Inbreds & Cannibals & Savages, Oh My!: A Genre Analysis of Appalachian Atrocities

This thesis is an analysis of the representation of the Appalachian region in horror films. It examines the representations of the region in films such as The Hills Have Eyes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Jug Face, and the representations of the inhabitants of Appalachia in films such as We Are What We Are. The analysis is conducted through a rhetorical analysis of the genre’s most core elements, such as the substance of the movie, the situational and stylistic, and the sensory aspects of the movies.