The "Haunted Isles" retrospective film programme will be explored and contextualized by three lectures introduced and moderated by Dr. Russ Hunter (Northumbria University), followed by a panel discussion.
In "Folk Horror: A Beginners Guide", presenter and broadcaster Bob Fischer presents a potted history of the original Folk Horror explosion, outlining the regular tropes of the subgenre: the strangers arriving in isolated communities, the ancient landscape features, the gruesome found objects and the terrifying, arcane rituals. He will also make suggestions as to exactly why Folk Horror flourished during the 1970s, ultimately examining how dramatic shifts in British culture helped unearth the terrors of “what lies beneath”.
With "We Keep Going Back: Nostalgia, Resistance and Alterity",Dr. Derek Johnston (Queen’s University, Belfast) explores how Folk Horror, the hauntological and the wyrd speak to our hopes and fears for the future through our engagement with the past. Across these three themes, we are constantly faced by the tensions between the past as a place of comfort to retreat to, and as a source of horror. As this talk argues, it demonstrates the strength of ideas of the past as a shaper of modern identities, and as a social and political tool, whether for control, or resistance, or the imagination of something other.
For her talk "In Monstrous Megaliths: Spooky Stones of Folk Horror",Dr. Diane Rodgers (Sheffield Hallam University), unpacks case studies from across several decades, including Children of the Stones (1977), Quatermass (1979), In The Earth (2021) and Enys Men (2022), observing the legends surrounding the stones presented on screen, as well as notions from historical folklore and how these might be woven into narratives. The presentation will reflect upon shifts in the use of legends over recent decades in the representation of ancient stones on screen and how other aesthetic influences may be relevant to their interpretation, perhaps creating new meanings and legend cycles in their own right.
The conference will be followed by a panel discussion in which Diane Rodgers, Derek Johnston and Bob Fisher are joined by Rupert Russell (director of The Last Sacrifice) and Robert Wynne-Simmons (director of The Outcasts). There will also be room for questions from the audience.
