I’m indebted to a friend for pointing out the folk horror nature of the 1977 UK children’s television series Children of the Stones, broadcast on ITV. Folk horror is firmly tied to place and often involves ancient religions clashing with modern ones. The term was coined to describe three horror movies of the late sixties and early seventies: Witchfinder General, The Blood on Satan’s Claw, and The Wicker Man. Most discussions don’t go as far as to include children’s programming, but they should. Children of the Stones consists of seven half-hour episodes which can be, thankfully, found freely on the internet. Set in the fictional Milbury, but filmed in the actual Avebury, the story revolves around the famous stone circle located there. Astrophysics Professor Adam Blake and his teenage son Matthew travel to Milbury for research but soon find themselves in a disturbing scenario.
Nearly all of the villagers are incapable of experiencing negative emotions. What’s more, they can never leave the stone circle. The stones possess a great energy and Matthew is psychometric—he can sense accurate knowledge of a place or time by touching an object associated with a person at that place and time. His father, naturally, is skeptical, but when Matthew and his new friend Sandra realize their friend Kevin has changed—he is one of the Happy Ones and suddenly very good at higher mathematics—they piece together a cosmic mystery that involves the stone circle, an ancient religion, and astronomical events from long ago. There are many horror elements along the way. People are turned to stone. Villagers are brainwashed. Nobody can leave. The soundtrack was deliberately disturbing as well. The solution ends up involving time loops as well, so this is heady stuff.
Since the series clocks in at three-and-a-half hours, it really doesn’t fit movie length. At least not comfortably. And it contains fairly disturbing themes for children. Then again, children tend to like scary things; parents are the ones to object to it. Building on the mythology of the druids and the megalithic structures in and around Avebury, the series maintains a fascination for adults, even if the action is set at kid level. I was able to get it watched in a week since the episodes allowed for natural breaks in the story. If my friend hadn’t pointed it out to me, I’d probably never have discovered it on my own. It’s a pity it isn’t discussed more by those who analyze folk horror. It is, after all, fun for kids of all ages.
