Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Main / SouthernGothic

Go To

1%%
2%% Image selected per Image Pickin thread:https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=17045661680.91602500
3%% Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread.
4%%
5[[quoteright:350:[[Film/InterviewWithTheVampire https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/iwtv_cemetery_3.png]]]]
6%%
7The creepy, gothic version of the rural Southeastern United States. Scenes show dying vegetation, decaying plantations, crumbling mansions, rusty farm implements, foreboding swamps with ''something'' lurking within, and frighteningly expressionless folk standing around doing... nothing, except staring at the protagonists.
8
9The Southern Gothic is its own subgenre of GothicHorror, characterized by bleak settings in the DeepSouth, flawed (and often disturbing) characters, and the darker side of the South including racism, sexism, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and]] BarefootPoverty. If you're in Louisiana, HollywoodVoodoo might make an appearance.
10
11Unlike TheSavageSouth where the southern areas are teeming with life (most of which wants you dead), Southern Gothic settings have a constant feel of decay, death, and malaise. Anything living there will feel unnatural on top of possibly being very dangerous. Supernatural elements are popular, especially with themes of the undead or "things that should not be" instead of the typical wild animals and hostile natives usually seen in The Savage South. Daylight horror in stifling heat backed by the endless drone of cicadas is as common as horror dwelling in the dark far from city lights.
12
13This trope is deeply rooted in American history. For most of civilization, fabric tended to be either uncomfortable (wool, linen) or very expensive (silk), and for early adopters, cotton farming was like being able to grow gold. However, soil degradation and the development of overseas competition (particularly from UsefulNotes/{{India}} and UsefulNotes/{{Egypt}}, and to a lesser extent UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}}, UsefulNotes/{{Brazil}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Argentina}}) caused profits to plummet, and many Southern families built mansions only to find them impossible to maintain. As a result, the South became littered with decrepit properties occupied by bitter, [[RichesToRags downwardly-mobile]] planters. These symbols of ruined aristocracy, combined with the insular and rigid structure of the suffering families, inspired the genre's themes of physical and social decay.
14
15The themes of moral decay are informed by the American institution of slavery, which was intrinsic to the culture and economy of the antebellum South. Nobody could remain unaffected by this systemic evil, even if they did not directly participate. SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil, and writers are hard-pressed to imagine any supernatural horror that does not pale in comparison to the the RealLife abuses inflicted under it. In a historical setting where it is still in force, the worst of it may be hidden, but [[ParanoiaFuel paranoia reigns]] as the place is implicitly filled with angry ghosts and living monsters. Over a century after its abolition, a Southern Gothic setting may invoke the history of slavery to kindle fear that the ghosts are still angry, that EvilTaintedThePlace and the land itself is stained by the sins committed there. May invoke ReligiousHorror when these sins clash with the religious and spiritual heritage of the South. And if the sins are hideous enough, {{Satan}} himself may show up in the form of SouthernGothicSatan.
16
17Note that this is ''not'' simply any scary story that happens to be set in the southern United States.
18
19See also DeepSouth, Southern Gothic's mother trope, TheBigEasy, and HillbillyHorrors. Compare LovecraftCountry, CampbellCountry, NordicNoir, and {{Uberwald}}. Compare and Contrast WeirdWest and SinisterSouthwest, which could be thought of as the [[ThirstyDesert sun-scorched]] counterpart to the [[SwampsAreEvil dark and humid rot]] of Southern Gothic. Although distinct in tone and setting, the two can blend in border areas between the Deep South and TheWildWest (which is to say, mostly Texas, though Oklahoma can do in a pinch). GothicCountryMusic is often inspired by this aesthetic.
20----
21!!Examples:
22
23[[foldercontrol]]
24
25[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
26* ''Manga/MeAndTheDevilBlues'' is loosely based on the life of legendary blues player Robert Johnson. Set in the Deep South during the Great Depression, it follows a man named RJ who barters away his soul at a crossroads for the ability to play perfectly.
27[[/folder]]
28
29[[folder:Comic Books]]
30* ''ComicBook/VonHerlingVampireHunter'' is set in a small town in the remote wooded mountains of East Tennessee, where the titular protagonist has to locate and destroy a vampire.
31* "The Crooked Man," a ''{{ComicBook/Hellboy}}'' story inspired by the works of Manly Wade Wellman (particularly the ''Literature/SilverJohn'' stories), is set somewhere in the Appalachians in the 1950s. Although it features [[DealWithTheDevil a plot]] and [[WickedWitch characters]] that wouldn't be out of place in LovecraftCountry, the theme of the past catching up with both the flawed main character [[note]]not Hellboy [[/note]] and his community is signature Southern.
32* ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' has some elements of this, with, for instance, its monster protagonist who was once a scientist in Louisiana and--in its '80s run--plenty of Creator/AlanMoore-style grittiness and esoteria.
