folk horror – Horror Ghouls

The Vourdalak (2023)

Posted on December 30, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

We are in the 18th century, somewhere in Eastern Europe. Jacques Saturnin du Antoine is a French Marquis who is wandering through the woods after having lost his horse and companions after a robbery. He tries to seek shelter at the first house he sees, but the man there advises him that he should go to the house of a man named Gorcha. When arriving there, he finds that this man has left in order to fight and exact revenge upon the Turks. His family recounts that after leaving, he made it very clear that if he does not return within six days, it would be because he’d died fighting. And if he would, indeed, return after those six days has passed, they should not under any circumstances let him in, as he would then have become a “vourdalak“. Gorcha’s son, Jegor, scoffs of such superstition and is eagerly awaiting his father’s return, making Jacques having to wait until the next day before he can get him a horse. In the meantime, Jacques very soon finds himself seduced by Gorcha’s unmarried daughter Sdenka.

Then, later that evening, six days have now passed since Gorcha left. And that’s when he is suddenly spotted lying like a mummified corpse at the edge of the forest. For all means and purposes, he literally looks like the dead husk of a man…but then he starts speaking after being placed at the dinner table. He throws the severed head of the Turks’ leader on the table, telling everyone that he finally murdered him and was able to fulfill his quest. Alright, all’s good and well then, right? Let’s enjoy some food and celebrate! Except…Jacques, of course, sits by the table in both shock and horror. This thing that is Gorcha, head of this family, looks like a living corpse, and Jegor seems to be the only one who can’t see how messed up it all is. Even the dog can’t stop barking (ensuing the poor doggie’s fate, of course). As if the appearance of Gorcha wasn’t terrifying enough, the incidents of the night and following day makes it evident that they should have heeded Gorcha’s warnings before he left.

The Vourdalak (original title: Le Vourdalak) is a French drama-horror film from 2023, shot on Super 16mm, directed by Adrien Beau in his feature film debut. It was co-written with Hadrien Bouvier, and based on an 1830 novella called The Family of the Vourdalak by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy. The movie explores some less traditional vampire lore, specifically that of the creatures called “Vourdalaks“, which are very alike vampires in many ways but differs in how it chooses its victims. While the traditional vampires would target anyone they could get their fangs on, the Vourdalak only preyed upon the people it once loved and cared for. It that sense, I think it makes the Vourdalak even more terrifying than the regular vampire…

Now, let’s talk a little about the actual Vourdalak in this movie…and I seriously was not prepared for this, but it’s actually a life-sized puppet. Yes, a puppet…not an actor in make-up or CGI, but a good old-fashioned puppet. It was so incredibly odd and fascinating to watch, so clearly not alive yet so incredibly animated and lively, being almost mockingly jolly despite its gaunt hideousness. And I totally loved it! There’s such a creepy-cute ghoulishness to it, and of course no ghoul at heart can resist such a thing. We both laughed at and admired its quirkiness!

There is a certain fantasy-nightmare-vibe throughout the movie, where our noble Frenchman wanders around a misty and gloomy forest and an even more gloomy and dark house. His character is a bit of an oddball too, reminding me a little bit of Ichabod Crane. He’s really not in his right element here, where the family of Gorcha are all hard-working peasants toiling away all day, whereas he is all dolled up and looks like he’s not good for much else than powdering his face and doing a dance. Oh, and just like in any of those “people are killed left and right and the heroine is being chased by a monster, but her makeup always stays flawless“ kind of movies, Jacques is certainly fitting well into this trope! His makeup stays fine all the time like he’s got the best setting spray ever. Now, if that sounds wonderful to you, just keep in mind that the cosmetics the French aristocracy used in the 17th and 18th century in order to achieve the pale complexion was one of the most historically dangerous, where common toxic ingredients included mercury and lead…makes your skin itch just thinking about it. Poor Jacques was not only in danger from a vampiric creature, but also from his powder box.

