French Weird

Épisodes

• 
  Breton Folk Horror: Fairies, Found Footage and Arthur Machen 08.09.2026 1h 1min

  In this episode of French Weird we recall holiday travel to Brittany and explore Korriganed, a 2016 French "docufiction" film by Gaël Bizien that plays like a Celtic The Blair Witch Project. With your host Russell Williams, examine the Korrigan myth through Robert Kirk's 17th-century writing on fairy abductions, bizarre pop-culture crossovers like a 2011 Batman comic set in the Paris catacombs and traditional Breton folk tales of tricksters and night dancers. Finally, we embrace into the weir...
• 
  The Spy behind The Fly: George Langelaan and David Cronenberg 24.08.2026 45min

  In this episode of French Weird, host Russell Williams explores the fascinating, myth-laden life and fiction of Franco-British author George Langelaan (1908–1972). Best known as the author of "La Mouche"/"The Fly" (1957), the short story adapted into David Cronenberg’s iconic 1986 body-horror film, Langelaan lived a life that rivalled his most eccentric fiction. We unpack his World War Two career as a Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent, the bizarre claim that he underwent facial r...
• 
  The Morning of the Magicians: Fantastic Realism, Alchemy and the Occult 11.08.2026 49min

  In this episode host Russell Williams thinks about Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier's book Le Matin des magiciens (1960), translated into English as The Morning of the Magicians or The Dawn of Magic. This is a book that Colin Wilson described as "a curious hodgepodge", "a series of wild speculations on magic; alchemy, telepathy, prophecy, strange cults, the Great Pyramid, Hitler's astrologers, the Cabala, flying saucers and a thousand other topics". He's not wrong. For more information, visi...
• 
  What's Weird about Michel Houellebecq? Lovecraft and beyond 28.07.2026 46min

  In our first deep exploration, French Weird discovers the unexpected Weird in the work of notorious novelist Michel Houellebecq. Our starting point is his devotion to the work of a certain H. P. Lovecraft. For more information, visit www.frenchweird.com Reading list Houellebecq, Michel. Whatever. Translated by Paul Hammond, Serpent’s Tail, 1998. Houellebecq, Michel. H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life. Translated by Dorna Khazeni, Believer Books, 2005. Houellebecq, Michel. ...
• 
  An Introduction to French Weird 28.07.2026 20min

  This is where it all begins. Your host, Russell Williams, gives an overview of the sort of things you might expect from French Weird. For more information, visit www.frenchweird.com Forget the accordion music, the cafés and the immaculate boulevards. There is a dark, uncanny and deeply strange texture pervading modern France—and it’s time to investigate. Welcome to French Weird, a podcast dedicated to exploring the counterculture, obscure art and bizarre anomalies of contemporary Franc...