Alex Westthorp Oct 1, 2019
Witches, demons and ancient pagan rituals: Alex explores the use of folk horror in the Doctor's adventures...
This article originally ran on Den of Geek UK.
Thought to be a relatively recent term, coined by director Piers Haggard and popularised by Doctor Who's own Mark Gatiss, "folk horror" is essentially horror based on old countryside folklore. It is a sub-genre of occult fiction, which encompasses paganism, witchcraft, superstition, legends and the traditions of the countryside. Often texts will refer to "Green man" rituals, stone circles, Devil worship, disfigurement and the "memories" of the earth.
In the cinema, folk horror is at the fore in films like the 1967 Hammer classic The Devil Rides Out, Terence Fisher's vision of the 1934 novel by Denis Wheatley, Piers Haggard's own 1974 film Blood On Satan's Claw (which incidentally features a terrific cast including a pre-Who Anthony Ainley and a post-Who Wendy Padbury...
Witches, demons and ancient pagan rituals: Alex explores the use of folk horror in the Doctor's adventures...
This article originally ran on Den of Geek UK.
Thought to be a relatively recent term, coined by director Piers Haggard and popularised by Doctor Who's own Mark Gatiss, "folk horror" is essentially horror based on old countryside folklore. It is a sub-genre of occult fiction, which encompasses paganism, witchcraft, superstition, legends and the traditions of the countryside. Often texts will refer to "Green man" rituals, stone circles, Devil worship, disfigurement and the "memories" of the earth.
In the cinema, folk horror is at the fore in films like the 1967 Hammer classic The Devil Rides Out, Terence Fisher's vision of the 1934 novel by Denis Wheatley, Piers Haggard's own 1974 film Blood On Satan's Claw (which incidentally features a terrific cast including a pre-Who Anthony Ainley and a post-Who Wendy Padbury...
- 10/1/2019
- Den of Geek
The Doctor meets the Devil or something like that. The Master, it isn.t much of a spoiler here, brings forth an alien that looks exactly like old Scratch and also evokes a good dose of Hammer horror. In the town of Devil.s End, an archeological dig is excavating the notorious Devil.s Hump burial mound. Archeologist Prof. Horner (Robin Wentworth) is going to open the tomb at exactly the stroke of midnight with a BBC reporter (David Simeon) standing by and the whole thing being aired on live TV. Local white witch Olive Hawthorne (Damaris Hayman) warns the professor that evil is afoot but he just scoffs. Something is afoot since the new vicar, Mr. Magister (Roger Delgado),...
- 3/29/2012
- by Jeff Swindoll
- Monsters and Critics
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