Academic conferences have a tough job drawing passing trade. However, a new one with papers on Martin McDonagh, A Field in England, The Incredible String Band and Witchfinder General may find it a little easier.

Fiend In The Furrows is a three day exploration of ‘Folk Horror’ – a new name coined, apparently, by Mark Gatiss for a weird old phenomena which, over many years, has introduced the arcane to the modern, then stood back as they freaked one-another out.
Or, as co-organiser Eamon Byers puts it:“Folk Horror is a genre that encompasses a variety of media with a unifying thematic focus on the propensity for traditional culture and its practitioners to be an object of unease and dread.”
A glance at some of the subjects discussed gives an indication not only of the extent to which the topic has haunted our culture, but the ‘shroom-like impacts that invariably occur when its presence is felt.
“We’re thrilled with the breadth of papers,” Eamon enthuses. “Rather than receiving 20 proposals for papers on The Wicker Man, we received abstracts looking at fictional representations of witch trials, Norwegian death customs, children’s literature, British folk music and the work of Kevin Barry.”
Which isn’t to say that The Wicker Man is passed over. As you’d expect, the ur-text of the genre is heavily represented in the programme.
“There are essentially two cultural phenomena that led to its creation,” explains Eamon. “The heyday of the British horror film industry and the heyday of the British folk revival. Without the likes of Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and Pentagle there would not have been the cultural environment in which a film so indebted to folk music could have been produced. Similarly, without the success of studios such as Hammer there would not have been the resources to produce a horror film so quintessentially British in tone. When yoked together, these phenomena culminated in a film that, if it did not invent the genre, solidified it.”
Not that this is an entirely backward looking movement. Ben Wheatley who, coincidently, has just wrapped his next film, High Rise, following a month long shoot in Bangor and Belfast, is recognised as a central figure in the reinvention of folk horror tropes. A process Eamon thinks is gathering pace.
“HBO’s True Detective, one of the most remarkable television series in years, is full of themes, shocks and folk customs that place it squarely in the genre,” he says. “E4’s upcoming series Glue looks like it might fit the folk horror mould, as the creators have stated their ambition to produce a show that explores the darker side of life in the countryside. And the forthcoming Irish film, The Woods could be a very interesting addition to the canon too.”
Of course, as any fans of M.R James should know, academics mess around with this occult stuff at their peril. Are the delegates prepared for the consequences?
“We comfort ourselves that we are poking our noses into cultural representations of dark forces rather than the dark forces themselves,” says Eamon. “That being said, there has never been such a large meeting of folk horror enthusiasts, so who knows what could happen?”
Indeed. It could be magick.