🌾folk horror deeper than midsommar and the wicker man

picked for isolated-community dread specifically, not just "people live in the countryside"

Kill List (2011)

starts as a hitman movie, ends as full pagan ritual. the tonal turn is the whole point, ari aster has said this one fed into hereditary

four guys, a swedish forest, a creature that isn't real norse myth (Adam Nevill made it up for the novel). nails the isolation dread anyway

dan stevens infiltrating a welsh island cult in 1905. gareth evans directed this between raid movies which is a weird flex but it works

Gwen (2018)

slow burn, almost too slow. welsh farm family, mining company wants their land, mom starts acting strange. do NOT watch alone honestly

Enys Men (2022)

shot on 16mm, barely any dialogue, a woman alone on a cornish island documenting a rare flower. more mood than plot, some people hate that

Witchfinder General (1968)

part of the "unholy trinity" with Wicker Man, Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins. more historical brutality than supernatural

Blood on Satan's Claw (1971)

La Llorona (2019, Jayro Bustamante)

the deep cut nobody puts here since it's not english and not a rural-village setup. it's a genocide dressed as a haunting instead

Or start a list of your own. Free, it takes a minute.

Related lists