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

• Section One:Framing the Past to Make the PresentChapter 1: “Buried”: Folk Horror as RetrievalTracy FaheyPart I: The Folklore of British Folk HorrorChapter 2. Secret Powers of Attraction: Folk Horror in its Cultural ContextHoward David InghamChapter 3. A Battlefield in England: Folk Horror and WarJimmy PackhamChapter 4. Live Horror Theatre, Nostalgia and FolkloreDavid NorrisChapter 5. Frayed Strands Entwined: Considering 21st Century Folk HorrorJames RosePart II: America, Settlers, And BelongingChapter 6. Palimpsests and Other Texts: Christianity and Pre-Modern Religions in Folk HorrorBrandon R. GrafiusChapter 7. “There’s some weird shit going on in the woods”: Landscape, Cults, and Folklore in the Films of Chad Crawford Kinkle and Andy MittonPaul A. J. LewisChapter 8. Fae Fight Back: Monstrous Mycelium and post-Colonial Gothic in The Hallow Kit HawkinsSection Two:Facing Backward Whilst Looking ForwardPart III: Cultural PositioningsChapter 9. Early

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.

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

• Section One:Framing the Past to Make the PresentChapter 1: “Buried”: Folk Horror as RetrievalTracy FaheyPart I: The Folklore of British Folk HorrorChapter 2. Secret Powers of Attraction: Folk Horror in its Cultural ContextHoward David InghamChapter 3. A Battlefield in England: Folk Horror and WarJimmy PackhamChapter 4. Live Horror Theatre, Nostalgia and FolkloreDavid NorrisChapter 5. Frayed Strands Entwined: Considering 21st Century Folk HorrorJames RosePart II: America, Settlers, And BelongingChapter 6. Palimpsests and Other Texts: Christianity and Pre-Modern Religions in Folk HorrorBrandon R. GrafiusChapter 7. “There’s some weird shit going on in the woods”: Landscape, Cults, and Folklore in the Films of Chad Crawford Kinkle and Andy MittonPaul A. J. LewisChapter 8. Fae Fight Back: Monstrous Mycelium and post-Colonial Gothic in The Hallow Kit HawkinsSection Two:Facing Backward Whilst Looking ForwardPart III: Cultural PositioningsChapter 9. Early

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.

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

• Section One:Framing the Past to Make the PresentChapter 1: “Buried”: Folk Horror as RetrievalTracy FaheyPart I: The Folklore of British Folk HorrorChapter 2. Secret Powers of Attraction: Folk Horror in its Cultural ContextHoward David InghamChapter 3. A Battlefield in England: Folk Horror and WarJimmy PackhamChapter 4. Live Horror Theatre, Nostalgia and FolkloreDavid NorrisChapter 5. Frayed Strands Entwined: Considering 21st Century Folk HorrorJames RosePart II: America, Settlers, And BelongingChapter 6. Palimpsests and Other Texts: Christianity and Pre-Modern Religions in Folk HorrorBrandon R. GrafiusChapter 7. “There’s some weird shit going on in the woods”: Landscape, Cults, and Folklore in the Films of Chad Crawford Kinkle and Andy MittonPaul A. J. LewisChapter 8. Fae Fight Back: Monstrous Mycelium and post-Colonial Gothic in The Hallow Kit HawkinsSection Two:Facing Backward Whilst Looking ForwardPart III: Cultural PositioningsChapter 9. Early

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.