The movie does have a lot of atmosphere, and never ceases to have some kind of beauty hidden within each frame of dark melancholy. The 16mm also helps on giving the film the slightly grainy, gauzy look, perfectly enhancing the mood. Overall, The Vourdalak is a vampire folk horror movie with a different set of fangs, but no less of a bite. The puppetry and practical effects gives the movie an odd and old-fashioned flair which suits the tone so well.

The Vourdalak is available on several streaming sites, and on Blu-Ray and DVD from Oscilloscope Laboratories.

Director: Adrien Beau
Writers: Adrien Beau, Hadrien Bouvier
Original title: Le Vourdalak
Country & year: France, 2023
Actors: Kacey Mottet Klein, Ariane Labed, Grégoire Colin, Vassili Schneider, Claire Duburcq, Gabriel Pavie, Erwan Ribard, Adrien Beau
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt28313478/

There’s Something in the Barn (2023)

Posted on December 23, 2025December 23, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Bill is a family man who is about to fulfill the dream of his life: moving back to his ancestral family farm in Gudbrandsdalen in Norway. The problem is: he’s pretty much the only one who is very, very excited about this. The teenage daughter Nora feels like her life has fallen apart when being dragged from sunny California and over to cold desolated Norway. Carol, the stepmother, tries to keep an optimistic tone with her life coach visions, but it becomes apparent that she really struggles with keeping the smiles up for Bill’s sake. Lucas, the youngest son, tries to be more enthusiastic though. When exploring their new home and the surrounding area, he discovers something fantastic: there’s something in the barn! It’s a good ol’ classic “fjøsnisse“ as we call them here in Norway, or what a local man tells Lucas is a “barn elf“. These humanoid creatures comes with a set of rules: they hate modern changes, loud noises, and bright lights (feeding them after midnight is okay though, they aren’t gremlins). If you ignore those rules, there will be some horrible consequences, because you really, really do not want to make the barn elf angry!

There’s Something in the Barn is a Norwegian comedy horror film from 2023, directed by Magnus Martens and written by Aleksander Kirkwood Brown.

This is a movie that’s mixed with Norwegian folklore, combined with some comedic elements regarding some of our cultural oddities. And with a good dose of that bad English, of course. That cheesy, broken sing-song English that is the common Norwegian accent! (God, whenever I travel abroad I hate hearing my own voice when I speak English). And most of the Norwegian characters in this movie plays this up a bit, especially Henriette Steenstrup who plays the sheriff, and Calle Hellevang Larsen who plays the local barn-elf expert. And speaking of these so-called “barn elves“: this creature stems from very old Norwegian folklore predating the Christian times. Most of the original lore regarding these creatures have been included in the movie, like how they will become quite mischievous if you do not treat them well, however it was originally mostly enough to give them a big bowl of porridge and they’d be satisfied. They were never known for becoming dangerous, though. If dissatisfied with you, they were believed to do things like making noises to bother you, or let the animals in the barn out during the night. Otherwise, they were generally goodhearted and watched over the farm animals, and were especially friendly with the barn cat which most farmers would have to keep away rodents. However, since the filmmakers were making a gremlins-like horror movie, they did of course have to make the barn elves quite mean, with the exception of the “main“ elf which I guess is like the Gizmo of the movie. And yes, there’s no doubt that there’s a lot of inspiration from, and a homage to, the classic 1984 movie Gremlins which is also a holidays-themed movie.