33* ''ComicBook/ManThing'', the Marvel AlternateCompanyEquivalent to the above-mentioned ''Swamp''-Thing, is much more directly and unabashedly Southern Gothic in it's nature. Like it's counterpart, it follows a scientist transformed into a swamp-haunting monster (in the Florida Everglades this time) and has tons of eerie and esoteric supernatural elements, while also piling on many of the genre's aesthetics and themes of a decaying and haunted American South where everyone's sins comes back to haunt them eventually and [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the people are sometimes scarier than the monsters]].
34* ''{{ComicBook/Preacher}}'' dips into this at times.
35* In ''ComicBook/ScareTacticsDCComics'', a clan of [[OurGhoulsAreDifferent ghouls]] dwell in the Appalachians, and have been involved in a decades-long [[FeudingFamilies feud]] with a clan of hillbilly [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]].
36* ''{{ComicBook/Harrow County}}'' is the epitome of this trope, with its rural southern setting, witch protagonist, and supporting cast of [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] and other supernatural entities.
37* The cursed CityWithNoName where ''ComicBook/TheGoon'' is set is consistently implied to be somewhere in the southern United States, and one story involved the ghosts of slaves rising up from the swamp to serve a sorceress. [[spoiler: The Goon was able to override her control by [[PostModernMagick talking the ghosts into unionizing]], as unions within the city fell under his control, and he was then able to put them to rest.]]
38* The Creator/PhillipKennedyJohnson run on ''[[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk2023 The Incredible Hulk]]'' is a loving GenreThrowback to Southern Gothic horror stories, following Bruce Banner's journey through a decrepit and crumbling American South while being tormented for his past mistakes by both [[SuperpoweredEvilSide his own inhuman alter ego]] and the region's many monstrous inhabitants lurking in the shadows.
39[[/folder]]
40
41[[folder:Film]]
42* ''Film/AbrahamLincolnVampireHunter'' has the Old South be full of vampires who [[spoiler:attack and kill Lincoln's family, incite a civil war, and eventually have Lincoln murdered]].
43* ''Film/TheAlligatorPeople'' is a fusion of this and '50s MadScientist horror, with a TragicHero scientist holing up in a [[OldDarkHouse crumbling plantation house]] in the Louisiana bayou, attended by a drunken CrustyCaretaker (played by Creator/LonChaneyJr) who has a psychotic hatred of alligators. The whole thing is presented as a gothic mystery, told from the perspective of the scientist's estranged wife, who has no idea what's going on.
44* ''Film/TheBeguiled'' is set entirely in a Southern plantation house/women's seminary in the midst of the Civil War, and deals with the tensions [[spoiler: and eventual violence]] which are stirred up when a wounded Union soldier is laid up there.
45* Like the Donald Ray Pollock book it's based on, the 2020 film ''Literature/TheDevilAllTheTime'' depicts its southern Ohio/West Virginia setting in the grittiest manner possible, complete with serial killers, blood sacrifices, and a spider-handling preacher.
46* ''Film/EvesBayou'' is a drama based on hidden affairs and family secrets with a hint of the supernatural. It takes place in Louisiana in the 1960s and concerns a prominent, aristocratic Creole family with plenty to hide.
47* ''Film/TheHauntedMansion2003'' invokes this aesthetic, with its empty and decaying plantation-style house surrounded by swamps. The racist history of the South is also lightly touched on, with [[spoiler: a [[ForbiddenLove doomed romance]] between [[BlackGalOnWhiteGuyDrama the house's white owner and a black woman]], sabotaged by the [[TheButlerDidIt scheming butler]].]]
48* ''Film/HouseOf1000Corpses'': When it's not full of [[SavageSouth wild near-tribal crazies]], everything is decaying, depressing and/or dilapidated.
49* ''Film/HushHushSweetCharlotte'' is set in a once-grand plantation house that's now decaying and about to be bulldozed. The protagonist may or may not be seeing the ghost of her lover who was murdered nearly forty years ago.
50* The first part of the film version of ''Film/InterviewWithTheVampire'' takes place in and around 18th and 19th-century New Orleans. Given that it's a vampire story based on an Creator/AnneRice book, plenty of Gothicism ensures.
51* The 1955 movie ''Film/TheNightOfTheHunter'', set in rural West Virginia during the Great Depression, and with a Bible-thumping SouthernGothicSatan SerialKiller as an antagonist, is an early and iconic film example.
52* ''Film/{{Phantasm}}'' has deliberate shades of this alongside LovecraftCountry, as the series is implied to take place somewhere in the South. The overgrown rural areas, huge, decaying houses, and remote locations the protagonists find themselves in take cues from classic Southern Gothic, while the sterile mausoleums borrow heavily from Lovecraft. Don Coscarelli may be from Southern ''California'', but he's a noted fan of Joe R. Lansdale and all of his films display this influence.
53* ''Film/TheReflectingSkin'' features a lot of southern gothic elements. Vast rural areas, golden wheat fields, bright summer days, hidden danger, unsettling atmosphere, gloomy people, dark storyline.
