Gaua (The Night)

Three women washing clothes in a dark Basque forest have a few stories to tell. So do Andy, Dave and David, once they have recovered from the headgear. Is Gaua the real folk horror deal?A frightened woman escapes into the woods. Her husband may or may not be dead. Three old women offer sanctuary, provided there is a decent horror story to go with it.This week, FolknHell tackles Gaua (The Night) (2025), Paul Urkijo Alijo's Basque-language horror film. Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall find plenty to admire: a tree-bark wolf, a very unwelcome chicken-headed visitor, witches flying through the night, an extraordinary sabbath and hats that could probably have their own episode.But there's more than witchery here. The film pits Catholic authority against older beliefs, and one woman's desire against the people determined to control it. The three hosts agree it's folk horror. They're less united on its pacing, tension and precisely who counts as an outsider.There are comparisons with The Witch and November, plus a diversion into the fine art of rowing a bathtub through the sky.Spoiler warning: The discussion reveals major plot turns and the ending. Watch Gaua first if you'd rather let the forest introduce itself.FolknHell VerdictFolk horror. A visually spectacular, often funny and surprisingly moving piece of Basque witchcraft, even if the tension doesn't always keep up with the creatures. 22.5/30 overall.Links To AddFolknHell film page for Gaua: [add published URL]Full episode transcript: [add published URL]FolknHell editorial article: [add published URL]YouTube episode: [add published URL]Website: https://folknhell.comContent WarningDiscussion of domestic abuse, coercive religious authority, homophobia, death, violence and disturbing supernatural imagery. Strong language and major spoilers.Folknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scoresFind us on the socials:YouTube: @folknhellFacebook: FolknHellX: @FolknHellBluesky: FolknHellSee acast.com/privacy for info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ari Aster’s Hereditary starts with a funeral and somehow finds several worse places to go. FolknHell talks miniatures, grief, ritual, Paimon, a house with no air in it and whether this ferocious family nightmare really belongs in folk horror.Hereditary (2018) does not so much build tension as move it into the house and refuse to let it leave.In Episode 34, FolknHell returns to Ari Aster’s feature debut, with Dave Houghton seeing it for the first time and Andy Davidson and David Hall discovering that repeat viewings do very little to make the thing less upsetting. The discussion gets into Toni Collette and Alex Wolff’s performances, the strange miniature rooms, the film’s near-total absence of relief, the cult hiding in plain sight and the small details that make much more sense once you know where it is all heading.Then there is the folk horror question. The belief system is certainly there. So is ritual, inherited power and a community operating by rules the central family barely understands. Place matters too, particularly the Graham house and treehouse. The awkward bit is the outsider. Peter may be the clearest candidate, except he has been part of the plan from the beginning without knowing it.The result is a film FolknHell regards as at least standing right on the edge of folk horror, and possibly rather more firmly inside than it first appears.Spoilers throughout. If you have not seen Hereditary, watch it before listening. This is not one to have spoiled for you.FolknHell VerdictA genuinely frightening, meticulously controlled horror film whose occult machinery only becomes fully visible once it is far too late to do anything about it. The folk horror label is not completely tidy, but the secret belief system, inherited ritual, trapped family and gradual revelation of an organised cult make a strong case. Excellent, exhausting and not remotely interested in cheering anybody up.ScoresAndy Davidson: 8/10Dave Houghton: 7/10David Hall: 8/10Total: 23/30Links To AddYouTube episode: [ADD LINK]FolknHell Film Page: https://www.folknhell.com/hereditary-reviewFolknHell Transcript Page: https://www.folknhell.com/hereditary-transcriptFolknHell Editorial Article: [ADD FINAL ARTICLE URL]TMDb: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/493922-hereditary?language=en-GBLetterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/hereditary/IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7784604/Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hereditaryWikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereditary_(film)Official trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6wWKNij_1MContent WarningSpoilers throughout. Discussion includes child death, decapitation, graphic violence, grief, family trauma, possession and self-harm imagery.Folknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scoresFind us on the socials:YouTube: @folknhellFacebook: FolknHellX: @FolknHellBluesky: FolknHellSee acast.com/privacy for info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Blair Witch Project became a phenomenon by convincing audiences there might really be something in the woods. FolknHell goes back to Burkittsville to ask what remains once the marketing fog clears, whether the film still works, and whether a few bound twigs are enough to make it folk horror.Episode DescriptionSpoilers throughout. Watch the film first if you want to go into the woods unprepared.The Blair Witch Project arrived in 1999 with a tiny production, a huge idea and one of the most effective horror marketing campaigns of its era. