Folking good horror - Darkness in the Fields Fest review
Always a reliable venue for genre showcases, Derby’s Quad cinema held the first in-person Darkness in the Fields event on the 23rd of March, bringing together a host of modern examples from one of the oldest, and harder-to-define genre offshoots: folk horror.
The day kicked off with a short film showcase, bookended with two films that were faithful with their modernisation of folk horror tropes, with two shorts in between that integrated humour between the scares.
Sarah Laita’s BecoME is a neat little chamber piece that follows two friends, Toya and Sophie, played by Amber Goman and Funso Foluso-Henry respectively, who take a trip into the Lapland wilderness to disconnect from technology and track the Northern Lights.
Following a dose of LSD, Toya’s ulterior motives start to come to the fore, with Laita showing a knack for developing a sense of dread from the opening moments. Both leads also have an easy, believable chemistry, and while the film isn’t given enough time to fully build on the folklore that informs the plot, or the backstory of Toya which obviously plays a role in proceedings, it’s an effective short that set the tone for the day. ★★★ (3/5)
Blackthorn, from director Christopher Ratcliff, plays with the theme of outsiders, moving its plot to the leafy suburbs. Sidsel Rostrup plays Tobi, who is more reluctant to leave her city lifestyle than her husband Wes (Kahmal Seasley), but she makes an effort when the neighbours invite them to a get-together.
Ratcliff injects the plot with a very British sense of politeness, as Tobi feels unable to refuse the strange requests of the locals but has little intention of following through. This provides well-placed moments of humour throughout but never at the detriment to the tension, which subtly builds right up until the last moments. ★★★★ (4/5)
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Focusing on the comedy, Blight from Craig Sinclair, follows a medieval farmer cursed with hiccups after urinating on a witch’s hovel. Chris Jenkins and Frankie Gold put in game performances as the afflicted farmer and his long-suffering wife and, for the most part, the film manages to balance its humour with a clear love for the genre.
As events become more absurd, the humour becomes broader, often resorting to gross-out bodily functions, which will no doubt take some people out of it. However, look beyond this and there is a real attention-to-detail, with period-accurate clothing, great use of the locations and a genuinely creepy performance from Izzie Major as the curse-flinging Mother Goose. ★★★ (3/5)
I’d been lucky enough to see the Welsh-language horror short, The Wyrm of Bwlch Pen Barras by Craig Williams before as part of Arrow Player’s short film collection, and it was a joy to see it on the big screen. Shooting on Kodak 16mm film, Williams’ short already looks and feels like a lost-classic from the 60s and 70s and builds an almost unbearable level of dread as three men (Bryn Fôn, Seán Carlsen and Morgan Hopkins) are tasked with leading a sacrifice up the Bwlch Pen Barras mountain pass to appease an evil entity.
While we never know exactly what the sacrifices are appeasing, the dialogue informs us that this is a regular occurrence; one that for some reason is becoming more frequent. It's a genuinely stunning piece of work, never revealing too much and instead relying on clever, tight scripting to build dread. ★★★★★ (5/5)
Matthew Tilt
Twitter @Matthew_Tilt
Click here to read Matt's thoughts on the day's feature films
