By Jeremy Urquhart
Updated
Thread
Your changes have been saved
Email is sent
Email has already been sent
Please verify your email address.
You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.
Manage Your List
Follow
Followed
Follow with Notifications
Follow
Unfollow
Link copied to clipboard
The term "folk horror" might not be the easiest thing to describe, but it's the type of horror movie where you know it when you see it. There's even a recent documentary called Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror that spends a little over three hours explaining what this type of horror subgenre is and exploring some significant films within it. Put simply, though, this horror subgenre usually features rural/mostly outdoor settings, and explores themes and stories that surround European pagan and witchcraft traditions/folklore.
✕ Remove Ads
Perhaps the best way to understand folk horror as a subgenre is to look at the best titles that can be described as folk horror movies. The following are some of the greatest films contained within this specific type of horror, and are ranked below starting with the very good, and ending with some of the greatest folk horror films of all time.
30 'Possum' (2018)
Directed by Matthew Holness
✕ Remove Ads
"Underrated" is a word that comes to mind when describing Possum, though it is admittedly a little niche and perhaps not for everyone. But that could also be said about folk horror in general. It’s a particularly strange form of horror; a brand that might be too slow or too obscure to strike fear into some. And, with Possum, there’s certainly an emphasis on things being slow-burn in nature.
It runs for a pretty brief 85 minutes, and follows a man having to reconnect with his stepfather while grappling with various unpleasant things that happened to him when he was younger. Possum takes its time but ends up being worthwhile in the end, keeping things intimate and strange while delivering some striking horror visuals when they're needed.
Possum
Horror
Drama
Mystery
- Release Date
- October 26, 2018
- Director
- Matthew Holness
- Cast
- Sean Harris , Alun Armstrong , Charlie Eales , Simon Bubb , Andy Blithe , Ryan Enever , Pamela Cook
- Runtime
- 85 Minutes
29 'Children of the Corn' (1984)
Directed by Fritz Kiersch
✕ Remove Ads
It’s not quite up there with the best movies of 1984, but Children of Corn is still something of a minor folk horror classic. And its cast includes Linda Hamilton, who was also in the first The Terminator; a movie that can be considered one of 1984’s very best films, and does almost feel like a horror movie at times. Not folk horror by any means, but still.
Children of the Corn follows two people in unfamiliar rural territory, and the bad things that begin happening when they cross paths with some truly unsettling children who may be behind a string of murders. It was a film popular enough to kick-start what’s ended up being a ridiculously long-running franchise, as there have been a total of 11 Children of the Corn movies to date
Children of the Corn
R
Horror
Thriller
- Release Date
- March 9, 1984
- Director
- Fritz Kiersch
- Cast
- Peter Horton , Linda Hamilton , R.G. Armstrong , John Franklin , Courtney Gains , Anne Marie McEvoy , Robby Kiger , Julie Maddalena , Jonas Marlowe , John Philbin , Dan Snook , David Cowen , Suzy Southam , D.G. Johnson , Teresa Toigo
- Runtime
- 92 minutes
✕ Remove Ads
28 'The Devil's Bath' (2024)
Directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz
The Devil’s Bath is a German movie that’s a relatively recent release in the overall scheme of things, but one that proved striking enough to stand out among other folk horror films. It has a perfect setting for such a movie, taking place in Austria during the 1700s, and a premise that involves exploring repression, isolation, madness, and murder.
The horror elements of The Devil’s Bath trickle in deliberately slowly throughout, with some infrequent gnarly imagery proving shocking alongside other long sequences that emphasize atmosphere and a mild sense of unease over anything else. It’s long and perhaps a little one-note at times, but the highs here make it worth seeking out for anyone out there who’s particularly keen on horror of a fairly folky variety.
✕ Remove Ads
27 'The White Reindeer' (1952)
Directed by Erik Blomberg
A good many popular folk horror movies started popping up in the late 1960s, with the sub-genre also thriving in the 1970s, so that makes something as old as The White Reindeer stand out. This one’s a Finnish film that’s among the older examples of folk horror movies out there, with its plot revolving around a magic potion that’s said to make whoever drinks it more desirable.
Of course, like with every story involving a magic potion, there are consequences and trade-offs, which is where the horror of The White Reindeer creeps in. There’s probably not a ton here that will genuinely frighten modern-day viewers, but it’s nevertheless an important movie within the overall sub-genre, and also stands as a rather underrated international horror movie more generally speaking.
