EDITOR’S NOTE: This movie was watched as part of Salem Horror Fest. You can still get a weekend pass for weekend two. Single tickets are also available. Here’s the program of what’s playing.

If you have even a passing interest in the world of folk horror, Kier-La Janisse’s exhaustive exploration — which clocks in at 3 hours and 14 minutes and could have been a thousand more if I had my way — is the film of a lifetime. From the unholy trinity that launched this trend on to screens — Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General, Piers Haggard’s Blood on Satan’s Claw and Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man — all the way through British television and films around the world, this movie is quite literally the last word in what folk horror is, what it means and how it’s still part of the world of cinema today, perhaps more than ever before.

With more than fifty major names in the world of horror and horror writing — everyone from Amanda Reyes, Piers Haggard, Adam Scovell, Jeremy Dyson Samm Deighan, Kat Ellinger, Robert Eggars, Ian Oglivy, Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer and around forty more voices appear with great insights — there’s never been a more well-rounded approach to tackling a movie genre within a genre. This feels like the kind of film that I’ll be coming back to again and again.

Beyond the expected anchors of the genre, I was so excited to see lesser-known films get their due, like Alison’s Birthday (which is on the gigantic All the Haunts Be Ours box set that Severin is releasing), beDevil, Dark August, Eyes of Fire (also beng released by Severin), Grim Prarie Tales, Lemora (which seemingly has footage from the mysterious blu ray of the film that never materialized) and Zeder.

This is the kind of material that you want to pause, write down, make notes on and keep updating your Letterboxd while you watch it. This isn’t just a movie about films. This is a true celebration of the magical wonder hidden within the flickering image, an exploration of a genre of all the dark old things and a journey through how each country documents the unknown through their media.

There aren’t enough stars in the firmament out of ten to rate this one. You can preorder this film from Severin now or watch it on Shudder. You can also visit the film’s official site.

• Across the River 
• Alison’s Birthday
• All That Money Can Buy
• The Amityville Horror 
• The Amulet of Ogum 
• Anchoress
• Angel Heart 
• Apostle 
• As Noites de Iemanjá
• The Ash Tree
• Australia Daze 
• The Aztec Mummy
• Backwoods
• Bagpuss (1974) 
• The Ballad of Crowfoot
• Barbara the Fair with the Silken Hair
• Beasts
• Beauty and the Beast
• beDevil
• The Believers
• Beloved
• Beyond the Hills
• Black Cat Mansion
• Black Sabbath
• Black Sunday
• The Blood on Satan’s Claw
• The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe
• Border
• Borderlands
• Boris Karloff’s Thriller: “Papa Benjamin”
• Burned at the Stake
• By Our Selves By Our Selves
• Candyman
• Celebration of a Nation
• Celia
• Children of the Corn
• Children of the Stones
• The City of the Dead
• Clearcut 
• The Company of Wolves
• The Craft
• Creepshow 2
• Crowhaven Farm
• The Crying Woman
• Cult Girls 
• The Curse of the Crying Woman
• Curse
• Dark August
• The Dark Secret of Harvest Home
• Dark Waters
• Dark Waters
• As Filhas do Fogo
• Deadly Blessing
• Dearest Sister
• Death Trip (1999)
• Deliverance
• Demon
• The Demon
• The Devil
• The Devonsville Terror
• The Dirty Dozen
• Doctor Who: “The Dæmons”
• Do You Remember Vietnam
• Don’t Torture a Duckling
• Dracula
• Draug
• The Dreaming
• The Dunwich Horror
• Dust Devil
• The Dybbuk
• Edge of the Knife
• El Signo de la Muerte
• The Enchanted
• Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil
• Escape Into Night (1972)
• Eve’s Bayou
• Eyes of Fire
• The Field Guide to Evil
• A Field in England
• The Fog
• The Fool Killer
• For Those in Peril
• Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher
• The Fugitive: “The Witch”
• Ganja & Hess
• Grim Prairie Tales
• Hagazussa
• The Headless Horseman
• Hereditary 
• Hex
• A History of Horror
• Hour of the Wolf
• The House of the Laughing Windows
• The Hungry Grass 
• Häxan
• Ich-Chi 
• I Start Counting
• Jug Face
• The Juniper Tree
• Kadaicha 
• Kakashi
• Kill List
• Kuroneko
• Kwaidan
• La Llorona
• La Llorona
• Lady Terminator
• The Lair of the White Worm
• Lake Mungo
• Lake of the Dead
• The Last Wave
• The Legend of Hillbilly John
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
• Legend of the Witches
• Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural
• Leonora dos Sete Mares
• Let’s Scare Jessica to Death
• The Lighthouse
• Little Otik
• The Living Grave
• The Living Head
• Lokis. A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach
• Lost Hearts
• The Lottery
• Love from Mother Only
• Manson
• Marjoe
• Mark of the Devil
• Marketa Lazarová
• Maurice
• May Night, or the Drowned Maiden
• Messiah of Evil
• Midsommar
• The Moon and the Sledgehammer
• Moondial
• The Moonshiner
• The Mountain People 
• Murrain 
• Mystics in Bali
• Nang Nak
• Ned Kelly
• Night of the Demon
• Night of the Devils
• Night of the Eagle
• The Ninth Heart
• The Noonday Witch
• Noroi: The Curse
• November
• Onibaba
• The Owl Service
• Pelican Blood
• Penda’s Fen
• Pet Sematary
• Pet Sematary
• Picnic at Hanging Rock
• The Pledge
• Prevenge
• Proezas de Satanás na Vila de Leva-e-Traz
• Psychomania
• Pumpkinhead
• Pyewacket
• Quatermass
• Quatermass and the Pit
• Rawhead Rex
• Red Shift
• The Reflecting Skin
• Requiem for a Village
• The Revenge of the Crying Woman
• The Rites of May
• The Ritual
• Robin Redbreast
• A Room with a View
• Salem’s Lot
• Savage Hunt of King Stakh
• The Secret Glory
• The Sermon
• The Serpent and the Rainbow
• Shadow of the Hawk 
• The Shadow Over Innsmouth
• Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
• The She-Butterfly
• Shikoku
• The Shining
• The Skeleton Key
• The Snake God
• Solitudo
• The Source Family
• The Stalls of Barchester
• Stigma
• The Stone Tape 
• Sweet Sounds: The Music of the Arkansas Ozarks
• Tales from the Darkside: “The Apprentice”
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
• The Theatre Bizarre: “The Mother of Toads”
• Tilbury 
• The Tractate Middoth
• Transformations 
• The Treasure of Abbot Thomas
• The Twilight Zone: “Jess-Belle”
• Two Thousand Maniacs!
• The Unkindness of Ravens 
• Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
• Vali
• The Village
• Viy
• The Wailing
• Wake
• Wake Wood
• The Waltons: “The Grandchild”
• A Warning to the Curious
• When the Mountains Tremble 
• Whistle and I’ll Come to You
• White Angel…Black Angel
• The White Reindeer
• The Wicker Man
• The Wild Bunch
• The Wind
• The Witch
• Witchcraft
• The Witches of Eastwick
• The Witches of Salem: The Horror and the Hope
• The Witches
• Witchfinder General
• Witchhammer
• Wolf Creek
• The Wolf
• The Woman In Black
• Woman Who Came Back
• The Wretched
• The Year of the Sex Olympics
• Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters
• You Are On Indian Land
• Zeder