Much of the humour is aimed at the total cultural differences between Norwegians and Americans, where especially the family father is trying his best to adapt. Both “sides“ are purposefully caricatured, and while I’m certain that there are a lot of the Norwegian references that won’t be properly understood when viewed by those abroad, the humour is still straightforward enough even for those who doesn’t know the slightest about Norway or Norwegian culture. The movie explains some of the things gradually through the eyes of the Americans who just moved there, so we see everything through their experience, and often through the experiences of the boy Lucas who first sees the barn elf. Despite Lucas trying to warn his family (no one believes him, of course) they piss the creature off by breaking the rules one by one. What a shocker. First of all, it’s the “bright lights“ rule when they put up all their Christmas holiday decorations, full-on American style (which means a lot of decorations). Then, in order to get to know their Norwegian neighbours better, they also decide to redecorate the barn and throw a party in there, because who knew: they only way to get a Norwegian out of their cold, hard shell is to get them shitfaced on alcohol! And yes, that’s a little bit too true, and as someone who doesn’t drink alcohol I’ve been frowned upon more than once for this choice, it’s like committing a total blasphemy around here. Well, anyway. All rules have been broken, and the barn elf is now majorly pissed off! There’s only one way to appease him…bringing him a big bowl of porridge. So Lucas, as the goodhearted boy he is, makes some and puts it in the fridge to serve the angry nissemann later…only to discover it has gotten eaten by his father. The only thing Lucas can give the barn elf now are the leftovers from a botched “Norwegian dinner“ attempt from earlier that day: the dish Lutefisk. Which, of course, breaks the final straw for the poor little barn elf and makes all hell break loose. Believe me, you’d be pissed too.

From here on, the movie takes a turn from a rather cozy one to bringing in the horror elements, where we get some kill counts and a bunch of violent and mean barn elves running around and wreaking havoc. It’s still too charming and fun to be scary in any kind of way with the goofy antics of the creatures, including them getting drunk after smashing the living room and having the family trapped in the upstairs bedroom. In between, we do get a little bit of forced family drama just to pack it in with some kind of “rediscovering togetherness during the holidays“ message, but it’s also slightly mocking this cliché a bit. While it’s a little sugar-coatey at times with the family dynamics, it kinda works in a premise like this. Never hated any of the characters, although I did root for the barn elves of course.

Visually, the cinematography offers up the beauty of a snowy winterlandscape, and it is jam-packed with Christmas vibes! Despite being a movie that’s featuring some very typical Norwegian scenery, it’s informed in the film’s trivia that half of it was shot on stages in Lithuania. There was also a limited snowfall during the shooting (so there goes that illusion of how Norway is always fully packed with snow) so they had to bring in snow by truckloads in order to accomplish the vision they needed.

Overall, There’s Something in the Barn is a fun gateway horror movie with a good amount of holiday charm. And as can be expected from such a goofy, lighthearted horror movie, it all ends on a good note despite all the mayhem. And it becomes good to be a nissemann, after all.

Happy Holidays and God Jul! Now remember to put out that bowl of porridge (julegrøt) for the nisse with a good portion of butter in the middle and some cinnamon spread atop! Just don’t serve him any Lutefisk…or you know what will happen.

Director: Magnus Martens
Writers: Aleksander Kirkwood Brown, Josh Epstein, Kyle Rideout
Country & year: Norway, 2023
Actors: Martin Starr, Amrita Acharia, Kiran Shah, Townes Bunner, Zoe Winther-Hansen, Calle Hellevang Larsen, Henriette Steenstrup, Jeppe Beck Laursen, Eldar Vågan and a horde of angry barn elfs
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23060796/

Keeper (2025)

Posted on November 18, 2025December 21, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Liz has been together with Malcolm for one year, and in order to celebrate this anniversary they go on a weekend trip to his cabin on a secluded place in the countryside. When they get there, they even have a gift waiting for them which is apparently from the caretaker: a boxed chocolate cake. Yum! Malcolm really, really wants her to eat it, but here’s a twist: Liz doesn’t like chocolate. Who doesn’t like chocolate..? Malcolm seems somewhat stressed over this fact as he thought all girls liked chocolate. Apparently there’s still some things he doesn’t know about the woman he’s been together with for one year.