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez sent Heather, Mike and Josh into the Maryland woods, then let the audience do an extraordinary amount of the frightening for them.FolknHell heads back in to see what is actually there.We talk about the early internet campaign that made the footage feel disturbingly plausible, the natural performances that still sell panic better than much of the plot, and the problem with a film built around three people, two cameras and a great many leaves. There is also the bundle outside the tent, Heather's terrified close-up, the house, Mike facing the corner and the persistent feeling that the film keeps finding good ideas and then wandering away from them.Then comes the folk horror question. The woods matter, certainly. But where is the coherent local belief? Where are the folk? And are three filmmakers from not very far away really outsiders in the sense that matters?A hugely influential horror film gets a rather less reverential FolknHell rewatch.FolknHell VerdictAs a cultural event, The Blair Witch Project still matters. As a film, the episode finds it much thinner. The performances, Heather's panic and the final image retain some force, but the tension is rarely sustained and too many promising ideas are barely worked.By the FolknHell test, it is not really folk horror. The woods provide place, but the film never builds a convincing belief system or a meaningful community of insiders for the filmmakers to confront.ScoresDavid Hall: 2/10Dave Houghton: 4/10Andy Davidson: 4/10Total: 10/30Links To AddAcast episode: [ADD URL]YouTube episode: [ADD URL]FolknHell Film Page: [ADD URL]FolknHell transcript page: [ADD URL]FolknHell Editorial Article: [ADD URL]IMDbTMDbRotten TomatoesWikipediaContent WarningSpoilers throughout, with discussion of panic, implied violence and child murder within the film's fictional folklore.Folknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scoresFind us on the socials:YouTube: @folknhellFacebook: FolknHellX: @FolknHellBluesky: FolknHellSee acast.com/privacy for info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FolknHell heads to a remote Devon church for Elliot Goldner’s found-footage horror The Borderlands, also known as Final Prayer. There are Vatican sceptics, far too many explanations about cameras, an older belief system under the floorboards, and an ending that finally remembers how horrible all of this ought to be.Full Episode DescriptionElliot Goldner’s The Borderlands (2013), released in some territories as Final Prayer, sends a Vatican investigation team to a remote West Country church after reports of a possible miracle. Their job is to test, record and ideally debunk what is happening. The film takes this recording part very seriously. Possibly more seriously than anyone needed.Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall pick through the headcams, static cameras, strange noises, sceptical clergy and the older religious site sitting underneath the Christian one. The discussion gets into the film’s biggest strength and biggest problem: there is a good folk horror idea buried here, but the found-footage machinery keeps getting in its way.There is plenty to like. Gordon Kennedy’s Deacon gets particular praise, several scares land properly, and the final descent beneath the church is claustrophobic, grotesque and difficult to forget. But the local belief system is thinly felt, the villagers barely register, and the supposed outsiders often seem to be outsiders to almost nobody.Spoilers throughout, including discussion of the ending.FolknHell VerdictYes, The Borderlands counts as folk horror for FolknHell, but not an especially strong example of it. Place is doing most of the work. Belief is present but underdeveloped, while the outsider element is weakened by the fact that the investigators are practically the only people the film lets us spend time with. As a horror film it works better. The journey is creepy, sometimes properly frightening, and worth taking. Start pulling at the logic, though, and quite a lot comes loose.ScoreTotal: 15/30Links to moreYouTube episode: [ADD URL]FolknHell Film Page: [ADD URL]FolknHell Transcript Page: [ADD URL]FolknHell Editorial Article: [ADD URL]IMDbTMDbRotten TomatoesWikipediaFolknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scoresFind us on the socials:YouTube: @folknhellFacebook: FolknHellX: @FolknHellBluesky: FolknHellSee acast.com/privacy for info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charlie Robb’s Loner (2025) drops a lonely, deeply unreliable vlogger into the Northumbrian woods and lets social-media fakery collide with something that may be older, hungrier