#fae horrors

[tlbodine]

Fae Horrors: Huldra

This week's double-header features a Scandinavian folklore creature, huldra (or hulder, for a collective of them, I think?) -- generally described as a seductive forest spirit or guardian, a beautiful woman with an animal tail and/or a spine like a hollow tree stump. I've read that they can be friend or foe to people who venture into the woods, and a common thread seems to be that they can seduce and manipulate men into doing all kinds of things.

I'm not personally familiar with the myths, so I'm not sure which things I've read on the internet are historically accurate. Maybe one of you lovely followers can fill me in?

Anyway, the films this week were Thale (2012) and Huldra: Lady of the Forest (2016). They are, to my knowledge, the only two movies about hulder. They also could not be more different from each other, beginning with the fact that one of them is quite good and the other is a steaming pile of hot garbage that had me screaming at the television.

First, the good one. Thale is a Norwegian film written and directed by Aleksander L. Nordaas. It's about two guys, Elvis and Leo, who work as crime scene clean-up guys. While cleaning up the very messy remains of an old man ("wild animals" got at him, tearing him to pieces and scattering him around the property) they find his hidden basement, where he had seemingly imprisoned a young woman.

The girl, naked and mute and somewhat inhuman, turns out to actually be very inhuman in the sense that she's not a person at all but a hulder who had been taken into captivity and experimented on. The old man in the cottage had worked at the laboratory, smuggled her out, and raised her here as a father figure, but continued to experiment on her. We figure out some backstory courtesy of some convenient fae-creature telepathy, and the story builds from there because the girl (the eponymous Thale) has family still in the forest, and also the military is looking for her.

I won't spoil anything further. It's a very simple story, one that leaves a lot of questions unanswered. But I don't mind that ambiguity. In form, it reminds me quite a bit of an episode of Trevor Henderson's podcast, The Mayfair Watcher's Society: Two normal blokes stumble into an uncanny situation, see some crazy shit, and get on with their lives without explanation or context. If you like that type of storytelling (and I do), this is worth the watch.

The entire movie was filmed on a budget of $10,000, with Nordaas acting as writer, director, editor, set designer, and so forth. Most of the film was shot in his dad's basement.

And honestly? Mad props. I have nothing but respect for a micro-budget film that understands its limitations and leans into them. The creature effects are excellent. Like, the CGI is a little rough, but the design itself is A+ and it delivered a proper scare at one point.

The greatest strength of the film imo is the on-screen chemistry between the two leads. We don't really know what the relationship between Elvis and Leo is, whether they're friends or brothers or what, but they manage to communicate a great deal without saying a word, and it's easy to believe they've known each other a very long time. They're drift compatible, in other words, and they have very different personalities (Leo is utterly unflappable, Elvis can't get through a job without puking several times) that make it fun to watch them grapple with being in over their heads. Props to Erlend Nervold and Jon Sigve Skard. And props too to Silje Reinåmo, who has to spend most of the movie naked and do most of her acting with her eyes. Good stuff all around.

Which leads us....sigh....

Huldra: Lady of the Forest is a Swedish film directed by Ove Valeskog, with writing credit to Valeskog, Eddie Boschek, and Björn Boström. I believe it is Valeskog's first feature film, and I don't know what the budget on it was for sure but IMDB estimates it at $75,000. It certainly looks and feels much cheaper than Thale, probably because of the terrible script.

Okay. Ugh. Basically: A lady boxer is invited out on a camping trip with a bunch of guys she went to school with, and they all go party in the woods and engage in various...activities?...at some kind of former hippie commune turned hunting resort attraction camp....thing? The hippie who runs the place has a "daughter" who they spy bathing naked in a lake and who (spoiler?) is a huldra.

I guess (???) the main point is that the hippie guy lures people out to his commune to sacrifice them (???) to the huldra, who also apparently has the ability to make people go crazy and turn on each other, which is seemingly how the hippie guy got here in the first place. The story keeps cutting between the present-day group and the original hippie group, and we see both of them becoming paranoid and turning on each other until only one dude is left standing to take care of the huldra?

It's convoluted. And, frustratingly, there are the bones of a really good story in it. I actually really like the idea of a forest creature who uses her faerie wiles to psychologically fuck with a group of tourists and make them turn on each other. It's like Evil Dead with a faerie and I'm here for it!

