White Smoke

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.

Social horror is a subgenre of horror that aims to expose and amplify social issues by framing them in a horror plot or making them a key factor in the plot conflict. Many social horrors shed light on social inequality or oppression, making prejudices and antagonists’ judgmental behaviors a root cause of protagonists’ conflicts and fears. Works in this subgenre may address racism, gentrification, cultural identity and culture clashes, and classism. While social horror may still employ the scary moments and creepy atmosphere of traditional horror, these works also broach questions about the horrors people commit against each other and point to a strong need for greater empathy and acceptance in society. Notable film examples include Get Out (2017), Us (2019), Antebellum (2020), Don’t Worry, Darling (2022), and Parasite (2019); novels include Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country (2016), Stephen Graham Jones’s The Only Good Indians (2020), and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic (2020).

White Smoke serves as an example of social horror in that its protagonist Marigold faces conflicts that are rooted in racism, gentrification, and prejudice.