Year 3: The Scholar

ST304 Modern Eco-Horror and Folk Horror

Folk horror as Mark Gatiss named it and Adam Scovell theorised it, from Witchfinder General to Midsommar and In the Earth; eco-horror from Area X to the Shimmer; and the folk horror comics of the 2010s, Harrow County and Wytches. The module asks what the two modes are, how they differ, and whether Swamp Thing belongs to either, both, or neither.

6 lessons 6 units 2 assignments

Introduction

Two labels have come to organise the horror of the last fifteen years. Folk horror, a term Mark Gatiss used in his 2010 BBC series A History of Horror for an "unholy trinity" of British films (Witchfinder General, 1968; The Blood on Satan's Claw, 1971; The Wicker Man, 1973), was theorised by Adam Scovell in 2017 as a "chain" of four links: landscape, isolation, skewed belief, and a climactic happening. Eco-horror, as ST204 showed, was named in 2014 and consolidated in 2021. Both modes are about the land and what it does to people; they differ on whether the horror is human (a community, a belief) or nonhuman (an ecology, a force).

This module reads the founding films, the modern revivals (Midsommar, 2019; In the Earth, 2021), the eco-horror of Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation (2014) and Alex Garland's film (2018), and two comics that brought folk horror to the page: Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook's Harrow County (2015 to 2018) and Scott Snyder and Jock's Wytches (2014). Swamp Thing is the module's test case throughout: a Louisiana swamp, a community, a belief system (the Green), a happening (every transformation). Does the chain fit? Does the creature belong to folk horror, to eco-horror, or to a third thing the course has been describing since ST101?

The assignments are a close reading of a folk horror comic's first issue with the chain, and a research essay on whether Swamp Thing is folk horror.

Learning objectives

  • Explain folk horror as a term, a canon and a theory, with verified sources.
  • Apply Scovell's folk horror chain to films and comics.
  • Distinguish folk horror from eco-horror and identify their overlap.
  • Analyse modern revivals of both modes on screen and page.
  • Read folk horror comics (Harrow County, Wytches) with the ST104 vocabulary.
  • Argue a position on Swamp Thing's relation to both modes.

Lessons

Unit 1: Week 1: Naming folk horror

Gatiss, Scovell, and the chain.

  1. Naming folk horrorA term from a documentary, a theory from a book, and a chain of four links.120 min

Unit 2: Week 2: The unholy trinity

Witchfinder General, The Blood on Satan's Claw, The Wicker Man.

  1. The unholy trinityThree films, 1968 to 1973, and what they share and do not.180 min

Unit 3: Week 3: The revival

Midsommar and In the Earth.

  1. The folk horror revivalAri Aster's Swedish commune and Ben Wheatley's pandemic forest: folk horror made after the category existed.150 min

Unit 4: Week 4: Area X

Annihilation, book and film.

  1. Area X: Annihilation, book and filmVanderMeer's novel and Garland's film as the decade's central eco-horror, and their kinship with the Green.180 min

Unit 5: Week 5: Folk horror comics

Harrow County and Wytches.

  1. Harrow County and WytchesThe chain on the page: a girl and her haints, a family and the woods, and what comics do with folk horror that film cannot.180 min Sample

Unit 6: Week 6: Is Swamp Thing folk horror?

Synthesis and the essay.

  1. Is Swamp Thing folk horror?The chain, the ecohorror definitions and the run, brought together for the essay.150 min

Core texts

Secondary reading

Assessment

Two assessed pieces. The first is a close reading of Harrow County #1 or Wytches #1 with the folk horror chain. The second is a research essay on whether Swamp Thing is folk horror, requiring at least four secondary sources.

ST304-A1: Close reading: a folk horror comic's first issue

Read Harrow County #1 or Wytches #1 closely with Scovell's folk horror chain. Where does each link do its work on the page, and what does the comic do that the chain, built from film, does not name? Use the ST104 vocabulary for the page.

Length
2000 words (1800 to 2200)
Sources
Primary source plus optional secondary research. Primary source plus optional secondary reading. One issue, read on the page.

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ST304-A2: Essay: is Swamp Thing folk horror?

Is Swamp Thing folk horror, eco-horror, both, or something older than either name? Argue a position using at least five issues from the run, Scovell's chain and the ecohorror definitions cited by page, and at least four secondary sources. You may argue that the question is malformed, provided you say what the right category is.

Length
2500 words (2250 to 2750)
Sources
Research assignment, minimum 4 secondary sources. Research assignment. At least four credible secondary sources including Scovell and one work of ecohorror scholarship; MHRA with page numbers.

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Source requirements

Assignment 1 is primary source plus optional secondary reading. Assignment 2 is a research assignment: at least four credible secondary sources, including Scovell and at least one work of ecohorror scholarship.