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Wolves and green children feature in new folklore film

Alice CunninghamSuffolk
Scott Godding An actress in prosthetic makeup to make her look like a wolf. She wears a wig of long dark hair that has been teased and made to look big and bushy.Scott Godding
Once Upon a Time in Suffolk features a twist on the classic fairytale Red Riding Hood and includes the wolf

A new film will pull together a county's folklore involving demonic hounds, wolves and children with green skin.

FILM Suffolk is due to release its third anthology feature film titled Once Upon a Time in Suffolk and was created entirely with volunteers.

One of the producers, Julien Mery, 44, said the county was "rich" in folklore, myths and legends and felt it was only right to honour that in their next film.

The film will premiere on 4 September at Abbeygate Cinema in Bury St Edmunds and features the tales of the Black Shuck, the Green Children of Woolpit and more.

FILM Suffolk Four men stand in front of a woman who is sitting in an armchair. They are smiling at the camera and standing in front of a green screen.FILM Suffolk
Julien Mery (left) produced the film alongside Matthew McGuchan (middle) and Nick Woolgar (right) and worked with story editor Ruth Selwyn-Crome

Mery explained the project was launched in March 2023 with a callout for scripts on the theme of folklore.

They received about 100 submissions which had to be whittled down to just a few for the film.

"Suffolk is so rich in folklore, myths and legends," Mery explained.

"We thought we would really do the county a disservice if we didn't give a nod to that and we did find so many submissions of people who had great ideas, discovering myths that we weren't even aware of that are told across the county.

"It's really lovely to pay tribute and homage to those."

Royal Mail An illustration of the Black Shuck dog that has been included on the new Royal Mail stamps. A large black dog can be seen howling with a church behind it during a storm.Royal Mail
Black Shuck was said to have burst into St Mary's Church in Bungay and went on to kill some of the congregation in 1577

The film has a storyteller that introduces the various stories within the film and then takes the viewer from chapter to chapter to explore them.

Each chapter centres around a protagonist who has to navigate that world and the stories span the ages.

Mery said the film indirectly features Black Shuck — a terrifying hellhound said to have traumatised villages in East Anglia.

In 1577, according to one account, the beast broke into a Bungay church and killed two people.

Nick Cooper A behind the scenes image from a film set. A camera on the left hand side of the image pointed toward three actors. One actor wears a top hat and green suit. Another has short red hair and wears a dark waistcoat with a white shirt underneath. The other actress has red hair that has been tied back and she wears a brown jacket with a white blouse underneath.Nick Cooper
The film will be shown in cinemas across the region including in Lowestoft, Halesworth and Colchester

The Green Children of Woolpit, a pair with green skin who were found in the village in about 1150 speaking gibberish, also feature.

The boy sadly died, but the girl reportedly survived and lost her green colour. It is believed they were actually Flemish immigrants.

But Mery said the film also had a modern twist on Rapunzel and Red Riding Hood.

"There's a real good mix which is really engaging for lovers of folklore and fairy tales as well as families and also some slightly darker chapters as well for some thrills," he added.

Nicholas Smith A film set in a field at dusk. There is a large sculpture of a man towering above the film set. People hold microphones and other filming equipment.Nicholas Smith
One of the stories within the film was shot at Suffolk's Yoxman figure at Yoxford near Saxmundham

Mery said it was "exciting" to have the finished film which involved more than 200 people from across East Anglia.

"We're really excited to showing it to those people [at Abbeygate Cinema], in the first instance, but also with the wider world and all the lovely people of East Anglia who have already started booking up seats for the upcoming premieres and screenings, and it's really exciting.

"We really love the fact that people are so enthusiastic about this."

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