Folk horror brings the viewer back to ancient fears hidden in forests, abandoned villages, and old rituals. The lecture will discuss how pagan cults have seeped into cinema, why nature has become frightening on screen, and what stories about a wicked village or harvest victims say about our anxieties regarding the past and ourselves. The world around us is becoming increasingly technological, cities are growing, and screens are bathed in neon light, but as soon as the film's heroes find themselves in a remote village or dense forest, something ancient seems to thicken in the air. The viewer knows perfectly well that what is before them is fiction, yet the heart still stops when strange rituals, masks, altars, and the smiles of overly friendly locals appear on screen. The lecture will focus on folk horror-a genre that connects horror with folklore, rural communities, and mythology. Attendees will analyze how pagan cults and peasant legends give birth to the plots of modern films, where the motif of a closed community living by its own rules comes from, and why in such stories the outsider almost always ends up in the role of the victim. The focus will not only be on cinema but also on how it reflects the collective subconscious. Cultural scholar Arina Merzheevskaya will show how the image of nature in cinema has changed: from romantic landscapes to the figure of a hostile force that punishes humanity for its arrogance and forgotten sense of measure. Through examples from well-known films, it will become clear what archetypes hide behind scarecrows in the fields, terrifying harvest festivals, and night dances, as well as why it is so difficult for the viewer to look away from the screen ritual, even if it evokes disgust and horror. A separate block will be dedicated to how folk horror helps articulate modern fears. In such stories, themes of burnout, loss of connection to roots, anxiety about the future, and guilt towards nature emerge. The viewer may not believe in ancient gods and cursed groves, but they recognize themselves in the hero who realizes too late what the rules of this.