and considerably less interested in Wi-Fi. FolknHell asks whether this is folk horror, horror-comedy, or folk horror about folk horror.Full Episode DescriptionThis week FolknHell heads into the Northumbrian woods with Loner (2025), Charlie Robb’s found-footage horror built around Angus, an aspiring influencer whose wilderness retreat very quickly exposes the gap between the man he performs online and the man actually standing in the trees.There is plenty to enjoy before the horror properly gets its boots muddy: fake fishing, emergency coffee supplies, hopeless survival skills and an influencer persona held together with optimism, denial and supermarket provisions. Then the woods start taking things from him. A terrified woman appears. Strange white stones, bones, a folklore book and a barely glimpsed presence push the film towards something much stranger.The argument becomes the episode. Is Angus encountering a genuine forest deity that demands sacrifice? Is he using folklore to construct an excuse for what he has done? Or does the film deliberately leave both possibilities breathing down each other’s necks?That ambiguity carries straight into the folk horror question. The place works. The outsider works. The belief system is much shakier. By the end, the phrase that sticks is "meta folk horror". Not straightforward folk horror so much as a film using folk horror itself as part of its story about storytelling, isolation and self-invention.FolknHell VerdictLoner is not comfortably traditional folk horror, but it is absolutely worth a folk horror conversation. Its Northumbrian landscape, outsider structure and folklore machinery pull strongly in that direction, while its unreliable narrator keeps threatening to reveal the whole thing as fabrication. Charlie Robb’s performance does much of the heavy lifting, and the film gets more interesting the longer the argument goes on.ScoresAndy Davidson: 8/10Dave Houghton: 6/10David Hall: 6.5/10LinksYouTube episodeFolknHell Film PageFolknHell Transcript PageTMDb: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1489999-loner/reviews?language=en-GBRotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/loner_2025IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33298831/Content WarningSpoilers throughout, including discussion of death, blood, cannibalism, mental health, self-delusion and graphic meat imagery.Folknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scoresFind us on the socials:YouTube: @folknhellFacebook: FolknHellX: @FolknHellBluesky: FolknHellSee acast.com/privacy for info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Jenkin’s Rose of Nevada gives FolknHell a lost fishing boat, a thirty-year time slip, suspiciously dead fish and a surprisingly strong case for Cornish folk horror. Andy, David and Dave agree on the film. The timeline is another matter entirely. Spoilers throughout. Watch the film first unless you fancy sailing directly into the temporal fog.Full Episode DescriptionEpisode 30 takes Andy Davidson, David Hall and Dave Houghton back to Cornwall for Mark Jenkin’s Rose of Nevada (2026), a film in which a missing fishing boat returns after thirty years and immediately makes time everybody’s problem.With the speakers now properly attributed, the argument becomes even better. Andy brings his own Cornish background to the film’s portrait of fishing communities, second homes and local decline. Dave digs into the 16mm photography, square frames, static land and seasick movement at sea. David becomes increasingly convinced that tiny physical details, circular falls and a pile of very dead fish are telling us more than they first appear to be.Then comes the folk horror question. FolknHell’s current test is place, belief and the stranger. Rose of Nevada has all three, although Dave quite reasonably asks whether existential dread really makes it horror. Andy’s answer: absolutely.We also get Mogi as the Ancient Mariner, a pub that suddenly comes back to life, one magnificent hole in a roof, Mark Jenkin’s silent 27-second filming method and a continuity error involving a door that is promptly reclassified as a time slip.FolknHell VerdictFolk horror. Not pagan sacrifice or occult ritual, but a distinct Cornish place, a community sustained by belief and loss, outsiders entering an inherited world, and existential horror generated by time, identity and the return of a past that should have stayed past.FolknHell Score29 out of 30Give us your score and any other thoughts on the film Rose Of Nevada hereFor more review, discussions and ideas on which folk horror film to watch next visit folknhell.comLinks To MoreYouTube episodeFolknHell Film PageFolknHell Transcript PageRose of Nevada: Folk Horror Where The Past Comes Back To WorkTMDbRotten TomatoesWikipediaFolknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scoresFind us on the socials:YouTube: @folknhellFacebook: FolknHellX: @FolknHellBluesky: FolknHellSee acast.com/privacy for info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FolknHell tackles Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), its still-shocking violence, suspicious barbecue and surprisingly solid claim to American folk horror. Also, this is Take Two because somebody forgot to press record. Spoilers throughout. Watch the film first if you would rather enter the farmhouse without knowing exactly where the hooks are.Full Episode DescriptionSome films age gracefully. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) still looks as though it has been left in the Texas sun beside a sack of bones, and that is very much a compliment.In Episode 29, Andy Davidson, David Hall and Dave Houghton revisit Tobe Hooper’s horror landmark and ask why its grainy, documentary-style nightmare remains so brutally effective more than fifty years later. The discussion gets into the first hammer blow, the meat-hook sequence, Marilyn Burns finding several entirely new levels of screaming, and Gunnar Hansen giving Leatherface a strange flicker of pathos beneath the mask.Then comes the FolknHell question: is this really folk horror? The answer involves an isolated patch of land, a family with its own inherited rituals, bone totems, slaughterhouse traditions and a group of outsiders who discover that the local rules include becoming barbecue. There is also a comparison with House of 1000 Corpses, a debate over whether the film refuses to glorify violence or is gleefully sadistic, and the mystery of a missing sound effect that one host had apparently been carrying in his head for decades.This is also the second attempt at recording the episode. The first version, which nobody recorded, was obviously the greatest podcast ever made.FolknHell VerdictThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre is American folk horror as well as a proto-slasher. The isolated landscape, closed family community, inherited slaughterhouse customs, ritualised bones and doomed outsiders fit the genre with alarming neatness. It is not an enjoyable film in the cosy sense, but it remains an essential and astonishingly powerful horror experience.FolknHell Score25 out of 30🔗 Give us your score and share your thoughts on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre here🔗 Visit folknhell.com for more review, discussions and ideas on which folk horror film to watch nextFolknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scoresFind us on the socials:YouTube: @folknhellFacebook: FolknHellX: @FolknHellBluesky: FolknHellSee acast.com/privacy for info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bol and Rial escape South Sudan, enter the British asylum system and discover that trauma has followed them into the wallpaper. FolknHell debate Remi Weekes's His House, its terrifying apeth and whether travelling folklore still counts as folk horror.A grim English house, a Dinka night witch and three men immediately making the folk horror definition everybody's problem.In Episode 28, Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall discuss Remi Weekes's His House (2020), starring Wunmi Mosaku, Sope Dirisu and Matt Smith. Bol and Rial have survived war, displacement and a lethal crossing, only to be placed in a decaying home where the walls are noisy, the dead are restless and the asylum rules make moving out rather awkward.The conversation gets into the film's refugee trauma, survivor's guilt and low-level bureaucratic nightmare, plus Bol's desperate push to assimilate and Rial's refusal to treat the past like unwanted luggage. There is plenty of admiration for the performances, the labyrinthine council estate, the watery footprints and one light-switch sequence that could have gone on all night, in the nicest possible appalling way.Then comes the apeth in the room. Is His House folk horror because its terror grows from Dinka folklore and inherited belief? Or is it a psychological ghost story that happens to contain a witch? Dave and David say not quite folk horror. Andy says yes, then accepts defeat under protest and begins considering restraints!Spoilers throughout. Watch the film first unless you enjoy having your moral devastation efficiently pre-delivered.FolknHell VerdictHis House is not traditional, land-bound folk horror, but it has strong folkloric bones and makes a compelling case for folk horror that travels with displaced people. Whatever shelf it ends up on, all three hosts agree it is concise, intelligent, frightening and well worth watching, then arguing about long after the walls have stopped whispering.FolknHell Score28 out of 30🔗 Give us your score and share your thoughts on this film here🔗 Visit folknhell.com for more review, discussions and ideas on which folk horror film to watch next🔗 IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8508734/🔗 TMDb: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/575774-his-house🔗 Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/his_house🔗 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_HouseContent Warning: Spoilers throughout, with discussion of war, displacement, racism, refugee trauma, child death, drowning, grief, violence and disturbing supernatural imagery.Folknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scoresFind us on the socials:YouTube: @folknhellFacebook: FolknHellX: @FolknHellBluesky: FolknHellSee acast.com/privacy for