Horror and Disability: Representations of Disability in Twenty-First-Century Film and Television (Horror Studies)

Horror and Disability is the first comprehensive study exploring disability within twenty-first-century horror films and television. Using critical theories along with disability and cultural studies, it examines how horror depicts mobility impairments, blindness, deafness, neurodiversity, illness, ageing and physical differences, demonstrating how these bodies are portrayed as monstrous, vulnerable, empowered or resistant. Moving away from traditional Gothic and freak-show legacies that presented disabled bodies as spectacles or monstrosities for entertainment, the author focuses on contemporary screen horror to highlight how disabled characters and creators are reclaiming the genre as a space for agency, visibility and critique. By prioritising disabled voices, lived experiences and evolving disability models, Horror and Disability illustrates how the genre mirrors wider cultural fears about the body while opening new avenues for representation, agency and solidarity.