The chocolate-cake thing aside: if Liz was hoping for some real alone-time with her boyfriend, she’s in for a letdown. Malcolm’s obnoxious cousin Darren is nearby, and even interrupts them during their dinner and has brought with him a girl named Minka, a foreign model, whom Darren says can’t speak any English at all, which doesn’t matter as she’s obviously there to use her mouth for entirely different things than talking. Still…when Malcolm and Darren has a private talk in a different room, Minka notices the unopened cake and whispers to Liz that it “taste like shit“. Hmm. So Minka must have gotten her own cake earlier. That caretaker must really love baking. Despite the warning, Liz reluctantly takes a tiny bit of the cake later, though, just to be nice. And because Malcolm really, reeeeally wants her to taste it. Yeah, nothing fishy about that, no red flags at all. He just really wants you to enjoy some chocolate which you just said you don’t like…

If it wasn’t obvious enough already with several red flags literally waving right in front of Liz’s face, we soon get to see that things are about to get…weirder. Liz is having strange visions, and in the middle of the night she’s suddenly having an uncontrollable urge to eat the rest of the cake in the grossest way possible, and doesn’t even stop when she sees bloody severed fingers inside of it. Bon Appétit. The next day, Malcolm tells Liz that he needs to travel back to the city, but will be back later in the evening. And as you can imagine, things escalate while Liz tries to figure out what is really going on here.

Keeper is a supernatural folk horror film, directed by Osgood Perkins and written by Nick Lepard (who also wrote the script for Dangerous Animals). It was shot in its entirety while The Monkey was on hold due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. During this time, several of the cast and crew that worked on The Monkey tried to keep things going, and Perkins and Ferguson then found a Canadian writer who was not part of the Writers Guild of America to write the script.

Perkins have had two successes in a row now: first with Longlegs last year, and then with The Monkey from earlier this year. It turns out Keeper is the one to break these ongoing financial successes at the box office, though, as it has so far only grossed $3 million at the box office against a budget of $6 million. And while one may think it’s partly due to the movie’s artsy and slow storytelling, this is kind of the regular recipe of a Perkins movie, with The Monkey being the one to stand out from the rest. Already from the very first scenes, there’s the Perkins style all over the place. There’s an ongoing sinister and odd atmosphere throughout the movie as we see scenes filmed from different kinds of angles and with filtered lenses. It’s both slightly ethereal at times, mixed with a dreamlike, uncanny vibe. And it sure does take its time, with a very slow buildup. It is still a story that’s very easy to follow, though, it isn’t a movie that keeps you guessing much. Just be prepared for another Perkins movie with a lot of creepy-weird atmosphere.

Performances are pretty good all around, where Tatiana Maslany portrays her role perfectly as the everyday woman looking for true love. We saw her a little bit in The Monkey as the mom of the two boys, and here she gets to shine as the protagonist. Rossif Sutherland also does a good job portraying Malcolm, who appears to be a decent man despite it being obvious from the get-go that something’s very, very fishy about him. The dynamic between the two, who are still rather fresh in their relationship but appear to slowly trying to figure each other out, works pretty fine until the point where certain things become a bit too obvious.

Keeper is overall a pretty decent slowburn horror that does require a bit of patience, and while arguably not one of Perkins’s best, it’s still a solid entry into his collection of atmospheric, artsy horror films.

Director: Oz Perkins
Writer: Nick Lepard
Country & year: USA/Canada, 2025
Actors: Tatiana Maslany, Rossif Sutherland, Claire Friesen, Christin Park, Erin Boyes, Tess Degenstein, Birkett Turton, Eden Weiss
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt32332404/

Jug Face (2013)

Posted on June 10, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Ada is a young woman who lives in an isolated backwoods community. Aside from selling their homemade moonshine in the nearest town, this community worships a pit that is said to have healing powers. The catch? The pit demands a sacrifice every now and then, because all good things requires a certain price to pay. One of the community members, a man named Dwight, gets visions of the next sacrifice and creates “jug faces“ from clay. The face on the latest jug must then be sacrificed to the entity that lives in the pit. Ada, visiting Dwight one day, notices his latest creation. Guess whose face is portrayed on it? Yup, it’s hers, of course. Terrified, she decides to hide the jug away. What then happens is a chain reaction of horrible events: she is arranged to marry a boy named Bodey, but Ada is already pregnant with her beloved brother’s child (yes, really). This is something she must try to keep a secret, but the worries don’t stop there. Ada is having a vision where she witnesses the death of Bodey’s sister, killed by the angered entity who didn’t get the sacrifice it wanted. Ada tries everything she can to escape both the community and the entity’s wrath, only to cause even more death.

