i’m a big fan of folk horror, but have some gripes with it. while i love the aesthetic and plot this genre brings, there is a resounding anti-indigenous sentiment that echoes through folk horror. in much of it, yes many of the settings are pagan european, it is still important to mention that indigeneity is centered around any native people living off of and in connection to the land, not a specific race. in this movie and many other folk horrors, the villains of the movie are indigenous peoples who’s backwards ways are inevitably bound to be ended (often by bloodshed) by the colonizing protagonist. while we are occasionally given peeks at the native people’s humanity, they are scarce and their lives and customs still are treated lesser than those of our modern hero. their gods are to be slain, their cultures to be erased, and their blood to be shed.
this isnt to say indigenous people cannot be antagonists but instead that i personally feel that in narratives such as this, their lives and ideas should be treated more fairly and i would like to see more works flip the trope on its head, similar to prey (even though prey only tickles the horror genre). it just rubs me the wrong way when the life of one white guy is treated as worthy of the elimination of a culture
