Is there a name for this genre of media?

[Dom Cruise]

Stuff like Stephen King, Alan Wake, Twilight Zone, Twin Peaks, M Night Shyamalan, that type of media, is there an actual name for that genre?

And how exactly would you describe it even though you know it when you see it? Everyday people encountering paranormal situations in specifically US settings (give or take a few episodes of Twilight Zone where it was in space or whatever) usually with a strong dose of Americana or an emphasis on everyday places and things?

Think a story where a guy walks into a 50s style roadside dinner, but the apple pie is haunted.

Even the video game Control, from the makers of Alan Wake, falls into this genre because even though the setting is often more outlandish, it still riffs on government agency headquarters type imagery and at a few points you're inside an all American motel.

 

[Isaac]

Something something Esoteric thriller fiction. It's all in how it's shot, or written. Make it look as otherworldly as possible, then throw in some weird faggy imagry to get people questionin

 

[Haint]

American Gothic

 

[Marissa Moira]

Made for TV Movies.

 

[Blood Unit]

L Y N C H I A N

 

[Penis Drager]

Surrealism?

 

[Jewthulhu]

American Gothic fiction is probably what you're looking for. Not everything you mentioned falls neatly in that category, and American Gothic fiction spans basically the entirety of America's existence (not just your 50s diner), but it's the best match I know of for the aesthetic you're describing. Southern Gothic would probably fit too, though that focuses more on the culture of the southern united states in particular and is mostly set/written just after the civil war.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

American Gothic fiction is probably what you're looking for. Not everything you mentioned falls neatly in that category, and American Gothic fiction spans basically the entirety of America's existence (not just your 50s diner), but it's the best match I know of for the aesthetic you're describing. Southern Gothic would probably fit too, though that focuses more on the culture of the southern united states in particular and is mostly set/written just after the civil war.

I'd almost call something like Twin Peaks gonzo journalism adjacent.

 

[Jason Wynn]

Speculative fiction is a good umbrella term, but a more specific genre is a bit harder to pin down. Psychological thriller? Surreal horror? Abstract horror?

 

[Dom Cruise]

I forgot to mention Silent Hill as another example of this, although it’s a little more extreme than other examples with the horror and gore, the influence from Stephen King is obvious, the setting is a small American town, you visit places like motels, hospitals and malls etc.

And although I haven’t seen it yet there was also a sci-fi channel mini series called The Lost Room that is definitely within this wheelhouse as well.

American Gothic fiction is probably what you're looking for. Not everything you mentioned falls neatly in that category, and American Gothic fiction spans basically the entirety of America's existence (not just your 50s diner), but it's the best match I know of for the aesthetic you're describing. Southern Gothic would probably fit too, though that focuses more on the culture of the southern united states in particular and is mostly set/written just after the civil war.

American Gothic is pretty good, but gothic to me can be stuff like a murder mystery, I’m talking specifically stuff involving the supernatural.

As far as time period goes I’m talking about broadly present day I E the age of automobiles, airplanes stuff like that, if you’re talking 1800s era literature like Edgar Allan Poe I would consider that something different, though certainly a cousin to it, the furthest you could go back would maybe be HP Lovecraft who was writing stories set in the 1920s and 1930s which was still the era of automobiles etc, though I would consider Lovecraft to be more of his own thing and a precursor to what I’m talking about than a genuine example, in fact I would say 1920s and 1930s pulp fiction in general is its own kind of thing.

For me I would consider the time period to be post world war two with the Twilight Zone being one of the earliest examples and the fiction that it was either adapting or inspired by in the 1950s/early 60s.

 

[Just A Butt]

you're a tard

 

[The Magnificence]

American Gothic?

Probably the best description. "Gothic" in modern parlance includes horror/thriller elements, and the settings are distinctly "Americana" in nature - that is to say, a POV that the northeastern US is the ultimate image of the US, or at least the only image of the US that really matters (yes, it's distinctly egotistical as well, that's why basically the entire rest of the US despises the east coast to some degree or another).

 

[Just A Butt]

no one is going to tell him that the genre is named after a painting that has very little to do with "gothic" as he understands the word?

 

[Aunt Carol]

Weird fiction? Urban fantasy?

(I think "urban fantasy" is turning into lady-driven "fairy and/or vampire in a trench coat," though.)