info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FolknHell enters Robert Eggers’ The Witch (2016) with special guest Ian Winterton. Is this the perfect modern folk horror film, or does its Christian Devil complicate the usual ancient-threat rules? Expect Puritan pride, phenomenal performances, baby mush and Black Phillip at full gallop.Full Episode DescriptionIn Episode 27, Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall are joined by writer, lecturer and former film critic Ian Winterton to discuss Robert Eggers’ feature debut, The Witch.The family is isolated, the corn is rotting and the goat is considerably more articulate than anyone would like. The group digs into William’s pride, Thomasin’s place inside a collapsing patriarchal household, Eggers’ obsessive historical research, the period dialogue and a cast firing at frankly indecent levels.Then Ian throws a crooked branch into the usual FolknHell criteria. If the threat is Christianity, Satanism and European witchcraft carried into New England by settlers, does it really count as an older force rising from the land? The answer leads into ergot theories, folktale logic, the Unholy Trinity and a firm final verdict on the film’s folk horror credentials.There is also admiration for Harvey Scrimshaw’s extraordinary death scene, the almost invisible appearance of the Devil’s red boot, the ecstatic final flight and the early sequence that has made many unsuspecting viewers quietly decide they have somewhere else to be.Spoilers throughout. Watch the film before listening unless you are happy to meet Black Phillip contractually unprepared.FolknHell VerdictThe Witch is unequivocally folk horror, even if it makes the checklist squirm. Isolation, inherited belief, landscape, accusation and religious terror do the heavy lifting, while the supernatural gives the family’s collapse a beautifully wicked shove. It is severe, meticulous and one of the defining horror films of its era. Watch it, then listen to the argument.FolknHell Score28 out of 30🔗Give us your score and share your thoughts on this film here🔗Visit folknhell.com for more review, discussions and ideas on which folk horror film to watch next🔗 Ian Winterton: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3410151/🔗 IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4263482/🔗TMDb: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/310131-the-witchFolknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scoresFind us on the socials:YouTube: @folknhellFacebook: FolknHellX: @FolknHellBluesky: FolknHellSee acast.com/privacy for info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FolknHell dig up The Blood On Satan’s Claw, Piers Haggard’s 1971 folk horror classic, originally released as Satan’s Skin, and ask, "Is it one of the true pillars of the genre, or just a disjointed rural nightmare with excellent eyebrows?" Spoilers throughout, obviously. If you have not seen the film, consider this your warning from the edge of the field.Full DescriptionThis episode, Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall head into the furrows for The Blood On Satan’s Claw, Piers Haggard’s 1971 tale of rural panic, possessed children, suspiciously hairy patches and authority figures making one terrible decision after another.Often named as part of folk horror’s so-called Unholy Trinity alongside The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General, this is a film with impeccable credentials: an isolated village, something nasty unearthed from the land, old evil pushing up through the soil, and a community that reacts to crisis with all the calm restraint of a mob holding rope.The chaps discuss the film’s odd portmanteau origins, its brilliant but bumpy structure, Angel Blake’s alarming rise as the leader of the village children, the deeply uncomfortable mix of sex, violence and moral panic, and whether this is actually the most openly supernatural member of the Unholy Trinity. There is also time for Anthony Ainley’s excellent priest, Patrick Wymark’s magnificently unpleasant judge, the skull with the living eye, Satan being assembled like a rural occult flat-pack, and the heroic return of the wobbly sword.Scores are cast, claws are counted, and the big question is asked: is The Blood On Satan’s Claw a great folk horror film, or just a flawed but essential one?FolknHell VerdictThe Blood On Satan’s Claw is absolutely folk horror. Rural isolation, threat from the land, old evil, corrupted youth, religious authority, mob justice and deeply strange local behaviour all come bundled together in one filthy little 1971 package.It is also messy, abrupt and sometimes baffling, but that is part of its strange power. The FolknHell score: 19 out of 30.FolknHell Score out of 30🔗Give us your score and share your thoughts on this film here🔗Visit folknhell.com for more review, discussions and ideas on which folk horror film to watch nextTMDbRotten TomatoesFolknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scoresFind us on the socials:YouTube: @folknhellFacebook: FolknHellX: @FolknHellBluesky: FolknHellSee acast.com/privacy for info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.