Unfortunately, the movie is two hours long and agonizingly boring to get through. It's paced like a slow-burn psychological thriller, except none of the characters are actually fleshed out or given any depth at all. You're forced to watch scene after agonizing scene of rambling, pointless naturalistic dialogue as a bunch of annoying frat guys get drunk, argue, act misogynistic, and make small talk, without any clear idea of why anyone is doing anything. Also most of the film's dialogue is in English (owing I guess to their multinational friend group) but it seems like English is not the primary language of any of the actors so all of the line delivery is also kind of weird? Like inflections are in odd places, stiff tone, just....everything is weird, man. And most of the violence is off-screen and there are no cool creature effects so we don't even get the pleasure of seeing these people eviscerated for our trouble :(

I could have put up with all of this, maybe. I could have dealt with the frankly nonsensical storytelling (which was SO CLOSE to being good but then shit the bed), the bad acting, the wobbly erratic camera that bounces around for no reason, the poor editing....all of it. I could have shrugged it off as a "meh." Until the end of the movie.

At the outset, we see our heroine playing with her baby niece, and her sister telling her that having babies is great, actually, and that she needs to get laid, and maybe if she acted more feminine people would stop assuming she was a lesbian. and we think, ok, fine, sister is kind of annoying but whatever.

So then the heroine goes into the woods with all these dudes and tries to rekindle with a childhood crush. They have sex, then he pushes her away because he's married, and then gets all up in his feelings about it and it's stupid but ANYWAY....he dies, and then later she nearly drowns, but she has a vision of his stupid dead face telling her she HAS TO LIVE because there is a BABY INSIDE HER and this gives her the strength!!! to survive!!!! and then there's a flash forward a couple years later and we see her baby running around on the beach with his cousin and her boxing coach tells her, "You finally have achieved real balance! but why did you quit boxing?" and she's like "I don't need it anymore because MY LIFE IS COMPLETE with the power of LOVE! I love being a mommy soooooo much" I'm not even exaggerating this is almost exactly how the scene plays out and oh my god it is so stupid and cheesy and terrible.

You are allowed to be a shitty movie, and you are allowed to be surprise twist birther propaganda, but you don't get to be both.

Ew, ew, ew.

Anyway. Ugh. I don't know where or how this film ended up on my list -- it doesn't have much footprint online, there's only one review on the IMDB page and no Wikipedia, there's no Rotten Tomatoes score, only two reviews on Amazon. So maybe it's mean to hate this much on a tiny obscure random movie. But dear god. If you have two spare hours and a Tubi account, spend that precious time on something else because this movie is a big stinker.

Onward and (hopefully) upward next week.

[whereserpentswalk]

Look under the cut to see what meeting your entity is like. Reblog to give a gift to your patron.

The fae: a creature stands before you. Though this street was warm and crowded a few moments ago it is suddenly cold and the people around you look like shadows. The creature begins an antlered shadow with glowing white eyes, but soon its body can be seem, with white blue flesh, and sapphire eyes, and icicles for teeth. What looks like a cloak unfolds from its naked body and you can see massive white wings of a moth. As if it's an act of sacrifice you tell it your true name, a name you didn't even see before, and suddenly you belong to it, for better or worse.

The angel: a radiant entity appears before you. They're bright, like something so hot it would burn you up. But as the light fades, you can see a person in silver armor, perfect yet inhuman like am ancient green statue, their back srouting six wings with blue eyes along them, as the eyes on their head are covered by a mask of two smaller wings. The creature offers their hands and you shake it, as they fly you through the city streets and above the skyscrapers, to the stars above and dimensions beyond, to gods living and dead, across the streets of alien cities and the clouds of dead worlds. And when you return to the earth you can feel something diffrent about you, like there's light in your blood.

The scavenger: below the lights of skyscrapers beyond you, on the dark sands of the beach, you see it crawling twords you. This serpentine creature with countless legs, and a dark black shell, yet a strangely human like face. You think it'll attack or run away, but it just looks at you, egar, and for a momment you stare at eachother. It's legs pass something to eachother and then to you, it's meat but it's shining with all the colors known to the human eye, and a few more. You hold it and it happily looks at you. You take a bite and suddenly you know... you know so very much...

The vampire: she flies down to you on green wings with orange eyespots, but folds them into her back. She looks like a human for a momment, tall and strong, with a black suit over her body, but eyes the color of ruby. For a momment her mouth opens, and it's massive and monstrous, with countless moving parts and fangs. But then it folds back onto something humanoid and she gives you a playful smirk. She cuts her hand and offers you her blood, and when you drink it it tastes so sweet, and makes you feel so good. She hands you the knife and you know to do the same, and when she drinks from your palm it's life the sweetest of kisses.

