Haunted Landscapes – IFI – July 16 – 30th
Starting this Saturday, July 16th, Haunted Landscapes will take place in the IFI for a fortnight. Full details on the event can be found below; a must see for horror fans, modern and classics.
The term folk horror has been used to yoke together disparate cultural artefacts that exhibit common traits: an interest in paganism; traditional, rural communities with a connection to the land and its regenerative cycles; and the importance of ritual and superstition over scientific rigour.
Three UK films are held as exemplars of the genre:Witchfinder General, The Wicker Man, both of which will be introduced by Kim Newman on July 16thand Blood on Satan’s Claw, which will be introduced by The Irish Times film writer Donald Clarke on July 17th. While these films are central to this season, we are broadening the parameters of the definition to include earlier films that exhibit discernible folk horror traits: the ancient curse of Night of the Demon, Quatermass and the Pit and the dreamscapes of Valerie and her Week of Wonders.
Also included is the more recent The Blair Witch Project which popularised found-footage film by employing folk horror mythology. The films collected in this season hope to argue for the continued relevance of folk horror, not just as an intriguing footnote to the horror genre, but as an uncanny seam of energy that reverberates and echoes through the earthier corners of popular culture.
Full event info can be found here.
Editor-in-Chief, part-time super villain and hoarder of cats. If you can’t find me writing, I’m probably in the kitchen!