✕ Remove Ads
Buy on Amazon
26 'Exhuma' (2024)
Directed by Jang Jae-hyun
A recent film that’s one of the most interesting horror flicks of the 2020s so far, Exhuma follows a group of paranormal experts who come across a graveyard associated with a famously wealthy family. They’re determined to get to the bottom of what they’ve been uncovering, but go a bit too far and take the idea of “uncovering” something too literally when they start digging up graves.
If you’re ever aware you're in a horror movie, grave-digging is probably the last thing you'd want to do, but the characters of Exhuma aren’t lucky enough to be self-aware. The scariest elements, as is the case with many folk horror movies, unfold slowly but surely, with the build proving just as important as the eventual release. There’s also a blending of familiar elements and things that are more offbeat in Exhuma, all done in a way that ends up working quite well.
✕ Remove Ads
Exhuma
Horror
Mystery
Drama
Thriller
- Release Date
- February 22, 2024
- Director
- Jang Jae-hyun
- Cast
- Choi Min-sik , Kim Go-eun , Yoo Hae-jin , Lee Do-Hyun , and Kim Sun-young
- Runtime
- 134 Minutes
25 'You Won't Be Alone' (2022)
Directed by Goran Stolevski
Taking witchcraft and using it to explore feminist themes, You Won't Be Alone is one of the most distinctive and unusual horror movies in recent memory. Much of the film revolves around shape-shifting and identity, with a young witch in Macedonia during the 1800s killing a peasant by accident, and then slipping into her life inside a village.
It's all executed in a way that ensures maximum eeriness, with You Won't Be Alone having an undeniably bold visual style and a general sense of atmospheric uneasiness. Thanks to its plot regarding witchcraft and its setting, it certainly qualifies as a movie that fits within the folk horror subgenre, too.
✕ Remove Ads
You Won't Be Alone
24 'Eve's Bayou' (1997)
Directed by Kasi Lemmons
Eve's Bayou might be more definable as a work of Southern Gothic drama/horror, but it crosses over into folk horror enough to arguably count itself within both camps. It centers around a Louisiana family's intense drama and various secrets, all of which threaten to boil to the surface when family members come together during the sweltering summer of 1962.
✕ Remove Ads
It's notable for being the most successful independent film of its year, and for the committed performances by a cast that's led by Samuel L. Jackson and Lynn Whitfield. It's an intense and harrowing movie at times, perhaps more drama than horror, but certainly maintaining some elements of folk horror regardless (like its rural setting).
Eve's Bayou
R
- Release Date
- November 7, 1997
- Director
- Kasi Lemmons
- Cast
- Jurnee Smollett , Meagan Good , Samuel L. Jackson , Lynn Whitfield , Debbi Morgan , Jake Smollett , Ethel Ayler , Diahann Carroll
- Main Genre
- Drama
Watch on Amazon Prime
23 'La Llorona' (2019)
Directed by Jayro Bustamante
The term La Llorona roughly translates to "The Crying Woman," and there have been numerous films lately regarding this figure of Mexican folklore. One was 2019's The Curse of La Llorona, and another was 2022's The Legend of La Llorona. Neither of these were as well-received, however, as a 2019 Guatemalan film simply called La Llorona.
✕ Remove Ads
It centers around a general accused of horrific crimes who's trapped in his house because of protesting individuals, at which point he and his family start to feel as though a vengeful supernatural presence is targeting them. It's a movie that takes its time, but feels suitably menacing and creepy throughout, with its slow-burn nature helping the outwardly horror-related stuff found later in the movie hit harder.
22 'Hagazussa' (2017)
Directed by Lukas Feigelfeld
Like a good many movies within the folk horror subgenre, 2017's Hagazussa takes place a considerably long time ago; during the 15th century, to be precise. It also follows folk horror conventions by being set in a very isolated location, here being a remote mountain village in the Alps where the main character, a goat-herder, is further isolated by most other people in the village.
✕ Remove Ads
As you'd expect from a story with that kind of basic premise, something that seems to be ghostly or supernatural soon makes its presence known, and then the horror elements really kick in. Hagazussa is beautifully shot and consistently unsettling, continually finding ways to make things feel just a little off and unusual, which helps the scares get delivered well.
