Expert doco casts a spell

This three-hour deep dive into folk horror is well designed to educate and entertain, writes James Croot.

Atitled

s the subtitle,

suggests, the otherwise evocatively

is a more than three-hour deep dive into the cult cinematic subgenre that has brought us such delights as

and

Divided into six fascinating chapters (a structure that caters to those who might prefer to tackle the meaty, thought-provoking discussions, dissections and nightmarish visions in more palatable bitesized chunks), this soup-tonuts, Hammer-to-A24 look at more than 50 years of a potentially terror-inducing, at times taboo-busting section of moving-picture storytelling is well designed to educate as well as entertain.

About 50 interviewees (experts, critics, academics, film-makers and stars) provide enlightenment on more than 200 flicks, usually with the aid of hauntingly illustrative clips, describing where they fit into the topic’s pantheon and how they reflect much older tales and practices from their countries of origin.

Yes, we’re not limited here to the traditional British pagans or their ilk, as much as you devote an entire featurelength doco to either 1968’s

or 1971’s

There are the expected movies from the United States

and

Australia as well as Poland

Japan Indonesia (cult hit Czechoslovakia

and Mexico

Topic discussions are just as eclectic, starting with the only religion Britain gave the world (witchcraft), before segueing into themes as diverse as Hollywood’s favourite myth: the Indian burial ground, depictions of hoodoo and voodoo, Spanish-language filmmakers’ obsession with La Llorona (‘‘the weeping woman’’), and folk horror’s recent revival (which experts and commentators put down to the uncertain times we live in that echo what was happening during the genre’s first wave in the 1970s, when it even managed to infiltrate ‘‘family’’ shows such as and

Kier-La Janisse, the Canadian founder of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, has made a fabulous directorial debut that is guaranteed to leave you searching out streaming services, Alice’s and AroVideo’s catalogues for copies of what’s teased here.