Ranked: The Films of Severin's "All the Haunts Be Ours: Vol. 2" Boxset

Hayat, a 12-year-old strong-willed girl, lives in a poor fishing village governed by dark tradition, in which every family must give away a daughter to the sea creatures who inhabit the waters near by. In turn, the sea creatures are hunted by the men of the village. Saved from this ordeal by her father, Hayat is outcasted by her village and considered a curse. But Hayat never surrenders. When Hayat’s mother gives birth to her new-born brother, Hayat must accept the brutal custom by sacrificing herself to these creatures or find a way to escape.

1978 Czechoslovak film

Edge of the Knife is a feature length Haida language film about pride, tragedy, and penance. Adiits’ii, the lead character in the film, is mentally and physically pushed to the brink of survival and becomes Gaagiixiid/Gaagiid - the Haida Wildman. The Gaagiixiid is one of Haida’s most popular stories, sustained over the years though song and performance. This project is a community initiative with strong support from the Haida people as well as from the Council of the Haida Nation.

A company hopes to open a spa hotel named after Ieodo, a mythical island inhabited by the souls of drowned sailors. During a study trip to the proposed location of the hotel, a journalist disappears under mysterious circumstances. One of the contractors goes to Ieodo's neighboring island, populated by widows of the dead sailors, to unravel the mystery.

Royce Hagan returns from the sea to claim and inhabit a 2000 acre ranch in one of the last wild places left in central Florida. Old family friend Booker T Robertson is welcoming but warns him not to get "too close" to a strange family living in the woods nearby. Royce falls in love with Twyla, the oldest daughter, and discovers the bizarre secret of the Hole in the Wall and the enchanted people who live there.

A roaming hillbilly, on a quest to defy the Devil, encounters several supernatural characters and does battle with his silver-stringed guitar.

The Finnish film 'White Reindeer' is marketed in the USA and Britain as a horror movie, but that's not precisely accurate. This is a stark, moody film but not a scary one. It purports to be an authentic Lapp folktale about a woman named Pirita who turns into a white reindeer in order to feed upon men.
This story has elements of both the vampire and the werewolf legend, as well as the succubus. Apart from reindeer being native to Lapland, I can't imagine why the reindeer was chosen as the species for this folktale's version of the shape-changer legend. Bats and wolves are predators, and therefore scary. The reindeer is a domesticated herbivore that serves humans ... not very spooky, is it? In one sequence, the were-reindeer woman sprouts fangs. Actual reindeer don't have fangs, so why should these be part of her transformation? Female reindeer have antlers, so why doesn't Pirita sprout antlers?
Speaking of superstitions and myths: early in this film, a black cat scurries across the path of an approaching sledge, but the director gives this so little emphasis that it appears to have no significance. In Cornwall, it's considered *good* luck to have a black cat cross one's path, and this same thing is considered *bad* luck in America. Do Lapps have any superstitions concerning black cats?
Mirjami Kuosmanen, the actress who plays the central role in this film, is quite pretty ... but her performance as a native of northern Lapland is weakened by the fact that she is clearly wearing makeup. Due to the low production budget, we never actually see Pirita changing into the reindeer ... but the director cleverly gets round this by having his leading lady lunge towards the camera, then cutting to a shot of a reindeer in the same position. Still, I was hoping we would see a shot of a woman's shadow changing shape ... or a series of human footprints in the snow abruptly becoming hoof-marks.
The Lapp landscape in this movie is starkly beautiful and awesome but never frightening. The photography is excellent. There are two impressive dissolve shots involving flames, and a splendid montage sequence. I was extremely impressed by a night sequence over a bonfire. During the Midnight Sun sequences, there are two shots featuring a weird colonnade of white pillars: these appear to be artefacts of the Lapp culture, but we never learn what they are. A sequence in which a carved vertrebra dances magically across a shaman's drum has an eerie pagan power that made me think of Nijinsky's staging of 'The Rites of Spring'.
My one complaint about this film -- a minor grievance -- is that we never learn the time period in which the main action occurs. These Laplanders possess milled coins, a rifle, and loomed curtains. One sequence takes place at a prayer service that is clearly Christian, featuring a minister in geneva bands. Are we watching scenes in the twentieth century, or some earlier time? I'll rate this moody, compelling (but not frightening) film 8 out of 10. Oh, my deer!

During a beach excursion, Nfissa, a young mother, is lynched to death by a group of young men, while swimming offshore. Nobody seems to witness her disappearing. Anxiety and fear grow among the family, especially as, on the same beach, bathers suddenly die.

Nalujuk Night is an up close look at an exhilarating, and sometimes terrifying, Labrador Inuit tradition. Every January 6th from the dark of the Nunatsiavut night, the Nalujuit appear on the sea ice. They walk on two legs, yet their faces are animalistic, skeletal, and otherworldly. Snow crunches underfoot as they approach their destination: the Inuit community of Nain. Despite the frights, Nalujuk Night is a beloved annual event, showing that sometimes it can be fun to be scared. Rarely witnessed outside of Nunatsiavut, this annual event is an exciting chance for Inuit, young and old, to prove their courage and come together as a community to celebrate culture and tradition. Inuk filmmaker Jennie Williams brings audiences directly into the action in this bone-chilling black and white short documentary about a winter night like no other.

In a barren, snowy Lapland landscape a man in a reindeer sled escorts a shaman's corpse to its final resting place. In the pale moonlight the fear is starting to take over, since something has awakened the shaman.

Nabeshima Naoshige murders his lord, Ryuzoji Takafusa, seeking to gain power and steal his Lord’s wife. To avoid her fate, Lady Takafusa drowns herself along with her cat in a nearby marsh. A decade later, Naoshige’s efforts to steal another woman trigger a curse on him when she also commits suicide at the same marsh — forcing him to suffer the consequences of his past actions.

The most famous of Indonesian ghosts, the Kuntil Anak, tells the story of Raesita, the batik artist, whose heavy grief after the death of her husband draws the ghost to her. They seduce each other into a deadly dream world. Raesita's own desire for oblivion moulds perfectly to the Kuntil Anak's desire to save her from the pain of life. But it is Raesita's unborn child, and its desire to live, that the Kuntil Anak has not counted upon.

A documentary about Suzzanna, "the Queen of Indonesian horror" - an actress who starred in many of the country's most iconic and beloved horror pictures.

A married man on a business trip checks into a hotel. The hotel manager’s daughter falls for him at first sight. Rejected by the man, she embarks on a journey of revenge...

A gang of young people call themselves the Living Dead. They terrorize the population from their small town. After an agreement with the devil, if they kill themselves firmly believing in it, they will survive and gain eternal life. Following their leader, they commit suicide one after the other, but things don't necessarily turn out as expected...

For reasons unknown, a flautist and an astronomer find themselves drawn to one another. But, when the flautist stumbles upon a secret regarding his late father, the two wind up in a celestial duel against the ancient Master Flautist for earth's future.

Retake follows the journey of co-directors Gwaai Edenshaw (Haida) and Helen Haig-Brown (Tsilhqot'in) as they work to produce The Edge of the Knife, a feature-length film told entirely in the critically-endangered Haida language. The film tells the story of a traditional Haida legend, showcasing the Haida culture in many ways that have never been seen by a broad audience.

On Canada's Pacific coast this film finds a young Haida artist, Robert Davidson, shaping miniature totems from argillite, a jet-like stone. The film follows the artist to the island where he finds the stone, and then shows how he carves it in the manner of his grandfather, who taught him the craft.

A short film about Lapland