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The Isle (2018) on Kanopy: Isolated Folk Horror

28 May

The folk horror of The Isle is eerily cold and disorienting, yet with an intriguing Celtic flair.

Movie poster for "The Isle" featuring a lone female figure in a white blouse and dark skirt standing partially obscured behind a large tree trunk in a dense, fog-filled forest covered in vivid green moss. The title "THE ISLE" is displayed in lettering at the bottom.

The story has been seen before, so for me it was more about how the world was built and how it contributed to the horror. The Scottish island, set in 1846, did the trick with its fog constantly seeping in and its unsettling cliffs sprouting just far enough apart to create the illusion that there was nowhere to hide.

The story follows three sailors who wash ashore after a shipwreck and find themselves among a tight-lipped handful of locals. Why would only four people live on an island? Where did everyone else go? The restraint in answering these questions is where the horror comes in, a chilling sense that maybe these sailors are being bamboozled and sidetracked simply because the residents want company. My recommendation: surrender to the atmosphere and let the overcast skies, the locals’ hesitancy, and the craggy rocks build the bleak suspense.

Beneath the ghostly surface (with a curse well-played, in my opinion), the movie is about the myths and fears permeating isolated communities that have limited outlets to construct a better reality and survive beyond their history. There’s a connection to the likes of The Wicker Man and The Lighthouse in this tradition, treating world-building as a character rather than just a backdrop. Fans of literary horror in that vein should be intrigued by The Isle.

The pacing, while quick to unsettle me in the beginning, tested me a bit in the middle, but it’s a deliberate ambiguity designed to leave certain answers unresolved, and I enjoy a film that takes pride in letting the world linger on you days after just as much as the characters.

Watch now on Kanopy (Free with your library card).

Comment below your thoughts once you’ve had a watch.

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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

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Film Adaptation: Stephen King’s Needful Things (1993)

7 May

You can have whatever you want and favors mean more than cash at Needful Things. Everyone finds what they can’t lie without here or what they’ve regrettably let behind in a past life. 

Cover for Needful Things (MGM). Ed Harris and Bonnie Bedelia appear in the foreground looking alarmed, while Max Von Sydow's face looms large in the background. The tagline reads: "The town of Castle Rock just made a deal with the Devil...Now it's time to pay."

The movie adaptation of Stephen King’s Needful Things does a good job bringing to life one of King’s most underrated villains, Leland Gaunt. For those not familiar with the story, Mr. Gaunt (Max Von Sydow) is the Devil in human form, and he comes to Castle Rock, Maine to open a collectibles and antiques shop. Ed Harris plays the town’s sheriff, who has his suspicions after just his first meeting with the store owner and serves as the rational anchor as the town unravels.

Of course, die-hards will point out the movie’s derailment in many areas from the book, but let’s be realistic that it’s impossible to fit all the details of a 700 page book into two hours. The movie brings forth the mainstream style of a big studio while preserving King’s spiderweb design of greed and seduction’s hold on us. It teeters into dark comedy at times, showing the town as ugly from the beginning, with grudges festering around every corner. Yep, perfect pickings for the Devil to exploit.

The pranks each customer plays on each other to “pay off their debt” leads to murderous consequences, and all the while Mr. Gaunt revels in it. Max Von Sydow was a perfect pick for this role.

This movie won’t scare you or make you keep the lights on until the very last second before bed. Instead, it will, at least it did for me, cast gloom over the power that possessions and the want for prestige can hold over us. The more we want, the more the Devil entangles our minds to do his will. And what this story makes chillingly clear is that his will isn’t to destroy the world. No, it’s to watch it torture itself into madness.

As Mr. Gaunt says at the end, “This town wasn’t my best work, but it was fun.” Then he drives away.

Have you seen Needful Things (or read the book)? What did you think? Comment below.

You can reserve the movie here and the book here,

Horror fan and interested in the Hoboken Library’s Horror/Thriller Book Club? Please email reference@hobokenlibrary.org, or register for our next meeting by searching under Events on our website.

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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

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