10 Folk Horror Movies To Lead You Astray

Director Ben Wheatley has been bringing folk horror back to its British roots with his films, including 2011’s Kill List.

Kill List stands out amongst other folk horrors, mainly due to its modern, urban setting. Landscape is a huge part of the genre, and folk horrors usually take place in the rural green countryside. However, Kill List shows us the city of Sheffield. Power lines and blocks of flats covering areas of land that would’ve been urban-free thousands of years ago.

As the film goes on, the characters find themselves in more and more rural settings, until they end up in a woodland estate.

The scary thing about folk horror is how different it is to what we know about the modern world. The protagonist, Jay, has a lot to worry about - seeing as he’s a contract killer. But his world is far too gritty to be tangled up in the whimsical, warped realm of folk horror.

Or at least, that’s what he thinks.

His modern life is infiltrated by the pagan-esque cult, and it’s not just a battle of good and evil anymore, but old and new. In one scene, we see Jay and his friend desperately firing guns at a group of crazed cult members. It would seem like this would be an easy battle to win – but the sheer number of the cultists overwhelms the friends, who are forced to hide in catacomb-like tunnels.

As the pair are slowly hunted, the audience sees that folk horror can find its way into even the most modern of lives.