Happy Goat Horror

Guest post by Alex Davis

Folk horror continues to enjoy its resurgence into 2025, and while the association with the genre is often British – with roots back to The Wicker Man, Witchfinder General and Blood on Satan’s Claw – the field has certainly spread far beyond the UK. With the return of the Darkness in the Fields Film Festival on the 22^nd March – where we’ll be presenting movies from Brazil, The Netherlands and Serbia as part of a day of folk horror screenings – we’ll be taking a look at five of the best movies in the genre from around the world.

The White Reindeer – Finland – 1952

Let’s go back a little, shall we? Long before we saw the 70s boom in British folk horror, The White Reindeer drew upon Finnish mythology and shamanism to tell a tale of love, lust and witchcraft set against a stark, snowy landscape. The movie has particularly been praised for its visuals and imagery, winning the 1953 Cannes Award for Best Fairy Tale film and a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 1956.

Where can I watch in the UK? Streaming on Shudder

Witchhammer – Czechia/Czech Republic – 1970

Not long after Vincent Price stalked the screen as Matthew Hopkins, this Czech offering delve deep into the country’s own history for this dark tale of the infamous inquisitor Boblig von Edelstadt. While the historical setting is a real strength, the movie also has plenty to say about the politics of the region at the time, and has often been compared to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible – no small compliment in its own right!

Where can I watch in the UK? Streaming on Amazon Prime

November – Estonia – 2017

It certainly pleases me to see that this movie has started to garner a cult following, a black-and-white trip into the stranger side of folk horror. This movie packs a lot in, and goes all-in for the weird fiction aspect of the genre – I won’t say too much, as I don’t want to spoil this one for anyone who hasn’t seen it before! This one was nominated for 32 Film Festival prizes, and scooped a staggering 25 of them.

Where can I watch in the UK? Rent or buy from Apple TV+

Luz: The Flower of Evil – Colombia – 2019

A criminally underrated and underseen folk horror movie, Luz is a colour-saturated nightmare exploring the power of religion and belief, with three young sisters suffering their own trauma as a result of the action of their unrelentingly harsh father. With some superb acting and fresh angles on folk horror, this movie scooped 19 awards around the Festival circuit and is well worth the time of any Folk Horror fan.

Where can I watch in the UK? Streaming on Amazon Prime

Nocebo – Ireland/The Philippines – 2022

A film that seemed to come and go with little fanfare, Nocebo stars the always-excellent Eva Green as a fashion designer whose life takes a dark turn when she sees a bizarre creature at her workplace. Unusually this one mostly has an urban setting, but still hits all the beats we would expect of folk horror, infused with strange magic and the horrors of the past coming back to the present day.

Where can I watch in the UK? Streaming on Netflix

And if that little world tour leaves you wanting more, as well as British offerings in The Severed Sun and The Last Sacrifice, the DARKNESS IN THE FIELDS Film Festival will have a distinctly international flavour this year! A Mother’s Embrace comes to us from Brazil, with a dark tale of urban folk horror, and Dutch film Witte Wieven delves deep into magic and witchcraft in a bleak forest. And we wrap up with Serbian movie Mudbrick, with a brother returning home to his estranged family to find strange superstitions running through the community.

For more info on the Darkness in the Fields Film Festival, and to book tickets, visit THIS LOVELY LINK HERE