The Devil Is in the Details: Horror Objects Through the Baltic Lens

Dama, Occulta (2025) The Devil Is in the Details: Horror Objects Through the Baltic Lens. In: The Baltic Horror Collection. Horror Studies series . University of Wales Press, Cardiff. (In Press)

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Abstract

The submitted work ‘The Devil Is in The Details: Horror Objects Through the Baltic Lens’ is an accepted chapter part of the book ‘The Baltic Horror Collection’ curated and edited by notable horror researcher Dr Fernando Pagnoni Berns, due to be published via University of Wales Press. The chapter observes the phenomena of the undead Object in Baltic horror cinema through the theoretical frameworks of psychoanalytical and affect theory, through a feminist informed perspective. This chapter deconstructs undead objects in notable Baltic horror cinema, primarily focusing on the Iconic Swedish horror Häxän (1922, directed by Benjamin Christensen), Soviet Russian horror Mister Designer (1987, directed by Oleg Teptsov) and the 2003 Dogville by Danish Director Lars Von Trier. These are compared to the broader landscape of object-centric Baltic horror and contrasted with mainstream American cinema to observe the series of tropes and nuances that exist when horror is projected through a Baltic perspective. The ominous otherworld of the inanimate undead is one that has shadowed the history of horror storytelling, and this chapter attempts to determine the distinct nuances that set Baltic object-centric horror apart, defining the connection between the object-centric and anthropocentric in the horror genre.