Magical realism, but modern--if "modern magical realism" is a thing then that's probably it.

Real advice: find the wiki page of a thing you like, scroll down, see what categories it's been put in and explore those categories. Autists are your best bet for creating and maintaining categories.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Probably the best description. "Gothic" in modern parlance includes horror/thriller elements, and the settings are distinctly "Americana" in nature - that is to say, a POV that the northeastern US is the ultimate image of the US, or at least the only image of the US that really matters (yes, it's distinctly egotistical as well, that's why basically the entire rest of the US despises the east coast to some degree or another).

Well, it only makes sense for the northeastern US to be the ultimate image of the US considering that's where it all began.

no one is going to tell him that the genre is named after a painting that has very little to do with "gothic" as he understands the word?

Obviously I know the painting.

Weird fiction? Urban fantasy?

(I think "urban fantasy" is turning into lady-driven "fairy and/or vampire in a trench coat," though.)

Magical realism, but modern--if "modern magical realism" is a thing then that's probably it.

Real advice: find the wiki page of a thing you like, scroll down, see what categories it's been put in and explore those categories. Autists are your best bet for creating and maintaining categories.

Weird fiction is a term I've seen used that definitely fits pretty well.

 

[The Magnificence]

Well, it only makes sense for the northeastern US to be the ultimate image of the US considering that's where it all began.

Hmm. Not entirely unfair, but I think there were colonies further south that would have something to say about that, not to mention the influence of other countries that had laid claim to and helped settle huge portions of what became the US.

And really, a lot of those folks who settled the NE were degenerates. The Puritans came here 'cause nobody in Europe could tolerate their prissy asses. The Dutch demonstrated in part why they continue to be so widely despised to this day by effectively enslaving their own people. The Quakers and Catholics were ok, but only because they had been so horrifically treated in Europe and Britain that they made a conscious decision to not be that shitty themselves (aside from Rhode Island, Maryland was the only original colony with a "religious tolerance" AKA freedom of religion statute specifically because the Catholics didn't want to treat others as they had been treated. It did sentence to death anyone who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ but, yanno, "THE JEWS!" etc. etc.).

So, yeah. I'll just sit back and collect all the "autistic" ratings I'm going to get for that sperg, now.

 

[Haint]

The term Gothic is unfortunate, yes. But that's the literary term that stuck. Many of famous southern gothic authors hated the term. The genre described fits if placed in the SE US. Southern Gothic focuses on flawed characters, with mental, or physical differences. The genre incorperates the gilded yet rotting realities of southern culture. Racism, violence, sex and religion plays a central roll. Often, but not always, the supernatural is involved.

 

[Red Hood]

I forgot to mention Silent Hill as another example of this, although it’s a little more extreme than other examples with the horror and gore, the influence from Stephen King is obvious, the setting is a small American town, you visit places like motels, hospitals and malls etc.

And although I haven’t seen it yet there was also a sci-fi channel mini series called The Lost Room that is definitely within this wheelhouse as well.


American Gothic is pretty good, but gothic to me can be stuff like a murder mystery, I’m talking specifically stuff involving the supernatural.

As far as time period goes I’m talking about broadly present day I E the age of automobiles, airplanes stuff like that, if you’re talking 1800s era literature like Edgar Allan Poe I would consider that something different, though certainly a cousin to it, the furthest you could go back would maybe be HP Lovecraft who was writing stories set in the 1920s and 1930s which was still the era of automobiles etc, though I would consider Lovecraft to be more of his own thing and a precursor to what I’m talking about than a genuine example, in fact I would say 1920s and 1930s pulp fiction in general is its own kind of thing.

For me I would consider the time period to be post world war two with the Twilight Zone being one of the earliest examples and the fiction that it was either adapting or inspired by in the 1950s/early 60s.

Gothic fiction in the traditional sense involved the protagonists being far from their homes (usually somewhere in the Catholic or Eastern Orthodox part of Europe, or Muslim lands) and if not strict supernaturalism, it was always suggested. Murder mysteries in general aren't really considered to be gothic though there can be crossover.

A blanket term might be "weird fiction" which is an unsatisfactory term used for everything from Lovecraft to the current crop of hacks living off borrowing his ideas (one of which is King). I would agree with American Gothic working fine as a genre name, even if it conjures up images of a famously humorous painting.