Neo-Rural Cinema: Roots of a New Wave in Film

Forget jump scares and masked maniacs. Apparently, the most genuinely terrifying cinematic moment of the year comes from a documentary about sheep. Max Keegan’s The Shepherd and the Bear, currently generating buzz, isn’t just a beautifully shot exploration of rural life; it’s tapping into a broader cultural shift. We’re seeing a surge in films that aren’t romanticizing the countryside, but rather presenting it as a space of genuine conflict – and, crucially, acknowledging that the real threat isn’t necessarily the people who live there.

This isn’t your grandmother’s pastoral cinema. Gone are the days of quaint villages and simple folk. Instead, we’re getting films like The Beasts, Alcarràs, and The Eight Mountains, which depict the countryside as a battleground – whether it’s over wind farms, peach groves, or simply differing ways of life. This is a deliberate move away from the tropes of earlier rural thrillers, where locals were often portrayed as inherently suspicious or menacing. Keegan, and filmmakers like him, are positioning nature itself as the source of the anxiety, a far more unsettling proposition.

The timing is also significant. The Ariège département’s ruralist revolt against bear culling laws provides a potent real-world backdrop to The Shepherd and the Bear. This isn’t escapism; it’s a direct reflection of the tensions simmering beneath the surface of rural communities. And the increasing number of filmmakers with direct ties to rural life – Francis Lee growing up on a farm, Louise Courvoisier splitting her time between filmmaking and cheesemaking – lends a crucial authenticity to these stories. It’s a rejection of the “outsider’s gaze” that often characterized earlier depictions of the countryside.

Interestingly, the UK seems particularly fixated on the darker side of rural life, evidenced by the explosion of folk-horror. The documentary The Last Sacrifice attempts to explain this phenomenon as a product of British insularity, but I suspect it’s also a reflection of a deeper cultural anxiety about the unknown and the untamed. While continental Europe seems more focused on the pragmatic realities of rural life – the struggle to survive, the conflict between tradition and progress – the UK is still grappling with ancient myths and a romanticized, yet fearful, vision of the countryside. This trend suggests a continued appetite for stories that explore the unsettling undercurrents of rural existence, and I expect we’ll see even more of this type of film in the coming years. The question is whether this fascination will remain contained within the horror genre, or if it will bleed into other areas of cinematic storytelling.

The Shepherd and the Bear is released in UK cinemas on 6 February.