finally if horror wanted to pivot from folk horror the obvious solution is urban horror. cities are different now from what they were even twenty years ago. societal change is the ground on which good horror is built so there's something there. ok those are my new years horror thoughts™ - ThreadSky

themountaingoats.bsky.social • 53 days ago

finally if horror wanted to pivot from folk horror the obvious solution is urban horror. cities are different now from what they were even twenty years ago. societal change is the ground on which good horror is built so there's something there. ok those are my new years horror thoughts™

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coolwitchaunt.bsky.social•53 days ago

y'know the idea that encounters with the fae and alien abductions are the same entities in a different suit of clothes? I'd be interested to see urbanized folk horror - the idea that when you build a mall over a fairy ring it doesn't stop being a fairy ring,

coolwitchaunt.bsky.social•53 days ago

or that turning a river into a reservoir doesn't get rid of it's rusalka.

coolwitchaunt.bsky.social•53 days ago

(I am also aware that this is the sort of thing you'd have a screenwriter character saying in an idealistic tone right before a smash cut to the trailer for Leprechaun XVII: Darby O'Gill's Revenge)

ohnojubo.bsky.social•52 days ago

As we start to grapple with the effects of long COVID, restrictions on reproductive rights and gender affirming care, as well as a rapidly aging population, body horror could make a real go of it

warmwestwind.bsky.social•53 days ago

I keep saying I want myirl genre to be "Magical Realist Spy Thriller" but does GRU listen? john, i s uspect they do :)

wiimusicspeedrun.bsky.social•53 days ago

strange that app horror hasn't gained greater purchase, though depictions of the internet generally have been paltry, so the difficulties faced seem to be taking place across genres

phragmosisjones.bsky.social•52 days ago

I thought # Horror was decent, although it was a while ago and I assume we now have even lower standards for what counts as 'cynical' when it comes to apps
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3526286/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

puppy.bzky.team•53 days ago

Cyberpunk horror could be pretty cool to explore too.
Very applicable to how things are and how they're going.

liefwerk.dev•52 days ago

Tangential to this but Transhumanism horror is also a good ground. The Substance is a great recent example of what can be done. It's about time for these cronenberg seeds to grow into something :)

thexclaim6.bsky.social•52 days ago

For urban horror writing through a distinctly British lens, see @raynewman.bsky.social and his Municipal Gothic / Intervals of Darkness 👌

nslayton.bsky.social•53 days ago

I would love that but I can also see reactionaries lean into some of the worst paranoid and racist tropes rather than examining urbanism.

calculon.bsky.social•53 days ago

Co-signed. I think of They Live, which tried to veer away from urban racism and sort of stumbled into "globalist lizard elites"

canaryburgundy.bsky.social•53 days ago

TW (shunting) https://youtu.be/WftM6VOYiDo?si=gH-o-23-wK6ec6ud

benmffowler.bsky.social•53 days ago

I can't believe I've been online this long and never seen this before. I need a moment... 🤢

canaryburgundy.bsky.social•53 days ago

Lmao I'm sorry! You need to watch the whole film tho its an astonishing and extremely funny piece of work. Nothing else even remotely like it.

benmffowler.bsky.social•53 days ago

Not your fault! Truly a dead dove moment where the video is clearly labeled, i just didnt think it'd be what it is. I'd have to be extremely drunk to watch that.

canaryburgundy.bsky.social•53 days ago

It's just that scene... And the even more fucked up incest one after it... And uhhh. yeah actually prob best not lol

popelizbet.bsky.social•52 days ago

John if you haven't read COMFORT ME WITH APPLES you're missing out

oozeley.bsky.social•52 days ago

the horror of being turned into a dog and every cop in the city has decided to declare you the #1 threat to public safety, now that's a chilling tale of terror right there

2ndlevelbard.bsky.social•52 days ago

I highly recommend all of Howard David Ingham's horror film criticism on their Room 207 blog, but the On a Thousand Walls tag seems especially relevant to this discussion.

https://www.room207press.com/search/label/on%20a%20thousand%20walls?m=0

vulcanduck.bsky.social•53 days ago

Think Candyman is a great example of what urban horror can be. The horrors are already there, just need good storytellers to present them.

twilightmacaroni.bsky.social•53 days ago

I want Donald Glover and/or Hiro Murai to do a horror flick already.

dmlundeen.bsky.social•53 days ago

Just as the one style you mentioned has the anti-Semitic partial provenance, so too does urban horror have some unsavory roots (most obviously Lovecraft’s racism and xenophobia). But fertile ground.

themountaingoats.bsky.social•53 days ago

Yeah. I mean "the city" is such an enormous Idea, and its realities so different from the ones Lovecraft was encountering, that I think there's a lot there

minervaarcher.bsky.social•53 days ago

I also think people forget how much of the horrific past cities have to draw on. N.K. Jemisin and Victor LaValle have both nodded at some of NYC’s history in their work, but there’s so much more. I’m waiting for the yellow fever victims buried in Washington Square Park to turn up in something.

ahintofoctober.bsky.social•52 days ago

*waves from Roosevelt Island*

minervaarcher.bsky.social•53 days ago

Also, can you imagine a story where the heroes have to fight a cult who are killing dedicated pro-mass transit civil servants while possessed by the ghost of Robert Moses?

realmaplesyrup.bsky.social•53 days ago

10/10 would read this story

dmlundeen.bsky.social•53 days ago

I really loved The City We Became.

dmlundeen.bsky.social•53 days ago

Calvino’s Invisible Cities but with horror. Would read.

xuelder.neocities.org•52 days ago

I honestly am betting on Suburban Horror. The horrors of conformity and the never ending treadmill of keeping up with the Jones would make a great plot imo.

drrehaminator.bsky.social•53 days ago

Evil Dead Rise did a really good job of horror in an urban setting imo. More of this please

swagceo.bsky.social•52 days ago

What if the real spooky guy was the trauma inside us all along?

swanriverpress.bsky.social•53 days ago

Gary Budden wrote a great essay on reimagining folk horror. Its in Writing the Uncanny. My own belief is that instead of popular modes, we're better off finding amazing writers, not necessarily ones writing to a perceived checklist.

themountaingoats.bsky.social•53 days ago

Yes, I think that's true. A great writer in any genre will do great work. The problem, really, is scale -- anything that's "successful" in terms of box office will result in a glut, anything that trends will become dull. Twas ever thus, etc

swanriverpress.bsky.social•53 days ago

Oh yeah, just one big cycle. It's heartening to see people discovering Joel Lane these past years, a solid writer or the urban condition. Mark Valentine is also delightful, some if his would could be said to be folk horror, but that's almost limiting. There's too much wonderment and revelation.

lessmarberry.bsky.social•52 days ago

Not the sharpest turn away from folk horror but we're over due for another great example of 'the seemingly respectable people are actually evil occultists' story in the style of Night of the Eagle

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