a ghost story for solstice
I didn't do anything special for solstice this year. It's fairly hot in south west England - 24° C - and it'll only get hotter this week with highs of 34°.
I had a quiet day in, cooking and cleaning. I've been struggling with feeling stuck in a rut lately, which led me to experiment with a manifesto against ruminating, inspired by (but unrelated to because it is not about games) seeing entries [(1)] to manifesto jam 2026.
As a nod to the solstice I decided to watch some folk horror, A Warning To The Curious. It's actually a ghost story, a ghost story for Christmas even (inappropriate). But there are things that align it with folk horror - an old myth related to medieval Britain, an uncaring supernatural consequence, an English country side setting with a strong sense of place (East Anglia), somewhere bleak but nevertheless beautiful.
There are some lovely shots in the film, which sadly aren't available online and are terrible quality, possibly due to this being a made for tv film (so I guess we're lucky to have a copy at all).
You can't tell where the beach ends and the sky begins.
Despite it being a ghost story for Christmas the scariest thing is the ghost in broad daylight, the inevitable ghastliness of it (see also: the TV BBC version of the Woman in Black). That alone makes it suitable for the longest day of the year.