Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		5.0

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 27, 2022

Note: This film is available both as this standalone release and also as a part of All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror.

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?". 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. . ."

Kind of hilariously, if also at least somewhat understandably, Kier-La Janisse is on hand in an introductory supplement to this film which she created and directed (and appears in as one of many talking heads), as if to suggest that that "I'll know it when I see it. . ." might still need a bit more of an explanation. Joking aside, though, there is absolutely no better place to start trekking through All the Haunts Be Ours than this exhaustive (over three hour) compendium of "folk horror", and in fact for those who buy this disc in its standalone form and who may not deign to completely explore the other nineteen offerings in Severin's collection package, this is still a first rate documentary by any standard.

In her introduction, Janisse gets into the genesis of this project, which began as a considerably smaller scale effort that was planned as a supplement for Severin's release of The Blood on Satan's Claw , which is deemed to be one of the "unholy trinity" of films which kickstarted an interest in "folk horror", with the other two being Witchfinder General and The Wicker Man. Janisse soon realized that there was a much broader subject to be explored than she had initially thought, and the result is this authoritative overview.

While some time is spent on the so-called "unholy trinity", what may really set Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched is its globalist approach, and in fact its willingness to delve as far back as legendary silent films and as au courant as Midsommar as it details everything from themes to presentational aspects that define folk horror. The result is really almost jaw droppingly diverse, and if some may argue about certain films which Janisse and her team have decided to include here, that's a small price to pay for having such a revelatory "index" of items to explore.

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (often) in 1.78:1. As with any collection of film clips, this has a wide variety of both aspect ratios and image quality, but all of the contemporary interview segments are in 1.78:1. Those offer sharp, detail accountings of everything from facial features to fabrics, and many of the film clips look nicely detailed as well, though there is a much wider gamut of presentational qualities due to the sheer glut of offerings on display. The documentary also benefits immensely from animated interstitials by Ashley Thorpe, all of which have rich and precise detail, although some moments here are offered in an almost impressionistic, surreal way as if to subliminally suggest the psychological unraveling that often accompanies tales of folk horror.

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror features an expressive DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 that has a nicely wide soundstage despite not being a true surround track. Both score (by Jim Williams, who also offered Janisse cues from A Field in England) and especially nicely evocative sound effects waft through the presentation and give things an appropriately atavistic feeling. All of the talking head material sounds fine, as should probably be expected, there are some variations in soundtrack quality in some of the film clips. Optional English subtitles are available.

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Video Introduction by Writer / Director / Producer Kier-La Janisse (HD; 8:59) is a great way to start, even before watching the documentary.


• Animating Folk Horror (HD; 12:26) is a conversation with Ashley Thorpe, who did the documentary's evocative interstitials.


• Outtake: What is Folk Horror? (HD; 2:18) is kind of hilarious in that it was removed from the film, at least in light of my introduction, above.


• Outtake: Harvest Hymns - The Sounds and Signals of Folk Horror (HD; 21:07) will be an absolutely fascinating piece for anyone who is like me and tries to pay as much attention to a film's soundtrack as to its visual offerings.


• Outtake: Terra Assombrada - Expressions of Folk Horror in Brazil Folk Poetry (HD; 6:54) is another really interesting trip down a cultural rabbit hole. Portions are subtitled in English.


• Folk Poetry (HD; 5:11) offers an aggregation of recitations to a variety of old school (like quasi-Kodak 8mm, replete with sprocket holes) imagery.


• Trailer (HD; 1:48)

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you've jumped in the veritable deep end and gotten All the Haunts Be Ours, this documentary will be absolutely indispensable. I'm personally convinced it's absolutely indispensable one way or the other, though, as it provides a really breathtaking global tour through an almost insanely wide variety of films. Technical merits are solid and the supplements very appealing. Highly recommended.