French journalist, screenwriter, and producer Laurent Coureau interviewed me about Hellebore and folk horror for the veteran e-zine LaSpirale.Org. You can read my interview (in French) here, or the original Q + A (in English) below.
What has been buried ought not to return.
The new issue of HELLEBORE is out now.
How the archaeology of workhouse burials shows that the destitute poor were regularly dissected post-mortem against their own wishes.
I’d like to thank James Dixon and Lorna Richardson for inviting me to discuss archaeology and folk horror in HELLEBORE at the 5th Public Archaeology Twitter Conference. I’ve compiled all the tweets from my presentation in this post for easier reading. Thank you for inviting me to discuss history and archaeology in @helleborezine for #PATC5. I’m Maria, and I’m the founding editor of HELLEBORE, a small press magazine devoted to British #FolkHorror and the #Occult. Folk horror is enjoying much interest at the moment. The term remains associated with these three films from the late 60s-early 70s (the so-called “Unholy Trinity”), but its roots go back to the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. Why are history and archaeology important in folk horror? The idea that drives the subgenre is the survival of ancient cults, usually in remote rural areas, a mere step away from our “civilised” surroundings. These ancient rituals will be re-enacted, almost inevitably, to some horrible ending. In folk horror, the past is unearthed, often literally, with or without archaeologists involved. Or the …
Cursed mummies, haunted mysteries, ancient magic. I write about some of my favourite things in this month’s Fortean Times.
I’m thrilled to say I’m editing HELLEBORE, a small press magazine devoted to British folk horror and the occult, featuring words by Ronald Hutton, Katy Soar, John Reppion, Verity Holloway, Dee Dee Chainey, David Southwell, Mercedes Miller, and myself, and art by Paul Watson and Eli John. You can order The Sacrifice Issue here.
The idea of royalty sharing their beds with the shrivelled corpse of a man yanked out of a grave is nothing short of shocking, but it wouldn’t have been an unusual sight in the court of the Spanish Habsburgs.
Maria J. Pérez Cuervo 
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