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Horror is a genre built out of subgenres. Between splatterpunk, body horror, eco-horror, folk horror, cosmic horror, found footage, slashers, and all of the other horror subgenres out there, it's clear that horror fans love specialization. I know I do - and I've grown fond of Appalachian horror over the past year. 

I think part of the reason why there are so many subgenres of horror is that they each are born out of a specific cultural context. Found footage movies and books are a twenty-first-century spin on American gothic literature, born out of the advent of digital filmmaking and a sense of anxiety about the dangers of the World Wide Web. Appalachian horror certainly isn’t exempt from this. 

And since it is Future Fest, a time when we at Popverse throw out our predictions for the future of movies, TV, books, video games, and more, I’m here to predict the proliferation of Appalachian horror, or horror books set in Appalachia, in the near future. 

What defines Appalachian horror?

Appalachian horror, from my point of view, overlaps quite a bit with Southern Gothic, but it’s worth differentiating on its own. As a whole, Southern Gothic has historically explored the lingering effects of slavery and the Civil War on people in the American South. When I hear “Southern Gothic,” the first thing that comes to mind is a decrepit plantation house, like the one featured in Resident Evil VII: Biohazard. 

But Appalachian horror is an offshoot of Southern Gothic because the region is culturally distinct from the rest of the South. And, it should also be noted that not all of Appalachia is located in the South: parts of Pennsylvania are included in the region as well. The mountains running through Appalachia made the area more challenging for Europeans to settle in, and it was never as prosperous as the coastal and lowland regions of the antebellum South. Instead of cotton, coal was king in Appalachia, and the mining industry has poisoned both the land in Appalachia and the bodies of people living there. Themes of rot and decay are mainstays within Southern Gothic fiction, but for Appalachian horror, it’s built out specifically from the effects of coal mining. 

And, it would be remiss of me not to mention the specific folklore of Appalachia, which includes figures like The Bell Witch and Mothman. 

Why Appalachian horror now?

Why has it been having a moment over the past year? Unlike, say, femgore, I don’t have a good explanation for you about why that is. Is it because of renewed criticism of J.D. Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, and its sweeping generalizations of life in Appalachia? Or the ongoing environmental crises affecting the region? 

To be perfectly transparent, I was born and raised in New York City and live in Los Angeles now. Sure, I’ve got family in Appalachia, but the most “Appalachian” thing I’ve ever done is go backpacking on the Appalachian Trail… in Maine. So this is not my realm of expertise at all. I am curious if anyone from Appalachia has any insights about this trend that they would like to share in the comments. I would love to hear your perspective! 

That said, what I do know is that horror, as a genre, is extremely responsive to contemporary events. That is, you can trace a given group’s anxieties through the horror media they’ve created through time (while also being aware of how systems of oppression like racism, sexism, etc., limited those who got to make these movies, TV shows, etc. in the first place). Earlier this year, large parts of Appalachia were hit hard by flooding. And while flooding itself isn’t a new phenomenon in the area (it’s a central event that foregrounds Erin E. Adams’s excellent book, Jackal), the flooding came at a time when Appalachia was still on the mend from Hurricane Helene in 2022. Now is an especially important time to listen to Appalachian voices. 

Memorials by Richard Chizmar and Smothermoss by Alisa Alering are part of a larger revival of Appalachian horror

Two Appalachian horror books from the past year embody different approaches that writers have taken with this subgenre. Memorials by Richard Chizmar centers on the folklore of Appalachia, while Smothermoss by Alisa Alering examines the effects that industrial activity has had on the environment in Appalachia. I would imagine that these two stories aren’t the be-all-end-all of Appalachian horror stories (Erin E. Adams’s Jackal shares commonalities with both of these stories), so I am looking forward to seeing what other writers come up with for this subgenre. 

So while we can’t see the future, we still have ample time and space to speculate on what’s to come for horror books. I’d love to see more horror books set in Appalachia that reflect the rich culture there. By putting this article out into the world, I hope this comes to pass.

Just like yourself, the Popverse staff spends a whole lot of time with our respective noses in respective books. It's why we've come up with stuff like:

• The hottest upcoming fiction
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...and a whole lot more. Join our metaphorical library, won't you? There are no late fees and you can be as loud as you want, so long as the people you live with are OK with it.