Frightful Harvest

This work tracks folk horror's development, highlighting its shifting relationships between humans and land, agriculture and food. Also discussed is folk horror's rustic, rural and spiritual aesthetics as a response to extreme natural and cultural phenomena such as climate change, the Global War on Terror and the Covid-19 pandemic. With chapters ranging from classics of the 1970s to the folk horror revival of the 2010s, this book also examines the genre's resonance across cultural trends, including cottagecore nostalgia, conspiracy subcultures and neoliberalism. It concludes with contemporary expressions of folk horror in popular culture and online media, from wellness mysticism to political backlash. By analyzing the genre in response to crises and cultural shifts, it illuminates folk horror's connections to culture, economy and environment.