The djinn: the room wirs around you. If it were not for the fans it would feel like hellfire. For a momment there it darkness, but then the screen before you glows white like smokeless flame. You can sense something inside, something beyond the code. You reach your hand within it, and there's no glass, your hand passess right through until you're in a white void of your own making. You call out, thinking there is nothing at all around you. Yet somehow something calls back, something that knows your name.

The rat king: You see him in an empty subway station. Something dark and distorted, you're not sure if he's man or animal, covered in rags, and singing in the language of the goblins and the orcs. Yet he comes close to you excited. And you can feel his song. He calls for you to come to the train tracks, and let yourself run with the rats and the roaches, where the train will pass over you when it comes, and you'll live forever. When you touch the third rail you don't die, but you'll never be human again.

The lich: the library is strangely bright. Run by skeletons in suits, decorated with gold. There are more books here then you thought were in all the world. There's knowledge here most mortals will never have the change below, all kept safe below the city. You see her, her body doesn't look human, everything has been replaced making her look more like a joining white doll then a being of flesh. Yet she is dead, you can tell that under the porcelain skin she must be dead, she is dead, and there is the tragedy of death in her eyes. You come closer to her, and she places a black rose within your hair...

The demon: You stand in his office and he stands before you, a humanoid being covered in black scales, with red eyes covering his skin. Yet none are on his head, that remains featureless save for two massive horns. Wings on his back nearly surround you. Countless souls line the walls of his office, looking at you, waiting. After you sign your name you give him yours, you can feel it come away for you forever and your eyes grey and your skin pales. But he puts the jar in a special place for you, you're spacial, he can tell there's something about you that he likes.

The mushroom lord: you walk through the darkness of the forest, the furthest from civilization you have ever been. You come upon a part where the trees all seem dead, that even the cryptids won't go near. Mushrooms fill the ground, and white vein like lines are all over the trees. You feel the need to lay down, and you let the moss and the mushrooms and the worms surround you, and let yourself sink into the soil,, and it feels good. It feels so good...

The witch: You can see them in the Cafe next to you, skinny and small, with a sweatshirt over most of their body, and dark glasses over their eyes. They seem powerful though, and though their body looks young they seem ancient, they seem beyond humanity. You talk to them and they tell you things, and secrets, lost gods, things you never knew you didn't know, both beautiful and disturbing. When it's time for them to go they pet your head, and give you their number. You don't know if you should text them, but you have to, you have to see them again, there's something about them that makes you need to know.

The living clothing: you step into it at first, it looked like a puddle yet shining like silver or chrome. But soon it surrounds you, first just your torso, but soon your head, your entire body. But it doesn't feel scary, it feels like you're being held, held by something beyond your understanding. It whispers to you, and you don't know if you should feel like your being eaten alive, or like you're being protected. You can't help but keep walking.

The abyss: the void is before you, blackness beyond blackness, like the color beyond the field of your vision, stands before your eyes. You stare at it, it's nothing yet you're entranced. It stares back...

[theveryworstthing]

SpaceDancer's request for parasitic roses and Camille Alexander's request for unicorn fops created Angelique.

i now present my newest Charming Little Freak ✨

Angelique is one of those beings that isn't cleanly classified as a fae or a demon. he/it/whatever (roses are perfect plants and so it mostly goes by the pronouns common for the additional sex of his host body in human society because they couldn't care less) is a Rampant. a type of sapient parasitic rose that, over time, transforms the body of their host from a simple quadruped beast to bipedal humanoid (kinda) monster. every Rampant seems to mold themselves into unique forms, and designs often carry over if they somehow manage to get "uprooted" without dying and have to start over with a new flesh body. if Rampants stay rooted then they're borderline immortal even though their hosts are...dead? it's unclear. the Rampant certainly carries memories of what it was like being an animal and their flesh and blood is altered, but alive. the body keeps the score whether they like it or not. but the beast itself, its mind, dies quickly after a Rampant takes root. either from the trauma from becoming a Flowerbed or from the Rampant purposefully putting a thorn through its brain. whether fae or demon, Rampants take. they do not possess. they do not imprison.

