10 Obscure Folk Horror Movies You Need To Watch
7. The Pale Door
Despite flying under the radar when released in 2020, Aaron B. Koontz's The Pale Door is an enthralling new take on the sub-genre as folk horror meets the Wild West.
The film starts out as what seems to be a standard Western, as a gang organize and execute a train robbery, only for them to find that instead of the promised chests of gold inside, there is only a young woman inside. Said young woman reveals that her name is Pearl and promises to compensate the gang handsomely if they safely return her home.
How on earth is this a folk horror? The gang duly return Pearl to her home before the folklore twist is revealed; Pearl, her mother Maria and the entire inhabitants of the town are witches. While they possess the ability to conjure the facade of normal women, this illusion slips to reveal their true form, hideously charred and undead creatures as a result of being burnt at the stake due to their affliction; Maria was pregnant with Pearl when she suffered this harrowing fate.
The Pale Door has such an unconventionally wacky premise that few would be surprised if the onscreen result crashed and burned in spectacular style, but the end product is a taut, engaging horror with commendable cinematography and gritty, visceral performances from the relatively unknown cast - perhaps the key element behind the movie's obscurity.