If you’ve read my fantasy novels you’ll have guessed I’m a sucker for folk horror, particularly the historical kind. I’ve even developed a kind of ritual whenever a promising new movie in the folk horror genre appears. This ritual I call ‘Folk Horror and Thai Takeaway Night’ on account I had a Thai takeaway the first time I watched The VVitch and the tradition, incongruous as it may seem, has stuck around.
Last week I had good reason to break out the Khao pad and spring rolls because The Sudbury Devil was released to streaming. Not only is Sudbury 17th century folk horror, it was written and directed by Andrew Rakich. He’s the man behind the popular Atun-Shei Films, a favourite youtube channel of mine. In his videos Rakich mainly focuses on American history, particularly the civil war and the puritan/settler era. His love of history and the creativity he uses to communicate that love is infectious. The prospect of an Andrew Rakich penned and directed feature film had me interested from the moment I first heard tale. So how was it?
True to form the entire dialogue of The Sudbury Devil is spoken in Original Pronunciation (for instance that last word would likely be said ‘pruhnunciae-tee-on’), the lost dialect of England and by extension the new world colonies. You might think this sounds like way too much homework for an indie horror flick but its startling how soon a listener gets used to OP (Then again I come from the UK with its wild melange of odd regional dialects so maybe I’ve some unconscious advantage here). It’s a gamble that pays dividends, for the adjustment your ear has to make is far surpassed by the historical immersion such dialogue lends the movie. Hats off to the cast for leaning in to it. Couldn’t have been at all easy and there’s far more expensive movies set in the same period that never even bothered to try.
The plot itself is pretty straightforward, at least from the outset. John Fletcher is a famed veteran of King Phillip’s War (a real world conflict between the early settlers and a coalition of first nations communities, one that would kill more European-Americans by population percentage than any subsequent war and would be the overture to centuries of first nations genocide. It doesn’t get talked about enough. Indeed I only found out about it through the aforementioned Youtube channel) who is dealing with what we would now call PTSD. He and his colleague are charged with investigating a farmer’s nocturnal encounter with a blinding body of light. Witchcraft is suspected and, following said farmer into the local woods, Fletcher sure finds it.
Things get weirder from there in that way only folk horror can do: gory, absurdist, sexual. Sometimes all three at once. Andrew Rakich is clearly well-versed in this sub-genre and all its earthy, occasionally camp psychodrama and its intimations of the cosmic. The VVitch and A Field In England loom over this movie, which is arguably inevitable given The Sudbury Devil‘s setting and lean cast and crew, but I also picked up hints of 1971’s The Blood On Satan’s Claw, 1968’s Witchfinder General and even 1999’s Ravenous (The director’s favourite movie, or so I’ve just discovered). If you’ve an appreciation for those films then Sudbury really has to be on your watch list.
There’s a fear going into these kickstarter/Indiegogo funded low budget films that the acting, costumes and effects will be sub par, with the actors often being friends of the content creator. Which, the making-of featurette you get when renting this movie reveals, was often the case here. It’s just fortunate Rakich possesses friends who also happen to be good actors. There’s a terrific intensity to the two female actors’ performances that stood in stark contrast to the self-repression and masculine toxicity of the puritan men. I went in braced for an uneven cast and was instead wonderfully surprised.
The soundtrack is exquisitely spooky. In truth I’d been listening to it long before the movie came out and it was fun to see what scratching sound or long moan went where in the story.
The costumes and props were accurate, as you might expect from a production company preoccupied with history though (what I presume to be) a prosthetic penis lacked a foreskin. To my knowledge the settlers didn’t go in for circumcision, but then again I’m not an expert on the era and I’ve only read The Crucible the one time.
As with any period piece on an indie budget we soon find ourselves in a forest for a long time. And, y’know, why not I guess. A forest is an evocative yet readily free background, certainly far cheaper than building sets or renting manors. But I’ve seen it a lot, to the point of coming to expect it in any indie movie with a speculative fiction bent. What can be said however is The Sudbury Devil knows how to use a forest. Here, the deep woods are a daunting and isolating place. I should add that the cinematography had some great moments. I know of one or two shots that’ll be burned into my cerebellum for the next fortnight.
Goodreads and #booktwitter consensus has it that Youtubers don’t write good novels. This has proved largely to be true. However they do make quality indie movies it seems. Which isn’t all that surprising, given the more accomplished ‘tubers are famously handy with a lens, a script and the ancient art of squeezing excellence from a small purse. Andrew Rakish, AKA Atun-Shei is certainly within that top tier of Youtube creatives and I look forward to his next movie, whatever the genre. Who knows? I may even have to order a Thai again. Yum!
The Sudbury Devil is available to rent or buy from the Atun-Shei website. An interesting choice of distribution and one that raises questions about creators and the future of streaming generally. It’s something I’d like to have talked about here but I think it’s better served as its own post. The director of The Sudbury Devil discusses his reasoning in this video.
J.L. Worrad 