At PBS’ Monstrum, Dr. Emily Zarka talks about everyone’s favorite fox spirits–Kitsune! “Why is the Kitsune Japan’s most enduring yokai? This video examines 2,500 years of folklore, religion, history, and pop culture to explain how the legendary shape-shifting fox became Japan’s most influential supernatural figure—and why its stories […]
At PBS’ Monstrum, Dr. Emily Zarka discusses changelings! “Let’s talk about the unsettling legend of changelings, creatures said to replace humans with eerie, imperfect copies. What are the historical, cultural, and psychological roots of this folklore? From medieval theology to real-world court cases and modern stories, we wonder […]
Friend of the Gutter Kate Laity has fascinating thoughts on Bryn Chainey’s new folk horror film, Rabbit Trap (UK / USA, 2025) including an excellent introduction to the fairy and cultural aspects. “It hits a lot of my favourite things: fairy lore, folk horror, sound exploration and design—theremin! […]
Rabbit Trap is a film as folk tale.
“It’s not so much where to begin as when, though in London the distinction between time and space broke down centuries ago. There’s a cast of wanderers, visionaries, and itinerants, the self-educated and self-published, a long lineage of cranks and outcasts, mostly penurious, always opinionated, stretching away into […]
The Public Domain Review considers Sabine Baring-Gould’s 1865 Book of Were-Wolves. “Lycanthropes go by many names, writes Sabine Baring-Gould in his ‘account of a terrible superstition,’ and ‘half the world believes, or believed, in were-wolves.’ In France’s Périgord, those born out of wedlock are known to transform into […]
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The Cultural Gutter 