A little - seen subgenre , " family horror " has English roots . Emerging in the country in the 1950s and reaching its acme in the 70s , the subgenre seems out of dance step with our current age , but Ari Aster view set to return to it with his sophomore shocker , Midsommar , which builds on a rich custom of films about modern individuals contending with pagan cults and ritual . Though some recent works , like Robert Eggaers’The Witch , also string from this tradition , Wiccan cinema is really its own subgenre , and films that are so firmly set in the folk repugnance mold are rare . Below are ten folk horror films retiring and present to check out .

Night of the Demon (1957)

Jacques Tourneur ’s immortal shocker had n’t quite see its mode to the wooded wood and earthy rural Hamlet that would become endemic to the genre , but this tale of an American professor list John Holden ( Dana Andrews ) who may or may not be cursed by cult drawing card Dr. Julian Karswell ( Niall MacGinnis ) to be snatch up up by the titular fiend is an early template that explores the themes of the later folk horror entries . A moody classic of scientific discipline versus mysticism , the film is a close arrant Val Lewton - style crawler ( suitably , the two director were close supporter ) that has its bar and use up it too with ballsy special force and a thought - kick up game .

Witchfinder General (1968)

For the function of this inclination , crone films and folk repugnance films are regarded as being in different family , but this horrendous tale set during the English Civil War is a bridge between the two . When a group of Puritans name Matthew Hopkins as “ Witchfinder General ” for their township , he is task with roaming the countryside executing those suspected of splash around in black magic . Genre icon Vincent Price stars as Hopkins in the uncommon function in which he never blink or jog toward the interview , and the film is an other example of a horror feature that puts scenes of torment midpoint degree tenner beforeSawand its like .

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

This Hammer offering pairs Christopher Lee and Leon Greene as two fella who attend a soiree only to realize that it ’s , in fact , a gathering to induct a untested adult female ( Nike Arrighi ) into a Satanic cult steer by a villainous high-pitched priest named Mocata ( Charles Gray ) .

The always terrific Lee is in top material body here , as is Charles Gray in a lusciously mephistophelian public presentation . Though Hammer studios is well known for its literary goliath moving-picture show , The Devil Rides Outis one of a handful of pagan / satanic films that leaven the studio apartment was just as ace with non - classic material .

The Blood On Satan’s Claw (1971)

When untried boy comes across a cryptic remains , the local teens in his small town start behaving in increasingly bizarre way . Headed up by a young woman named Angel ( Linda Hayden ) , the adolescent become confident that the corpse is that of a individual who was once have and use it in a series of eldritch ritual in the Bob Hope of hit contact with the Devil , himself . Piers Haggard ’s eery occult dramatic event is consider one of the “ fiendish trinity ” of folk horror films ( along withThe Wicker ManandWitchfinder General ) and makes the most of the subgenre ’s association to the natural world : presenting a cosmic sort of evil that has seeped into the very grease upon which the country of England is progress .

The Wicker Man (1973)

TheCitizen Kaneof this tiny subgenre , Robin Hardy’sThe Wicker Mansees the incredulously devout Sergeant Howie ( Edward Woodward ) look into the report of a drop immature girl on an isolated Scottish Isle . Openly unfriendly to the residents ' pagan ways , Howie ’s hunt moderate to a soul - shaking conclusion in one of the most hefty finales in horror account . Alternately hammy ( Britt Ekland ’s nude musical number ) and off-white - chilling ( Christopher Lee in his own front-runner of his roles),The Wicker Manis a bonafide classic in its own right wing and the gold - standard for sept horror movies . And yes , the 2006 remaking starring Nicolas Cage is just as distressful , albeit for totally different   ground .

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)

This classic of humanity and feminist picture palace concerns an Australian boarding school for girls at the first light of the 20th 100 . During the school ’s Valentine ’s Day picnic at the titulary outcropping , a group of girls and one teacher mysteriously vanish . A film of subtle , fawn apprehensiveness that tends heavy towards the incomprehensible and metaphysical , Picnic At Hanging Rockis an arthouse repulsion moving-picture show of the highest gauge .

Wake Wood  (2009)

After the tragic death of their girl , a duad relocates to start afresh in a distant town where the locals lock in a form of ritualistic magic that allow the dead to pass to life for a brief catamenia .

Foolishly , the span decides to take part in the rite , but of course , things do n’t go as planned . MarryingPet SemataryandThe Wicker Man , David Keating ’s film may be jolly lacking in narrative and thematic punch , but it more than makes up for it with ample atmosphere .

Kill List  (2011)

A movie that benefit majorly from going in unreasoning , Ben Wheatley ’s putting to death list tell the story of a hitman task with a new assignment bare month after his last job went in the south , depart him emotionally and physically marred . A crime drama that swap gears into full - on tribe horror show in its back end , Wheatley ’s film is the rare bait and switch that does n’t sense bum and bring folk horror squall into the twenty-first century .

A Field In England (2013)

Ben Wheatley ’s follow up to his brilliantKill Listuses a wide-eyed plot as a springboard into bedlam . When two military personnel apprehend a group of deserters during the English Civil War , the captives start munching on hazardous mushrooms – unlocking the occult energies of a rural plain . sick and frequently incoherent , A Field In Englandis folk horror go to the observational arthouse , and a misstep absolutely deserving taking .

Apostle (2018)

Another film set early in the 20th 100 , when Thomas Richardson fall home to find that his sister is being retain ransom by a diabolical fad , he ready out to rescue her and discovers devilish secrets more perverted than anything he could have dreamed . A proficient deal gorier than most folk horror , Apostleis also a boring - burn worth checking out when you ’ve exhausted the repose of the kinfolk - horror canon . It may not be the most action the literary genre has to offer , but as an inheritor to the ethnic music horror mantle , it ’s worthy .

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