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Folk horror seems to be all the rage at the moment - what with `Midsommer` and the latest `Fortean Times`.

Russia seems to be reflecting this zeitgeist too with the film Lost Island (Potteryanniy Ostrov) which came out last April.

A young economics journalist based in Moscow is offered the option to taking time out in a randomly chosen destination - with the proviso that he must write something about it. With his back turned to an electtronic map - his finger lands on Rikotu Island in the Sakhalin Province on the border of Japanese waters in the Pacific. (The Sakhalin islands are for real, but Rikotu island is fictional).

So he turns up there only to find it inhabited by ethnic Russians who live a spartan fishing based quasi-pagan lifestyle - and who do not believe in the existence of Moscow. Nor can they recall how they ended up to be on the island. The leader of the community is a mysterious beautiful young woman. The trouble now is - will he be able to leave?

The film has an excellent eerie atmosphere and some great location shots (it was in fact filmed in Sakhalin somewhere). there are obvious paralells with `The Wicker Man` - although the material is handled in a much more subtle way. (Anyway, I am not so sure if there is any debt as this film is based on a stage play from 2007, and `The Wicker Man` is not well known in Russia).


No subtitles - but it's the sort of art house film that could end up as a World cinema release with subtitles, so it's one to look out for. For those interested, here's a more indepth review:

http://alternativerussianculture.sp...trov-you-can-check-in-but-you-cant-check-out/
 
Folk horror seems to be all the rage at the moment - what with `Midsommer` and the latest `Fortean Times`.

Russia seems to be reflecting this zeitgeist too with the film Lost Island (Potteryanniy Ostrov) which came out last April.

A young economics journalist based in Moscow is offered the option to taking time out in a randomly chosen destination - with the proviso that he must write something about it. With his back turned to an electtronic map - his finger lands on Rikotu Island in the Sakhalin Province on the border of Japanese waters in the Pacific. (The Sakhalin islands are for real, but Rikotu island is fictional).

So he turns up there only to find it inhabited by ethnic Russians who live a spartan fishing based quasi-pagan lifestyle - and who do not believe in the existence of Moscow. Nor can they recall how they ended up to be on the island. The leader of the community is a mysterious beautiful young woman. The trouble now is - will he be able to leave?

The film has an excellent eerie atmosphere and some great location shots (it was in fact filmed in Sakhalin somewhere). there are obvious paralells with `The Wicker Man` - although the material is handled in a much more subtle way. (Anyway, I am not so sure if there is any debt as this film is based on a stage play from 2007, and `The Wicker Man` is not well known in Russia).


No subtitles - but it's the sort of art house film that could end up as a World cinema release with subtitles, so it's one to look out for. For those interested, here's a more indepth review:

http://alternativerussianculture.sp...trov-you-can-check-in-but-you-cant-check-out/

Sounds good. I've shared your review on the Horrorthon and Dublin Horror Society FB pages.
 
Recent article from The Irish Times,

Beyond Midsommar: ‘folk horror’ in popular fiction
From The Lottery to The Loney, a look at a genre that explores the eerie power and sinister possibilities of nature and country life
Bernice M Murphy
about 13 hours ago

The release of Ari Aster’s film Midsommar has brought renewed attention to a sub-genre which has gained considerable critical attention in recent years: so-called “folk horror”.
Three British films are generally considered key cinematic touchstones: Witchfinder General (1968), The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971), and The Wicker Man (1973). Common folk horror characteristics include a rural setting, an emphasis on the eerie power of the natural landscape and a preoccupation with the sinister possibilities of the agrarian way of life. The primary narrative focus is often upon naïve, doomed outsiders. Ritualised human sacrifice is a common climactic trope, and is often connected to arcane rites intended to ensure the fertility of the crops.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/beyond-midsommar-folk-horror-in-popular-fiction-1.3963971
 
I was delighted that some of my A level film students were discussing a new and disturbing series they'd found online...Children of the Stones. I've taught them well.
 
