PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Sometimes a documentary comes along that is so much fun to watch and even teaches you something new. I have to embrace those moments because usually, I would rather watch anything else. But Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, a new film chronicling the very best—and history of—folk horror is one dope documentary. I’ll be the first to admit that this subgenre is one that I know next to nothing about. After two festival viewings and a chat with the film’s director, Kier-La Janisse, my appreciation for the subject grew exponentially. Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched is intriguing, informative, and a must-see film.
PopHorror: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us! I’m really excited to speak with you today. I watched Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched for SXSW, and then just watched it again for Fantasia Fest 2021, and it’s so good. How did your project for the documentary come about?
Kier-La Janisse: I work for Severin films; that’s my day job. I work there editing and producing bonus features for disks. We were going to be releasing a limited edition of Blood on Satan’s Claw on Blu-ray, and I actually just proposed it as a short featurette to go on that disk. Once I started working on it, it just kept growing and growing to the point where my boss, David Gregory, was like. “Okay, this is way too long to be fitting on this disk. Maybe we should just look at making it its own film instead of a featurette.” And so that’s really how it started. It was kind of by accident. By vocation, I’m not a filmmaker or anything like that. And so every step of it was accidental. It just kept getting bigger and bigger, and I think if I had gone to my boss and pitched him on the idea of making a three hour documentary on folk horror, he would have said, “Absolutely not.” But because we were doing it in these increments, and he would see the footage come in, he was like, “Oh yeah, okay. I can see the potential in this.” By the end of it, he was just letting me do whatever I wanted.
PopHorror: That’s awesome! How long did it take you to compile all of the info and footage necessary to complete such a comprehensive documentary?
Kier-La Janisse: Well, I started working on it in May of 2018.
PopHorror: Oh, wow!
Kier-La Janisse: So it was over three years ago now. Up until about September of 2018, I was just doing some of the first interviews. I had picked out six people that I thought would be for the featurette, so it was Adam Scovell, Alice Lowe, and Robert Eggers in that first round of people. Then I started cutting together a rough cut. But what would inevitably happen every time I interview somebody was that they would bring up something I hadn’t thought about. And that would then make me go, “Okay. I just need to interview one more person who’s an expert in that particular thing so that I have somebody to be the transition between these two ideas,” you know? So that it makes sense… Just filling in to make these things—these ideas—fit together.
That just kept happening for like three years where it was like everybody I interviewed was so amazing, but they would always bring up ideas or perspectives I hadn’t thought of. Then that would lead to another month of research. The research for me was really reading a lot of books. All people who are in the film, a lot of them have written books on—if not folk horror specifically—on whatever area of research I’m asking them about in the film, so certain regions historically or indigenous culture or whatever. I would be reading a lot of scholarly essays and books trying to figure out who was the right person that I wanted to speak to in the film about certain things and making intelligent questions for them to answer.
I would say there were several rounds of interviews with people, and then in between each of those rounds would be at least a month of research. Then I would do more interviews, and then we’d get that footage, and we’d start editing it together. Then I would find more holes that I had to pave over somehow.
It really was like working on a thesis paper or something, you know? I’ve been writing about horror for decades, but the thing is, there’s so many facets to horror. There’s so many approaches and different cultures you have to consider. Even being a horror writer or critic or whatever I am, I still need all these people with their specific expertise for things to make sense.
So yeah. It did take a lot of research and rewriting as we were editing, like the order of things and how they would fit together, because when you watch the edits, it becomes obvious where the audience is just going to lose it. They’re not going to be able to follow what you’re saying because too much of it is in your head and not explained enough in the movie. So there was just a lot of work, and reworking and reworking it for years.
PopHorror: Wow! I have to say that I appreciate all of the work that you put into it—in the topic in general—because while watching it, there were things in there that I didn’t even realize was considered folk horror. I went into thinking I knew, but left it realizing that I, in fact, did not know anything.
