Clan
2022 · 13m
Directed by Claudia Lee
Genres: drama, horror, thriller
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
After a sudden death in the family, a woman travels to her mother's childhood home in rural Scotland seeking closure, and discovers her family belonged to an ancient pagan community that wants to recruit her.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a folk-horror premise that feels like it's been done, except Lee leans into genuine ambiguity about whether the pagan recruitment is supernatural threat or just family pressure—which is actually more unsettling than jump scares, but also kind of conventional for an art-house short.
Lee positions this within the lineage of British folk horror (Lair of the White Worm, The Wicker Man's DNA) while maintaining formal control—the Scottish landscape becomes a character through deliberate composition, and the slow reveal of the mother's mythology is structured with the precision of a folktale being retold.
The film hangs entirely on the moment the protagonist realizes her mother's past is being *offered* to her as inheritance rather than escaped, and Lee holds that emotional pivot without underlining it—a quiet choice that makes the horror personal instead of external.