Folk Horror in the Home: Theorising Television and Folk Horror

Description

This paper explores connections between the characteristics of folk horror and television. Linear television is conceived as a national, domestic service, contributing to the “working through” of national culture and identity. This includes calendar rituals (Scannell), including local folk practices presented as part of the national heritage. Linear television thus presented folk practices as something both outside the home and the norm, and also as regular, recurring across the schedules and the years (Silverstone) and so forming part of the national culture. Thus, when folk horror productions are presented, whether original to television or the television broadcast of films, they act as planned disruptions, as ritual practices are themselves planned disruptions into the flow of the everyday. Streaming television disrupts these structures, with the revival of folk horror often presenting folk cultures, beliefs and practices to transnational audiences, outside of the flow of linear television. 

Period	21 May 2026
Event title	Irish Screen Studies 2026: Place and the Screen
Event type	Conference
Location	Maynooth, IrelandShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International