Fantasia Fest Coverage: Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: The History of Folk Horror
Directed By: Kier-Lar Janisse
Starring: Robert Egger, Samm Deighan, Alice Lowe, Kat Ellinger, Piers Haggard, Sam Dunn, Kier-Lar Janisse
Plot Summary: WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED explores the folk horror phenomenon from its beginnings in a trilogy of films – Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General (1968), Piers Haggard’s Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) and Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973) – through its proliferation on British television in the 1970s and its culturally specific manifestations in American, Asian, Australian and European horror, to the genre’s revival over the last decade. Touching on over 200 films and featuring over 50 interviewees, WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED investigates the many ways that we alternately celebrate, conceal and manipulate our own histories in an attempt to find spiritual resonance in our surroundings.
You may have heard the term folk horror bandied about, especially when it comes to films like Robert Egger’s The Witch (2015) or Ari Aster’s Midsommar (2019). But maybe you don’t know what exactly the term means. Maybe you do but only in a passing or general way. Well, fear not because Kier-Lar Janisse’s film Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: The History of Folk Horror has got you covered.
To say that Woodlands is an exhaustive exploration of folk horror in both fiction, cinema and television is an understatement. Kier-Lar Janisse, who is making her feature film debut really brings her A-game here and what you can expect is an incredibly well researched documentary. Right off the bat, I loved how extremely well organized this film is. It’s structured in a way that takes a seemingly daunting and huge subject like folk horror and puts it into an easy-to-follow format. Janisse does a great job at being very thoughtful in how the documentary’s informational narrative flows. Indeed, the film and filmmakers don’t feel the need to abridge things, so we get these excellent deep dives into aspects of folk horror that I’ve never seen covered at all or in any great length.
Of course, a documentary is only as good as its scholars, and Woodlands has an array of amazing and well-spoken interviewees. We get a nice mix of film historians, authors, folk historians, actors and filmmakers that make up the rich tapestry of the documentary. I also love the female perspective with genre heavy-hitters like Kat Ellinger, Kier Janisse, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Samm Deighan (just to name a few) all giving us a wonderful insight into this genre. Of course, it’s great to hear from filmmakers such as Robert Egger, Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch, among others. There are some interesting and thought-provoking avenues the movie takes but thankfully, it never steers off its course.
So, I want to address the elephant in the room (or maybe that should be “black-goat”): the documentary is over three-hours in length, which is quite a long film even for those deeply interested in the subject. Thankfully, Woodland is never dull and makes the most of its runtime. While I think that there are some moments that could have been streamlined, I don’t think I would necessarily get rid of major chunks of it. It’s a gamble to make your film this long, but I think it pays off because everything is so deeply fascinating.
I had heard about how excellent Woodland was in its early screenings and I am happy to say, it certainly lives up to the hype. Made by a coven of excellent filmmakers and masterfully distilled in a three-plus hour film, Woodland Dark and Days Bewitched is a spellbinding crash course into the subject of folk horror and one not to be missed.
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Big film nerd and TCM Obsessed. Author of The Ultimate Guide to Strange Cinema from Schiffer Publishing. Resume includes: AMC’s The Bite, Scream Magazine etc. Love all kinds of movies and television and have interviewed a wide range of actors, writers, producers and directors. I currently am a regular co-host on the podcast The Humanoids from the Deep Dive and have a second book in the works from Bear Manor.
