The Best: Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror
We don’t write about too many documentaries here at io9, but Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched is such an achievement—not to mention highly relevant to our folk horror-obsessed, Blood on Satan’s Claw-loving sensibilities—that it not only merits coverage, but also a spot on our best list. Written and directed by genre expert Kier-La Janisse, the three hour-plus documentary digs into folk horror’s origins in fairy tales, ballads, and beyond. Carefully edited film clips (you’ll want to make a list of things to watch after you finish the doc) and interviews with filmmakers, scholars, historians, and more bring context to a vast but specific genre that preys on our fears of, and fascination with, ancient rituals, pagan relics, dusty spellbooks, and the idea that the “old ways” are just waiting for their chance to sneak back in and take over.
