These Severin box sets of folk horror films continue to pay rich dividends, especially as concerns titles based in locales I would not normally associate with the genre. Consider the southern U.S. I am well aware of the genre of southern gothic, but 1984’s The Enchanted has challenged me to wonder if some works I had filed as such are really folk horror.
The film opens with Julius Harris going quail hunting, and seeing some of those birds get blasted is something I could do without. Harris lives deep in rural Florida, and he is well-versed in the folklore of the area. The area where he is hunting, for example, is where the boundary between out world and another is especially thin.
This film explores what happens when certain creatures enter our world through this doorway and try to assimilate. It is a largely relaxed and meditative piece less concerned with scaring or unnerving the audience than it is a rumination on how we co-exist with nature.
Harris’s first glimpse of these creatures is probably the creepiest moment in the picture, as the costumes the performers are wearing are like rejects from Jim Henson’s designs for The Dark Crystal. The strange beings furtively enter an abandoned mobile home and Harris decides to go on his way.
Parallel to this is Will Sennett returning to claim the old family ranch he has inherited. One shot I found interesting is his car going down a paved road that abruptly becomes a dirt one, demonstrating not only how far his property is from the allegedly civilized world, but how this also marks a boundary between two worlds.
A strange new family has recently moved into the area and, although Harris is quite wary of them, he does encourage Sennett to accept their offer of assistance to get his farm back in order. These strangers are odd and give off all kind of culty vibes, yet they seem like decent people and are eager to help.
Casey Blanton, as the eldest daughter of the clan, catches Sennett’s eye, to Harris’s dismay. Even after the movie was over and all mysteries had been revealed, I still wasn’t sure what his beef was with these people. They seem harmless enough. They’re even vegetarians.
One quirk is the extremity with which they eschew meat, with Blanton fainting dead away when Sennett brings her a beheaded chicken to cook for dinner. Even more bizarre is her sheer terror when confronted by a…kitten. It didn’t have rabies or anything, or was a bobcat cub. Just a cute, lil’ ol’ kitten. And don’t worry—no harm will come to it in this picture.
When things like this happen, she seems to find comfort up in trees. This is also where she can be found in an interesting bit where she’s finally ready to give herself to him. Her face is painted, and I don’t mean she’s wearing makeup, but her entire face is painted in a fascinating design carried over from her elaborately colored garments.
Concurrent to this is some mysterious beast going around tearing the throats out of some of Sennett’s cows on the odd night. It is unlikely the culprit is any of the weird, but nice, family which Sennett is getting closer with, but we’re also not presented any other possibilities.
I liked The Enchanted, though more for its oft-kilter vibe than its rather slack storytelling. There is something undefinable here which I felt was similar in spirit to R.E.M.’s early music or the stories of Carson McCullers. Call it folk horror or call it southern gothic or however else you want to categorize it. This quirky independent is aptly titled, as that is how it will leave viewers who are predisposed to appreciate such fare.
Dir: Carter Lord
Starring Julius Harris, Will Sennett, Casey Blanton
Watched as part of Severin’s blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Folk Horror Vol. 2