Good evening my fish god obsessed cultists and welcome back to the Folk Horror Revival podcast spotlight. Firstly, I must apologize for being away so long. Christmas gluttony, frontline worker levels of tiredness and a weird case of podcast rabbit holes has kept me away. I’m back now so let’s see what we have this week: Bone and Sickle.
I believe that this particular podcast will be quite familiar with a lot of us already but for those of you who don’t know here’s a little background. Presented by folklorist Al Ridenour with his co-host Sarah Chavez, Bone and Sickle tackles stories of folklore and horror that pulls information from a wide variety of sources to give you a unique look at topics from multiple perspectives. Al covers historical, mythological, cultural and contemporary angles as he explores subjects of ghosts, devils, fairies, possessed nuns and other phenomena. I listened to a few episodes but the once concerning Banshee’s is a great example as I also covered The Irish Folklore Podcasts episode about her as well. Whereas the Folklore podcast was a fantastic academic discussion of the Banshee with lots of discussion on its history and theories on its evolution we have something totally different here. Al discusses the mythology surrounding her and Sarah does some great readings of some interesting stories and legends involving her. The episode wraps up with The Banshee on film, which to be honest I’d never given much thought to but it was great to hear especially with the audio clips included. I must watch that old Disney film one day.
On a side note I must comment on how good the presentation of this show is! You can tell that a lot of work goes into each episode. Not only through all the research and audio clips but the sound and production quality is great.
Folk Horror Revival & Urban Wyrd Project ⨘ 