No rest for the Wicca: How ‘folk horror’ explains our politics

The Bunker

Podmasters

News, Politics, Society & Culture, Government

4.6 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Creaky pub signs, animal skulls, and empty church yards. The British countryside can be a scary place, but what does the popularity of ‘folk horror’ tell us about our politics? Writer Jude Rogers is joined by John Doran, co-founder of music website The Quietus and presenter of BBC Radio 4 New Weird Britain series, to explore the effects of films like The Wicker Man on our national psyche and what the continued appetite for eerie renderings of the countryside says about us. “Folk horror creates an uneasy clash between the modern and the ancient.” “The unstable times we are living through are quite magical in their own horror.” “Folk horror symbology is easily co-opted by the far right.” “It’s often very conservative in suggesting that female sexuality shouldn’t be trusted.” Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Jude Rogers. Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Audio editor: Jade Bailey. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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0:05.5	photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.
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1:13.2	This summer marks the 50th anniversary of a vivid piece of British cinema.
1:17.2	If I told you it involved a policeman dressed in a smock,
1:21.2	Christopher Lee in full makeup, and a 50 foot wooden figure on a cliff top about
1:25.8	to be lit. You'll either think I'm mad or, oh God, oh Jesus Christ, you'll know I'm talking about the Wickeman.
1:33.7	This 1973 classic is an eerie rendering of the countryside and the pinnacle of the genre known as
1:39.2	Folk horror. Other examples are recent films like Midsummer and the work of directors like Mark Jenkins and Ben Wheatley and writers like Ben Myers and Andrew Michael Hurley.
1:49.0	There's a longing for the dark underbelly of the countryside across the arts in Britain. But where does it come from and what does
1:54.7	it say about us? To explore this I'm talking today to the Architects of the BBC Radio 4 New
2:00.4	Weird Britain series, editor of Alternative Music Web
	...

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