Poll #357 - The Dark, Winding Road to Elfhame (Patreon)

While Badge Quest is kicking into gear, I'm already planning the next Kickstarter for Fifth Edition (for those D&D die-hards out there!) Our last poll had you all picking fey as the desired theme/setting. And since fey often ties into folklore, I figured I'd make it "DARK FEY" Guillermo del Toro style—basically, folk horror. 

What is Folk Horror?

If you aren't familiar with the term, folk horror is:

... Horror based on old folklore.

This subgenre of Religious Horror is less concerned with organized faiths and divine beings as much as it's concerned with the old folkloric rituals in isolated rural areas. Thus, while it can still focus on a modern religion, it is more likely to focus on the pagan faiths of yore. Demons, cults and goblins haunt the woods while regular people try to survive. Organized religion is most likely corrupt and/or useless, though sadistic clergymen can be the true danger. If you're lucky, you'll have one heroic Badass Preacher among the whole lot, but it might not do any good against beings much older than any god we know.

The phrase was popularized in 2010 by the BBC documentary A History of Horror; in an interview with Mark Gatiss, director Piers Haggard uses "folk horror" in describing the intent of his 1971 film The Blood on Satan's Claw. Haggard's film is one of three (dubbed "the unholy trinity") widely regarded as the Trope Codifiers of the genre, the other two being Witchfinder General and The Wicker Man (1973).

While the genre was most common in Britain in The '60s and The '70s (around the same time British folk music was having a moment of its own), folk horror can be from any region or any time, and there has been a "Folk Horror Revival" in the 2010s and '20s as these tropes come back into prominence along with the rise of Neo-Paganism.

Regardless of when it's made, Folk Horror is always deeply rooted in the concept of the past. Therefore, when it's not an outright Period Piece, a lot of Folk Horror will feature a modern City Mouse protagonist suddenly confronted with a forgotten and violent past — usually by traveling to a more rural, tradition-bound locale like a Town with a Dark Secret. Sometimes it's the other way around, with cozy modernity itself being invaded by some ancient danger.

Belief, fear, and culture are key themes, and often a greater threat than the thing people are scared of — therefore, Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane and Humans Are the Real Monsters are common tropes here as well. Things are dangerous enough even without overtly supernatural happenings. In fact, some academic work points to the "monstrous tribe" (a social group bound by shared beliefs and values seen as monstrous to visitors/viewers) as an even greater identifying feature of folk horror than the rural setting.

Compare with Witch Works, which has a lot of overlap, and Horror Hippies and Hillbilly Horrors, both of which have a similar rural horror feel. Watch out for The Fair Folk, take care with the Sleep Paralysis Creatures at night and Don't Go in the Woods. Often takes place in Lovecraft Country or Campbell Country. May overlap with Dark Fantasy. See also Gothic Horror and Southern Gothic, which have a lot of overlap with this subgenre. In some ways, Folk Horror could even be seen as a modern take on gothic horror.

Thank you, TV Tropes.com.

I did a little reading about witch trials in Scotland around the 16th century (watch the show Outlander and toss in some Ari Aster or Robert Eggers), and I thought that might be neat. I'm seeing lots of browns, dull, watercoloresque greens, and plenty of earth tones for this setting.

Vote, Ye Heathens!

As I'm getting started with this, I will start writing up adventures to go with it, all dark and grim. 

Below, I've picked out some of the best folk horror monsters around. Pick the three you like best, and I'll make the top two (and maybe one or two more, depending on how busy I get with GenCon/Badge Quest) into some cool adventures.