Angelique currently lives in a small dying village, spending his time checking in on the aging population as a kind of town housemaid/caretaker and tending to his flower shop/apothecary. most people would say that having a creature like him around isn't a great idea, but this eldritch horror has basically been adopted by every lonely old person in town so good luck getting rid of him.

Fun Facts:

he loves nice soft clothes, meat (blood sausage is his favorite), and (in spite of his goth everything all the time) sunlight.

buzzing sounds make him flustered while prolonged exposure to cut grass smells and cold weather make him anxious.

he's an scary good climber and will forgo a door if he knows someone is on a higher floor of a building and he sees an open window.

always well hydrated. carries around a flask of water at all times and likes to sit outside naked when it rains.

he has many little leafy assistants which are also just him. he's like an octopus. the people in the community assign them all little names and give them unique decorations and he thinks it's really cute.

what is he getting out of staying in this village? none of your business.

he's currently in a weird situationship with 2 local gravekeepers from rival graveyards/religions and the recently widowed agnostic town doctor. everyone in this polycule hates everyone else but him. he's also friends with benefits with my character Brooke, who finds all of this hilarious and is eager to hear about the latest disaster every time he passes through town.

[sutexii]

Going a little insane over my fae horror swan lake lesbians again specifically this song,,, so good for their dynamic,, how differently they view their faehood, both trying to convince each other,,, chairlift save me

[erineas]

Fae DD appreciation (plus Rus, 5am and Horror) cuz fairy au has me on a chokehold and I need more fairies to brainrot about

DD and Rus belong to @desktopdinosaur

[staff]

Tumblr Tuesday: Autumnal Art

With Mabon just gone and October on the horizon, the Artists on Tumblr are out here cranking up the whimsy and contributing to our sense of seasons passing. We're just here to till those fertile, creative soils and whet your appetites for a little something just around the corner 👀. So, keep a beady peeper on @art around the beginning of October, and in the meantime, enjoy some cozy autumnal art.

@mrsklrv:

@nepeteaa:

@erysium:

@breebird33:

@cheesy-cryptid:

@emmbrr:

@hannahlockillustration:

@smoluglies:

@miyaulait:

@inestheunicorn:

@hannahclairillustration:

[llamagoddessofficial]

So Horror wouldn't steal our name, but who would? I feel like Killer would, and after everything he's stolen you're prepairded for all the games to stop and him to royally fuck you over, only for him to do nothing.

Here's the fae boys, on the subject of name stealing, on a scale of would to wouldn't.

Killer - He'd steal your wallet so he could root through and find your driver's license with your name on it. Do not trust this asshole. You'd expect him to use it to make you his slave or something, but he'd just use it for extremely harmless pranks; making you pay attention to him, making you hug him even though he's covered in soot, etc. He says he'll give it back if you go for dinner with him. It's so hard to tell what's going on in his head at any given time.

Dust - Yeah, he'd take your name. But he'd take good care of it. He wouldn't do anything with it - he wouldn't even tell anyone he knows it. No one except the two of you knows he has so much power over you. What could he possibly want from you...? He asks you to follow him out into the snow. He gently takes your shoulders, leans in, and murmurs something in your ear. Was that... was that his true name...?

Nightmare - Does he consider name stealing below him? Sure. But he's not above taking an opportunity. Leave something so precious out in the open, and he'll be quick to snatch it up. He might be the Winter King but he's always had a weakness for pretty things.

Dream - He'd take your name if the opportunity presented, but purely out of a desire to protect you. If he has it, no one else does, and you'll be safe. He'll give it back alongside a very stern lecture.

Horror - Doesn't need to, doesn't want to. He's busy baking you a pie.

Farmer - Already knows it.

[markuami]

My Archfey design for my campaign.

(I really wanted to give emphasis that its not human, there are no human qualities other than the fact its humanoid shape)

[ghouljams]

fae!Ghost rests his head against your chest, listening to the rhythmic beating of your heart. The soft bu-bump, bu-bump, bu-bump of blood circulating your body, proof that you're alive and well and with him. It makes his mouth water.

Blood.

Sweet liquid that dribbles down his chin and bursts on his tongue. The burn of iron warms him, makes him feel something approximating life. He knows he smears it against your skin, that the salt of your sweat is barely met by his tongue before it's overpowered by the rotten stench of his feeding.

Really it isn't his fault that he has to meet you in such a state. It's yours. You keep trying to recapture what you're missing, trying to press fingers to the aching in your bones, the twisting in your stomach, the needling sense that something has gone horribly wrong, that some part of you has disappeared into the ether with just one word on your missing poster: "Found." You keep bringing other men home. One that can't scratch as deep as him, that can't sink their teeth into your skin and bruise the same way.

