Cherokee Folklore Horror Tale “Spearfinger” Being Adapted for Film

Horror movies based on folklore, like The Curse of La Llorona, Onibaba, or The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, tend to tap into primal fears we have about the unknown and the supernatural. Now, one of the more frightful creatures from Cherokee folklore will be making her way to the big screen, according to Deadline.

Spearfinger, about a witch who eats human livers, is being adapted for film by the writer/producer team of Skyler Caleb, Woodrow Hancock and James Zimbardi of All Roads Production.

The thriller tells the story of Spearfinger, or U’tlun’ta, a figure in Cherokee legend that lived along the subrange of the Appalachians, also called the Great Smoky Mountains. “U’tlun’ta”, which translates from Cherokee to “she had it sharp”, refers to the sharp finger on the figure’s right hand. As the legend goes, the sharp finger resembled a spear or obsidian knife, which she used to cut her victims and devour their livers. Hancock, who has family in the Appalachian Mountains, first heard the legend of Spearfinger while hiking the Appalachian Trail. This will be the first time the story of Spearfinger is brought to the screen.

Filming for Spearfinger will start in February 2020 and will be filmed on location in the Appalachian Mountains.

So if you’re hiking the Appalachian Trail (in February?) and you run across a woman with spears for fingers, well, either you’ve stumbled onto the movie set or you’re in serious trouble.

You’ll find out soon enough!

Photo: Brian Stansberry, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.