Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror

Get in the mood for current and classic spooky movies with this broad overview and deep dive into folk horror film traditions! Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror is available to stream for free with ads or with certain subscriptions.

This three-hour documentary (broken into tidy chapters that make it easy to watch in parts like a series) explores how the folk horror film tradition and the layers of cultural myth it draws from use ancient spirituality and primal human stories to frighten us with the thin and fragile nature of modern human life while ironically drawing our attention to how the old, fearsome, and fearfully suppressed narrative traditions of pre-industrial times functioned over millennia to help people to process fears of the unknown and to face change with courage.

If you'd rather read your creepy folktales and hold all the gory imagery within the safer limits of your inner eye rather than having it splashed across a film screen, or if you like to supplement your freaky films with bewitching books, here are some recommended readings: