Recurring Manifestations of Horror in Popular Media and Culture

This book examines how twenty-first century horror narratives are shaped by transmedia storytelling, digital convergence, and mediated intertextuality.

Contemporary storytelling is increasingly participatory, multimodal, and intermedial. As a result, it might be tempting to argue that we are witnessing an entirely new set of horrors emerging in today’s digitised world. Despite the innovations brought about by artificial intelligence, digital connectivity and social media, this book argues that today’s horror narratives are deeply rooted in historical and cultural discourses. Age-old fears are being reimagined in a new media landscape that is both global and deeply personal. This collection offers insights into how horror narratives are evolving across various media platforms including film, television, video games, and social media such as TikTok and YouTube. It also explores the lived reality of communities who engage with horror as a cultural identity and practice, considering how fashion, make-up, and costuming operate as their own forms of transmedia. These chapters examine the relationship between media, culture, and technology, revealing how digital culture reshapes traditional horror motifs and influences social norms. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of the connections between new storytelling practices and established genres, as well as how these narratives reflect contemporary societal fears and desires.

This book will be valuable for scholars of media studies, fan studies, game studies, the Gothic, and horror research. By addressing both emerging technologies and historical representations of horror, the collection provides critical perspectives for academics interested in the intersections of media, culture, identity, community, and horror. The interdisciplinary approach will appeal to those studying screen studies, sociology, media representation, and cultural practices, offering new trends and insights within the evolving field of horror studies.

Gwyneth Peaty, PhD, is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT) at Curtin University and an eLearning Designer for the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES). Her work focuses on representations of monstrosity, the Gothic, horror, disability, technology, and the body in popular media and culture. Recent publications include ‘What it means to be Free: Disability, Neurodivergence, and the Super “Freak”’ in The Routledge Companion to Superhero Studies (Routledge, 2025) and ‘Dead Beautiful: Zombies and Cosmetic Surgery’ in The Palgrave Handbook of the Zombie (Palgrave, 2025). She is the Reviews Editor for the Australasian Journal of Popular Culture and committee member of the Australasian Horror Studies Network.

Ashleigh Prosser, PhD, SFHEA is a Lecturer in Professional Learning at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. Ashleigh holds a BA(Hons-1st) and PhD in English & Cultural Studies from The University of Western Australia, and a Graduate Certificate in Educational Leadership from Queensland University of Technology. Ashleigh’s research interests lie with the study of gothic and horror in literature and popular culture, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Ashleigh is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, the Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, and committee member of the Australasian Horror Studies Network.

Lorna Piatti-Farnell, PhD, is Academic Dean and Professor of Media and Creative Industries at SAE Creative Media Institute in Auckland, New Zealand. She is the Director of the Australasian Horror Studies Network (AHSN), and a Visiting Professor at Curtin University in Australia. Her research sits at the intersection of screen media, popular culture, and cultural history, with a particular focus on transmedia storytelling, eco-narratives, digital technologies, and popular iconographies, and a long-standing interest in Gothic horror and fantasy. She is the author and editor of many volumes, including The Routledge Companion to Superhero Studies (editor, 2025), Disney Gothic: Dark Shadows in the House of Mouse (editor, Bloomsbury 2024), Consuming Gothic: Food and Horror in Film (Palgrave, 2017), and Poison and the Popular Imagination: Representations, Iconographies, and Meanings (editor, Bloomsbury, 2026). Professor Piatti-Farnell is principal editor of the Australasian Journal of Popular Culture (Intellect), as well as the sole editor of the “Routledge Advances in Popular Culture Studies” and Bloomsbury’s “Research in Horror Studies” book series.