Our Primordial Past: Folk Horror in Penda's Fen (1974) & La Llorona (2019)

October has arrived and as we are wont to do here at The Politics of Cinema, we are diving into an approiate theme within the horror genre to celebrate. In the past we've looked at; Fascism in Green Room (2015), Humans Hunting Humans, Art House Horror, and the career of George Romero. This year we are heading into the thick of the woods to explore Folk Horror.  We discuss a few classics of the genre, such as Witchfinder General (1968), The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), The Wicker Man (1973), and Ganja & Hess (1973). We also connect the themes in those early films to those explored in modern folk horror like The Witch (2015), It Follows (2014), Hereditary (2018), and Midsommar (2019)—before Isaac reins us in so we don't include every single horror film in this genre. Our main focus is also on one classic and one modern example: Penda's Fen (1974) and La Llorona (2019). These two striking examples of folk horror delve into the complexities of identity, history, and the landscapes that shape us. In Penda's Fen, we find a pagan anarchist manifesto within a coming-of-age story set in rural 1970s England. With La Llorona, we see how the ghosts of the past exact revenge on the Guatemalan General who orchestrated an Indigenous genocide. Both films yield surprisingly upbeat results within their narratives—at least to us. If folk horror piques your interest, we would also highly recommend watching Keir-La Janisse's documentary, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021). Follow us at: Patreon / Twitter / Instagram / Letterboxd / Facebook