ana, do you have recs for historical genre pieces? :)
I’m so glad you asked Keaton because I absolutely do!! (* for my faves)
From the Wreck* by Jane Rawson – a Lovecraftian/Carpenter-ish sci-fi in which an alien haunts a shipwreck survivor in 19th century Australia
The Daylight Gate* by Jeanette Winterson – a horror/fantasy take on the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar – magic realism and mermaid mythology wrapped up in a late 18th century comedy of manners
Dark Matter* by Michelle Paver – a ghost story set in Svalbard during an arctic expedition in the 1930s
Thin Air by Michelle Paver – a ghost story set during a Himalayan climbing expedition in the 1930s
The Hunger* by Alma Katsu – a horror take on the notorious Donner Party who got trapped in the Sierra Nevada in the 1840s
The Deep by Alma Katsu – ghosts haunt a survivor of the Titanic disaster and the sinking of her sister ship the Britannic
The Silent Companions* by Laura Purcell – a recent take on the classic 19th century haunted house story
The Owl Killers* by Karen Maitland – a medieval mystery novel set in 1321 with fantasy horror elements (with a brilliant set of mostly female characters but warning for a rape scene near the start)
Company of Liars* by Karen Maitland – another great medieval mystery and escape story set during the Black Death
The Terror by Dan Simmons – the Franklin Expedition if it wasn’t just stuck in the Arctic but was also hunted down by a monstrous creature (the tv series is a vast improvement on the book’s many flaws but it’s still one of the scariest novels I’ve ever read)
A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge – a ghostly fantasy story set during the English Civil Wars in the 17th century
The Fatal Tree by Jake Arnott – a crime/mystery/heist story set in 1720s London
Ravenous* (1999) – a quirky Western/comedy/horror film set in a fort in 1840s California, drawing on elements of the Donner Party
Apostle* (2018) – a folk horror story of a strange cult set on a remote Welsh island in 1912
The Awakening* (2011) – a horror mystery in which a hoax exposer goes to a (possibly) haunted boarding school in 1921
Marrowbone* (2017) – psychological horror film following a family of young siblings in the late 1960s
The Others (2001) – a gothic horror haunting set on the island of Jersey immediately after WWII
The Wolfman* (2010) – a lush Victorian adaptation of the iconic 1941 werewolf horror film
The Witch* (2015) – a horror story set amongst Puritan settlers in New England in the 17th century
Cold Skin (2017) – an eerie sci-fi/horror film following a meteorologist and lighthouse keeper on a remote South Atlantic island in 1914
The Lighthouse (2019) – a psychological horror film set on an isolated island in the late 19th century
Crimson Peak* (2015) – Guillermo del Toro’s take on a gothic horror/romance, set in America and England in 1901
Haunted (1995) – a cynical parapsychologist travels to a house in 1928 to investigate the strange happenings there
Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) – a sci-fi/horror take on the Beast of Gévaudan killings in 18th century France
Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning* (2004) – an origin story/prequel to the iconic teen werewolf movie Ginger Snaps (2000), set in a trading fort in 19th century Canada
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) – an action horror prequel to the Underworld films set in medieval Europe, exploring the origins of the vampire/werewolf war
The Living and the Dead* (2016) – a paranormal folk horror miniseries set on a farming estate in late 19th century Somerset
The Terror* (2018) – a (superior) adaptation of the Dan Simmons novel, exploring a horror version of the Franklin Expedition
The Terror: Infamy (2019) – the second season of this horror anthology series; set in a Japanese Internment Camp in the US in WWII
Penny Dreadful* (2014-2016) – a horror series including elements of the classic gothic horror novels (Frankenstein, Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, etc)