Acidemic (February 28, 2012)
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #5: The Human Sacrifice." Acidemic (February 28, 2012)
Wake In Fright (Australia: Ted Kotcheff, 1971)
MB: A legendary Ozploitation (independent genre films from Australia of the 1970s/1980s) that was difficult to get a hold of until a new print was released in the 21st Century. Unrelenting in its folk horror themes and deserving of its cult film status.
Film description: "Wake in Fright is the story of John Grant, a bonded teacher who arrives in the rough outback mining town of Bundanyabba planning to stay overnight before catching the plane to Sydney, but as one night stretches into several he plunges headlong into his own destruction."
MB: A legendary Ozploitation (independent genre films from Australia of the 1970s/1980s) that was difficult to get a hold of until a new print was released in the 21st Century. Unrelenting in its folk horror themes and deserving of its cult film status.
Film description: "Wake in Fright is the story of John Grant, a bonded teacher who arrives in the rough outback mining town of Bundanyabba planning to stay overnight before catching the plane to Sydney, but as one night stretches into several he plunges headlong into his own destruction."
Resources for after you watch the film:
Buckley, Anthoney, et al. "Wake in Fright." The Projection Booth #271 (May 17, 2016) ["Based on the novel by Kenneth Cook, Ted Kotcheff's Wake in Fright stars Gary Bond as a teacher in the Outback who loses all his money and goes on a wild, bloody holiday."]
Buckley, Anthoney, et al. "Wake in Fright." The Projection Booth #271 (May 17, 2016) ["Based on the novel by Kenneth Cook, Ted Kotcheff's Wake in Fright stars Gary Bond as a teacher in the Outback who loses all his money and goes on a wild, bloody holiday."]
Deliverance (USA: John Boorman, 1972)
MB: A controversial film that popularized problematic Southern "backwoods" stereotypes (hicksploitation) in its intense and engaging tale of city men testing their mettle (manliness) by canoeing down a dangerous river.
Film description: "Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it’s turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they’ll never forget into the dangerous American back-country."
Resources for after you watch the film:
MB - this is a great look at the film and its enduring legacy: Machado, Isabel. "Revisiting Deliverance: The Sunbelt South, The 1970s Masculinity Crisis, and the Emergence of the Redneck Nightmare Genre." Study the South (June 19, 2017)
Elena Lazic and Mike Muncer discuss Straw Dogs (1971) and Deliverance on The Evolution of Horror Part 7 of Folk Horror
MB: A controversial film that popularized problematic Southern "backwoods" stereotypes (hicksploitation) in its intense and engaging tale of city men testing their mettle (manliness) by canoeing down a dangerous river.
Film description: "Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it’s turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they’ll never forget into the dangerous American back-country."
Resources for after you watch the film:
MB - this is a great look at the film and its enduring legacy: Machado, Isabel. "Revisiting Deliverance: The Sunbelt South, The 1970s Masculinity Crisis, and the Emergence of the Redneck Nightmare Genre." Study the South (June 19, 2017)
Elena Lazic and Mike Muncer discuss Straw Dogs (1971) and Deliverance on The Evolution of Horror Part 7 of Folk Horror
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (USA: Tobe Hooper, 1974)
MB: This is one of those films that is a must see for those interested in the horror genre. For me, it is one of the best classic horror films, and it does it in a way that most contemporary horror films have forgotten (to their detriment - our imagination is better than anything you can put on the screen). It is also a great film for anyone interested in actually making films - low budget, but still artful in its way. The ending of this film - stunning! There are two remakes and a couple sequels, make sure you watch the 1974 original by Tobe Hooper (FYI - he also directed our earlier film Poltergeist in the Classic Ghost films section).
"Tobe Hooper’s influential feature is three distinct films: the shocker promised by the title; the near bloodless (and mostly chainsaw-free) restraint of the actual film; and the gorefest that we imagine we have seen. As young travellers encounter a family of retrenched, cannibalistic slaughtermen, unexpected domestic comedy offsets the grisly horror. But from the outset a pervasive atmosphere of dirty, doom-laden wrongness gets right under the skin, and once Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) starts screaming (and does not stop), viewers are treated to one of the most sustained and harrowing nightmares of unhinged madness ever caught on film. – Anton Bitel"MB: This is one of those films that is a must see for those interested in the horror genre. For me, it is one of the best classic horror films, and it does it in a way that most contemporary horror films have forgotten (to their detriment - our imagination is better than anything you can put on the screen). It is also a great film for anyone interested in actually making films - low budget, but still artful in its way. The ending of this film - stunning! There are two remakes and a couple sequels, make sure you watch the 1974 original by Tobe Hooper (FYI - he also directed our earlier film Poltergeist in the Classic Ghost films section).
Resources for after you have watched the film:
Archive of resources for Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Wicker Man (UK: Robin Hardy, 1973)
MB: Another influential Folk Horror film that reflects and plays off the UK's pre-Christian pagan heritage. Make sure it is the 1973 film, not the 2005 remake.
"Police sergeant Neil Howie is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. Stranger still, however, are the rituals that take place there."
Archive of resources for Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Wicker Man (UK: Robin Hardy, 1973)
MB: Another influential Folk Horror film that reflects and plays off the UK's pre-Christian pagan heritage. Make sure it is the 1973 film, not the 2005 remake.
"Police sergeant Neil Howie is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. Stranger still, however, are the rituals that take place there."
Resources for after you watch the film:
Bradley, S.A. "The Old Gods of Springtime Horror." Hellbent for Horror (April 10, 2018) ["Things might look bright and warm during Springtime, but there's something sinister underneath the surface. The pastel colors of the flowers camouflage the blood and death in the soil that helped them grow. When the difference between life and death depended on a bountiful harvest, people made human sacrifices to appease the Old Gods of the earth. In this episode I talk about horror movies devoted to the Old Gods of Springtime, man's uneasy connection to the earth, and how groups of people can be scarier than the Old Gods themselves."]
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #5: The Human Sacrifice." Acidemic (February 28, 2012)
Bradley, S.A. "The Old Gods of Springtime Horror." Hellbent for Horror (April 10, 2018) ["Things might look bright and warm during Springtime, but there's something sinister underneath the surface. The pastel colors of the flowers camouflage the blood and death in the soil that helped them grow. When the difference between life and death depended on a bountiful harvest, people made human sacrifices to appease the Old Gods of the earth. In this episode I talk about horror movies devoted to the Old Gods of Springtime, man's uneasy connection to the earth, and how groups of people can be scarier than the Old Gods themselves."]
Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #5: The Human Sacrifice." Acidemic (February 28, 2012)
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