by Philip Jenkins Baylor University In a recent column at this site, I reported what I believe to be a significant find in the history of the folk horror genre, namely a 1961 television episode titled “Hay-Fork and Bill-Hook,” in Boris Karloff’s series Thriller. This was, I believe, the first ever folk horror ever to […]
by Philip Jenkins Baylor University The current fascination with folk horror as a genre began with British contributions in cinema and literature, and that focus is still obvious, despite all the efforts to broaden and globalize the narrative. Even today, the American part of the story is still seriously under-valued, particularly early writings that long […]
by Philip Jenkins Baylor University Folk horror is a major theme in the study of contemporary media and popular culture. Because it attracts so much attention, I am both surprised and pleased to say that I have discovered a significant reference to add to the discussion, one that I am pretty sure nobody else has […]
It’s a moment of uncanny serendipity in horror film history. The City of the Dead (re-named Horror Hotel in the US) – the first directorial project of Argentinian-born British director, John Llewellyn Moxey – was released in the UK in September 1960. Produced by Americans Milton Subotsky and Max J. Rosenberg, the film is generally […]
I recently came across a web-comic that satirised the premise of Breaking Bad. The gist of it is that Breaking Bad would never work in a country with free healthcare, since Walter White’s impetus for selling drugs is to cover the exorbitant cost of his cancer treatment. Now this is arguably an oversimplification, but it […]
Isaiah Frost Rivera Though his interest in ecohorror is largely attributed to the notoriously maligned The Happening (2008), M. Night Shyamalan has consistently displayed throughout his career a “fervent environmental activism” (Flasz). His films, which range from folk horrors such as The Village (2004) to sci-fi thrillers like After Earth (2013), often position the natural […]
Carina Stopenski Queer love is one that lives at the margins, and the power dynamic relationship, more commonly known as the BDSM relationship, is no exception. To be sexually abject, cast out to the margins of society, is typical in narratives of queer identity. When a power relationship is introduced, it adds an extra layer […]
Dawn Keetley British horror writer Bernard Taylor has been completely ignored in the recent swell of folk horror criticism. He is not mentioned, for instance, in Adam Scovell’s Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange (2017), my first go-to for folk horror (especially British). At least two of his novels, however, The Reaping (1980) and […]
R. L Stine’s The Haunting Hour is an excellent – and distinctly underrated youth horror series. It ran for four seasons from late in 2010 until 2014 on Discovery Family and should definitely be talked about more than it is. In this essay, I’m going to highlight some of the best episodes of the series – […]