Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange

Adam Scovell’s study examines how folk horror has developed across British film, television and multimedia from the latter half of the 20th century onwards. It places landscape, rural life, folklore, occultism and shifting ideas of the ‘wyrd’ at the centre of the genre’s disturbing imaginative power.

A substantial section considers Witchfinder General, The Blood on Satan’s Claw and The Wicker Man as an interconnected trilogy, while later chapters examine topography, rurality, hauntology and urban settings. The book also traces folk horror into modern work, including Ben Wheatley’s Kill List, showing how older beliefs and cultural anxieties continue to shape contemporary screen horror.