5 Best Folk Horror Movies That Will Haunt Your Imagination

What Is Folk Horror?

Folk horror is where the fields hum, the locals grin too long, and someone always says, “It’s tradition,” right before everything goes wrong. It thrives on old gods, weird festivals, and the slow realization that city logic doesn’t work here.

You know you’re in a folk horror movie if:

• You’ve been invited to a “celebration” that involves chanting.

• Someone offers you ale in a carved horn.

• The phrase “harvest sacrifice” comes up before dessert.

1. The Wicker Man (1973)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Director: Robin Hardy

Writer: Anthony Shaffer (based on David Pinner’s novel Ritual)

Stars: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland

Runtime: 87 minutes

A devout police officer journeys to a remote Scottish island to find a missing girl and instead discovers a pagan paradise with a dark secret.

The Wicker Man is equal parts detective story, pagan musical, and slow-burn psychological collapse. It’s delightfully strange, like if Law & Order: Maypole Unit were directed by a druid. Christopher Lee delivers an unhinged masterclass in charm and menace.

2. Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Director: Piers Haggard

Writer: Robert Wynne-Simmons

Stars: Patrick Wymark, Linda Hayden, Barry Andrews

Runtime: 97 minutes

When a group of farmhands unearths a demonic relic, the local teens start acting… well, more possessed than usual.

This is5-best-folk-horror-movies-that-will-haunt-your-imagination what happens when The Crucible meets Skins in a muddy field. It’s grimy, gothic, and weirdly hypnotic, with enough hair-raising atmosphere to make you question every patch of freshly tilled soil.

3. The Witch (2015)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Director & Writer: Robert Eggers

Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie

Runtime: 92 minutes

A Puritan family banished to the wilderness slowly implodes as paranoia, faith, and something lurking in the woods consume them.

Minimalist, methodical, and unnervingly beautiful, The Witch proves that isolation, repression, and goats are a recipe for existential crisis. Anya Taylor-Joy shines, and Black Phillip deserves his own SAG card.

4. Kill List (2011)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Director: Ben Wheatley

Writers: Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump

Stars: Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring, Michael Smiley

Runtime: 95 minutes

Two hitmen accept a new contract that spirals into a hellish ritual of violence, faith, and psychological ruin.

It starts like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and ends like The Blair Witch Project, if both were directed by someone on the edge of a breakdown. Claustrophobic, brutal, and shocking, Kill List is the cinematic equivalent of realizing the dinner party is a cult meeting.

5. Apostle (2018)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Director & Writer: Gareth Evans

Stars: Dan Stevens, Lucy Boynton, Michael Sheen

Runtime: 129 minutes

A man infiltrates a secretive island cult to rescue his sister and discovers their “goddess” might actually be listening.

Apostle is what happens when Taken collides with a pagan eco-horror nightmare. Visually stunning, relentlessly grim, and occasionally bonkers, it’s both a rescue mission and a crash course in why you should never drink from an unmarked chalice.

Honorable Mentions

Midsommar (2019) – A breakup trip to Sweden that ends in flower crowns, sunshine, and group therapy by way of human sacrifice.

Lamb (2021) – Parenthood meets paganism in the most adorable way possible.

The Ritual (2017) – Four friends go hiking, one ancient god goes people-watching.

Final Thoughts

Folk horror isn’t about ghosts or jump scares—it’s about realizing the real horror is community spirit taken way too far. These films remind us that civilization is thin armor against the ancient weirdness hiding in every field, stone circle, and quaint little pub with no Wi-Fi.