is there a name or a phrase for or anything much written about that distinctly British CREEPY VIBE prevalent in TV shows and movies of the '60s/'70s? (e.g. The Prisoner, Sapphire and Steel, Baker-era

Ha, yeah, I don't think I was successful in the maiden or mother phase, so here's hoping cronedom works out for me.

My ppl!

I went to a used book sale today and found THE CRONE'S BOOK OF WISDOM ha ha ha.

Really enjoyed Penda's Fen. It's so unusual to see television so dense with those kind of references. I wonder how many people watching that on first broadcast could piece much of that together?

So I just finished watching the Owl Service and while it was quite compelling I must admit I have no idea what the hell was going on during the final two episodes. This, much moreso than a Doctor Who episode from the same era, really feels like something from half a century ago.

I think there were a lot of social cues in the story that everyone was reacting to that just went right past me? Or maybe it was just, as noted upthread, that their approach to depicting teenagers was to average out twentysomething actors with preteen behavior.

And they kept showing that shot of the stepson in short shorts bouncing a ball menacingly against a tree in every recap and it cracked me up every time.

Fans of this thread should check out the 'Folk Horror Revival' Facebook Group, and also the blog writing of this guy Howard Ingham who's been writing about everything from The VVitch to the Wickerman to Look Around You to Watership Down and many other obscure films and shows of this kind

http://www.room207press.com/

Hey thanks for that! I've followed the Huantological Society blog but it seems to have gone tumblr only (and I don't do tumblr)

I'm in the Folk Horror Revival group, sadly it has sort of rendered the creepy and unheimlich mundane to me. But that's facebook for you.

Bought Penda's Fen a few days ago, can't wait to watch :D

Should also consider following Scarred For Life on twitter and buying his self-published book:

http://www.lulu.com/gb/en/shop/stephen-brotherstone-dave-lawrence/scarred-for-life-volume-one/paperback/product-23116461.html

I loved Paciorek's Beautiful Grotesque blog, it opened my eyes to a lot of amazing art. It's a shame this folk horror thing is mostly happening on facebook because I don't go there.

we don't have a thread on children of the stones, do we?

recommended it yesterday and started watching it on youtube. it is fucking terrifying, it's also hilarious.

wow, i've never heard of this. the theme music alone scared the shit out of me there.

some suggestions also on this thread: I was trying to find a copy of the Sight & Sound article on FILMS OF OLD WEIRD BRITAIN but all I found was this poxy list

Bit of crossover from ILG, but We Happy Few is a early access video game (from Quebec developers) that attempts to recreate the vibe of The Prisoner in a number of ways.

I really REALLY want clean mp3s of the title theme and any of the choral cues from children of the stones. Some of the most striking scoring I’ve ever heard

Happy day

I watched COTS a year or two ago, loved it. Then went to Avebury and met the stars of the show :)

there's some (too much?) detail of the music on wikipedia page for the composer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Sager#Children_of_the_Stones

Ha I was reading that old weird Britain thread earlier this year(?) when I was looking for any discussion on akenfield

i still have this thing on my to read pile:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51axkpKDB1L._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

I really REALLY want clean mp3s of the title theme and any of the choral cues from children of the stones. Some of the most striking scoring I’ve ever heard

it is so odd. the whole thing is just marvellous - the beautiful shots above the town in the intro. bbc had so much money and freedom back then.

the bit in the first episode where the old woman appears on the road is scary but also like i was doubled over laughing at it. also when the balding tory landlord bloke just appears in the house as if from nowhere.

Happy days. I think I'm going to watch this again, perfect time of the year too. Must've been ten years. Marvellous series.

This is worth while imo, doc from BBC Radio4.

Theme song here. "The music was composed by Sidney Sager who used the Ambrosian Singers to chant in accordance with the megalithic rituals referred to in the story."

Children of the Stones an HTV rather than a BBC production.

This (different) BFI list tries to expand - or settle - the folk horror canon a little:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/where-begin-folk-horror

Timely thread revival, we've just been watching Sapphire and Steel this week. Never seen Children of the Stones, I'll have to see if I can find it.

Also reading some of those folk horror links makes me think Twin Peaks fits more easily there than anywhere else, genre-wise.

i always say twin peaks is the first time the US caught up in the folk horror arms race, TP is profoundly FH imo but in a deeply american way

I never really considered that idea but I think the noir elements are much stronger, particularly in the third season. Strange to think of folk horror noir.

X-Files had a fair amount of country settings.

Noir is an urban version of the unheimlich, I reckon

Yeah I mean Twin Peaks ultimately comes back to the woods and the trees. Not explicitly pagan, but I think you could make a good case for Weird elements in it.

