Editorials
Evil Takes Root: 5 Scariest Folklore Demons in Horror
Folklore is filled with horror. For centuries, stories of ancient demons and monstrous creatures lurk in the dark, waiting to punish misdeeds by the young and old alike. These myths and legends provide fertile ground for horror to explore. Evil Takes Root: The Curse of the Batibat, which is available now on both VOD and DVD, brings the lore of the Batibat to screen.
In Fillipino folklore, the Batibat is a vengeful female spirit that resides in trees deep within the forest. It enacts brutal revenge on those that dare to disturb its slumber. Evil Takes Root follows paranormal investigator Felix Fojas, who arrives in a Midwestern town to mourn the loss of his former lover. He discovers she fell prey to the Batibat, an ancient evil that followed her home from the Phillipines. Felix will have to fight the Batibat to save his lover’s daughter, Sarah, from its grip.
Evil Takes Root stars Nicholas Gonzalez (The Good Doctor) as Felix, Sean Carrigan (Ford vs Ferrari), Stevie Lynn Jones (Nancy Drew), and Ade McCormack (Castlevania). Chris W. Freeman directs. In celebration of the film’s release, we look back at the five scariest folklore demons in horror movies.
Bughuul – Sinister
Technically an original creation by co-writers Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, this folkloric demon does borrow heavily from Pagan deity Moloch. Described as Moloch’s brother, Bughuul is the devourer of children. He possesses their minds and forces them to murder their families, before consuming their souls. It’s a creepy enough backstory for an original demon, but this particular entity enjoys capturing his work on camera, making for terrifying mementos guaranteed to unnerve.
Pazuzu – The Exorcist
The king of all possession horror centers on young Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) after she dabbles with a Ouija board. The demon inhabiting her body is revealed to be Pazuzu, the king of the demons of the wind in ancient Mesopotamian religion. In the film, Pazuzu has a long-running feud with Father Merrin (Max von Sydow), though the demon pops up again in the maligned sequel. In mythology, the demon was known for bringing famine and swarms of locusts.
Moder (Jötunn) – The Ritual
In David Bruckner’s The Ritual, a group of friends reunite for a hiking trip deep in the woods but find themselves stalked by an evil creature instead. That creature is the Moder, revealed by menacing locals to be a member of the Jötunn, a bastard son of Norse god Loki. Jötunn’s tend to be nature spirits, like trolls, which is why this eerie beast inhabits the woods. The Moder’s appearance is unlike any other movie monster. Worshipped like a god, this folkloric entity is pretty imposing.
Krampus – Krampus
Mike Dougherty’s yuletide horror-comedy isn’t exactly nightmare fuel, but the eponymous demon disturbs nonetheless. The ancient demonic spirit punishes those who have lost the Christmas spirit, which is why the bickering Engel family become targets. In folklore, Krampus is described as half-goat, half-demon and is known to whip, steal, and take bad children to Hell. The polar opposite of jolly old Saint Nick. Krampus keeps the demon hidden behind a mask, which somehow makes it even scarier. It helps that the all-powerful beast has no shortage of minions at his disposal to unleash on his victims.
The Lamia – Drag Me to Hell
In Sam Raimi’s vicious horror-comedy, a loan officer evicts an old gypsy from her home and finds herself stricken with a curse in retaliation. Desperate to save her soul, she seeks help and learns that she’ll be tormented by the Lamia for three days before it takes her to hell. The Lamia, as evidenced in the film, is a powerful demon from Greek mythology. Often described similarly to Baba-Yaga, the Lamia is a child-eating demon. While the demon’s target is a fully grown adult, the opening sequence touches on the Lamia’s child-eating ways.
Evil Takes Root: The Curse of Batibat is available now on all VOD platforms and DVD.
In the film, “Paranormal investigator Felix Fojas arrives in a sleepy Midwest town to investigate the mysterious loss of his old lover, Amanda, and reconcile sins of the past. He discovers she fell victim to the Batibat, an ancient evil that followed her home from the Philippines. Now Felix must battle the forces of evil and unravel the mystery of the Batibat in order to save Amanda’s daughter, Sarah, from its hellish grip.”
Check out the trailer and DVD cover art.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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