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Future Folk Horror

Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures

Edited by Simon Bacon - Foreword by Dawn Keetley - Contributions by M. Keith Booker; Vicky Brewster; Stephen Butler; Garret L. Castleberry; Lauryn E. Collins; Stephanie Ellis; Tracy Fahey; Gemma Files; Phil Fitzsimmons; Sandra García Gutiérrez; Danielle Garcia-Karr; Reece Goodall; Brandon R. Grafius; Kit Hawkins; Howard David Ingham; Paul A. J. Lewis; Kingsley Marshall; Conner McAleese; David Norris; Jimmy Packham and James Rose

Future Folk Horror: Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures analyzes folk horror by looking at its recent popularity in novels and films such as The Ritual (2011), The Witch (2015), and Candyman (2021). Countering traditional views of the genre as depictions of the monstrous, rural, and pagan past trying to consume the present, the contributors to this collection posit folk horror as being able to uniquely capture the anxieties of the twenty-first century, caused by an ongoing pandemic and the divisive populist politics that have arisen around it. Further, this book shows how, through its increasing intersections with other genres such as science fiction, the weird, and eco-criticism as seen in films and texts like The Zero Theorum (2013), The Witcher (2007–2021), and Annihilation (2018) as well as through its engagement with topics around climate change, racism, and identity politics, folk horror can point to other ways of being in the world and visions of possible futures.

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Lexington Books
Pages: 346 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-66692-123-6 • Hardback • July 2023 • $120.00 • (£92.00)
978-1-66692-124-3 • eBook • July 2023 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Series: Lexington Books Horror Studies
Subjects: Social Science / Popular Culture, Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism, Social Science / Media Studies

Simon Bacon is an independent scholar and film critic based in Poznań, Poland.

Section One:

Framing the Past to Make the Present

Chapter 1: “Buried”: Folk Horror as Retrieval

Tracy Fahey

Part I: The Folklore of British Folk Horror

Chapter 2. Secret Powers of Attraction: Folk Horror in its Cultural Context

Howard David Ingham

Chapter 3. A Battlefield in England: Folk Horror and War

Jimmy Packham

Chapter 4. Live Horror Theatre, Nostalgia and Folklore

David Norris

Chapter 5. Frayed Strands Entwined: Considering 21st Century Folk Horror

James Rose

Part II: America, Settlers, And Belonging

Chapter 6. Palimpsests and Other Texts: Christianity and Pre-Modern Religions in Folk Horror

Brandon R. Grafius

Chapter 7. “There’s some weird shit going on in the woods”: Landscape, Cults, and Folklore in the Films of Chad Crawford Kinkle and Andy Mitton

Paul A. J. Lewis

Chapter 8. Fae Fight Back: Monstrous Mycelium and post-Colonial Gothic in The Hallow

Kit Hawkins

Section Two:

Facing Backward Whilst Looking Forward

Part III: Cultural Positionings

Chapter 9. Early American Colonial Violence and Folk Horror: Wrong Turn, a 21st Century Interpretation

Connor McAleese

Chapter 10. Wendigo Tales: Climate Gothic and Indigenous Resistance in Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Crusted Snow

Lauryn E. Collins

Chapter 11. A Locus of the Old and New in Australian Folk Horror Cinema: The Transnational, Transcultural and Transtextual Narratives in The Witches of Blackwood

Phil Fitzsimmons

Chapter 12. A Multi-contextual Analysis of the Future of Folk Horror in Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth

Jon R. Meyers

Chapter 13. Who Makes the Hood?: The City, Community, and Contemporary Folk Horror in Nia DaCosta’s Candyman

Kingsley Marshall

Part IV: Identity

Chapter 14. Non-normativity in Female Centered Folk Horror Literature

Stephanie Ellis

Chapter 15. (In)Visible Women: Folk Horror in the Spanish Anthology of Fairy Tales Ni Aqui ni en Ningún Otro Lugar (2021) by Patricia Esteban Erlés

Sandra Garcia Gutiérrez

Chapter 16. Speculative Folk Horror and Reclaiming Monsters in Cherríe Moraga’s The Hungry Woman

Danielle Garcia-Karr

Chapter 17. “I wish, please, to live”: Religion and Rewilding in Michel Faber’s Ecohorror

