When Kiefer Sutherland’s character says to Amy Smart’s character “Hey cis”, the film is unlocked as a trans allegory. Sutherland plays a trans man evidenced by his continual taking of pills and his recent alienation from former friends who seemingly can’t accept who he is.

A cautionary tale about moving to a community that you know nothing about, buying someone’s foreclosed home, stealing or selling all the stuff that they left, using their personal effects and family photos to start making a documentary film about them without their consent, and recording their vulnerable father in a convalescent home without his permission.

An England riven by political division turns to superstitious persecution of people for the sadistic thrill of victimising an out-group. A charismatic leader makes money off his sadistic prejudice while commanding those less educated than him to bully, torture, and kill women.

Like the film’s wyrd combination of paganism and Christianity, it’s the combination of elements that elevates this early entry into what we’d now call the folk horror subgenre.

I watch this every year around this date and I would do so even if it were nothing but Maya Rudolph’s ‘Key Change’ song.