The Routledge Companion to Folk Horror offers a comprehensive guide to this popular genre. It explores its origins, canonical texts and thinkers, the crucial underlying themes of nostalgia and hauntology, and identifies new trends in the field.
Divided into five parts, the first focuses on the history of Folk Horror from medieval texts to the present day. It considers the first wave of contemporary Folk Horror through the films of the ‘unholy trinity’, as well as discussing the influence of ancient gods and early Folk Horror. Part 2 looks at the spaces, landscapes, and cultural relics, which form a central focus for Folk Horror. In Part 3, the contributors examine the rich history of the use of folklore in children’s fiction. The next part discusses recent examples of Folk Horror-infused music and image. Chapters consider the relationship between different genres of music to Folk Horror (such as folk music, black metal, and new wave), sound and performance, comic books, and the Dark Web. Often regarded as British in origin, the final part analyses texts which break this link, as the contributors reveal the larger realms of regional, national, international, and transnational Folk Horror.
Featuring 40 contributions, this authoritative collection brings together leading voices in the field. It is an invaluable resource for students and scholars interested in this vibrant genre and its enduring influence on literature, film, music, and culture.
The Routledge Companion to Folk Horror offers a comprehensive guide to this popular genre. It explores its origins, canonical texts and thinkers, the crucial underlying themes of nostalgia and hauntology, as well as identifying new trends in the field.
Arvustused
The Best Non-Fiction Book in 2023, RUE MORGUE
'[ T]his is everything one could possibly want from a book on this subject. . . . [ I]t could be summed up as your definitive academic guide to folk horror extensive in scope, measured in selection of topics, profound in analysis, serious in approach but accessible to general readership' - Dejan Ognjanovic, Rue Morgue, #216, Jan/Feb 2024.
This is an excellent book packed full of instructive and informative text. - Gordon Rutter, Fortean Times 448, 2024
Introduction Robert Edgar and Wayne Johnson
PART I: Origins and Histories
1 Fear of the World: Folk Horror in Early British Literature Christopher
Flavin
2 The Early Modern Popular Demonic and the Foundations of Twentieth Century
British Folk Horror Brendan Walsh
3 Banished to Woods and a Sickly Moon: The Old Gods in Folk Horror Katy
Soar
4 I Am the Writing on the Wall, the Whisper in the Classroom: The Changing
Conception of the Folk in the Western Folk Horror Tradition Craig Thomson
5 M.R. James and Folk Horror Darryl Jones
6 Leave Something Witchy: Evolving Representations of Cults and New
Religious Movements in Folk Horror Miranda Corcoran
7 The Spectacle of the Uncanny Revel: Thomas Hardys Mephistophelian
Visitants and Folk Provenance Alan G. Smith
8 Were Not in the Middle Ages: Alan Garners Folk Horror Medievalism
Charlotte Runcie
PART II: Folk Horror Landscapes and Relics
9 Terror in the Landscape: Folk Horror in the Stories of M.R. James Peter
Bell
10 Folk Horror, HS2, and the Disenchanted Woods John Miller
11 Mind the Doors! Characterising the London Underground on Screen as a Folk
Horror Space David Evans-Powell
12 Queer Folk: The Danger of Being Different Beth Kattelman
13 Out of the Dust: Folk Horror and the Urban Wyrd in Too Old to Die Young
and Other Works by Nicolas Winding Refn David Sweeney
14 Meeting the Gorse Mother: Feminist Approaches to Folk Horror in
Contemporary British Fiction Catherine Spooner
15 Handicrafts of Evil: The Make-Culture of Folk Horror Ruth Heholt
16 Restoring Relics: (Re)-releasing Antrum (2018) and Film as Folk Horror
Lauren Stephenson
PART III: Hauntology, Childhood, and Nostalgia
17 Yesterdays Memories of Tomorrow: Nostalgia, Hauntology, and Folk Horror
Andy Paciorek
18 Ghosts in the Machine: Folklore and Technology On-screen in Ghostwatch
(1992) and Host (2020) Diane A. Rodgers
19 The Pattern Under the Plough: Folk Horror in 1970s British Childrens
Television Douglas McNaughton
20 This Calm, Serene Orb: A Personal Recollection of the Comforting
Strangeness Found in the Worlds of Smallfilms Jez Conolly
21 To Traumatise Kids for Life: The Influence of Folk Horror on 1970s
Childrens Television Jon Towlson
22 That Haunted Feeling: Analogue Memories Bob Fischer
23 Dont Be Frightened. I Told You We Were Privileged: The British Class
System in Televised Folk Horror of the 1970s Stephen Brotherstone
24 The 4:45 Club: Folk Horror Before Teatime in the 1970s and 1980s Dave
Lawrence
PART IV: Sound and Image in Folk Horror
25 The Idyllic Horrific: Field, Farm, Garden, Forest, and Machine Julianne
Regan
26 And the Devil He Came to the Farmer at Plough: November, Folk Horror and
Folk Music Richard D. Craig
27 Sounding Folk Horror and the Strange Rural Julian Holloway
28 Sounds of Our Past: The Electronic Music that Links Folk Horror and
Hauntology Jason D. Brawn
29 Even in Death: The Folk Horror Chain in Black Metal Joseph S. Norman
30 Toward Squire Horror: Genesis 1972-1973 Benjamin Halligan
31 Patterns beneath the Grid: The Haunted Spaces of Folk Horror Comics
Barbara Chamberlin
32 From the Fibres, from the Forums, from the Fringe: Folk Horror from the
Deep, Dark Web Max Jokschus
PART V: Regionality, Nationality, and Transnationality
33 The Dark Is Here: The Third Day and Folk Horrors Anxiety about Birth
Rates, Immigration, and Race Dawn Keetley
34 Hinterlands and SPAs: Folk Horror and Neo-liberal Desolation Robert Edgar
35 Why Dont You Go Home?: The Folk Horror Revival in Contemporary Cornish
Gothic Films Andrew M. Butler
36 Satire and the Folk Horror Revival Adam James Smith
37 English Nationalism, Folklore, and Indigeneity Matthew Cheeseman
38 Bound by Elusiveness: Transnational Cinema and Folk Horror Keith McDonald
39 Strange Permutations, Eerie Dis/locations: On the Cultural and Geographic
Specificity of Japanese Folk Horror James Thurgill
40 All the Little Devils are Proud of Hell: The First Wave of Australian
Folk Horror Adam Spellicy
Robert Edgar is Professor of Writing and Popular Culture at York St John University, UK. His publications include The Language of Film, Second Edition (with John Marland and Steven Rawle 2015), Adaptation for Scriptwriters (with John Marland 2019), and Thomas Hardy and the Folk Horror Tradition (with Alan G. Smith and John Marland 2023).
Wayne Johnson is Senior Lecturer in Media and Film Studies at York St John University, UK. He is the co-author of Contemporary Gothic and Horror Film: Transnational Perspectives (with Keith McDonald 2021).
