“To Live Deliciously”: Folktales, Horror and the Ascension of the Final Girl/Folk Hero

Abstract

Folk Horror, as a subgenre of Horror, has been revived in recent years. The films reflect the societal and political concerns of the time in which they were made, while retaining connections to specific folktales and their structures. This thesis will consider the significance of the relationship between Folk Horror and specific folktale narratives and structures, applied a folktale lens to contemporary examples of Folk Horror. The films examined are Robert Eggers’ 2015 film The Witch: A New England Folktale and Ari Aster’s 2019 film Midsommar. Both films recreate and adapt folktales to align with horror, commenting upon the present through utilising narrative forms of the past. Contemporary connotations of the folktale are in turn dismantled and affirmed, as horrific elements of the folktale in the past and in the present are rendered visual through Horror. A working definition for folktales, alongside details about their origins and implications, will be drawn from Jack Zipes’ 1979 work Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales. Clover’s theory of the Final Girl will be applied and altered in the context of Folk Horror. The structure and narratives of the folktale demonstrably align with the tropes and characteristics of horror.