Hello! I’m Lauren, and I’m particularly interested in horror cinema. I’ve loved all things spooky since I was a child, and have a particular fondness for slasher movies and ghost stories. I currently research in the areas of British horror, Horror and Gender and teen horror literature, and spend a lot of my free time attending ghost tours and scrolling through Haunted TikTok.
Top Three Texts
This does tend to change on a weekly basis, but there are a handful of constants on my ‘favourites’ list. The greatest film ever made is, without a doubt, Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). The book I’m currently obsessed with is Francine Toon’s Pine (2020) and the album I can’t stop listening to is Childish Gambino’s Awaken, My Love (2016) – an absolute masterpiece.
Guilty Pleasure
Any and all songs by the band WHAM!
Something you might not know about me…
I used to be a synchronised swimmer!
Selected Publications
Stephenson, L. (2021). ‘Eden Lake and the British ‘hoodie horror’ genre’ in The Conversation.
“I’m pissed off, and I’m angry, and we need your permission to kill someone”: Frustrated Masculinities in Charlie Brooker’s Dead Set’ in S. Gerrard, S. Holland, R. Shail (eds.). (2019). Gender and Contemporary Horror in Television. (Bingley: Emerald).
‘British ‘Hoodie’ Horror’ in Bloom, C. (ed.). (2020). The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic. (London: Palgrave).
‘Coralie Fargeat’. (2019). Cut-Throat Women: A Database of Women Who Make Horror. https://www.cutthroatwomen.org/director-page-coralie-fargeat
‘The Nightingale: Filming the past, negotiating the present’. (2020). Bloody Women. https://www.thefinalgirls.co.uk/bloody-women/nightingale