Jug Face is a supernatural folk horror film from 2013, written and directed by Chad Crawford Kinkle. The jug faces in the movie was made by potter and sculptor Jason Mahlke, who designed them specifically for the film. And they certainly work in the movie’s favor, as they look like something that could be sold at an estate sale and later winding up in The Warren Occult Museum.

Many folk horror movies often deal with protagonists coming to visit certain isolated villages or communities, while this one tells a story solely from inside the community itself. They have lived for a long time with certain traditions, with the pit giving them protection from disease and also offering healing properties. What’s an occasional human sacrifice every now and then, right? And in order to make everything feel more justified, they let the entity pick the chosen one. And of course, like in the majority of all communities: you can’t really escape it.

Jug Face is definitely not a movie for the more casual horror audience. This backwoods folk horror movie delves into themes like incest, graphic depictions of having the period, and a miscarriage just to put the nasty cherry on top. There’s some gore during the killings, but not anything over the top, and most of it looks like leftovers from the local butchery (perhaps it even was, who knows). There’s still an unsettling atmosphere throughout, mixed with Ada’s isolation and lack of any easy escape route.

Jug Face is a pretty solid entry into the more bizarre hillbilly folk horror genre. A small-scale hicksploitation film that offers an interesting premise, and plays it along surprisingly straight-forward. Well worth a watch if you want something a little folkish, strange, and a little bit disgusting.

Writer and director: Chad Crawford Kinkle
Country & year: USA, 2013
Actors: Sean Bridgers, Lauren Ashley Carter, Kaitlin Cullum, Larry Fessenden, Katie Groshong, Scott Hodges, Daniel Manche, Alex Maizus, Chip Ramsey, Jennifer Spriggs
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2620736/

Viy (1967)

Posted on January 14, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

The Kyiv Seminary (a college that trains students to be priests, rabbis, or ministers) are sending their students home for vacation. Three of them decide to get piss drunk and ends up lost in the countryside in the middle of the night. When they see an old farmhouse, they ask the old woman who lives there if they can spend the night. She agrees, but her condition is that they sleep in separate areas of the farm. One of the students, Khoma Brutus, is placed in the barn. Later, the old hag tries to seduce him, which ends up with him getting hypnotized and the hag rides on his back like he was a horse. Weirdly enough, it isn’t until she also makes them both levitate that he realizes that she must be a witch. Huh! Who would’ve guessed! He ends up attacking her by violently hitting her with a stick, and then she suddenly turns into a beautiful young woman. Terrified, he runs away and back to the seminary, where he later gets the news that a wealthy man’s dying daughter has requested for Khoma himself to come and say prayers for her soul. I guess there’s no big surprise who this girl turns out to be. Anyway, she ends up dying before he arrives, but he will stand vigil and pray for her soul for the next three nights. In the chapel where the dead girl’s corpse lies, he starts praying and every night the girl wakes up, trying to get him while he’s protecting himself by standing inside a sacred circle he draws by using chalk. Can Khoma get through all three nights without the witch getting him in the end? Well, if she doesn’t, maybe all the vodka will…

Viy (Spirit of Evil) is a Soviet Gothic horror fantasy film from 1967, directed by Konstantin Yershow and Georgi Kropachyov, and it was the first Soviet-era horror film to be officially released in the USSR. It is based on a story by the same name, written by Nikolai Gogol, which also inspired Mario Bava’s Black Sunday.

The synopsis for this movie may sound rather straight-forward, but damn…it really is so weird at times, and starts off rather slow and fails a bit with keeping you fully engaged. In between the strange supernatural elements, the protagonist and the other people around him are mostly walking around getting totally sozzled on vodka or whatever the hell they’re drinking, while singing songs and goofing around. Khoma is pretty much constantly hammered during the day, and then fighting off the undead witch and whatever she summons at night, that’s pretty much the flow of what is happening here.