You keep trying and trying, a wounded little bird breaking its wing further with each foul jump from the nest. Poor thing.

He licks at the blood that drips from his chin and runs between your breasts, imagining it's yours. Your --well, his-- conquest in a desiccated heap at the side of the bed. The heart was bad, but the liver satisfied, and the blood had a smoke to it that made Ghost wonder if you were starting to find the pieces of him again.

His palm against your forehead keeps you pushed back into the pillows. Your gaze, trance-like, is forced to the ceiling so you do not see him work. Your lips move like a silent prayer with soft syllabic clicks in your throat as you swallow the words. You know him, and you cannot ask him to stop.

Your heart is so tempting, your blood so sweet in his nose, and your breath still shuddering in your chest. You are alive. You are found.

But by what?

[luna-kipp-themothauthor]

Another variation of the character concept art for Jinn with a mini spoiler background 😉

[lizmamont]

[tlbodine]

Fae Horrors: Pyewacket & The Wretched

The loose theme this week was "stuff in the woods, and kids not being taken seriously." We're in North America for a change this time around, with a pair of films I quite liked!

Pyewacket (2017) is a Canadian horror-thriller written and directed by Adam MacDonald. It's about a gothy-witchy teenager, Leah, who's having a tough time with her mom after her dad's death. Her mom is an erratic mess whose grief has made her selfish and resentful, and she's making Leah's life hell as a result. When she decides (without consulting her kid) to uproot their lives and move into a remote cabin in the woods for a fresh start, Leah retaliates by performing a ritual to make her mom go away.

It works, in the worst way imaginable.

This was really good. It's a slow burn and there are some places I think could have been explained better, but the characters feel real and relatable. Fair warning when you watch this that if you have problems with your own mom or emotional abuse that this could be a rough watch.

In terms of fae creatures, this one is more of a demon summoning, although it's kind of vague what exactly is being summoned and what the rules are. As with Errimentari the week prior, I'm including "demons" in the fae bucket as long as they can be bargained with, because I think demonic pacts and fae bargains are essentially the same thing from an anthropological and folklore perspective. See my latest Patreon post for details.

Films with similar vibes:

The Craft

Goodnight Mommy

Next up is The Wretched, 2019, written and directed by The Pierce Brothers. I'd seen this one floating around but avoided it out of fear it would be yet another "wendigo" story, but I am happy to report that for once we have white filmmakers using the imagery of Creepy Deer Thing In The Forest in a non-appropriative and actually imaginative manner! Do wonders never cease!

Story here has a cool framing device - it's primarily through the POV of a teenager spending the summer with his dad, but most of the action is next door where a family has unwittingly invited Something inside. The creature is a body-stealing, memory-modifying hag that likes to eat children, and our intrepid teenage hero might be the only one who sees what's happening.

This movie is great, through and through. The writing is tight and clean and the story fits together neatly, and I really enjoyed the characters, particularly the pathologically responsible lead. I ALSO respect a child endangerment film that isn't scared to straight up murder kids once in a while. Highly recommended.

Films with similar vibes:

Sinister

Bagman (but don't watch this, watch The Wretched instead)

A Tale of Two Sisters

[whereserpentswalk]

Reblog to curse your followers and mutuals.

[theveryworstthing]

The Witch's Granddaughters

local witches Mishthill Vine and her husband Joe found a very badly woven basket full of strange infants and wildflowers on their doorstep about 26 years ago. they did not have to read the note tucked in with the babies to figure out that their daughter had found a new way to give them migraines. 

everybody wants to be a monster-fucker, but nobody wants to deal with the results. 

Ashe and Arrow rarely see their parents but they don't really mind anymore. they used to go on little holiday adventures with them when their mom remembered they existed (or needed something from Maw and PopPop) but that was... A Lot. these days they're full grown witches plotting out adventures of their own while helping their grandparents keep the local magic bullshit under control. 

they're good kids. 

bonus:

[pintvhorror]

Fae lore. Eldritch Abominations. Analog Horror. PSX aesthetics.

Please follow and read our Webcomic:

PINTVHORROR 💀🦋

[saturnisscreaming]

If you ever want to find me go to the forest and wait in the clearing that is oddly dark for the middle of the day, I'll be there eventually