This Discovery is one of the finest examples of Folk Horror, probably the closest film to The Wicker Man, (which means fans of The VVitch should put this on their Watchlist.) Because I’m such a fan of classic structure, it took me a while to understand that the random, unfocused plot is a deliberate decision. I was having particular trouble finding the story thread, but once I gave into the messiness, the buildup of each small, strange event snowballed into a major apocalypse on the small village where the story takes place. (A good recent comparison is 2023’s When Evil Lurks, which I will talk about around 400.)
Evil takes hold and rapidly spreads like a virus, dividing the town into immoral Satan worshipers and the few who try to use religion to fight and protect themselves. You realize that fighting the devil is all theory and often requires action that is just as inhumane, like drowning a woman to see if she is (was) a witch. Satan is winning either way, it’s only a question of the amount of suffering. I know my writing sounds cryptic since most haven’t seen the film, but I hope it’s at least coming off as intriguingly cryptic.
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