The movie saves up the best for last, where Khoma’s final night is where all the good stuff starts happening. This is where the witch finally summons the film’s namesake, the Viy, which is a large humanoid creature. This was actually played by a guy who was a circus artist, because the costume was so heavy they cast him for his strength. In addition, all kinds of other hell-spawn is summoned and we get some really surreal, fun and inventive scenes here.

Overall, Viy is a fantasy horror movie that feels more like a folklore-fairytale than outright horror, but amusing enough in its own way and with a pretty bonkers finale.

Viy was released on DVD in 2001 by Image Entertainment, and then re-released in 2005 by Hanzibar Films. Severin Films released it on Blu-ray in 2019, and it’s also available on several streaming sites, including Tubi.

Directors: Konstantin Ershov, Georgiy Kropachyov
Writers: Konstantin Ershov, Nikolay Gogol, Georgiy Kropachyov, Aleksandr Ptushko
Country & year: Russia, 1967
Actors: Leonid Kuravlyov, Natalya Varley, Aleksey Glazyrin, Nikolay Kutuzov, Vadim Zakharchenko
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062453/

The Ritual (2017)

Posted on July 30, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

Five friends – Phil, Dom, Hutch, Luke and Rob – meet in a pub and start discussing plans for a holiday trip together. Rob suggests a hiking trip to Sweden but the others think it sounds horribly boring and would rather travel to someplace where they can get as shitfaced as possible. Later, Rob and Luke goes into a store in order to buy some more alcohol, but ends up getting involved in a robbery. Luke finds a place to hide, but Rob ends up getting killed by the robbers. Then we fast forward to six months later, where the remaining friends have decided to honor Rob’s memory by taking the hiking trip to Sweden after all. After making a memorial of sorts by placing Rob’s picture on top of it, Dom ends up injuring his knee and they decide to cut through the forest instead of following the marked trail in hopes of getting to the destination sooner. Bad choice. The first bad omen they encounter is a gutted elk, hanged on a tree like a morbid christmas decoration. Having to seek shelter in a creepy abandoned cabin due to a rainstorm, they also come upon a sinister-looking effigy depicting a decapitated human torso made of twigs, with antlers for hands. The tension between them is also growing because of Luke’s survivor guilt and the feeling that the others blame him for not having done something to save Rob. As if all of this wasn’t bad enough and causing some pretty frayed nerves, there’s something evil out there in the woods, stalking them…

The Ritual is a supernatural folk horror film from 2017, directed by David Bruckner and written by Joe Barton. It is based on a novel by Adam Nevill from 2011 by the same name. Despite the film’s story happening in Sweden, they decided to film it in Romania due to tax credits and softer labor laws. It was shot on location in the Carpathian Mountains. And of course, there aren’t any Swedish actors here either, and the locals are played by a mix of Danish, English and Romanian actors. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival where Netflix acquired the rights for $4.75 million. And with that being said…the screenshots aren’t of the best quality. It’s Netflix. ‘Nuff said.

The movie is for the most part a very character-driven story, where the subdued tension between the four friends comes more to the surface the further they go into the Swedish forest. The horrific findings like the elk pinned to the tree, pagan symbols on the trees and of course the headless effigy in the cabin all makes up for a gradual build of expectation: something’s wrong in the forest, and they’re about to find out what it is soon enough. There’s a sinister atmosphere from the very start, and you know the characters are not in for a holiday of the fun sort. The survivor guilt ripping Luke to pieces is portrayed in an effective way, not to mention how it’s a very clear “elephant in the room” with them all the time. The interesting thing is, despite how they all more or less collectively blame their friend for not having done anything to save Rob during the robbery, they don’t exactly practice what they preach. When they encounter the dangers in the forest, none of the characters show themselves off as a brave hero facing the dangers head first, pretty much proving they most likely wouldn’t have fared any better if they had been in Luke’s situation back then.