Kier-La Janisse: I think one of the things about what is or isn’t folk horror… there’s definitely going to be people who don’t agree with a lot of the things that are discussed in the film, but a lot of them are in there because somebody I interviewed brought them up.
PopHorror: You’re going to have that.
Kier-La Janisse: Yeah, like instead of imposing my strict definition of what is or isn’t folk horror, I just let people talk about what they thought was folk horror. I felt like if these things seem like folk horror to people who I consider to be learned scholars, then I’m going to let them have their say, even if it doesn’t fit what we think folk horror looks like, you know?
PopHorror: You have programmed movies. You’re a published author. You founded a film festival, and you’re the founder of the world famous Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. Just a monster list of contributions and achievements within the genre. What, so far, has been your proudest moment?
Kier-La Janisse: It’s really hard to say, because my book House of Psychotic Women was a pretty important milestone for me. Writing any book is really hard. It is hard to write that much and sustain an idea and have everything make sense. And so I applaud anyone who writes any book. I had written a smaller book before that that was really just short writings though. It was like a compendium of reviews of a certain actor’s filmography, so there was no connecting narrative or anything that had to happen in that book. So it was written much more like capsule reviews almost. So House of Psychotic Women was the first really long form thing that I had to write, and it was challenging in its structure. It was also very personal, and the fact that I finished it and it got published and it came out was probably my proudest moment that I’ve ever had. And then I would say making this film. Actually, it’s a toss up between the film and Miskatonic, because I feel like creating Miskatonic is something that’s going to resonate.
It has so much potential to grow and continue reaching people in different ways. I’m not the director of Miskatonic anymore. I stepped down, and I’m now on the board, and there’s a new director. But I did it for 10 years and then decided that it needed some new blood, a new director. I think Miskatonic is a really important thing, too, just because it has the potential to be this ongoing source of learning for people, you know?
PopHorror: Oh absolutely. We are in Phoenix. LA is a short drive, and we’ve been wanting to attend and haven’t been able to, so we’re really hoping that in person will start at some point again in the future. What is next for you, Kier-La? Are you currently working on anything?
Kier-La Janisse: Well, for Severin, I’m working on the release for the folk horror film, so that’s a big production I’ve been overseeing. I’ve been overseeing a couple of other Severin releases that aren’t announced yet so I can’t say but other big projects. And personally, I’ve been focused… People keep asking me what my next movie is, but I’m really focused on writing. I have a bunch of writing deadlines. I have a book that I’ve been writing for a few years about the film Cockfighter, which is one of my favorite films. I’ve been working on a monograph about that film for several years, because I think it’s probably going to end up being a bit more in depth than the average BFI Classics type of monograph. And then the new edition of House of Psychotic Women is going to come out next year for its anniversary. That’s going to be an expanded edition with more reviews in the appendix, so I’m going to be working on writing those.
PopHorror: That’s exciting!
Kier-La Janisse: Oh, yeah! And I have another book that I’m working on with Amy Voorhees Searles, the co-director of the LA branch of Miskatonic. We’re writing a book about the depiction of horror fans on screen, in movies, and on television over the years.
PopHorror: I’m intrigued. I’ll have to keep an eye out for that, because that sounds really interesting. And I just have one last question for you. What is your favorite scary movie?
Kier-La Janisse: My favorite scary movie… It’s kind of funny because I was talking about this the other night. Even though he’s not a horror director… things like Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive scare the shit out of me more than a lot of horror films do. There are just moments in those films that I find utterly terrifying. But one that I watched incessantly as a kid, that will still stop me in my tracks and I’ll watch it no matter what, is Carrie. Brian De Palma’s Carrie is a foundational film for me. I still find its imagery really horrifying. And it’s also a very sad movie. It hits all of my pleasure points at once.
Thank you so much, Kier-La, for speaking with us. Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched is currently in its festival run, but keep an eye out for a Severin Films release coming soon!
