Continuing on Revealing All The Deets on All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Volume Two

Release Date: Nov 12, 2024

In part two of our reveal in what’s to be contained in All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Volume Two, we look at volumes five to eight. These works curated and produced by Kier-La Janisse, really dives into what this film historian belives is the best of the best, and that’s going to be hard to argue!

Although some of these works can be found online, they won’t be the same quality as this blu-ray release, and they don’t include the bonus material that’s included to expand one’s appreciation of each film.

Disc 5: IO ISLAND / SCALES Blu-ray

IO ISLAND (South Korea, 1977)
2K Scan from the Internegative
International Disc Premiere

Suspected of being responsible for the death of a man near Io Island, a mythical location considered by promoters as the namesake for a new spa resort, Sun, one of the executives on the project, travels to the neighboring Parang to uncover the truth and clear his name. Legend has it that Io Island leads Parang’s fishermen to their death. Its community is therefore haunted by the souls of lost sailors and survived only by its women. Confronted by their matriarchal ways, the businessman is soon caught in the tides of time — the specific push and pull between past and present, folklore and modernity, ritual and capital. The murder mystery starts to unravel.

Championed by Bong Joon-ho, who often cites him as his favorite filmmaker, and best known in the West for The Housemaid and Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death, Kim Ki-young remains criminally underseen. In Io Island he tackles the ravages of corporate greed on native cultures through a beguiling narrative of environmental devastation that, while initially familiar (shades of The Wicker Man comes to mind), soon unfolds in wholly unexpected — that is, gruesome and seedy — directions. A complex structure of nested flashbacks transforms the vistasof Parang into a claustrophobic psychic prison as the tale’s stranglehold gets progressively tighter. Io Island culminates in a shocking experience like few others (save, perhaps, for recent folk horror touchstone The Wailing), offering further proof that Kim Ki-young is a major filmmaker — perhaps the key filmmaker to understanding a specific lineage of South Korean genre auteurs and their unparalleled proficiency in allegorical storytelling.

Special Features For IO ISLAND

• Audio Commentary With Archivist And Korean Film Historian Ariel Schudson
• Shaman’s Eyes – Dr. Hyunseon Lee On Shamanism In Korean Visual Culture
• Short Film
  THE PRESENT

SCALES (Saudi Arabia, 2019)

During the full moon, first born daughters must be sacrificed to the sirens of the sea – only to transform into a mermaid and eventually be hunted down by the very people who gave them to the creatures. When Hayat (Basima Hajjar) is saved from that haunting fate, another destiny is set in motion. As an outcast Hayat also becomes a survivor, and her instincts quickly elevate her to the hunter roles which are reserved for the men of the village. However, with scales on her foot, Hayat must find a way to exist in two worlds and may be helpless in changing what has already been preordained. Scales’ dystopian landscape is unforgiving,but underlying that is a sense of defiance and resilience.

Loosely based on director Shahad Ameen’s short film Eye & the Mermaid (also starring Hajjar), the opulent black and white cinematography by João Ribeiro underscores these themes in Ameen’s stunning feature length film debut. Scales received the Verona Film Club Award at the 76th Venice International Film Festival and was submitted by Saudi Arabia as their entry for the 93rd Academy Awards.

Special Features For SCALES

• Telling Our Stories – A Conversation With Director Shahad Ameen And Producer Rula Nasser, Moderated By Filmmaker/Author Kier-La Janisse
• Trailer
• Short Film
  KINDIL

Disc 6: BAKENEKO: A VENGEFUL SPIRIT / NANG NAK Blu-ray

BAKENEKO: A VENGEFUL SPIRIT (Japan, 1968)
4K Scan from the Fine-Grain Negative
Worldwide Blu-ray Premiere

