What is the “triumvirate of British films” that “the genre started with”? Are urban legends counted as separate from folk tales?

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukMEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    What is the “triumvirate of British films” that “the genre started with”?

    I am posting a thread for each at the moment - they’re covered in the Mark Gatiss documentary and are: Witchfinder General (1968), The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) and The Wicker Man (1973).

    Are urban legends counted as separate from folk tales?

    I cast my net wider than some in my definition of folk horror but one of the key factors is the sense of nature (often portrayed as an ancient evil) breaking through into a more civilised time, exposing that the orderly world we live in is a thin skin over the roiling chaos of the living world.

    Urban legends tend to have a more modern origin (last 100-200 years) and are often about the crimes of an apparently civilised society coming back to haunt it.

    Curious: do films like Candy Man fall into this genre?

    It’s an interesting one as the inciting incident was back in the past but it was only the late 1800s and he was murdered for the crime of love, not any kind of witchcraft. So I don’t count it. That’s not to say others can’t.

    However, it’s a topic that Clive Barker is clearly interested in and Rawhead Rex makes my list.