Just bought this from Wyrd Harvest Press.

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Welcome to the Urban Wyrd. Discover Hauntology, Weird Technology & Transport, Hauntings and much much more in the realms of TV, Film, Literature, Art, Culture , Lore and Life. Travel in time and spaces with Adam Scovell, Stephen Volk, Scarfolk, Julianne Regan, Sebastian Backziewicz, Sara Hannant, The Black Meadow and many other contributors.
 
Processed through the body, emerging in urine.
Ah, like the lapp shamans were meant to do with fly agaric in reindeer urine. You'd think the americans would have noticed that they were drinking piss.
 
I was delighted that some of my A level film students were discussing a new and disturbing series they'd found online...Children of the Stones. I've taught them well.

That's excellent to hear - you must be a great teacher! Funny thing about Children of the Stones, it's very complex and obscure, especially for kids' TV, but the sheer, sinister mystery makes it compelling.
 
The last scene of the last episode is excellent. I never watched this at the time but on youtube. Brilliant, can't believe it aired at teatime. I also loved Sapphire and Steel. Tremendous back in the day.I didn't have clue what was going on, but so compelling.
 
Gwen: A dark film set in even darker Welsh valleys and stoney mountain fields. The people are non-conformists, plain, unadorned crosses in their homes. But at the chapel it is clear that this is not a radical form of dissent, the minister praises the bounty of the bleak mountains and quarries. Things go bad for Gwen (Eleanor Worthington Cox) and her family, her father is away at war. blight strikes the potato crops, an animal heart is nailed to their door, their sheep are slaughtered. it rains even more incessantly than in Angela's Ashes. The quarry owner is intent on buying their land. An eerie atmosphere of dread builds up as the cinematography of Adam Etherington makes good use of dark and shadows, figures emerge from the mist, both the living and the dead. Gwen's mother (Maxine Peak) uses folk rites to combat the perceived curse on her family.

A tale of folk horror related in a gothic style reminiscent of Wuthering Heights yet also incorporating elements of The Witch. Evil is abroad but the real malevolence may be the quotidian horror of an impoverished people being manipulated into mob violence by their exploiter, A slow moving film which won't be to everyone's taste and the bleakness may even put Folk Horror aficionados off. But both Cox and Peak put in powerful performances. Writer/Director William McGregor has delivered an interesting addition to the British Folk Horror Canon. 8/10.
 
Upcoming book from Strange Attractor on Penda's Fen...

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Of Mud & Flame includes insightful essays by scholars across a range of disciplines including television history, literature, theatre, and medieval studies. It also contains a wealth of creative contributions from contemporary writers and poets inspired by this unique cornerstone of Britain’s uncanny archive, as well as recollections from actors Spencer Banks and Christopher Douglas, and reflections from Rudkin himself. Together with this breadth of commentary, Of Mud & Flame also includes the full revised screenplay of Penda’s Fen, its first time in print since 1975.
http://strangeattractor.co.uk/shoppe/of-mud-flame/
 
I'm 'avin' that ^.

I'm off to see Midsommar on the big screen tonight. I saw a shit copy on a laptop and loved it. Projecting large to having my mind totally pushed. Taking my sunglasses just in case. I think we'll be the only people there as its season ends tomorrow.
 
I do not know how the person sees where s/he is going. Any idea of what the dance ritual is for?
 
I reckon it's a guy who went looking for a needle in a haystack - found it - and is now desperately trying to extract it from a terribly inconvenient place.
 
The Hole In The Ground: A great example of Irish Folk Horror with chilling versions of two songs which I'll never be able to regard in a humorous light again - There was an old woman And she lived in the wood (Weila Weila Waila) and The Rattling Bog. The hole in the ground is discovered in a wood by Sarah (Seána Kerlake) when she is searching for her son Chris (James Markey). It is a vast pi, too big to really exist and signifies something else, later we see Sarah sinking into the ground itself as she nears the supposed location of the pit. Chris starts to act oddly after this incident and they both meet The Old Woman Of The Wood, Norreen, (Kati Outinen) who roams the roads in search of her son, killed by her in an accident decades ago. Noreen believes that the boy she killed was a changeling, as is Chris.