Twin Peaks obv isn't like UK "folk horror" at all; it's American. I get the enthusiastic instigation to pass it off or file it under English 70s folk/horror/hauntology, or have it relate to it, but it's still miles away. I mean really, the only thing in common is "weird". Which is not enough to make a connection between the two imo. I love TP, love 70s freaky horrorhaunty English series even more, and they circle around each other in some ways, sometimes, but both are very much products of their country of origin; ie inherently different.

A lot of olden American folk horror is very close to the British folk horror feel though.

xp that's what i was saying. it is deeply american folk horror. pastoral uncanny if you like. it's not like uk folk horror!

Then I got you! :)

Disagree with Robert Adam Gilmour entirely. They are so far removed from each other aesthetically, roots-wise, storytelling-wise. Everything wise tbh.

The Vvitch feels kind of British to me and a lot of 1700s-1800s American ghost stories do too. Maybe I'm mostly thinking of writers from aristocracy who lived a lot like European aristocrats.

I guess the aristocratic stuff isn't really folk horror.

Sleepy Hollow is based on European legends.

Trying to think of more old American folk horror but blanking.

You're trying too hard. No harm in acknowledging UK and US ghost stories have different origins.

I can think of legends like bigfoot, Jersey Devil and stuff like that but not a lot of stories right now.

i'm with LBI here I think. wrote a far too lengthy thing upthread on where i think the US and UK traditions go post 19th century (so doesn't include the older stuff you mention, Robert).

I think that some of the creepy folk pastoral horror vibe is a response to a fear of nuclear war and in a wider sense of military science. the return to primitivism, or a resurgence of primitavist power that stone circles imply is - well one reading of it is - the implication of society having to start again from scratch.

that's very present in the last quatermass with its stone circles, decayed society, and movement of people trying to unlearn words because that's where the bad stuff started creeping in. you see a bit of it in penda's fen. as well, with the porton down references.

a related reading is of course that there was a strong stranding in 60s and 70s counterculture of being at one with nature, through crafting and cultivating, and not abusing it with technology.

in other words these are very late forms of romanticism.

there's also the whole chariots of the gods reading of alien or mystical power and knowledge present in the henges and circles and ley lines of britain.

teasing out these strands would require some time and care - does stone circle/science/alien stuff share the same influences as the malign pastoral folk of the wicker man to take one example.

I inclined to think a lot of folk-horror both romanticises feminism and nature cults, and abhors them.

Obv the circles of skyclad (or nearly so) druidic priestesses are motivated by the exploitation market, but a lot of the neopagan literature I came across in the early 90s (it was a short lived relationship, with a coed who bought candles in bulk) is very feminist, very pro- exposure, and deals endlessly with the historical oppression of witches.

I inclined to think a lot of folk-horror both romanticises feminism and nature cults, and abhors them.

Obv the circles of skyclad (or nearly so) druidic priestesses are motivated by the exploitation market, but a lot of the neopagan literature I came across in the early 90s (it was a short lived relationship, with a coed who bought candles in bulk) is very feminist, very pro- exposure, and deals endlessly with the historical oppression of witches.

again one of the reasons penda’s fen is so good is its play with this trope of innocence and sexual awakening through landscape. jocelyn brooke is also v representative in the image of a drawn sword and the dog at clambercrown but i’m back on my hobby horse again and off topic.

don't know if this ever got linked but there's some interesting stuff in this robert macfarlane piece:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/10/eeriness-english-countryside-robert-macfarlane

Fizzles pls ride horse freely itt

the BBC's film of A View from a Hill should still be on iPlayer for a couple of weeks. it's a good one imo, nicely told.

it has taken me 32 years to see penda's fen. obviously it is the best thing ever made

all the pep talks are the best pep talks in moving picture history

It is grand.

so elegant how the protagonist's initially self-denying radicalisation is slowly channeled into something positive and ultimately salvation

Shadows?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398561/
Anthology series of scary stories for children. 1975 - 1978.

i don't remember this but Talking Pictures TV is currently showing them.

i watched Robin Redbreast the other day, which was excellent. The subject matter, especially after the Wicker Man (three years later), is highly familiar now, and was in the water then, but execution, script and performances are all really good.

there’s enough opacity about the malign forces to ensure it’s distributed into a generalised sense of unease. (so much about these sorts of sensations feel analogous to a hangover - a hangover in the countryside - why are they looking at me like that? what if the phone line gets cut/network drops out? what does that pebble on the windowsill mean? *oh god a fucking *bird** etc).

particular shout out to central performances metropolitan scriptwriter character, recently split from her partner, and her obtuse, effective, and omniscient cottage housekeeper.