Ah, St. Patrick’s Day, when most people’s fancies turn to thoughts of corned beef, green beer, and leprechauns, and mine turn to thoughts of…Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments. Whether you believe the ancient stone circles, dolmens, cairns, and passage tombs scattered across Ireland, Britain, and Brittany were ritual sites, meeting points for ley lines, astronomical clocks, alien landing strips, or just a bunch of rocks our ancient ancestors decided to rearrange for the hell of it, they’re truly awe-inspiring.

Inner Circle at Callanish

It’s no surprise that directors have made use of these dramatic landscapes in films and TV. Starz’ Outlander has nudged stone circles into the greater consciousness by featuring the incredible Callanish stone circle on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, which stands in for the fictional circle Craigh na Duhn, through which Claire travels back in time. Callanish was also the model for the beautiful stone circle in Brave.

Here are a few more video options if you’ve got a jones for the stones. Fair warning: they’re a lot of fun, but don’t expect the production values of Outlander or Brave from any of them.

Children of the Stones

Children of the Stones is a seven-part miniseries released in 1977 in England by HTV West. Filmed on location at the Avebury site, which consists of three circles, a henge, and other monuments, and the town of Avebury, located in the middle of the circles, the story centers around an astrophysicist (Adam Brake) and his son (Peter Demin). The two come to the town—renamed Milbury and reputed to be a hotbed of psychic activity sitting on the confluence of several ley lines—in hopes of using science to unravel the mystery of the energetic anomalies in the area. But soon they realize there’s something creepy going on: the townsfolk are unnaturally happy, the children are unnaturally smart, and something very unnatural appears to be behind it all. It becomes even more frightening when they discover that it’s far easier to arrive at Milbury than to leave it.

Although the series is a bit talky and was developed for kids and the special effects are on par with ‘70s-era Dr. Who, the performances are strong, and the plot is complex enough to hold adult interest. The tension builds nicely to an ending that’s a bit of a cop-out, but is so refreshingly different from almost anything else out there that it’s well worth it.

The Stones of Blood

Speaking of ‘70s-era Dr. Who, they say every girl remembers her first love, and I think every geek girl remembers her first Doctor. Mine was Tom Baker, who in the 1978 Stones of Blood series faces off against the Nine Travelers, a real circle of standing stones on Boscombe Moor in Cornwall. Naturally, it being Dr. Who, there’s a twist; the stones pulse with inner light, are able to move by themselves, and kill people by sucking their blood. The scene where the Doctor evades one of the stones by standing at the edge of a cliff and stepping aside as the stone attacks, causing it to plunge over the edge, is particularly hilarious. Apparently mobile standing stones aren’t that smart and are as stair-impaired as early Daleks.

As if carnivorous rocks weren’t enough, the Doctor also has to fend off worshippers of the Cailleach (a hag deity in the folklore of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man) and the enigmatic Vivienne Fay, played by Susan Engel. But he’s helped by an archeologist, the delightful Beatrix Lehmann, who takes all this weirdness in stride. Like Children of the Stones, this series takes a bizarre turn at the end, but it’s well worth watching for the cheese factor, Tom Baker’s verbal gymnastics, and the story’s novel weaving together of strands of folklore.

Rawhead Rex

Keeping up the theme of schlocky special effects is 1986’s Rawhead Rex, a so-bad-it’s-kinda-sorta-good movie based on a much better story by Clive Barker. Rumor has it Barker was so upset about how the film came out that he was inspired to become more involved in the production of Hellraiser than he’d planned.

In the story, an American writer (David Dukes) takes his family to Ireland to research Irish churches built on or near ancient stone circles. While the family is in a small town, a farmer moves a standing stone in his nearby field and unwittingly releases Rawhead Rex, an ancient demon-monster from pre-Christian times. Rex tears and munches his way through the villagers until the climactic faceoff between him and a character you wouldn’t expect wielding a weapon you’re not going to see in any other movie. Like Stones of Blood, this story goes to some unexpected places.

Rex’s special effects—especially the moment when Rex is released from beneath the standing stone—are laughably bad. He looks like a rejected member of Gwar pretending to be the Kurgan from Highlander, and I’m pretty sure he can’t close his mouth completely. There are leaps of logic and weird edits that make parts of the film jarring, but like both Children of the Stones and Stones of Blood, it makes creative use of both folklore and the standing stones. Recommended if you’re a fan of campy, bloody horror and you can actually round up a copy.

Honorable Mentions

Including Curse of the Demon in a group of films featuring standing stones is a bit of a stretch, because it includes an extremely short shot of Stonehenge, and that’s it. But I’m mentioning it because it’s a great movie. Skeptical Dr. John Holden (Dana Andrews) goes to a symposium on the supernatural in London and runs afoul of Julian Karswell (Nial MacGuiness), who may or may not have cursed him by slipping him a paper containing a line of mysterious runes. As weird things start happening around him, Holden becomes more of a believer and races to trick Karswell into taking the runes back before the curse is fulfilled. Modern audiences may find the special effects a bit quaint, but they were cutting-edge for the time, and they’re used in a way that increases the tension well. The visuals in the film overall are quite lovely. Rumor has it that the character Karswell was based on the infamous Aleister Crowley.

The 1972 film The Stone Tape also has a tenuous connection at best to standing stones, but the ideas it explores are very similar to theories some people hold about the ancient monuments. Jill Greely (Jane Asher) and a team of researchers are working to try to discover a new recording medium in an old Victorian house when Jill sees a ghost. One of Jill’s teammates believes it’s a psychic impression etched into the stone of the house and begins to investigate, to disastrous results. This film moves a bit slowly, but it has some genuinely creepy moments, and the conceit behind it is quite unique.

Last, But Definitely Not Least

I’m fond of all the films in this post, but my favorite standing stone video of all time comes from Ylvis—essentially the Norwegian Flight of the Conchords—who are also responsible for the diehard earworm “What Does the Fox Say?” American audiences may be far more familiar with the Stonehenge song from Spinal Tap, but Ylvis takes the cake with this opus, simply called “Stonehenge.”