10 Best Recent Folk Horror Movies You Probably Missed
There have been some truly chilling folk horrors in the last few years that you need to watch.
Folk horror is a subgenre that draws on elements of folklore and superstition to tell its stories.
Basically, if a movie is set in a creepy rural location or features a monster that either comes from or is inspired by a real-life mythical creature, then it's a folk horror. Films like this can sometimes come with morals about respecting the Earth or the power of nature, but this isn't a necessity.
Famous examples include The Wicker Man, Children of the Corn, and even The Blair Witch Project, while more recent films like Midsommar and Lamb have helped bring the genre into the modern age.
But have there been any great folk horror movies from, say, the last three years or so? 10 of them perhaps? Well, funny you should ask...
These 10 chilling encounters all flew somewhat under the radar, thanks in part to the fact that folk horror isn't usually seen as box office dynamite. A lot of these pictures come from smaller directors or from markets outside of the US and UK, but that doesn't mean you should skip them if you're a fan of this particular strand of scary.
10. Moloch
Beatrik and her family live on the outskirts of a peat bog somewhere in the Netherlands. It’s not a thrilling existence, but it’s one they enjoy, until a mysterious stranger arrives and threatens to ruin everything.
This is the plot of 2022’s Moloch, a Dutch horror directed by Nico van den Brink. Whilst it might sound like a simple home invasion story from the above description, it has a secret weapon that sets it out from everything else.
It has the bog.
Bogs are very weird places and, chances are, most people will never encounter one unless they live in the countryside. That might be why van den Brink opted to make one a central part of this story; there’s something eerie and unsettling about them, perhaps due to how unusual they are.
The land surrounding the characters is as much a part of the story as the people involved, as it becomes clear that the source of Beatrik’s troubles is linked to her surroundings.
Beautifully shot and set in a country you don’t often hear from in horror circles, Moloch is definitely worth getting bogged down in.