In his BBC documentary series A History of Horror, Mark Gatiss referred to this film, along with Witchfinder General and The Wicker Man, as the prime example of a short-lived subgenre he called folk horror.

It’s directed by Piers Haggard, who also was behind The Quatermass Conclusion, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu and Venom. He’s also the great-great-nephew of H. Rider Haggard, the creator of Allan Quartermain.

Robert Wynne-Simmons was hired to write the story, which was inspired by the modern-day Manson Family and Mary Bell child murders.

In the early 18th century, Ralph Gower (Barry Andrews, Dracula Has Risen from His Grave) uncovers a one-eyed skill covered with fur while plowing his fields. He asks the judge (Patrick Wymark, Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow) to look at it, but it’s gone missing, and his fears are ridiculous.

Peter Edmonton brings his fiancee, Rosalind Barton (Tamara Ustinov, Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb), to meet his aunt, Mistress Banham. Banham disapproves of the coupling and demands that Rosalind sleep in an attic room. After screaming throughout the night, she soon gets ill, and the judge commits her. As she’s led away, Peter discovers she has a claw instead of a hand.

Claws show up all over this — hidden in fields to be found by children and attacking Peter inside the cursed room, causing him to sever his hand. The judge leaves behind the town for London but promises to return. He places Squire Middleton (James Hayter, The 39 Steps) in charge.

One of the children who found the claw, Mark, is lured out by his classmates and killed in a ritual game by the leader of a new cult, Angel Blake (Linda Hayden, Madhouse, Queen Kong). She even tries to seduce Fallowfield (Anthony Ainley, the Master from Dr. Who) and tells him that Mark had the devil inside him, which needed to be cut out. Her group also has a Black Mass inside a ruined church where they attack Mark’s sister Cathy (Wendy Padbury, companion Zoe on Dr. Who). They ritualistically assault and murder her before tearing the fur from her skin.

Of course, it’s not long before all hell quite literally breaks loose, with insane children raising Satan himself from the Great Beyond and Ralph growing fur on his leg, marking him for death. This movie is…well, there’s nothing else quite like it. I can see why it had a limited audience for years; it’s so dark and unforgiving.

“It never made much money,” said Haggard. “It wasn’t a hit. From the very beginning, it had a minority appeal. A few people absolutely loved it, but the audiences didn’t turn out for it.”

While Satan’s Skin was the original title, you must give it to American International Pictures’ Samuel Z. Arkoff, who created the film’s title.

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), along with The Wicker Man and the Folk Horror: Lands of Cruelty, Beliefs of Terror program. It includes films like Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Eyes of Fire, Kill List, the 2019 French version of La Llorona, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, Bldg. N, In My Mother’s Skin and To Fire You Come at Last. You can learn more at their official site.

It took me literally five watches to get through Evil Dead Rise. In my past hater days, I would have just said something like, “Well, I already saw Demons 2,” but that’s not very productive. Films deserve to be seen, and my mindset did not jibe with what I was watching.

Maybe I’ve finally reached a point where the fifth Evil Dead movie isn’t all that exciting.

The thought filled my heart with dread. What would 16-year-old me, the one who watched Evil Dead 2 every single day, that a few years later would be one of two people in the theater for Army of Darkness, think?

Maybe I don’t want to grow up. It’s just too confusing.

Lee Cronin, who directed and wrote this movie, also made The Hole In the Ground. His Evil Dead movie came to be after a period of great excitement with the reimagining. Fede Álvarez was making a sequel to that movie, Sam and Ivan Raimi were making Evil Dead 4 or Army of Darkness 2 and after all that, the seventh film would bring together Ash Williams and Mia Allen. Then the TV series came along, and when that was canceled by the fourth season, any talk of new movies ended. Until we got this.

And I wasn’t too excited.

But then it kicked off with some teens at the lake, some possessions and a levitating girl decapitating a boy while an incredible title card rose from the bloody water.

Alright, I was in.

Guitar tech Beth (Lily Sullivan) has learned that she’s pregnant and she needs to be near her family, which would be her tattoo artist single mother sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her kids Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Kassie (Nell Fisher). They live in the Monde Apartments, a nearly condemned building in Los Angeles that was rocked by an earthquake that brought a book and three records to the land of the unpossessed. Of course, Danny is a DJ and throws those records on the turntable — Bruce Campbell voiceover cameo alert — and they reveal that a priest was able to bring the Deadites to our world with the Naturom Demonto.

He gets blood all over the book, which we all know isn’t good, as the aftershocks and power outages continue to assault their home. Ellie is soon possessed and tries to kill everyone, but before she dies, she makes Beth promise to protect her children. And then she’s back from the dead and doing anything but.

