WARPED & FADED and ALL THE HAUNTS BE OURS In The House

In the last couple of (busy) days, I received my long-awaited copies of WARPED & FADED (by Lars Nilsen and friends, a book about the birth of the American Genre Film Archive) and Severin Films’ ALL THE HAUNTS BE OURS: A COMPENDIUM OF FOLK HORROR box set, two Kier-La Janisse projects in which I had a modest participation. I wrote essays on Mimsy Farmer and John Carradine for the former and wrote/narrated a 27m visual essay about Daliah Laví for the latter, which has been nicely paired with her favorite film IL DEMONIO (1963). Tonight I spent some very enjoyable time with the book, which is a gem of attractive design with some quite meaty contents, including a good amount of space given to Joe Sarno and his films, so it not only gave me pleasure but also a feeling that the ground was being serendipitously paved for the book I’m writing now. If you’ve been hungering for something like a 21st century PSYCHOTRONIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, WARPED & FADED is the book for you.

I devoted the greater part of this evening to finally watching Kier-La’s much discussed, three-hour-plus, award-wining documentary WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED, a comprehensive study of folk horror cinema.

Unlike most film documentaries, it has a heady, sensuous, dare-I-say sorcerous personality all its own, and it guides the viewer through its dazzlements of illustrated international data as a kind of fever dream, alternately stark and turbulent. In one of the deepest pockets of its monumental body of information, it admits that this area of filmmaking has only begun to be seriously mapped, which means that the genre (if that’s all it is) is presently somewhat analogous to the mysterious, dark unwritten laws of nature that underpin all such films, powerful but never fully defined. The examples of folk horror are even traced to the very edges of vampire films, fairy tale films, mummy movies, etc, so that it begins to feel as though all horror might be traced to this larger netherstructure, on some level. 

The many published experts of film and folklore assembled here are good company, consistently bracing and illuminating in observations that stretch us well beyond what’s available to the silver screen. In the end, we’re left not only teetering on the tip of an iceberg but wanting very much to keep burrowing onward - and this set includes 19 international features to begin with. 

This documentary is a remarkable work of pooled scholarship and a remarkable directorial debut. I only wish there was a companion book to grapple with - but there is a 154-page book of original related essays included, to occupy us for a little while!

(c) 2022 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.

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