The Folk Horror Feeling

: exploring the sensory affect of Folk Horror onscreen

Abstract

Introducing the Folk Horror Feeling – a new framework with which to understand Folk Horror - this project will explore how screen texts within the subgenre can be sensorially felt, rather than categorically defined, unpicking the ‘feeling’ of uncertainty and dread that has been associated with Folk Horror in scholarship and popular discourse. Not only is this study the first in-depth intervention that combines the fields of Folk Horror and sensory theory, but it also rejects the notion of previous scholarship that sensory theory solely benefits violent, corporeal horror, rather than subgenres of careful atmospheric build such as Folk Horror.

Through focus on the textural landscape, the presentation of the sensate body onscreen, the establishment of a specific mood and tone and the ways in which Folk Horror films create ‘worlds’ which we phenomenologically inhabit, this project develops the Folk Horror Feeling through textural analysis of case studies, including the subgenre’s ‘Unholy Trinity’ of films – Witchfinder General (Reeves, 1968), The Blood on Satan’s Claw (Haggard, 1971) and The Wicker Man (Hardy, 1973) – and recent examples of the subgenre, including Kill List (Wheatley, 2011), The Ritual (Bruckner, 2017) and Midsommar (Aster, 2019).

Illustrating the complexity of horror’s sensory appeal and the integrity of Folk Horror in this contemporary moment, this study gives readers a tool to unpick the feelings of discomfort and unease in Folk Horror, allowing them to independently explore examples outwith my case studies, and encouraging an engagement with a subgenre that continues to thrive in impact and affect.

Date of Award	29 Jun 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of St Andrews
Supervisor	Lucy Fife Donaldson (Supervisor)