Now, over to the monster, which is being kept in the shadows of the forest for most of the time but comes into full display in the final moments of the movie. I have to give thumbs up for the creature design, it’s truly an interesting take on a Jötunn-inspired creature (from Norse mythology). It also works well to keep the monster hidden during the majority of the film, giving it the necessary build-up before the reveal. The earlier scenes where we see the monster’s disemboweled victims in the trees makes us wonder what kind of creature has done this, and how…

I have read several of Adam Nevill’s folk horror books but I haven’t read this once, so I cannot compare the movie to the novel. Overall though, I’d say the movie does portray a lot of the ominous folklore-horror vibes that I’ve gotten from the other novels, and makes for a fun lost-in-the-woods horror flick with a pretty cool monster design.

Director: David Bruckner
Writer: Joe Barton
Country & year: UK/Canada, 2017
Actors: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier, Sam Troughton, Paul Reid, Matthew Needham, Jacob James Beswick, Maria Erwolter, Hilary Reeves, Peter Liddell, Francesca Mula
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5638642/

TISTLEBU – Horror Short

Posted on December 31, 2023June 12, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

As a young urban couple on a working holiday hopes to connect with nature at Tistlebu farm, a primordial power comes into play, changing them both forever.

Tistlebu is a strange Norwegian horror short where we get introduced to a strange thing called “the tursemorkel”.. and its effect on people who encounters it..

Director: Simon Matthew Valentine
Writer: Alexander Delver, Simon Matthew Valentine
Country & year: Norway, 2022
Actors: Sacha Slengesol Balgobin, Sjur Vatne Brean, Oda Schjøll
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt16310112/

Impetigore (2019)

Posted on May 21, 2021October 12, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Maya and her friend Dini are working at toll booths, and one night Maya is attacked by one of the drivers who appeared to recognize her: a man who claims he’s from a village called Harjosari, and he’s calling her by another name: Rahayu. Upon attacking her, the man is stopped and killed by the police, but the encounter leaves Maya with a ton of unanswered questions. Since her aunt, who raised her from a very young age, is dead and she’s got no other family to contact, she follows the inscription of an old photo which shows a young Maya with her parents, outside a large house which is supposed by be located somewhere in the Harjosari village. Together with her best friend Dini, they decide to travel from the city and find out if she might inherit that property, hoping that this might be a turn of events for them both. When they enter the secluded village, however, they quickly take notice of one apparent and strange thing about the place: the lack of any children, and a graveyard whose tombstones implies that for many years, no children have survived long after their birth. The villagers also appear to be somewhat hostile, and Maya concludes that it’s best to keep her identity a secret for the time being, representing themselves as students whose intent is interviewing the village elder because of his famous traditional shadow puppetry performances (Wayang Kulit). Maya’s real intent is, of course, to question the elder about her parents and the house, claiming her inheritance. However, as luck would have it he’s away from the village at the moment, and they need to wait until the next day. Upon finding Maya’s abandoned family home, they decide to secretly take residence there…but neither Maya nor Dini was prepared for the danger that awaits them in this village.

Joko Anwar’s previous horror film, Satan’s Slaves (a remake of Satan’s slave from 1980), ended up being the highest grossing horror films in Indonesia, and have received a fair amount of praise abroad as well. And while Impetigore is his second horror movie to be released, the script for it was actually finished back in 2010. The original title of the movie is Perempuan Tanah Jahanam, and the international title Impetigore is actually a combination of two words: Impetigo (a bacterial infection of the skin), and, well…gore, of course, enough of it for Mr. Ghööl to hand out a certain badge.

With a combination of folklore, a curse, an isolated village in the countryside and family secrets, Impetigore is a feast for those who like atmospheric supernatural horror. The scenes featuring a performance of the traditional Indonesian art of Wayang Kulit (a form of shadow puppetry made from animal skin) is beautiful and entrancing to watch, and of course, these puppets also have a significant meaning to the story. The village, the house, all the surroundings make for a visually striking experience.

