New Article on ‘Hoodie Horror’ in The Conversation

One of our lecturers, Lauren Stephenson has written an article titled, ‘Eden Lake and the British ‘hoodie horror’ genre: how they reinforced policies to demonise the working class‘ which you can read here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14797585.2020.1806442?needAccess=true

On Halloween 2008, James Watkins’ horror feature Eden Lake was released to little fanfare. A British take on the “backwoods” horror film (think Deliverance or Wrong Turn), it was just one of a swathe of low-budget horrors being produced at this time.

Critic MJ Simpson identified Eden Lake as exemplary of the British horror revival, which began in the late 1990s after a period of relative quiet. Following the demise of horror behemoth Hammer Studios in the 1970s and sustained attacks from censors and the government on extreme cinema throughout the late 20th century (reaching their peak during the “video nasties” panic), British horror had struggled to recover its footing.