Folk horror as re-enchantment of a disenchanted world

Abstract

The last few years have seen an increased interest in everything remotely connected to folk horror. Folk horror is a subgenre of horror dealing with metaphysical entities and occult dangers that are imagined as coming from a distant, pagan past. Often folk horror has a focus on agricultural customs and rituals. The paper will start with a discussion of folk horror and its characteristics, its use of folklore to (re-)create an enchanted world of strange traditions and rituals. Furthermore I propose a rereading of Phil Rickman’s Merrily Watkins Series about a female Anglican priest turned diocesan exorcist (14 tomes, since 1998) The focus will be on a) the respective use of folklore and folklore like stories (i.d. the folkloresque) that help to develop a sense of eerie danger and b) on the way these books are steeped in occult knowledge thus showing how this genre is part of occulture and contributes to a continued re-enchantment.