Vicky Brewster

Part V: Intersections and Futures

Chapter 18. “Nigh is the time of Madness and Disdain” Folk Horror in The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Stephen Butler

Chapter 19. A Horror Film for Our Times: Annihilation as Weird Folk Eco-Horror

M. Keith Booker

Chapter 20. Future Shock Folk Horror in Terry Gilliam’s “The Zero Theorem”

Garrett Castleberry

Chapter 21. Folk Horror in Inside No. 9: “Mr King” and Contending Eco-narratives

Reece Goodall

The popularity of such films as The Witch (2015) and Midsommar (2019) signaled the arrival of an era of folk horror. This subgenre found its initial cinematic manifestation in the UK-produced Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971), Witchfinder General (1968), and The Wicker Man (1973). In his introduction to this collection editor Simon Bacon writes that these films feature a “location (landscape), which ... causes isolation ... produces a skewed moral or religious perspective, and ... ultimately leads to summoning or happening” (p. 2). Bacon realizes that such a definition is limiting and does not accurately reflect the current state of contemporary or even future folk horror, and he is not content to simply cobble together considerations of previously surveyed films. Rather he presses at the limits of what constitutes a scholarly volume. Along with the expected essays on canonical films, the reader will find a new short story reflective of the subgenre and haunting images termed “visual interventions” that bring an unexpected quality to the project. With essays on haunted attractions, The Witcher video game series, Spanish fairy tales, and regional horror cinema, this unique, noteworthy contribution to horror scholarship not only expands understanding of the subgenre, but also serves to direct the future of folk horror studies. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals.


— Choice Reviews


Future Folk Horror: Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures is an engaging, ambitious and wide-ranging volume with an impressive line-up of contributors. It should be of interest to anyone interested in contemporary folk horror or in the possibilities contained within its myriad future manifestations.


— Bernice M. Murphy, Trinity College Dublin


With its setup of exploring the genre’s origins to clarify its future, this fascinating anthology is an invaluable addition to the folk horror field of scholarship. It will no doubt appeal to folk and eco-horror students as a useful starting point of research, directing the reader towards key authorities such as Adam Scovell and his seminal work Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange (2017), as well as providing niche media recommendations. Furthermore, the diversity of essays constructs a uniquely global image of the genre within a single compilation, solidifying folk horror as a continuous ‘reservoir of myth, memory and the eerie’ (15).


— Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies


Future Folk Horror

Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures

Cover Image
Hardback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • Future Folk Horror: Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures analyzes folk horror by looking at its recent popularity in novels and films such as The Ritual (2011), The Witch (2015), and Candyman (2021). Countering traditional views of the genre as depictions of the monstrous, rural, and pagan past trying to consume the present, the contributors to this collection posit folk horror as being able to uniquely capture the anxieties of the twenty-first century, caused by an ongoing pandemic and the divisive populist politics that have arisen around it. Further, this book shows how, through its increasing intersections with other genres such as science fiction, the weird, and eco-criticism as seen in films and texts like The Zero Theorum (2013), The Witcher (2007–2021), and Annihilation (2018) as well as through its engagement with topics around climate change, racism, and identity politics, folk horror can point to other ways of being in the world and visions of possible futures.

Details
Details
  • Lexington Books
    Pages: 346 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½
    978-1-66692-123-6 • Hardback • July 2023 • $120.00 • (£92.00)
    978-1-66692-124-3 • eBook • July 2023 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
    Series: Lexington Books Horror Studies
    Subjects: Social Science / Popular Culture, Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism, Social Science / Media Studies
Author
Author
  • Simon Bacon is an independent scholar and film critic based in Poznań, Poland.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Section One:

    Framing the Past to Make the Present

    Chapter 1: “Buried”: Folk Horror as Retrieval

    Tracy Fahey

    Part I: The Folklore of British Folk Horror

    Chapter 2. Secret Powers of Attraction: Folk Horror in its Cultural Context

    Howard David Ingham

    Chapter 3. A Battlefield in England: Folk Horror and War

    Jimmy Packham

    Chapter 4. Live Horror Theatre, Nostalgia and Folklore

    David Norris

    Chapter 5. Frayed Strands Entwined: Considering 21st Century Folk Horror

    James Rose

    Part II: America, Settlers, And Belonging

    Chapter 6. Palimpsests and Other Texts: Christianity and Pre-Modern Religions in Folk Horror