54* ''Film/TheSkeletonKey'' has this feel, with the primary setting being an old, run-down plantation house in Louisiana, owned by an old, run-down couple. There's also a bit of [[HollywoodVoodoo Hoodoo mysticism]] thrown in for an extra creepy factor which later becomes a major plot point.
55* ''Film/{{Stoker}}'', though set in [[HollywoodNewEngland Connecticut]], was filmed in Tennessee, and takes on a low-key, manicured version of the associated tropes (albeit populated with {{Fake American}}s).
56* ''Film/SouthernComfort'' also has this in mind, being set in the Louisiana swamps and following a platoon of National Guardsmen being stalked by a gang of hostile Cajuns.
57* ''Film/SugarHill1974'' is a {{blaxploitation}}/[[RoaringRampageOfRevenge revenge movie]] take on this, being set in TheBigEasy and featuring generous helpings of HollywoodVoodoo, with [[VoodooZombie zombies]] who are supposed to have been slaves in life, drowned in the swamp while trying to escape captivity. The movie also deals - albeit not very subtly - with the continued legacy of racism in the American South, represented by movie's villains, a cartel of white drug-dealers who prey on the black community.
58* ''Film/TheTexasChainSawMassacre1974'' is a Southern Gothic SlasherMovie, complete with a big decaying house inhabited by a family of HillbillyHorrors. The subsequent films in [[Franchise/TheTexasChainsawMassacre the series]] qualify to varying degrees as well.
59* ''Film/TheWaterboy'' is comedic example where the decay and depressing state of the world is used to highlight Bobby's cheerful and optimistic demeanor.
60* Just about any film adaptation of a Creator/TennesseeWilliams play, especially the 1951 version of ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire'' (starring Creator/VivienLeigh and Creator/MarlonBrando) and the 1958 version of ''Theatre/CatOnAHotTinRoof'' (starring Creator/ElizabethTaylor and Creator/PaulNewman) will make the most of the sweltering Louisiana setting, twisted relationships, and simmering sexual tension. See below under Theatre for more.
61* ''Film/WhatJosiahSaw'' is a 2023 psychological horror drama about three siblings from Southern Texas trying to cope with the [[AbusiveDad severe abuse thrust upon them by their father]]. The possibility of the supernatural [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane is very ambiguous]], with most of the horror stemming from the ''horrific'' {{Squick}} that comes with their father's abuse.
62* ''Film/WintersBone'': The setting is an unfriendly, twisted town in the Missouri Ozarks, with an eerie swamp full of twisted decay nearby. There are also supernatural elements, and bits of folklore and legend are woven into the novel.
63* Creator/JohnHuston's 1979 adaptation of Creator/FlanneryOConnor's classic Southern Gothic novel ''Literature/WiseBlood'' is itself a classic of the genre on film.
64[[/folder]]
65
66[[folder:Literature]]
67* Elements in the works of Creator/MarkTwain could be considered the UrExample.
68* Though he was born in [[LovecraftCountry Boston]], Creator/EdgarAllanPoe spent much of his life in Virginia and Baltimore and essentially ''lived'' this trope. While his stories themselves often have ambiguous or abstract settings, "Literature/TheFallOfTheHouseOfUsher" checks a lot of the thematic boxes--[[ImpoverishedPatrician aristocrats in decline]], an all-pervading sense of physical and spiritual decay, isolation, insanity, and yes, incest.[[note]] The location of the titular house above a "tarn," which is a postglacial lake or pond, suggests northern Europe or New England, but Poe may not have been using the term in the strict sense. Slightly harder to square with an American setting is the fact that the mansion has apparently existed since "remote feudal times."[[/note]]
69** "The Gold-Bug" is set near Charleston, South Carolina, and although it turns out to be [[CluelessMystery a different kind of story altogether]], Legrand's background and [[ObfuscatingInsanity behavior]] initially hint at Gothic themes.
70** While he largely avoided discussing slavery directly in any of his surviving writings, many of Poe's fictional works ("The Black Cat", "Hop-Frog", ''Literature/TheNarrativeOfArthurGordonPymOfNantucket''...) have nevertheless been read by scholars as oblique commentaries on race relations in the antebellum U.S.--a primary theme of later Southern Gothic literature. Whether they were consciously intended to be taken this way, on the other hand, is impossible to say for sure.
71* Creator/WilliamFaulkner is widely considered TropeCodifier for the genre, and Southern Gothic themes pervade virtually all his work. ''Literature/AbsalomAbsalom'' and ''Literature/TheSoundAndTheFury'' are two major novel-length examples, while his short story "Literature/ARoseForEmily" gives a classic Gothic setting in the form of the title character's mansion: symbolic of better days but described in the most wretched terms of rot and decay--and hiding terrible secrets within.
72* After Faulkner, Creator/FlanneryOConnor is pretty much regarded as the queen of the Southern Gothic. Absolutely everything she wrote fits soundly within the genre, though she herself may have disagreed; she once wrote that "[a]nything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic."
