really enamored with an offhand remark i heard where folk horror was described as “pragmatic”. i love that. horror that doesnt have time to waste on “but ghosts arent real! but monsters cant exist! what is happening! how can this be!”. horror where you hear a howl in the distance and go to gather the wolfsbane and silver because six inch fangs ripping into your neck dont care if youre a believer or not. horror where the impossible nightmare is real because its here and, as is often the case in folk horror, it has been here much longer than you.
A group of seminary students from the city go on summer break, drunkenly wandering the countryside. They end up lost, and spend a night in the company of a haggard witch. A scuffle breaks out, and one of the students, Khoma (Leonid Kuravlyov), murders the witch. Only it turns out he really killed a beautiful landowner’s daughter (Natalya Varley), and now he must sit with her body in a church for three days, protecting it from evil spirits.