Hagazussa (2018)
Horror
Drama
Fantasy
- Release Date
- May 17, 2018
- Director
- Lukas Feigelfeld
- Cast
- Aleksandra Cwen , Claudia Martini , Tanja Petrovsky , Haymon Maria Buttinger , Celina Peter , Gerdi Marlen Simon , Franz Stadler , Thomas Petruo , Judith Geerts , Kilian Abeltshauser , Maximilian Hinterberger , Richard Gerum , Leona Berner , Fabienne Peter , Malena Berner , Iris Berner , Andrea Esletzbichler , Martin Eisl , Benjamin Travincek , Simon Lubinski
- Runtime
- 102 Minutes
21 'The Serpent and the Rainbow' (1988)
Directed by Wes Craven
✕ Remove Ads
No one will deny that Wes Craven is a master of horror; he created the character of Freddy Krueger, after all - a villainous presence that haunts dreams and murders within them, too. But while Craven's well-known for the series that Kruger belongs to - Nightmare on Elm Street - as well as the Scream franchise, other movies of his like The Serpent and the Rainbow are slightly less popular.
Perhaps The Serpent and the Rainbow was never going to reach the same level of popularity, but it's still a good film worth checking out for anyone who's a horror fan. Its Haiti setting and unique take on curses and zombies keep it exciting and thoroughly engrossing, and it's undeniably interesting to see Craven have a shot at making a folk horror-esque movie.
The Serpent and the Rainbow
20 'The Blood on Satan's Claw' (1971)
Directed by Piers Haggard
✕ Remove Ads
The Blood on Satan's Claw is a significant film within the folk horror subgenre because the term was first used to describe this film, way back in the 1970s. That doesn't make The Blood on Satan's Claw the very first folk horror movie necessarily, but it's a vital one when it comes to the term and its usage for obvious reasons.
Like numerous other early folk horror movies, it's a British film, and the plot here revolves around bizarre remains being unearthed in the 1700s, which consequently sees a group of children in a nearby village become devil worshipers. Its plot is certainly out there, but it still feels heavily psychological, mystical, and unsettling, with it also having a distinctly folk horror kind of setting and atmosphere.
19 'Alucarda' (1977)
Directed by Juan López Moctezuma
✕ Remove Ads
1977 was a very good year for the horror genre, with Alucarda being one of many notable scary movies that saw release during that year. It manages to include a great deal within its brief 78-minute runtime, having themes around Satanism, scenes of demonic possession, and even a bit of vampire-related horror thrown in for good measure.
The protagonist is a young girl who goes to live at a convent following the tragic deaths of her parents, though finds herself in what might be a cult surrounding a figure known as Alucarda. It's a very over-the-top and even sleazy movie, being a bit more brash than some of the more subtle folk horror movies out there, but what it deals with thematically qualifies it as a title within the subgenre.
18 'Apostle' (2018)
Directed by Gareth Evans
✕ Remove Ads
Gareth Evans is best known for directing both The Raid and The Raid 2 - two phenomenal action/thriller movies - but mixed things up a bit with the release of Apostle. It's most certainly not an action movie, and is instead about a man going to a mysterious island to rescue his sister from a cult that's kidnapped her, with the movie taking place in the early 1900s.
It's got a slow-burn narrative, takes place a good many years in the past, and features an unusual and sinister cult at its center, making it a pretty clear example of folk horror. And while it might not be action-packed like Evans's other movies, it has a similar impact when it comes to violence, because Apostle is a very gritty and gory horror movie when it wants to be.
Apostle
✕ Remove Ads
17 'Kill List' (2011)
Directed by Ben Wheatley
English filmmaker Ben Wheatley has had an eclectic filmmaking career so far, as beyond the horror genre, he's also been behind the action/comedy/thriller Free Fire and the recent Meg 2: The Trench. But he first got notice for his horror movies, some of which can be classified as fitting within the folk horror subgenre.
Case in point: 2011's Kill List, which starts off feeling like a crime movie about a hitman tasked with three different killings, but ends up becoming something darker, more surreal, and overall closer to a horror film. It's a very strange and grimy film that's not going to be for everything, but as a movie that perhaps helped the folk horror subgenre gain some more recognition in the early 2010s, it's certainly notable.
✕ Remove Ads
Kill List
16 'Witchfinder General' (1968)
Directed by Michael Reeves
The Blood on Satan's Claw was instrumental in helping give the folk horror subgenre a name, but Witchfinder General was a film that came out even earlier, and also helped define this brand of horror. It takes place during a particularly paranoid time in English history, and centers on a man named Matthew Hopkins who claims to be a witch hunter, but is more likely a simple sadist.
