Thursday Movie Picks (Halloween Edition): Folk/Urban Legends

 

For the 41st week of 2021 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks for its Halloween Edition. We go into the subject of folk and urban legends as it often play into these things that had happened long ago or something that is happening in that period. Here are my three picks:

1. Haxan

Benjamin Christensen’s silent from the 1920s is among one of the first horror films of its kind as well as a documentary of sorts that explores the world of witchcraft. Through dramatic re-creations of these folk tales about witches, Christensen would play this demonic figure as it would have a lot of these grand visuals that were quite innovative for the times. Still, it is a film that comments about the uproar of witchcraft and how women were treated back in the 15th Century to the hysteria that they were dealing with in the 1920s. It’s a film that is essential to horror fans.

2. Kwaidan

From Masaki Kobayashi is a horror film based on four different folk tales from Lafcadio Hearn that all play into these different ghost stories. Each story that features expressionist backdrops for the scene has Kobayashi explore people dealing with the choices they make and the ghosts they encounter. Featuring a cast that include some of Japan’s great actors in Takashi Shimura and Tatsuya Nakadai, it is a film that is filled with gorgeous visuals supported by these intense stories that says a lot about humanity.

3. The VVitch

Robert Eggers’ debut film set in the 17th Century about a family who leaves a plantation due to disagreements over faith as their lives are shattered by the disappearance of their newborn baby with the eldest child being accused of witchcraft. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy in her breakthrough performance, it is a film that follows a family coming apart with this young woman being the major suspect as she notices other things around her are off with her twin siblings becoming entranced by a black goat. It is a film that is intense as well as confrontational in the ideas of witchcraft.

© thevoid99 2021