Chris continues to behave strangely and Sarah begins to suspect that he may in fact be a changeling but she is also conscious of the stress she suffers and the effects of an old head injury. What is real and what are hallucinations start to blur as life becomes increasingly surreal for Sarah as she feels alienated in this new (for her and Chris) rural community. Is she becoming another woman who lives in the woods?

From the outset the woods ooze a feeling of otherness, a road into them seems rather to be a narrow trail into a vast primeval forest making clever use of drone cameras. On the ground the woods in day or night easily instil a sense of dread, easily leading to existential panic at the slightest odd occurrence. Locals know of the changeling legend, even at some levels accept it as a reality but will not openly acknowledge it as a fact. This is perhaps best illustrated by Des (James Cosmo), Noreen's husband.

A worthy addition to the Irish Folk Horror Film Canon by Director (and co-writer) Lee Cronin. 8.5/10.

“The Hole in the Ground” is now available on Irish and UK Netflix and Amazon Prime in the US

“The Hole in the Ground,” an Irish film that’s being hailed as the scariest movie of the year, has been added to Irish and UK Netflix, as well as Amazon Prime in the US.

Over on Rotten Tomatoes, where several critics likened it to 2014's "The Babadook," the Irish production has a “certified fresh” rating of 85 percent,

https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/entertainment/the-hole-in-the-ground
 
Watched The Field Guide to Evil on its Sky premier last night.

An anthology of folk horror tales from 8 different countries.

Quite gruesome and very sexually charged at times.

The stories were of variable quality, but more hit than miss in my opinion. Great thing with an an anthology is that, if you're not so keen on the current story, you know another will be along in 15 minutes or so.

Worth a look.

 
Just watched the Swedish movie Draug on Amazon Prime.

A sort of Vikings meets The Walking Dead mash-up, with a hint of psychedelia thrown in.
Starts off as a fairly straightforward 11th century saga, but becomes increasingly horrific and febrile.

Well worth a look.

 
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Sacrilege: Four old friends with a complicated relationship head off from Bristol for a weekend at a country lodge. The women ignore the warning signs: 1 a taciturn, creepy groundsman (Rory Wilton) with antlers on the front of jeep; 2 a cannabis grow house in a shed adjacent to their lodge (who would leave it unlocked?); 3 a hitchhiker (Jon Glasgow) invites them along to a Pagan Festival but an old woman (Emma Spurgin Hussey) warns them to leave "before the Ritual is completed". But these twenty somethings act like teens and stay. The Festival itself opens with solemn intonations from a priest (Ian Champion) who asks those present to write down their fears and cast them in a fire. He offers praise to the Goddess, a figure made from twigs and a deer skull with full antlers. But then the party starts and everyone dances and drinks. After wards the women have visions of what they fear most: Trish (Emily Wyatt) bugs; Kayla (Tamarin Payne) a crazed violent stalker; Stacey (Naomi Willow) growing old; Blake (Sian Abrahams) a savage dog. They put it down to the weed they smoked. Then things start to turn strange, the visions become even more disturbing, violent deaths occur.

A worthy addition to the British Folk Horror Canon this film shifts the focus to the South-West of England where seemingly friendly locals turn out to be more than just weekend Pagans. The deaths scenes are quite disturbing as character are spiked through the head and impaled on antlers but even in the opening scene a previous victim bursts into flames. The woods are threatening both at night and by day, looking quite primeval and exuding a sense of threat. But most frightening of all perhaps are the villagers and farmers gathered together wearing animal masks, accompanied by their Wicker Goddess. From the lack of ooo-arrs you know they're not there to drink cider. Some good acting from the four weekenders and Champion as the sinister priest. Writer/Director David Creed does a lot with with a low budget in his directorial debut. 7.5/10
 
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