Rural Communities and Isolated Locations

⛵ Folk horror stories often take place in rural communities and locations, creating an atmosphere of isolation that's essential to the genre. This isolation allows for the development of unique social dynamics, preservation of ancient practices, and the flourishing of beliefs that might be suppressed in more connected communities.

Types of Rural Settings in Folk Horror

Villages and Small Towns

Small, close-knit communities feature prominently in folk horror, including:

• The White Reindeer (1952, Finland)
• Satan's Feasts in the Village of Leva-e-Traz (1967, Brazil)
• Leptirica (1973, Yugoslavia)
• The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978, US)
• The Witch (2015, US)
• The Wailing (2016, South Korea)
• When Evil Lurks (2023, Argentina)

These settings often feature communities that have developed in isolation over generations, allowing unusual or archaic practices to continue unchecked.

Farms and Fields

Agricultural settings link folk horror to fertility rituals, seasonal cycles, and humanity's connection to the land:

• Crowhaven Farm (1970, US)
• Blood on Satan's Claw (1971, UK)
• Children of the Corn (1984, US)
• A Field in England (2013, UK)

Forests

Forests represent primordial wilderness and untamed nature, serving as liminal spaces where traditional rules break down:

• Kuroneko (1968, Japan)
• Eyes of Fire (1983, US)
• The Enchanted (1984)
• The Blair Witch Project (1999, US)
• Roh (2019, Malaysia)

Islands

Islands offer the ultimate isolation, creating microcosms where unique social systems can develop entirely separate from mainstream society:

• The Wicker Man (1972, UK)
• Io Island (1977, South Korea)

Isolated Houses

Large, remote houses functioning as outposts on the edge of rural locales create their own form of isolation:

• Lokis: A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach (1970, Poland)
• Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971, US)
• Ganja & Hess (1973, US)
• The Ash Tree (1975, UK)
• The Rites of May (1976, Philippines)
• La Llorona (2019, Guatemala)

Vacation Settings

Folk horror frequently exploits the vulnerability of visitors to rural areas:

• Lake of the Dead (1958, Norway)
• Hour of the Wolf (1968, Sweden)
• Deliverance (1972, US)
• Butter on the Latch (2015, US)
• Midsommar (2019, US/Sweden)

Urban Folk Horror

While rare, some folk horror films adapt the genre's tropes to urban settings. Candyman (1992, US) is a notable example, though one could argue that the Cabrini-Green housing project in the film functions as an isolated community within the larger urban landscape, effectively serving as the modern equivalent of a remote village.

Historical Context

Folk horror's focus on rurality connects to the 19th-century origins of folklore studies, when European ethnographers traveled to rural areas to collect folklore from illiterate, poor communities. This history informs the genre's frequent use of the outsider/ethnographer figure observing rural customs.

This note is part of a series exploring folk horror in cinema. Return to the main Folk Horror overview to explore other tropes.