Woodlands Dark And Days Bewitched: A History Of Folk Horror

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched (2021) 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 fifty interviewees, it investigates the many ways that we alternately celebrate, conceal and manipulate our own histories in an attempt to find spiritual resonance in our surroundings.

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched is directed by Kier-La Janisse for Severin Films, with David Gregory and Carl Daft as Executive Producers. It includes an original score by Jim Williams (A Field in England) and special animated sequences featuring collage art by filmmaker Guy Maddin (My Winnipeg).

Screening in association with the exhibitions Eerie Pageantry and Angela Lane: Phosphene.