10 Best Recent Folk Horror Movies You Probably Missed
3. Dark Harvest
Loosely based on a novel of the same name from 2006, Dark Harvest is a 2023 movie directed by David Slade, known for directing episodes of Breaking Bad, Hannibal, and Black Mirror.
He also directed Twilight: Eclipse, but there’s no need to hold that against him.
His latest release is set in a small rural town with an unusual tradition. Every year on Halloween, the boys in the settlement are tasked with killing an evil pumpkin-headed creature named Sawtooth Jack before it reaches the town’s church. The winner of the contest is rewarded with fabulous prizes, but this is far from an innocent holiday game.
As the film becomes more and more claustrophobic, the small-town setting really comes into play. Anyone who grew up in a place like this will know how suffocating they can feel at the best of times, so imagine how much worse it would be with a literal monster on the loose.
Though it could probably be a bit more folky (whatever that means), Dark Harvest is a good time with lots of fun characters and plenty of twists and turns.
You’ll never see a scarecrow the same way ever again.