    Brandon R. Grafius

    Chapter 7. “There’s some weird shit going on in the woods”: Landscape, Cults, and Folklore in the Films of Chad Crawford Kinkle and Andy Mitton

    Paul A. J. Lewis

    Chapter 8. Fae Fight Back: Monstrous Mycelium and post-Colonial Gothic in The Hallow

    Kit Hawkins

    Section Two:

    Facing Backward Whilst Looking Forward

    Part III: Cultural Positionings

    Chapter 9. Early American Colonial Violence and Folk Horror: Wrong Turn, a 21st Century Interpretation

    Connor McAleese

    Chapter 10. Wendigo Tales: Climate Gothic and Indigenous Resistance in Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Crusted Snow

    Lauryn E. Collins

    Chapter 11. A Locus of the Old and New in Australian Folk Horror Cinema: The Transnational, Transcultural and Transtextual Narratives in The Witches of Blackwood

    Phil Fitzsimmons

    Chapter 12. A Multi-contextual Analysis of the Future of Folk Horror in Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth

    Jon R. Meyers

    Chapter 13. Who Makes the Hood?: The City, Community, and Contemporary Folk Horror in Nia DaCosta’s Candyman

    Kingsley Marshall

    Part IV: Identity

    Chapter 14. Non-normativity in Female Centered Folk Horror Literature

    Stephanie Ellis

    Chapter 15. (In)Visible Women: Folk Horror in the Spanish Anthology of Fairy Tales Ni Aqui ni en Ningún Otro Lugar (2021) by Patricia Esteban Erlés

    Sandra Garcia Gutiérrez

    Chapter 16. Speculative Folk Horror and Reclaiming Monsters in Cherríe Moraga’s The Hungry Woman

    Danielle Garcia-Karr

    Chapter 17. “I wish, please, to live”: Religion and Rewilding in Michel Faber’s Ecohorror

    Vicky Brewster

    Part V: Intersections and Futures

    Chapter 18. “Nigh is the time of Madness and Disdain” Folk Horror in The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

    Stephen Butler

    Chapter 19. A Horror Film for Our Times: Annihilation as Weird Folk Eco-Horror

    M. Keith Booker

    Chapter 20. Future Shock Folk Horror in Terry Gilliam’s “The Zero Theorem”

    Garrett Castleberry

    Chapter 21. Folk Horror in Inside No. 9: “Mr King” and Contending Eco-narratives

    Reece Goodall

Reviews
Reviews
  • The popularity of such films as The Witch (2015) and Midsommar (2019) signaled the arrival of an era of folk horror. This subgenre found its initial cinematic manifestation in the UK-produced Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971), Witchfinder General (1968), and The Wicker Man (1973). In his introduction to this collection editor Simon Bacon writes that these films feature a “location (landscape), which ... causes isolation ... produces a skewed moral or religious perspective, and ... ultimately leads to summoning or happening” (p. 2). Bacon realizes that such a definition is limiting and does not accurately reflect the current state of contemporary or even future folk horror, and he is not content to simply cobble together considerations of previously surveyed films. Rather he presses at the limits of what constitutes a scholarly volume. Along with the expected essays on canonical films, the reader will find a new short story reflective of the subgenre and haunting images termed “visual interventions” that bring an unexpected quality to the project. With essays on haunted attractions, The Witcher video game series, Spanish fairy tales, and regional horror cinema, this unique, noteworthy contribution to horror scholarship not only expands understanding of the subgenre, but also serves to direct the future of folk horror studies. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals.


    — Choice Reviews


    Future Folk Horror: Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures is an engaging, ambitious and wide-ranging volume with an impressive line-up of contributors. It should be of interest to anyone interested in contemporary folk horror or in the possibilities contained within its myriad future manifestations.


    — Bernice M. Murphy, Trinity College Dublin


    With its setup of exploring the genre’s origins to clarify its future, this fascinating anthology is an invaluable addition to the folk horror field of scholarship. It will no doubt appeal to folk and eco-horror students as a useful starting point of research, directing the reader towards key authorities such as Adam Scovell and his seminal work Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange (2017), as well as providing niche media recommendations. Furthermore, the diversity of essays constructs a uniquely global image of the genre within a single compilation, solidifying folk horror as a continuous ‘reservoir of myth, memory and the eerie’ (15).


    — Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies


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