73* [[Creator/CarsonMcCullers Carson [=McCullers=]]]' stories and novels, mostly published in the 1940s, are soaked in this and helped codify the genre. She once accused Harper Lee of "poaching on her preserve".
74* As indicated in the prior example, Harper Lee's ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'' has elements of this, with its DeepSouth setting, its concern with the legacy of Southern racism, and a mystery component involving a spooky house.
75* Likewise, Harper Lee's childhood friend Creator/TrumanCapote dabbled in the Southern Gothic with works like his debut novel ''Other Voices, Other Rooms'', and was similarly accused (by Creator/GoreVidal this time) of plagiarizing [=McCullers=].
76* Eudora Welty was a contemporary of Faulkner and [=McCullers=] whose work was often grouped with theirs under the Southern Gothic umbrella, though she herself resisted the classification, famously saying "They better not call me that!"
77* Creator/AnneRice's ''Blackwood Farm'' has more mausoleums than people, not to mention an entire house sunk to the second story in a swamp.
78** Pretty much everything Anne Rice does is Southern Gothic--with an emphasis on the [[{{Goth}} Gothic]] part.
79* Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's ''Literature/FevreDream'' is very much this. Nineteenth century, steamers in the South, vampires with slaves and a creepy mansion.
80* Creator/HPLovecraft's ''[[Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu The Call Of Cthulhu]]'' abandons the traditional [[LovecraftCountry New England]] as a setting for monstrous buried secrets, wandering Southwards to the dank swamps of Louisiana, where Cthulhu's cultists gather for celebration with orgies and human sacrifices.
81** "The Statement of Randolph Carter" (that'd be the story [[spoiler:that ends with '''[[ItCanThink "You fool, Warren is dead!"]]''']]) is also set in the Big Cypress of southern Florida.
82* Creator/JohnSaul set his horror novel ''The Right Hand of Evil'' in backwoods Louisiana and ''The Unloved'' in South Carolina.
83* Creator/RobertEHoward's short story "Black Canaan" fits here. Also "Pigeons from Hell", which adds HollywoodVoodoo to the mix.
84* Creator/CheriePriest's ''Four and Twenty Blackbirds'' mixes this with Magic Realism is a story of a girl who sees ghosts dealing with the legacy of her great-great grandfather, an evil sorcerer. In fact, most of Priest's work fits here.
85* Many of the novels by Creator/VCAndrews.
86* Erskine Caldwell's ''Tobacco Road'' and ''God's Little Acre''.
87* Shane Berryhill's ''Literature/ZoraBanks'' UrbanFantasy series is a modernized example with Chattanooga, TN's genteel Southern heritage contrasted against its modern-day sleaze and supernatural crime.
88* ''Literature/TheCasterChronicles'' is not as horror-y as the classic model, but features a lot of the same atmosphere and elements, showing the Deep South as being full of things that aren't what they seem, that can't be explained, and that are often very dangerous.
89* ''Literature/EdenGreen'' is a modern take on the genre, mixing smartphone GPS and mysterious needle monsters. It also takes place in Gothic, an expy of the author's home city of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
90* Creator/CharlaineHarris' ''Literature/TheSookieStackhouseMysteries'', [[Series/TrueBlood the TV series based on them]] and her non-supernatural Lily Bard mystery series all fit in here.
91* ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}: Emerald Hell'' takes place in the swamps around Enigma, Georgia where Hellboy has to find a missing woman Sarah Nail and keep her safe from the [[SinisterMinister former backwoods preacher]] Brother Jester, who seeks revenge against Sarah's father. In the swamps Hellboy finds allies in swamp witches, Brother Jester's former apprentice, and a lost town of mutants against the horrors of the Emerald Hell such as a pair of beautiful but murderous brothers, a giant tree-woman and her "daughters" that kill men to feed its roots, and man-eating swamp gators. A lot of man-eating swamp gators.
92* Creator/ManlyWadeWellman's ''Literature/SilverJohn'' stories are FantasyAmericana works set in an [[HillbillyHorrors Appalachia, haunted]] by monsters, ghosts, and witchcraft. John himself, however, is always up to the task of keeping people safe with his [[GuileHero quick wits]] and MagicMusic.
93* Creator/ToniMorrison's ''Literature/{{Beloved}}'' can be read as a slightly postmodern take on the Southern Gothic novel, complete with a haunted house with a tragic history, a ghost/[[RevenantZombie revenant]], and a woman who is considered to be mad. It's also a brutal and heartbreaking story about the legacy of slavery in America.
94* Jesmyn Ward's [[Literature/SalvageTheBones novels]] frequently showcase Southern Gothic themes from an African American perspective.
95* Donald Ray Pollock's ''Literature/TheDevilAllTheTime'' is a particularly gritty 21st-century example, which was also adapted into a film.