Anyone who knows a good deal about classic horror movies will be well aware of the talents of Vincent Price, with Witchfinder General being another movie of his that's considerably elevated by his presence alone. He makes Hopkins into a great villain, and ensures this classic horror movie is suitably menacing and tense throughout.
✕ Remove Ads
Buy on Amazon
15 'The Ritual' (2017)
Directed by David Bruckner
With a few notable exceptions, it appears as though folk horror as a subgenre was most popular in either the late 1960s to mid-1970s, or throughout the 2010s and into the early 2020s. Trends within genres come and go, after all, and of the folk horror movies belonging to the latter popular folk horror "era" (if it can be called that), The Ritual is one of the more noteworthy.
It's about a group of college friends who clearly don't know they're in a horror movie, because they decide to venture into some dark and very much isolated woods on a trip to get away from everyday life. Within the forest is what might be a supernatural presence, leading to terror, suspense, and everything else you could hope to find in a folk horror (or even just regular horror) movie.
✕ Remove Ads
The Ritual
14 'Men' (2022)
Directed by Alex Garland
Alex Garland's a writer/director who's made films with some challenging aspects before, but nothing he's done has proven quite as polarizing and unusual as 2022's Men. You might not suspect that from the premise, though, because Men starts simply enough, with a story that sees a young woman trying to heal emotionally after a personal tragedy, and going to stay in the English countryside for a while.
✕ Remove Ads
The time spent away from the busyness of her usual life is anything but peaceful, though, as her past seems to haunt her while inexplicable horrors nearby begin targeting her. Men goes to some bizarre places and continually flips back and forth between being subtle and over-the-top, but as a singular experience, it's a difficult one to shake or forget.
Men (2022)
R
Horror
Drama
Fantasy
- Release Date
- May 20, 2022
- Director
- Alex Garland
- Cast
- Jessie Buckley , Rory Kinnear , Paapa Essiedu , Gayle Rankin
- Runtime
- 100 minutes
13 'Viy' (1967)
Directed by Konstantin Yershov and Georgi Kropachyov
Not all early folk horror movies were made or set in England, as 1967's Viy demonstrates well. It's based on an iconic Russian horror novella of the same name, which was published back in 1835, and has a premise that involves a young priest being tasked with watching over the dead body of a witch in the days before her wake is to begin.
✕ Remove Ads
As is usually the case with folk horror, the setting here is a small village, leading the priest to feel particularly alone and helpless when the inevitable supernatural threats begin to haunt him. It's not super scary by today's standards, but it is effectively eerie and atmospheric, and this 1967 version is certainly the most celebrated and worthwhile film adaptation of Viy.
12 'Lamb' (2021)
Directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson
One year before starring in You Won’t Be Alone, Noomi Rapace was also the star of another folk horror movie: Lamb. The plot here is centered on a couple who live on a farm in Iceland, and the strange things that happen to them when they find the creature alluded to in the title.
✕ Remove Ads
Ordinary lambs aren't truly scary of course, so it's no surprise to find that the "lamb" in Lamb isn't your typical kind of lamb, and may well be something that can place the two lead characters in danger. It's a haunting and even upsetting kind of film, but certainly works as a very dramatic take on the folk horror subgenre.
Lamb
11 'A Field in England' (2013)
Directed by Ben Wheatley
Two years after Kill List, Ben Wheatley made another movie that could be categorized as a folk horror movie; perhaps even more justifiably than that 2011 film. This second film was A Field in England, which is set back in the 17th century and revolves around a group of people who go mad in the countryside while trying to find buried treasure.
✕ Remove Ads
It's a truly surreal and ambitious movie, with a consistently unique visual style and a rather staggering blend of genres. Far from just a horror movie, Letterboxd also lists the following genres as ones that A Field in England belongs to: thriller, comedy, drama, fantasy, history, and adventure. It's safe to say that there's not much else out there like it.
A Field in England
NR
- Release Date
- July 5, 2013
- Director
- Ben Wheatley
- Cast
- Julian Barratt , Peter Ferdinando , Richard Glover , Ryan Pope , Reece Shearsmith , Michael Smiley
- Runtime
- 90
- Main Genre
- Drama
- Movie
- Horror
- The Wicker Man
Your changes have been saved
Email is sent
Email has already been sent
Please verify your email address.
You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.
Manage Your List
Follow
Followed
Follow with Notifications
Follow
Unfollow