Like Joko Anwar’s film Satan’s Slaves, he’s using a “vintage” song by The Spouse (Aimee and Tony) who was put together to make the OST for the aforementioned film. The song used in Impetigore is called Pujaan Hati, and together with the rest of the soundtrack for the film it works wonders in amplifying the atmosphere. After all, a creepy (yet beautiful) vintage-styled song fits like a hand in glove when it comes to atmospheric and supernatural-themed horror movies.

The film is available on Shudder, but that is of course no help for those of us who live in no-Shudder land (like Horror Ghouls, who live in Norway where Shudder apparently have no plans of expanding). While we Horror Ghouls are “old fashioned” enough to still favour the physical format (we have it on Blu-ray), there are other alternatives for renting/buying online like for example Google Play, YouTube, Amazon etc. depending on your location.

Director: Joko Anwar
Original title: Perempuan Tanah Jahanam
Country & year: Indonesia, 2019
Actors: Tara Basro, Ario Bayu, Marissa Anita, Christine Hakim, Asmara Abigail, Kiki Narendra, Afrian Aris, Zidni Hakim, Faradina Mufti, Abdurrahman Arif, Muhammad Abe Baasyin, Mursiyanto, Ahmad Ramadhan
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt9000302/

THE CUNNING MAN – Horror Short

Posted on March 28, 2021October 2, 2021 by HorrorGhouls

A lonely man on a farm collects the corpses of dead animals, find out his shocking intentions in this fantasy short inspired by the tales of real-life physician John Harries (1785 – 1839), a ‘Cunning Man’ notorious for using folklore magic.

The Cunning Man is a nice little horror short about a “cunning man” (a cunning man or woman are practitioners of folk medicine and folk magic).

Director: Zoe Dobson
Country & year: UK, 2019
Actors: Simon Armstrong, Ali Cook, Ian Kelly, Charlotte Jo Hanbury
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt10280634/

The Wind (2018)

Posted on January 11, 2020July 30, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

Lizzy Macklin and her husband Isaac lives isolated on a harsh and untamed land in the Western frontier in the late 1800s. Soon, a newlywed couple (Emma and Gideon) moves into a house close by. The isolation starts cracking Emma’s psyche, causing her to suffer from Prairie Madness (an affliction that causes a mental breakdown due to the isolation and harsh living conditions, something that would happen to European settlers who were not used to living like this). Emma is clearly not able to get used the the isolation, and starts raving about “demons of the prairie”. Emma’s madness soon starts affecting Lizzy as well, and she starts wondering if there really is an evil demonic presence out to destroy them.

The Wind is a western horror-thriller written by Teresa Sutherland, and director Emma Tabbi’s feature film debut. Western horror is still a somewhat rare thing to come by, where most horror movies in this genre belongs to the “lesser known” list (probably with the exception of Bone Tomahawk from 2015, which managed to get a fair amount of publicity). And this is despite the setting of the western period being pretty perfect for all kinds of horror-related ideas…but oh well.

Now, The Wind is a movie that focuses more on psychological horror and a fair amount of relationship-based drama, and for this reason it’s chugging along rather slowly. In other words, it’s very likely to not keep everyone’s attention, and the suspense it’s trying to build is somewhat subtle and does not always matches the pace. The movie has a strong and chilling start, but then starts jumping back and forth in time to show us a series of recent scenes and “flashback” scenes. A lot of the story is told through flashbacks, and sometimes it can actually be a little confusing to follow.

All that being said, The Wind is beautiful to watch with some great cinematography, and there’s definitely some atmosphere to appreciate. Still, there could have been a lot more actual horror to The Wind…but if you’re in for a slow horror mystery with a bit more drama than chills, you’ll likely find something to enjoy here.

Director: Emma Tammi
Writer: Teresa Sutherland
Country & year: USA, 2018
Actors: Caitlin Gerard, Julia Goldani Telles, Ashley Zukerman, Miles Anderson, Dylan McTee, Martin C Patterson
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt8426594/