96* Daniel Woodrell--author of the books [[TheFilmOfTheBook which were adapted into]] the films ''Film/WintersBone'' and ''Film/RideWithTheDevil''--usually puts out Southern Gothic-adjacent work set in and around the Missouri Ozarks.
97* While many of Creator/CormacMcCarthy's most famous works are more SinisterSouthwest than this, his first several novels were all set in UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}} and dipped deeply into Southern Gothic themes. Given that [=McCarthy=] grew up in Tennessee and was majorly influenced by William Faulkner, this makes perfect sense.
98* Parodied in ''Literature/TheLastAdventureOfConstanceVerity''. Of all the places Connie hates going to, it's the state of Kansas, mainly because she's had the most weird things happen to her there. Every town is a TownWithADarkSecret, she uncovered the philosopher's stone while trying to bury the family pet, she uncovered a civilization of sentient cockroaches hiding in an apartment complex and the Sunken City of Chaos Gods is buried beneath Wichita, she stopped a conspiracy to start WorldWarIII devised by the brain of Adolph Hitler there, she was almost eaten by cyborg cannibals, and one of every ten [[ApocalypseCult cultists out to destroy the universe (for reasons)]] came from Kansas. It's also one of the few places where her adventures came close to actually killing her, adding another reason why she hates the state so much.
99--> It was Kansas where the heart of the conspiracy to control her life was based.\
100"Fucking Kansas," she mumbled.
101* Creator/MichaelMcDowell's ''Literature/{{Blackwater}}'' books, a GenerationalSaga set in a fictionalized version of Perdido, Alabama, detailing a power struggle between the [[MyBelovedSmother domineering matriarch]] of the town's richest family and her mysterious daughter-in-law, who is secretly [[FishPeople some kind of water monster]] in [[VoluntaryShapeshifting human form]].
102* ''Literature/RedDragon'' has elements of this with its title character, a SerialKiller who lives in the crumbling Missouri retirement home once owned by his abusive grandmother, who operated the place as a retirement home. Although the book is, in many ways, a very contemporary and gritty novel, the killer's traumatic backstory is played in extremely Gothic terms.
103[[/folder]]
104
105[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
106* ''Series/AmericanGothic1995'' set in the fictional town of Trinity, South Carolina.
107* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'', which takes place in UsefulNotes/NewOrleans, Louisiana. And ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryFreakShow'' takes place in Jupiter, Florida in 1952 (back when Jupiter was still part of the South, rather than the Northern-and-Cuban sprawl emanating from Miami). ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryRoanoke'' takes place in rural North Carolina and has so far included hillbilly stereotypes and extremely violent ghosts.
108* ''Series/TheHeartSheHoller'' wallows in the clichés of the genre, gleefully cranking the trashiness and degeneracy up.
109* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': Season 1 is a gothic romance about two vampires, and the past events take place in New Orleans during the early 20th century. It's a city rife with racism (there's racial segregation) and murder (because vampires eat on average two humans a night, Lestat de Lioncourt alone has killed more than ''21,000'' people from the early fall 1910 [[note]]the autumnal equinox was Sep. 23 in that year, so presumably he arrived in New Orleans around then[[/note]] to Feb. 6, 1940). The decay is represented by the de Pointe du Lac sugar plantation, which was once prosperous, but is no longer profitable by the time Louis inherits it. The voodoo practitioners who live near the vampire family try to curse them by placing {{Voodoo Doll}}s inside a circle of brick dust on the doorstep of their home.
110* ''Series/{{Justified}}'' has the Truth family, a household full of brash, maladjusted criminals in rural Kentucky.
111* ''Series/TheOriginals'' is set in storied and beautiful New Orleans. It weaves her ''extremely'' eventful history into the narrative, and makes use of the sometimes macabre beauty of the city's streets, cemeteries, and churches for visual interest. The story also ventures out into the surrounding rural areas of Louisiana--whose swamps and woods are both very different from the city, yet still have a similarly spooky beauty.
112* ''Series/{{Outcast}}'', about Kyle Barnes, who lives in a small West Virginia town plagued by demonic possessions fits this trope. It helps that the comic it's based on was created by Robert Kirkman, who also created ''The Walking Dead''.
113* ''Series/PValley'' has elements of this, especially with the backdrop of Mississippi, the poorest state in the US. The neighborhoods are falling apart, and almost everyone is poor. The Pynk acts as an escape for many people from their financial situations.
114* Much like the comic it's based on, ''[[Series/Preacher2016 Preacher]]'' does this a lot, dealing with Christianity-based supernatural forces while taking place in the South, especially Texas and Louisiana.
115* As with the novels, ''Series/TrueBlood'' is set in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps. The show focuses on the town's inhabitants (including the main protagonist) encountering vampires and other supernatural creatures. One of the characters is an undead Confederate veteran.
116* ''Series/TrueDetective'': The first season features two detectives investigating an occult-themed serial killing in the suburban and rural areas surrounding UsefulNotes/NewOrleans. [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Although nothing is definitively supernatural]], it's very much portrayed as a southern version of LovecraftCountry, with Creator/ThomasLigotti being a major influence.
