The History of Folk Horror

Why are we so drawn to tales of haunted landscapes and ancient rituals? And what can these stories tell us about our own contemporary anxieties and fantasies? 

In this talk, Dr Billie Gavurin traces the history and significance of folk horror, from its roots in the late nineteenth century to its modern day revival. Long before the genre had a name, writers like Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood and E. F. Benson were already conjuring the fear of the ancient and the buried – often drawing on real archaeology and anthropology of the time. By the mid-to-late twentieth century, that unease found its way onto screen, with films like The Wicker Man and Penda's Fen defining cinematic folk horror. Today, the genre is having a resurgence, with books, films and TV turning back to the land as a source of both fear and fascination – and along the way, we'll encounter devouring trees, prehistoric ghosts, and some very violent gods.

Ultimately, we will consider what folk horror has to offer us today – and what it reveals about our uneasy, enduring relationship with the natural and nonhuman world.

Doors open at 7pm, talk starts at 7:30pm- come down early to grab a good seat!

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Speaker Bio:

Dr Billie Gavurin is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham. She is interested in the relationship between myth, folklore and evolutionary theory in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century culture. Her PhD at the University of Bristol focused on animal-human hybrids and Darwinism in Victorian culture, and she then worked as a lecturer there for two years. She is currently working on a research project about fantastical depictions of prehistoric humans between the 1850s and the 1950s. She has published articles on Algernon Blackwood and H. G. Wells, and her first monograph,Darwinian Monsters at the Fin de Siècle, is under contract for publication with Palgrave MacMillan. Billie is enthusiastic about research communication and public outreach - she has previously given public-facing talks at the University of Bristol, and in 2023 organised a free and open-to-all conference on the Greek god Pan and the Ecogothic. 

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