Also known as Ghost Cat of the Cursed Pond, Bakeneko: A Vengeful Spirit is one of the many mid-century Japanese explorations of “Kaibyo” or “ghost cat” mythology, and one of the best. Director Yoshihiro Ishikawa was no stranger to kaibyo country, having co-written Nobuo Nakagawa’s equally chilling Black Cat Mansion (1958) and directed Ghost Cat of Otama Pond (1960). Released the same year as Kaneto Shindo’s more well-known Kuroneko, Bakeneko: A Vengeful Spirit mines that indelible trope of the cat ghost story: a violent and greedy Lord kills a young woman when she refuses to become his concubine, only for her cat to drink her blood and become her shapeshifting avenger. “Beginning in a quietly haunting vein reminiscent of Ugetsu,” wrote Spectacle Theatre in their promotional text for a 2016 screening of the film, “Bakeneko descends into a nightmarish parade of splattered blood, decapitations and ghosts gnawing on severed limbs.” Not to be missed by anyone with a beloved feline familiar!

Special Features For BAKENEKO: A VENGEFUL SPIRIT

• Audio Commentary With Jasper Sharp, Author Of Behind The Pink Curtain: The Complete History Of Japanese Sex Cinema
• Scratched – A History Of The Japanese Ghost Cat
• The Vampire Cat – The Classic Folk Tale Read By Tomoko Komura With Original Music By Timothy Fife
• Trailer
• Short Film
  MAN-EATER MOUNTAIN

[No Trailer Available]

NANG NAK (Thailand, 1999)
Sourced from the HD Master
International Blu-ray Premiere

Based on one of the most famous folk legends in Thai culture, this “Asian horror masterpiece” (Asian Movie Pulse) broke all domestic box office records, launched the Thai New Wave of moviemaking, and remains “the film that transformed Thai cinema forever” (The Bangkok Post): Devoted husband Mak goes off to war, leaving his pregnant wife Nak awaiting his return. But when Mak is severely wounded in battle, he comes home to discover his village ravaged by sickness, his friends consumed with fear, and a familial devotion that transcends death itself. Winai Kraibutr (BANGKOK REVENGE) stars in this award-winning tale of immortal love and supernatural vengeance directed by Nonzee Nimibutr (JAN DARA) that Time Out hails as “the definitive Thai ghost story…the horror is as moving as it is grisly.”

Special Features For NANG NAK

• Audio Commentary With Mattie Do, Director Of THE LONG WALK, And Asian Gothic Scholar Katarzyna Ancuta
• Love And Impermanence: NANG NAK And The Rebirth Of Thai Cinema – Interview With Director Nonzee Nimibutr
• Trailer

Disc 7: SUNDELBOLONG / SUZZANNA: THE QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC Blu-ray

SUNDELBOLONG (Indonesia, 1981)
Sourced from the RAPI Films’ HD master
Worldwide Blu-ray Premiere

Indonesian superstar Suzzanna is Alisa, an ex-prostitute who marries the handsome Hendarto (Barry Prima). Hoping that she can put her old life far behind her, Alisa is soon confronted by her ex-madam Mami (Ruth Pelupessi) and sexually assaulted by several of Mami’s henchmen. After an emotional trial, Alisa finds out she’s pregnant and kills herself while attempting to perform an impromptu abortion. Her anger at the injustice of her life manifests itself into Sundelbolong, a vengeful ghost hellbent on vengeance. A popular – and much feared – legend in Indonesia, Sundelbolong (which roughly translates into “Prostitute with a Hole”) is the name of a spirit known for the large hole in her back.

More than a ghost story, the horror of her situation also speaks to the political state of Indonesia in the early 1980s. As Sophie Siddique writes, “[During] the height of former President Suharto’s power, Sundelbolong occupies a space in which the gender ideologies of the New Order Indonesian government and the gender fantasies of the world of the vampire ghost are confronted with each other, with the Sundelbolong threatening to rupture the symbolic order with its grotesque fantasies of the feminine.” Playing the dual role of Alisa and her sister, Shinta, Suzzanna’s legendary hypnotic stare elevated the actress to superstardom in Indonesia.

