All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.5

All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 27, 2022

All the Haunts Be Ours advertises itself as "the most comprehensive collection of its kind", which may initially beg the question as to "kind of what exactly?". But this release also comes with a front cover sobriquet proclaiming it "a compendium of folk horror", which may then beg the next obvious question as to what exactly "folk horror" is. In that regard, this set begins with a fascinating and diverse documentary which has its own subtitle referencing folk horror, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, which provides a veritable glut of clips from international films which director (and this entire set's guiding light) Kier-La Janisse has assembled to help define the genre, but perhaps the best answer is to simply echo a certain Supreme Court Justice named Potter Stewart who was trying to decide a case involving supposed pornography, and who famously opined, "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it. . ."

Severin has aggregated 20 films in this set, some of which have either already received standalone releases by Severin, or received them in conjunction with the release of this title. Titles receiving a standalone release in conjunction with this release are identified below with an asterisk (*), and I am assuming that these releases offer the same supplements as those detailed in the reviews linked to below of the discs in this set (if anyone buys a standalone release and finds out otherwise, as always, message me and I'll happily update the review with correct information). Titles with a prior standalone release are identified below with a double asterisk (**). That said, the versions included in this release that had a prior standalone release do not have all of the supplements of the standalone releases, and in some cases actually have different technical aspects. To read reviews of all of the films in this set, please click on the following links:

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched Blu-ray review*

Eyes of Fire Blu-ray review*

Leptirica Blu-ray review

Witchhammer Blu-ray review

Viy Blu-ray review**

Lake of the Dead Blu-ray review

Tilbury Blu-ray review

The Dreaming Blu-ray review

Kadaicha Blu-ray review

Celia: Child of Terror Blu-ray review

Alison's Birthday Blu-ray review

Wilczyca Blu-ray review

Lokis: A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach Blu-ray review

Clearcut Blu-ray review

The Demon Blu-ray review

Dark Waters Blu-ray review**

A Field in England Blu-ray review**
Note: This is an outlier in this collection, in that the prior standalone release was done by Drafthouse Films, not Severin. See the above linked review for details.

Anchoress Blu-ray review

Penda's Fen Blu-ray review

Robin Redbreast Blu-ray review

All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Video quality of each film is assessed in the above linked reviews.

All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Audio quality is assessed in the above linked review.

All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Supplements associated with each title are detailed in the above linked reviews. Additionally, this is a very handsomely packaged set from Severin, with a kind of modified DigiPack offering cardboard sleeves which contain the discs (this is one decision which may frustrate some consumers, as the discs can be quite difficult to remove from the cardboard sleeves). Three CDs are included, the soundtrack to Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, and what amounts to an audiobook presentation of The White People spread over two discs. A perfect bound booklet is also included which offers a glut of interesting writing and details on all of the films. Everything is housed in a really nicely designed slipbox.

All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You may have at least a somewhat better inkling of what constitutes "folk horror" after wending your way through this impressive set, and Severin is to be commended for having aggregated such an interesting global array of films for this release. As should be expected some films may resonate with some viewers more than others, and technical merits can vary, but on the whole are solid. The supplements are really authoritative, and Severin has packaged this beautifully, even if some may complain about how hard it is to get the discs out of the cardboard sleeves (ahem). Highly recommended.