The award-winning author of the Hexslinger Series "explores the world of film and horror in a way that will leave you reeling" (Jeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach Trilogy). Former film teacher Lois Cairns is struggling to raise her autistic son while freelancing as a critic when, at a screening, she happens upon a sampled piece of silver nitrate silent footage. She is able to connect it to the early work of Mrs. Iris Dunlopp Whitcomb, the spiritualist and collector of fairy tales who mysteriously disappeared from a train compartment in 1918. Hoping to make her own mark on the film world, Lois embarks on a project to prove that Whitcomb was Canada's first female filmmaker. But her research takes her down a path not of darkness but of light-the blinding and searing light of a fairy tale made flesh, a noontime demon who demands that duty must be paid. As Lois discovers terrifying parallels between her own life and that of Mrs. Whitcomb, she begins to fear not just for herself, but for those closest to her heart. Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel "One of the standout horror novels of 2015 . . . From an author who has already established herself as one of the genre's most original and innovative voices, Experimental Film is a remarkable achievement." -Los Angeles Review of Books "Experimental Film represents the next, significant contribution to what is emerging as one of the most interesting and exciting bodies of work currently being produced in the horror field. Every film, Lois Cairns writes, is an experiment. The same might be said of every novel. This one succeeds, wildly." -Locus "Experimental Film is sensational. When we speak of the best in contemporary horror and weird fiction, we must speak of Gemma Files." -Laird Barron

The Evolution of Horror in the Twenty-First Century examines the intimate connections between the horror genre and its audience's experience of being in the world at a particular historical and cultural moment. This book not only provides frameworks with which to understand contemporary horror, but it also speaks to the changes wrought by technological development in creation, production, and distribution, as well as the ways in which those who are traditionally underrepresented positively within the genre- women, LGBTQ+, indigenous, and BAME communities - are finally being seen and finding space to speak.

Future Folk Horror: Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures analyzes folk horror by looking at its recent popularity in novels and films such as The Witch (2015), and Candyman (2021). Countering traditional views of the genre as depictions of the monstrous, rural, and pagan past trying to consume the present, the contributors to this collection posit folk horror as being able to uniquely capture the anxieties of the twenty-first century, caused by an ongoing pandemic and the divisive populist politics that have arisen around it. Further, this book shows how, through its increasing intersections with other genres such as science fiction, the weird, and eco-criticism as seen in films and texts like The Zero Theorum (2013), The Witcher (2007–21), and Annihilation (2018) as well as through its engagement with topics around climate change, racism, and identity politics, folk horror can point to other ways of being in the world and visions of possible futures.

“Gemma Files has one of the great dark imaginations in fiction―visionary, transgressive, and totally original.� —Jeff VanderMeer   In Gemma Files’s “boundary-busting horror–fantasy debut,� former Confederate chaplain Asher Rook has cheated death and now possesses a dark magic (Publishers Weekly). He uses his power to terrorize the Wild West, leading a gang of outlaws, thieves, and killers, with his cruel lieutenant and lover, Chess Pargeter, by his side.   Pinkerton agent Ed Morrow is going undercover to infiltrate the gang, armed with a shotgun and a device that measures sorcerous energy. His job is to gain knowledge of Rook’s power and unlock its secrets. But there is someone else who has Rook in her sights: the Lady of Traps and Snares, a bloodthirsty Mayan goddess who will stop at nothing to satisfy her own desires.   Caught between the good, the bad, and the unholy, Morrow will have to ride out a storm of magical mayhem to survive, in this debut novel, the first book of Files’s “weird Western Hexslinger trilogy . . . [which] is chock full of hellish horrors� (Mike Allen, author of Unseaming).   “Ridiculously vivid . . . A magic-riddled, horror-strewn West with hexes running around wrecking reality and a spectrum of queer characters.� —Tor.com   “Definitely promising—tantalizing, even, because it sets up such a fertile scenario and hammers home the themes of love, sacrifice, and apotheosis.� —Strange Horizons   “Truly one-of-a-kind: violent, carnal and creepy.� —Fangoria

The second book in the “top-notch horror-fantasy saga,� following A Book of Tongues, is “a spectacular blend of Aztec religion and Western gunslinging (Publishers Weekly).   Welcome to Hex City. Population: magicians. Thanks to hexslinger “Reverend� Asher Rook, sorcerers now have a sanctuary where they can live and work in peace. But a storm is coming—a tempest known as Chess Pargeter.   Infuriated by his former lover Rook’s betrayal and sacrificed in the name of the Mayan goddess who is Rook’s current consort, Chess leaves a trail of death and destruction in his wake. Caught up in Chess’s crusade is Pinkerton-agent-turned-outlaw Ed Morrow and a young woman spiritualist. But there are more than Chess’s own demons to be reckoned with, including a resurrected lawman with a bone to pick—and a final judgment to deliver . . .   “Paints a stark, vivid, and gory picture of the ‘wild west’ in the years following the Civil War . . . Files’s latest is not for the squeamish but should delight fans of gothic Western fantasy and Central American myths.� —Library Journal   “Files’ prose remains a delight to read, the cadence of her sentences captures the wild west setting perfectly, and the images she paints are a fascinating mix of frontier practicality and magic bred surrealism.� —The Turned Brain   Praise for A Book of Tongues   “Boundary-busting horror–fantasy . . . This promising debut fully delivers both sizzling passions and dark chills.� —Publishers Weekly   “Ridiculously vivid . . . A magic-riddled, horror-strewn West with hexes running around wrecking reality and a spectrum of queer characters.� —Tor.com   “Truly one-of-a-kind: violent, carnal and creepy.� —Fangoria

“A vivid, haunting mix of horror and fantasy woven together through a complex fugue of short stories� from the award-winning author of Kissing Carrion (Entertainment Weekly).   One of Canada’s most acclaimed horror writers, Gemma Files presents a mosaic of interconnected stories about interconnected families. After fleeing Scotland, five clans settled in the fictional town of Dourvale in northern Ontario. Known as the Five-Family Coven, they are the descendants of witches and witch-children, none of whom were spared persecution in their native country. Now shamans, spellcasters, singers, and thieves, the members of the Devize, Druir, Glouwer, Roke, and Rusk families survive by trading their occult powers and talents—though few can really afford their price . . .   “What makes We Will All Go Down Together so riveting isn’t its ideas or imagery, as richly atmospheric and detailed as they are. It’s the author’s voice. Colorful, powerful, and charismatic, her characters are rendered in bold strokes and poignant nuances. . . . Her book is a short-story collection, true, but it also works as a dark, fractured mosaic of a novel. Across continents and centuries, the ghost-magic of Dourvale still cuts and pastes the fabric of reality. With her ghostly, magical storytelling, Files does the same.� —NPR.org   Praise for Gemma Files   “Gemma Files’s stories are always so smart and humane, and overwhelm the reader with a true sense of wonder, awe, and horror. She is, simply put, one of the most powerful and unique voices in weird fiction today.� —Paul Tremblay, award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghosts   “One of the genre’s most original and innovative voices.� —Los Angeles Review of Books

“The rousing conclusion to Files’s remarkable Hexslinger trilogy . . . A bravura performance� from the author of A Book of Tongues and A Rope of Thorns (Publishers Weekly).   A new Civil War is brewing. With the city of Bewelcome as its headquarters, Allan Pinkerton’s Detective Agency leads a siege on Hex City, the town founded by “Reverend� Asher Rook and his consort, the Mayan goddess Ixchel. Monsters prowl the battleground, rocket trails of spells crisscross the sky, and an unnatural rain falls.   Sides must be taken, but Pinkerton-agent-turned-outlaw Ed Morrow, spiritualist Yancey Kloves, and even Rook must choose what ruin or redemption means to each of them. Meanwhile, Chess Pargeter gears up for the greatest fight of his life—and death. A battle out of hell itself . . .   Praise for the Hexslinger Series   “Gemma’s been producing top-notch horror stories for years, and her weird Western Hexslinger trilogy is chock full of hellish horrors.� —Mike Allen, author of Unseaming   “Potent mythology, complex characters, and dollops of creeping horror and baroque gore establish Files’s Hexslinger series as a top-notch horror-fantasy saga.� —Publishers Weekly   “Paints a stark, vivid, and gory picture of the ‘wild west’ in the years following the Civil War . . . Files’s latest is not for the squeamish but should delight fans of gothic Western fantasy and Central American myths.� —Library Journal   “Ridiculously vivid . . . A magic-riddled, horror-strewn West with hexes running around wrecking reality and a spectrum of queer characters.� —Tor.com   “Truly one-of-a-kind: violent, carnal and creepy.� —Fangoria