What follows is a blood-spraying, gore-filled battle between the Deadite-possessed humans — most of the family becomes an intertwined creature — and the survivors, Beth and Kassie. Is there a shotgun? Is there a chainsaw? And is there a woodchipper, too?

Yet this has the same issue every reimagining has. It has the blood, the book, all those elements, but it forgets the anarchy. What’s missing is the weird mix of goofiness and kids in the woods making something with no archetype or rules. We know what will happen every moment, as if it is predestined, with nothing shocking outside of the things engineered to be as such. Much like how the streaming Hellraiser forgot the sex and the streaming Texas Chainsaw Massacre forgot to be frightening, this has a menu of everything that would be on the model kit of an Evil Dead movie, but it’s missing the intangible. There’s no feeling of getting behind the protagonists. Sure, a cheese grater gets used as a weapon, but this film should have the DNA of a film series that spent forty minutes with a man’s own hand punching himself in the face. It should do something that makes us feel something. The absence of this anarchy is a disappointment that’s hard to ignore.

There’s some to like, but I want to love. I want to revel in the lunacy of what this film could be instead of forcing myself to be satisfied with what it is. This had 1,720 gallons of blood but not as many ounces of magic as I wanted it to have. Honestly, they could have skipped the records and book, which would have been another possession film.

But would anyone have gone to the theater—yes, this even got out of streaming and into the big time—to see that?

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN). You can learn more at their official site.

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. 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 — are not just names, but significant milestones in the history of folk horror. 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 significant 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 being 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 you want to pause, write down, make notes on, and keep updating your Letterboxd while watching 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.

Thanks to the fantastic Letterboxd list Films mentioned in “Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror“ by Jon Ursenbach, here’s a list of the films as well as links to reviews of them that we’ve done on our 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
• 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
• 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

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN). You can learn more at their official site.

In the sequel to 2021’s 2551.01, director Norbert Pfaffenbichler presents a visually unique world. In it, a man in a monkey mask navigates a strobing and flashing landscape of deviancy and pain. He’s pursued by a plague doctor and his army while attempting to rescue an abandoned child. But this is just the surface of a film that truly comes alive when you immerse yourself in its striking visuals, allowing them to sear into your consciousness.

Following the monkey man’s shooting, a masked woman intervenes, leading to a blossoming romance. Yet, beneath this love story, there’s a pervasive sense of ennui and helplessness. The protagonist is always on the brink of his objective but perpetually ensnared by violence and a sexual frenzy that has seized these future inhabitants. All of this unfolds against a backdrop of electronic soundscapes and classical music, adding depth to the film’s exploration of these themes.

This movie warns you from the start: it has disturbing images, sexualized moments and strobing. It’s either going to be totally something. You vibe to or the exact opposite. I get the feeling there’s really nowhere in between.

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN). You can learn more at their official site.

AUXILIO (Help) is a captivating film directed by Tamae Garateguy, who is known for her previous acclaimed work on She Wolf. The narrative centers around Emilia, a spirited young woman portrayed by Cumelen Sanz. She finds herself in a challenging situation after her father sends her to a secluded convent. This drastic decision is a reaction to her defiance in rejecting the marriage proposal from a man chosen for her, reflecting the societal pressures she faces and her refusal to conform to traditional gender roles.

Upon arriving at the convent, Emilia encounters a strict and cloistered world governed by the rigid rules of the Sisterhood. Guided by Rebeca, a compassionate nun played by Paula Carruega, Emilia begins to navigate the complexities of her new life. As she attempts to adapt, she gradually becomes aware of a mysterious and deeply buried secret that lies within the convent’s walls—a secret that grants supernatural powers to the nuns. This revelation introduces an enthralling layer of suspense and intrigue, drawing Emilia deeper into the enigmatic world around her.

The film intricately weaves themes of hidden romance and passion, hallmarks of the nunsploitation genre. The interactions between the characters reveal much about their desires and conflicts, emphasizing the tension between their spiritual vows and earthly yearnings. Mother Superior, portrayed by Marcela Benjumea, serves as a formidable figure, adept at hiding the convent’s darker secrets and protecting its inhabitants—often societal outcasts—from the outside world. Her complex character adds depth and a sense of urgency to the plot as she navigates the fine line between authority and compassion.

Throughout its runtime, AUXILIO raises profound questions regarding faith, identity, and the nature of belief. Are the residents of the convent divinely inspired beings, or are they merely ordinary individuals seeking solace and purpose? This exploration invites viewers to reflect on their own definitions of spirituality and the human experience, making the film not just a visual spectacle but an engaging meditation on the struggles and strengths of its characters.

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN). You can learn more at their official site.