Special Features For SUNDELBOLONG

• Hantu Retribution – Female Ghosts Of The Malay Archipelago
• Short Film
  WHITE SONG

SUZZANNA: THE QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC (USA, 2024)
New Documentary Directed by David Gregory
Worldwide Disc Premiere Blu-ray

She starred in 42 classic movies, was hailed as ‘The Queen of Indonesian Horror’ and crowned ‘Asia’s Most Popular Actress’. But who was Suzzanna Martha Frederika van Osch, long-beloved by the Asian world as Suzzanna yet virtually unknown outside it? In this fascinating new documentary by David Gregory, whose previous explorations of transgressive cinema include LOST SOUL: THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY’S ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, BLOOD & FLESH: THE REEL LIFE & GHASTLY DEATH OF AL ADAMSON and ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE, discover the enigmatic horror star best known for portraying vengeful spirits from Indonesian folklore, demons whose supernatural retribution are widely believed to have influenced her controversial life and mysterious death.

Through exclusive interviews with family, colleagues, filmmakers, and historians, as well as clips from her classic films including SUNDEL BOLONG (1981), NYI BLORONG (1982), MALAM SATU SURO (1988) and more, Gregory unearths the legacy of the Indonesian Scream Queen who has begun to emerge as one of the most compelling icons in cinema history.

Special Features For SUZZANNA: THE QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC

• A Conversation With Director/Co-Producer David Gregory And Co-Producer Ekky Imanjaya
• Trailer

Disc 8: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST / THE NINTH HEART Blu-ray

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Czechoslovakia, 1978)
1080 Master by Národní Filmový Archiv Prague
North American Blu-ray Premiere

For this richly perverse retelling of the original fairy tale, Slovakian director Juraj Herz puts his own inimitable Gothic stamp on Beauty and the Beast, combining bold, visceral horror and understated eroticism with more traditional elements. When Julie (Zdena Studenková) tries to save her misguided father’s life by sacrificing herself at a monstrous being’s isolated lair, an unlikely romantic relationship develops. Most evident in this adaptation is the director’s trademark stamp of summoning true horror in almost every genre he worked in, with the Beast (Vlastimil Harapes) envisioned as a disturbing birdman with a bloodlust to match his horrific looks. Despite the fact she is forbidden to look at him, Julie cannot resist the Beast’s brooding, Byronic qualities; nor he, her enduring bright spirit, her bravery, her true beauty. What ensues is a tale of forbidden love and dark desire, packed with magical realism and Gothic splendor.

Special Features For BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

• Audio Commentary With Film Historian Michael Brooke
• Archival Interviews With Director Juraj Herz And Actors Vlastimil Harapes And Zdena Studenková
• Short Film
  FRANTIŠEK HRUBÍN

THE NINTH HEART (Czechoslovakia, 1979)
1080 Master by Národní Filmový Archiv Prague
North American Blu-ray Premiere

Though Juraj Herz’ most critically lauded work remains his 1969 film The Cremator, his opulent fairytale, The Ninth Heart is an uncanny trip into an underworld of automatons, stolen hearts and magic. A struggling student befriends an itinerant marionette troupe (led by iconic actor Josef Kemr, who also appeared in folk horror favorites Marketa Lazarová and Witchhammer), and when they collectively run afoul of the local Lord, he volunteers to rescue the Lord’s daughter, who has been put under a spell by an evil alchemist.

Inanimate objects spring to life as the living succumb to death in the topsy-turvy world of this dark fable. Herz has been noted by historian Kat Ellinger as the only filmmaker in Soviet-era Czechoslovakia to openly identify as a horror director, and studied puppetry at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague alongside Jan Svankmajer. It is thus in The Ninth Heart that many of his aesthetic and thematic obsessions converge — puppetry, poverty, imprisonment and death — illuminated by a parade of golden candelabras and a playful sense of the grotesque.

Special Features For THE NINTH HEART

• Audio Commentary With Kat Ellinger, Author Of Daughters Of Darknes
• The Uncanny Valley Of The Dolls – The History And Liminality Of Dolls, Puppets And Mannequins
• The Curious Case Of Juraj Herz And The Švankmajers – Video Essay By Czech Film Programmer Cerise Howard