Severin Films: All the Haunts Be Ours - A Compendium of Folk Horror (All Volumes)

[Adam X]

Seems Severin arent' content to just release Kier-La Janisse's epic doco on folk horror as a standalone. This should be interesting.

[mhofmann]

Damn! This looks like a must-have.
A bit worried about 20 feature films (plus one documentary, plus a lot of short films) on 12 Blu-rays, given that Severin do not have the best video encoding of the bunch.
But happily waiting for more info.

[Adam X]

No, they don't necessarily have an Indicator-level reputation on that end, but at 2 films a disc, that'd only take up 10 discs, so not too bad.

[Glowingwabbit]

Seems Severin arent' content to just release Kier-La Janisse's epic doco on folk horror as a standalone. This should be interesting.

Wow that is exciting, but knowing Severin something will inevitable go wrong

[mhofmann]

No, they don't necessarily have an Indicator-level reputation on that end, but at 2 films a disc, that'd only take up 10 discs, so not too bad.

I find Severin‘s encoding imperfect even at 1 film per disc, that‘s why I mentioned my worry above…

[dwk]

Details for the Folk Horror box set

Here is the pre-order. $170 plus $15 (domestic) / $30 (international) for shipping.

[domino harvey]

What a tease to include the plate from the Owl Service in the bundle but no the Owl Service in the box set!

EDIT And it’s in the deck of cards being offered too!

[CSM126]

I’ve only seen two of those films (Celia and Penda’s Fen, both exceptional), but I’m really intrigued. Looks like a very nice set overall, and I do like this sort of film. Oh to have $200 to drop on a (mostly) blind buy.

[swo17]

The other ones I've seen (Witchhammer, Viy, Anchoress, and Robin Redbreast) are also great. The latter two are out on DVD from BFI, and I wonder if upgrades might be forthcoming

[What A Disgrace]

Oh my dear sweet lord.

[L.A.]

Lake of the Dead is a nice one. Norway’s first scope film.

The earlier Severin Blu-ray of Viy had an interview with Richard Stanley.

[Mr Sausage]

Il Demonio is pretty decent, tho’ more a social problem picture than horror.

[domino harvey]

I’ve only seen Witchhammer, which I hated

I thought this was annoyingly bad and rather obnoxious in pounding its meaning into the audience. I suspect there was a way to make a film decrying anti-intellectual witch hunts without resorting to treating the viewers like idiots, but no evidence here supports it. Two worst offenses:
01 A rando hooded old man spouting obscene imagined sins of women acting in concordance with the Devil is randomly inter-cut into the action throughout the film, in case we didn't get this movie's dog with a bone messaging in this regard
02 The noble (but doomed because books) Deacon protagonist is transformed into a literal Jesus figure, with physical features in the last act intentionally drawn to mirror the common visual perception of Christ. He is even given a Judas kiss... which the film literally brings spoken attention to in its dogged witch hunt against subtlety

But Eyes of Fire’s trailer made my watch list from one of those Trailer Trauma comps. And if these films are in an Owl Service / Wicker Man vein, they’re probably a safer bet than some other horror sets! I do love that the titles span the globe a bit

[MichaelB]

Very happy to support this project, and I only had Viy and Witchhammer in high-def already.

(I knew about the latter’s inclusion already, unsurprisingly - and happily I preserved the original ProRes HQ master of the video essay, which they’ll be working from directly.)

[mteller]

I haven't seen a single one of these films but wow it looks fantastic.

[L.A.]

Surprised they didn’t add The White Reindeer (1952) for the folk horror box. Nevertheless, this is a great release.

[tenia]

The other ones I've seen (Witchhammer, Viy, Anchoress, and Robin Redbreast) are also great. The latter two are out on DVD from BFI, and I wonder if upgrades might be forthcoming

Considering Severin's tech details abour Robin Redbreast, I wonder if it'll be actual HD or not.

