Folk horror is defined as a subgenre that uses elements of folklore to produce fear and a sense of foreboding. Movies within this genre typically involve rural settings that feel isolated, but the most vital part tends to be superstitions, religions, and the darkest aspects of nature and local lore. The folk genre is popular in horror as it brings a sense of helplessness that most other films can’t seem to grasp. Daylight horror is difficult to pull off, but by mixing folk horror elements into a movie like Midsommar, it's easy to be scared.
Regarding horror, different countries tend to have their own styles. British horror is vastly different from American horror, which is probably why many movies across the pond tend to be superior. There's no shortage of folklore across the sea. Much of it was carried over to America when it was first settled.
This list will explore the best British folk horror movies that show why it's best not to meddle with nature, witchcraft, or things that most cannot begin to understand.
10 Mark of the Devil (1970)
Most know that the infamous witch trials from the 1700s were largely flawed. Most were conducted without merit and saw hundreds of innocent women killed in brutal and inhumane ways. Mark of the Devil follows witch hunter Udo Kier, an apprentice to Herbert Lom, who catches his teacher committing a heinous crime that forces him to reconsider their sacred mission for the church. In bearing witness to the brutality of the witch trials, he soon begins to see them as the scam that they are, a ploy for the church to rob citizens of their land, money, and property.
What Makes It Great
This film from 1970 was a brutal display of the archaic methods used to subjugate and murder in the name of God and does not hold back on the barbarity. The film may be 50 years old, but it’s still as disturbing a horror movie as ever.
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9 A Dark Song (2016)
A co-produced film between the U.K. and Ireland, A Dark Song features a grieving mother searching for a way to contact her deceased son and discovers her answer in the form of a man who specializes in the occult. The man has no shortage of his own problems, but they both have their own aims in taking part in a ritual to reach out to the dead. The only way for it to work is to lock themselves away in seclusion for six whole months, with the threat of dark consequences of backing out early.
What Makes It Great
A critical hit, A Dark Song sits at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics and audiences have praised the unnerving atmosphere of the film, made even more impressive by the fact that it's essentially a movie about two people in a single room. This film effectively signals to horror fans that writer-director Liam Gavin is one ot watch.
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8 A Field in England (2013)
This film by Ben Wheatley won’t be the only addition to this list, but it may just be the most eerie. A Field in Englandfollows deserters of the English Civil War as they escape a battle across an overgrown field, where they are captured by an alchemist. Their capture then forces them to participate in a search for hidden treasure, but this search soon gives way to psychedelia and madness.
What Makes It Great
This folk tale is disturbing for a lot of reasons, but the strobe flashings and fast editing are notable as they make the film utterly disorientating for a fully immersive, mind-bending experience. A Field in England is the kind of movie not for everyone for a multitude of reasons, but a health warning is advised for all those who enter.
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7 Apostle (2018)
Apostle
- Release Date
- September 21, 2018
- Director
- Gareth Evans
- Cast
- Dan Stevens, Kristine Froseth, Lucy Boynton, Michael Sheen, Bill Milner, Mark Lewis Jones
- Main Genre
- Thriller
There’s nothing that goes together in horror better than folklore and the occult. Dan Stevens of Downton Abbeyfame stars in Apostle as Thomas, a broken man on the hunt for his missing sister after he learns of her abduction to an island by a cult of convicts. To maintain the health of their land, they perform blood sacrifices, putting Thomas’s sister on a ticking clock before she becomes the latest sacrifice. To get her back, he’ll have to enter a hell unlike any he’s ever known, risking his own life and sanity in this slow-burn, tension-filled tale that explodes with a vicious third act.
What Makes It Great
With its use of the occult and its early-1900s setting, the film is full of creepy imagery and folk horror with just the right amount of nature and body horror to keep viewers up long after. The film may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it makes for one of Stevens’ best performances.
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6 Cry of the Banshee (1970)
Acting legend Vincent Price takes the role of the cruel Lord Edward Whitman, who is in charge of leading witch hunts similar to Herbert Lom in Mark of the Devil and just as evil and corrupt. After leading the charge in executing numerous witches, he soon runs afoul of the head of a local coven named Oona, who conjures the wrath of a banshee to take revenge. Soon, members of his family are picked off one by one.
