Curses, Cults & Covens: The Birth of British Folk Horror

Season

Please note : this season finished in May 2024

Curses, Cults & Covens is a (non-exhaustive!) season that winds its way through the roots of the folk horror genre.

Spanning five films from the late 60s through to early 70s, from BBC adaptions of M.R. James stories to cult classic Witchfinder General, this season is steeped with the eerie and occult.

PS: If Wicker Man seems conspicuously absent as one of the ‘unholy trinity’ of classic folk horror, it’s because we showed it several times last year in honour of its 50th anniversary!

Previous screenings in this season

Witchfinder General

15 Curses, Cults & Covens

Please note: This was screened in May 2024

Film

Horror favourite Vincent Price excels in one of his best roles as pious monster Matthew Hopkins - the notorious self-styled Witchfinder General - in this cult classic.

Penda’s Fen

12A Curses, Cults & Covens

Please note: This was screened in May 2024

Film

A clergyman’s son experiences a bizarre series of encounters with angels and demons, the composer Edward Elgar, and King Penda, the mythical last pagan ruler of England.

Whistle and I’ll Come to You (1968) + A Warning to the Curious (1972)

PG Curses, Cults & Covens

Please note: This was screened in May 2024

Film

Join us for this special double bill of M.R. James adaptions, originally produced by the BBC.

The Witches

12A Curses, Cults & Covens

Please note: This was screened in May 2024

Film

This underrated Hammer horror stars Joan Fontaine as a young school teacher who takes up a post in the sleepy English village of Heddaby.

Previous screenings in this season

Witchfinder General

Penda’s Fen

Whistle and I’ll Come to You (1968) + A Warning to the Curious (1972)

The Witches

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