Southern Gothic: Love, Death and Religion in the American Deep South

To the British public, the term “gothic” will likely conjure up images of vampires, derelict mansions and waifish Victorian nymphets. Yet a century ago in the American Deep South, the genre was adopted by a school of innovative writers who preserved its macabre heart, but stripped it of its fantasy trappings. The imagery of decay and death proved a perfect match for a society in post-slavery decline, and Southern Gothic was born.
In time, the works of those writers – William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Flannery O’Connor – were adapted to cinema, and before long filmmakers were producing original works that riffed on gothic tropes. The swampy landscapes, remote communities and hoodoo mysticism of the South have provided fertile ground for chills, thrills and intrigue in everything from Charles Laughton’s seminal The Night of the Hunter (1955) to last year’s True Detective. This month-long season gathers some of the best and darkest Southern Gothic films, from classics like To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and Luis Buñuel’s The Young One (1960) to lesser-known oddities like Louisiana-set gore-fest Eaten Alive (1977).