What Makes It Great
While sharing similar themes with Mark of the Devil, Cry of the Banshee is relatively more tame and not quite as disturbing. If anything, it’s as terrifying as a Hammer film. But despite not being as disturbing, it’s still considered something of a cult classic as an early interpretation of the horrors of the witch trials. Because most of the so-called witches were innocent, the ones in this film are portrayed in a more sympathetic light, which makes it all the more satisfying when their killers are brought to justice.
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5 Kill List (2011)
Kill List
- Release Date
- September 2, 2011
- Director
- Ben Wheatley
- Cast
- Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring, Harry Simpson, Michael Smiley, Emma Fryer, Struan Rodger
- Rating
- R
- Main Genre
- Horror
In the second Ben Wheatley film on the list, Kill Listfollows a soldier who returns from combat and takes on work as a contract killer. He’s tasked with three hits that should be simple, but this is where the film delves from a crime thriller to a brutal psychological thriller, as the situation devolves into the realm of blood magic and ritualistic torture.
What Makes It Great
The film gives not a single moment to catch one’s breath, and throws everyone watching off balance any chance it gets. Kill List is the kind of movie one needs to see on an empty stomach. Along with A Field in England, if fans want more of Wheatley’s disorientating style, there’s still the third film in his quasi-trilogy of folk-horror called Sightseers. But like the other two films, it may be an acquired taste for some.
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4 The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)
At number four is a film that many credit as one of the very first and finest folk horror films ever. Directed by Piers Haggard, The Blood on Satan’s Claw is set in 18th-Century England, and follows the harrowing events that occur after a farmer unearths a terrifying relic. He rightfully fears the omens that the item will bring, a concern that few share, to their detriment. It doesn’t take long for corruption to set into the community, leading to a wave of bloodshed and some of the earliest forms of body horror put to screen.
What Makes It Great
It's easy to see the influence this movie has had. The psychological horror and twisted intrigue still hold strong today, making this a strong recommendation for lovers of cult horror, even for lovers of gore and bloody horror. True fans need to go back to the grassroots of the genre, especially when said roots arguably launched an entire subgenre.
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3 Witchfinder General (1968)
Vincent Price returns to the list as the Witchfinder General himself, playing the real-life figure known as Matthew Hopkins. With his assistant John Stearne, Hopkins traveled from town to town and city to city using the English Civil War to his advantage to accuse, torture, and execute those he deemed as witches in the name of the church. However, he mainly did it to gain sexual favors and profit.
What Makes It Great
The scariest part of this movie is how close it gets to his real-life crimes. Hopkins takes sadistic pleasure in his work, as he uses paranoia and superstition to fuel his blood-lust. Although dark, Price’s performance in this far outclasses his role in Cry of the Banshee as he plays the more serious and far more sadistic Hopkins to perfection. Price truly was one of the most underrated actors of his time.
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2 Night of the Eagle (1962)
At number two on the list is the oldest, but no less noteworthy: Night of the Eagle follows a prominent college professor who only believes in practical things, so he doesn’t take too kindly when he discovers his wife is a practitioner of witchcraft. Incensed by her nonsensical practices, he destroys every totem and icon of hers that he can get his hands on, but she warns that in doing so, he may have sealed his fate.
As it turns out, many of his envious colleagues are also practitioners and have been using their craft to bring harm to his life, for which his wife has been protecting him. His desecration of her totems was the only protection they had, and without them they were vulnerable. Things soon start to happen that threaten the professor’s life but also his wife’s, leading to a harrowing race against time to save the both of them.
What Makes It Great
This film is a dark warning that just because you don’t believe in something, doesn’t make it any less real.
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1 The Wicker Man (1973)
At number one is the most influential folk horror film in the genre, The Wicker Man. More than any other movie, this one is cited as an influence on many of the modern-day cult and folk horror films, and it’s for good reason. The film follows a Christian Police Sergeant who travels to a secluded island to solve a mystery. To him, the islanders are just odd, partaking in strange yet harmless rituals and customs.
However, just under the surface is something far more sinister. Nothing is as it seems on Summerisle, but he discovers that far too late, leading to the infamous shocking finale that made this classic a household name.
What Makes It Great
The Wicker Man stands among the greats in the horror genre as an all-time classic. Many argue whether or not it still holds up, but its influence has been felt for decades in films such as Midsommar, The Sacrament, Hereditary, and many more. The Wicker Man may not be everyone’s favorite, but there is no denying that it changed horror movies forever.
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