117* ''Series/TheWalkingDead2010'' dove headfirst into this territory the moment the survivors left the Atlanta Metro Area.
118* In episode 4 of season 2 of ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' titled "Abomination", the Legends travel back in 1863 during the Civil War to correct a time aberration, which caused Confederate soldiers to turn into zombies. Part of their mission takes place in a slave plantation.
119[[/folder]]
120
121[[folder:Music]]
122* Sons of Perdition fits this trope to a T.
123* A lot of the imagery in Music/{{Beyonce}}'s visual special for her album ''Lemonade'' falls into this, much of it being shot in Louisiana.
124* The country song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTuzpQfhfwo "Southern Gothic"]] by Dan Tyminski has heavy [[ReligionRantSong religious]] and [[SleazyPolitician political]] overtones, but it presents them using imagery that absolutely lives up to the title. And that's ''without'' counting the music video itself.
125--> ''Blackbird on the old church steeple\
126Spanish moss hangin' in the settin' sun\
127Every house has got a Bible and a loaded gun''
128* Some of Delta Rae's music videos fall into this, particularly [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bimam2j2gEg "Bottom of the River"]].
129* Music/NickCave and the Bad Seeds' music includes many songs that were heavily inspired by southern gothic themes. Nick himself also wrote a novel in the genre, ''Literature/AndTheAssSawTheAngel''.
130* "Shadows" by Alabama rapper Yelawolf is a rare fusion of {{horrorcore}} and CountryRap, as the narrative spares no detail in describing the everyday horrors of rural Southern life (drugs, crime, and crushing poverty) with mention of ghosts, demons, goblins, TheFairFolk, and TheGrimReaper.
131* The Bobbie Gentry song "Fancy", later made famous when covered by Music/RebaMcEntire is all about the titular Fancy, a wealthy woman with a mansion in a Georgia and a stately flat-house in New York, remembering her past in poverty in rural New Orleans. After her father runs off leaving her family destitute, her terminally ill mother, unable to provide for her and her infant sibling, is forced to turn the then 18 year old Fancy over to prostitution, using the last of their money to buy Fancy a [[LadyInRed Red Dress]], to give her daughter a fighting chance, with Fancy remembering the final words her mother tells her "Here's your one chance Fancy, don't let me down!" before regrettably forcing her onto the street, never to see her again. Shortly after this Fancy learns that her baby sibling has been taken by social services and her mother has died from her illness. Fancy uses her beauty and charm to seduce her way to becoming a rich woman. At the same time she comes to terms with what her mother had to do to ensure her daughter's survival.
132* Some of Music/TomWaits' songs edge into this genre, along with GothicCountryMusic. "Don't Go Into That Barn" is probably the best fit.
133-->Behind the porticoed house of a long dead farm\
134They found the falling down timbers\
135Of a spooky old barn\
136Out there like a slave ship upside down\
137Wrecked beneath the waves of grain\
138When the river is low\
139They find old bones and\
140When they plow they always dig up chains
141* Pretty much everything by gothic country artist Jay Munly fits here, with the bulk of his lyrics concerning various degenerates and grotesques living godforsaken lives in the post-war South. His most recent project, Munly and the Lupercalians, adds FracturedFairyTale and FantasyAmericana into the mix, with their first album being a darkly comical retelling of ''Music/PeterAndTheWolf''.
142* Most SludgeMetal takes notable aesthetic influence from this genre, particularly the groups Music/{{Crowbar}} and ''especially'' Music/AcidBath.
143* The Creator/VickiLawrence song "The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia," follows a man being sent to a HangingJudge for the murder of the man's cheating wife and her lover of the moment, his best friend. Only the situation isn't so cut and dry, as TheNarrator reveals, she, the man's sister, shot and killed them for humiliating their family, and the judge fully knew her brother was innocent, and was only taking the fall to protect his sister. She also reveals that the Judge was also having an affair with the wife, and by pinning the blame on the husband, who is shortly after executed by hanging, he could keep his dalliances from being revealed.
144-->That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia\
145That's the night that they hung an innocent man\
146Well, don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer\
147'Cause the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hands
148* "The Legend of Wooley Swamp" by Music/TheCharlieDanielsBand is about a swamp haunted by the ghost of a rich man who had been murdered by a couple of "white trash" rednecks who wanted to steal his money and feed his corpse to the alligators. The ghost, however, was determined to [[TakingYouWithMe take his killers with him]], so the spirit dragged his killers into the quicksand.
149[[/folder]]
150
151[[folder:Podcasts]]
152
153* ''Podcast/STown'', although nonfiction, is usually described as Southern Gothic (more in the Creator/WilliamFaulkner-Creator/FlanneryOConnor mode than the "Supernatural South" one), as it focuses on a small town in the Deep South (Woodstock, Alabama, in Birmingham's southern hinterland) and its social divisions and problems. To top off the vibe, the closing theme is Music/TheZombies' "A Rose for Emily", which is a ShoutOut to [[Literature/ARoseForEmily Faulkner's famous short story]].