[MichaelB]

The other ones I've seen (Witchhammer, Viy, Anchoress, and Robin Redbreast) are also great. The latter two are out on DVD from BFI, and I wonder if upgrades might be forthcoming

Considering Severin's tech details abour Robin Redbreast, I wonder if it'll be actual HD or not.

I doubt it - doesn’t it only exist on SD videotape? So they might upscale it, and increase the bitrate over the DVD, but it’s unlikely to be much of an advance on that.

(Not remotely Severin’s fault, of course; you can only work with what’s available. In fact, this very week I’m subtitling the TV version of Midway, which only exists in pan-and-scan SD. Universal’s master is in fact pretty decent in all other respects, but there’s no getting around those limitations.)

[tenia]

It's my understanding the source they're stating in the specs is SD but I don't know these older more video-related formats so I wasn't sure.

[brundlefly]

Do love a box drenched in context and am also happy it's got plenty new to me. (In addition to what's been mentioned already, I've seen the Wheatley, which was a bit too much of a bong rip for me.) I thought it might be a collection of already available stuff like Jug Face and Juniper Tree, so hooray.

And hopefully with this done, Janisse will be freed up to do the Cockfighter book she Kickstarter'd in times long gone before these.

[agnamaracs]

It's my understanding the source they're stating in the specs is SD but I don't know these older more video-related formats so I wasn't sure.

It's a BBC production from 1970, so the first generation copy was most likely PAL videotape.

[colinr0380]

But Eyes of Fire’s trailer made my watch list from one of those Trailer Trauma comps. And if these films are in an Owl Service / Wicker Man vein, they’re probably a safer bet than some other horror sets! I do love that the titles span the globe a bit

This does look like a fun set and I second domino's interest in Eyes of Fire just from seeing the trailer.

I also want to put in a word for the very bizarre film Dark Waters. I think I may still have my old Tartan Video VHS knocking around of that one somewhere, and I do remember upgrading in the mid-2000s to the No Shame Region 1 DVD edition of the film (which came with a replica of the amulet in the film that I only take out to wear on special occasions when the stars are in the correct alignment!). It is perhaps more of a nunsploitation film than a 'folk horror' one per se, with a young lady traveling back to the island convent to uncover her mysterious heritage and instead finding out that she is the key to unleashing dark forces, and it is much more of a visually driven film than a narrative one, with its beautiful locations and Argento-style over the top death sequences, but on those terms I seem to remember it being quite enjoyable. I still have never logistically figured out exactly how that church manages to flood in the opening scene however!

[Adam X]

What a tease to include the plate from the Owl Service in the bundle but no the Owl Service in the box set!

EDIT And it’s in the deck of cards being offered too!

Finally finished all 2 hours of Severin’s latest podcast, where they go over the history and contents of the boxset with Kier-La Janisse. It’s mentioned that they did actually try to license The Owl Service, but were unsuccessful. Also discussed were failed efforts to include some Brazilian films, hampered both by their archive being closed due to the pandemic, along with the recent fire destroying a number of elements stored there.

[L.A.]

Surprised they didn’t add The White Reindeer (1952) for the folk horror box.

I sent an email to Severin regarding the film and they responded very quickly:

The White Reindeer is referenced in the documentary. Unfortunately, another label licensed it so it couldn't be included with our box set.

Curious what other label is in question. :-k

[L.A.]

Exciting day at Severin and for Italian film history aficionados in general! When we discussed with our friend and cinema historian (and son of BABA YAGA Director Corrado) Alberto Farina that we were working on Brunello Rondi's IL DEMONIO / THE DEMON, he alerted us to the fact that the film was censored back in 1963 by the national censorship board of Italy and had likely never been released fully uncut. Well, after some extra deep searching in their vaults by the good RAI TV people, they unearthed the approximately two minutes of footage, cut from five sequences including the notorious spider walk. Almost 60 years on, we believe for the first time, the uncensored Director's Cut will finally be available as part of our behemoth folk horror box set ALL THE HAUNTS BE OURS.