Severin Films Exploring the Darkest Corners Of Global Cinema With ‘Compendium Of Folk Horror Volume Two’

by David Lewis

Severin Films has long been known as a home for giving top shelf treatment to obscure creepy films that are as rare as they are unsettling. Now, the boutique label is doing another deep dive into the world of international horror with a mammoth Blu-ray set exploring the genre of Folk Horror.

All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Volume Two will offer no less than 24 films spread over 13 Blu-ray discs, with many of the titles making their home video debut.

Disc 1 offers up Severin Films’s own To Fire You Come at Last, making its worldwide disc premiere, and the 1973 British film Psychomania in a 4K scan from the original camera negative.

Disc 2 brings you a 4K transfer of the 1984 American film The Enchanted, plus 1972’s Who Fears the Devil in a 2K Scan sourced from the sole remaining 35mm print(!).

Things get cold and creepy with a pair of films from the frozen North, namely the 1952 Finnish film The White Reindeer, and the 2018 Canadian title Edge of the Knife. Both presented in 4K, the former is making its North American premiere on Blu-ray.

Born of Fire is a British export from 1987 making its 4K debut, and gets an entire disc to itself including a ton of extra features and two additional short films.

Disc 5 presents 2K transfers of the 1977 South Korean title IO Island and 2019’s Scales from Saudi Arabia.

Disc 6 offers two more Asian horror films: Japan’s Bakeneko: A Vengeful Spirit (1968) in 4K, and Thailand’s Nang Nak (1999).

Things get real on disc 7 with the inclusion of the new American documentary Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic, which is set to premiere at the Sitges Film Festival in October. Disc 7 also includes the Indonesian movie Sundelbolong (1981).

Disc 8 presents two Czech films — both making their North American Blu-ray debut — Beauty and the Beast (1978) and The Ninth Heart (1979).

Poland gets the spotlight on disc 9, featuring the 2015 film Demon, and the 2017 Polish-Dutch-Estonian co-production November, both sourced from HD masters.

Disc 10 offers up the 1982 French chiller Litan, and a US release from 2006 called Blood Tea and Red String.

Disc 11 (almost there!) pairs two Spanish language horror titles. 1975’s Nazareno Cruz and the Wolf is an Argentine export scanned in HD from the only existing film print, while Spain’s 1984 film Akelarre is presented in 4k. Both are making their debuts on Blu-ray.

A 2K transfer of the Welsh rarity From the Old Earth, found on disc 12, also includes several short films and an introduction from Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys.

Last but not least comes disc 13, which sports the 1960 UK thriller The City of the Dead and a 1976 Filipino film entitled The Rites of May.
There are far too many special features to be listed here, but rest assured, there is a wealth of bonus material in this set. Severin promises more than 55 combined hours of new and archival material, including featurettes, interviews, audio commentaries, short films, video essays, and trailers, plus a 252-page hardcover of new tales of folk horror by authors including Ramsey Campbell, Cassandra Khaw, and Eden Royce, with illustrations by Drazen Kozjan. A more complete breakdown of the extras can be found on the company’s website site.