154
155[[/folder]]
156
157[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
158
159* Wrestling/TheWyattFamily - a UsefulNotes/CharlesManson-meets-''Series/TrueDetective'' stable of evil southern cultists - play upon this in a way that's so legitimately chilling that it's probably inappropriate for what is, ostensibly, family entertainment.
160[[/folder]]
161
162[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
163* ''Rage Across Appalachia'', a supplemental book for ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'', runs on this trope. Memorable examples of horror from the book include the Bledsons, a rural family of [[DemonicPossession bane-possessed]] men, and the Pigeon River Howlers, a bluegrass band made up of Black Spiral Dancers who corrupt their audiences through music and dancing.
164* ''TabletopGame/RealmsOfCthulhu'', by Creator/RealityBlurs, is a ''TabletopGame/SavageWorlds'' setting that uses Charleston, South Carolina, as the default location for its CosmicHorror adventures.
165* The dread domain of Souragne in ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' was built around this trope. It's a tropical swampy realm where two human ethnicities -- a light-skinned minority and a dark-skinned majority -- eke out a living. Unlike the real-world Lousiana it's clearly riffing on, the social divide here is financial, rather than racial. Its darklord, Anton Misroi, was a cruel and abusive plantation owner who became a zombie lord (a kind of [[OurLichesAreDifferent fleshy lich]]) after he murdered his wife by drowning her and the man he falsely thought was seducing her in the swamp, only for them to return as vengeful zombies and drown him in return. The local religion is, of course, a HollywoodVoodoo (contrasting the CrystalDragonJesus of Ezra and the pseudo-Wicca of Hala from the core), where the darklord is actually revered as a malevolent Baron Samedi-esque loa called "The Lord of the Dead".
166[[/folder]]
167
168[[folder:Theatre]]
169* The collected works of Creator/TennesseeWilliams, particularly ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire''. In Williams' work, the gothic elements come less from sensationalistic elements like murder or the supernatural, and more from the mundane and realistic: poverty, family dysfunction, interpersonal tension, and - at least in the subtext - the pain of being gay in an overwhelmingly conservative environment.
170* Creator/StephenKing, T-Bone Burnett, and Music/JohnMellencamp created a musical called ''Ghost Brothers of Darkland County'', which plays with a lot of the tropes associated with the genre. It also contains several shout-outs to Creator/FlanneryOConnor, Tennessee Williams and Creator/WilliamFaulkner, but with supernatural elements thrown in.
171* The Tony Award-sweeping musical ''Theatre/{{Hadestown}}'', which is a Southern Gothic gloss on Myth/ClassicalMythology.
172[[/folder]]
173
174[[folder:Theme Parks]]
175* ''Ride/TombsOfTerror'' from Ride/UniversalStudios' ''Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights'' 1997 was an abandoned funeral parlor in New Orleans inhabited by creatures like vampires, zombies, mutants, and chainsaw-wielding maniacs.
176* The Disneyland version of ''Ride/TheHauntedMansion'' is set in a conspicuously-clean Southern-style mansion within the New Orleans Square area of the park.
177[[/folder]]
178
179[[folder:Video Games]]
180* Most of the rural locations in Louisiana as seen in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'', [[JustifiedTrope though admittedly]], a ZombieApocalypse ''did'' strike down these places.
181* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'''s Point Lookout DLC could qualify as a post-apocalyptic take on this, as it's an area crawling with mutant hicks, radioactive swamps, and deadly conspiracies.
182* ''VideoGame/GhostHunter'': you get to visit a haunted swamp filled with ghostly rednecks at one point.
183* The main plot of ''VideoGame/HuntShowdown'' involves the secret war of a MonsterHunterOrganization and evil spirits somewhere deep South, apparently Louisiana because many of the maps have extensive swamps and abandoned plantations.
184* ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'':
185** The game ''Ghost of Thornton Hall'' dives into this full force, taking place in a [[http://www.download-game-demo.com/imgs/nancy-drew-ghost-of-thornton-hall_z-pc-22067-en_screen2.jpg creepy decaying plantation home]].
186** ''Legend of the Crystal Skull'' has elements of this trope as well.
187* ''VideoGame/KentuckyRouteZero'' nails the dusty beige old crossroad where you'll likely encounter the Devil between this and MagicalRealism while setting itself in the modern decay of the South after the the Great Recession of 2008.
188* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto2'': The Rednecks' RV park. The roads are even replaced by dirt paths.
189* ''[[Creator/AvanquestSoftware Voodoo Whisperer: Curse of a Legend]]''. New Orleans is under a voodoo curse and the player character must free the inhabitants. The ghosts of murder victims can be conjured up for a chat to gather clues and the grounds of the heroine's home include a family mausoleum and a swamp with an aligator in it.
190* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'' is set in a derelict plantation in the fictional town of Dulvey, Louisiana, [[RevisitingTheRoots returning the franchise]] to its original survival horror roots in rural America.
191* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'' has a lot of this flavour in the chapters set in [[FictionalProvince Lemoyne]], the game's FictionalCounterpart to Louisiana. The state is rife with crumbling mansions, abandoned churches, and even an old Civil War battlefield slowly sinking into the mix of swamp mud and red clay dirt.
192** A major subplot in the small town of Rhodes deals with two feuding plantation-owning families, playing out like a Southern Gothic mix of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' and ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars''. Notably, one of the families keeps [[MadwomanInTheAttic a deformed cousin locked in an outhouse out of shame]], a classic gothic trope, and the other family's patriarch ends up DrivenToSuicide over a shameful family secret ([[spoiler:[[UsefulNotes/HanoverStuartWars their founder wasn't an exiled Jacobite, as they had always believed, but a spy for the pro-Hanoverian Duke of Cumberland.]]]]).
193** This is especially true with [[spoiler:the several haunted locations around the state (including the above-mentioned battlefield), the creepy denizens of the swamp, and the (true) tales of the [[CannibalClan Nite Folk]].]] And that's on top of the swamp's already spooky atmosphere, particularly after dark.
194** A few of the location names in Lemoyne are {{Shout Out}}s to classic Southern Gothic stories and writers, such as [[Literature/TheSoundAndTheFury Compson]]'s Stead, [[Literature/ToKillAMockingbird Radley's]] Pasture, and [[Creator/MarkTwain Clemens]] Point. Even the name of the state is a reference to a [[Literature/TheMonk classic novel]] of the original, non-Southern brand of Gothic literature, and there's a major NPC named Angelo [[Creator/EmilyBronte Br]][[Creator/CharlotteBronte on]][[Creator/AnneBronte te]].
195** One of the very first missions after you arrive in the state capital of [[TheBigEasy Saint Denis]] is a nighttime battle in a cemetery against a gang of [[RobbingTheDead grave robbers]].
196** Oh, and in Saint Denis, [[spoiler:if you follow the writing on the wall properly, you can encounter a vampire, who LooksLikeOrlok, feeding on his latest victim.]]
197* ''VideoGame/{{Norco}}'' mixes the genre with a touch of {{Cyberpunk}}, taking place in a somewhat futuristic version of the decaying and poverty-striken suburbs of New Orleans, Louisiana, where the main character, Kay, must solve the mystery of her brother's disappearance.
198* ''VideoGame/ScoobyDooMysteryMayhem'' has a level called "Bad Juju in The Bayou" in which the Scooby gang investigates an evil corporation's doings in a bayou after it was emptied of its inhabitants because of an infestation of the walking dead. The level features an old mansion, gators, zombies, and a somewhat weird southern countryman named Billy Bob. Scooby must also avoid mercenaries employed by the corporation, patrolling onto the lands and the water areas to restrict zombies and civilians.
199[[/folder]]
200
201[[folder:Web Original]]
202* ''WebVideo/MarbleHornets'' takes place in Alabama, mostly shot in abandoned and wooded areas. Nobody is who you think they are, and the forest is hiding something supernatural.
203* The Website/SCPFoundation's [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/dixieland-nightmare-magic-hub Dixieland Nightmare Magic]] canon is set in a heavily gothic North Florida, full of witchcraft and religiously significant anomalous objects.
204* Alastor from ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'' has a hint of this, being a demon who was a serial killer in 1920's New Orleans when he was alive. There are also subtle implications that his powers have a connection to hoodoo.
205[[/folder]]
206
207[[folder:Western Animation]]
208* WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo has visited these once in a while. ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland'' is one of the best examples of the trope.
209** Scooby and Shaggy both have ancestral (probably on mother sides) southern gothic homes. As depicted in "Scooby's Roots" and "Boo Brothers".
210* Played with on ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' when we get to meet Bill Dauterive's family. He's from Louisiana and his family home is a typical crumbling plantation with weird family members and a secret. In this case barbecue sauce, but still.
211* Featured in ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventuresHowISpentMyVacation.''
212-->'''Babs:''' ''(donning a [[Film/Frankenstein1931 Frankenstein's monster costume]] and adopting a Creator/BorisKarloff voice)'' Nice place to live, if you've got a bolt through your neck.
213-->'''[[DeadpanSnarker Buster]]:''' Rope it in, Boris.
214* The ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' episode "The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades!" has the Duck family going to Florida to look for a FountainOfYouth, crossing paths with Scrooge's old enemies from the past who have now turned to zombie-like beings (one freed from being cryogenically frozen and the other now a FrankensteinsMonster). [[spoiler:Oh, and said fountain actually transfers youth instead of granting it, as was discovered by a hotel owner who is a really a 500-year-old conquistador who had been stealing the youths of innocent people by using the fountain's waters for the hotel's swimming pool.]]
215[[/folder]]

Top