What is Dreadpunk? A quick guide to a new subgenre

This gothic horror and dark fantasy aesthetic is already tingling spines.

A late Sunday night panel at Dragon Con might seem a strange time for the birth of a new subculture—but in this case, the moment was fittingly weird in every sense. Welcome to the beginning of Dreadpunk, a new movement that aims to push horror and dark fantasy in new (old) directions. Dreadpunk feels like a perfectly natural term for the recent trend in Gothic-inspired horror and fantasy. Typified by the popular series Penny Dreadful, the word implies a subversive take on fog-drenched Victoriana, tales of the supernatural mixed with late 19th-century aesthetics, and the recent wave of Gothic horror like The Woman In Black and Crimson Peak. [Placeholder for http://victorian-goth.tumblr.com/post/128416107841/victorian-goth-httpvictorian-gothtumblrcom embed]

The idea of using “dreadpunk” to describe the phenomenon comes from Dragon Con’s horror track director, Derek Tatum, who made the website Dreadpunk.com to promote the movement. The panel marked the first time the term had been introduced to the public.

But wait: Isn’t this just Steampunk?

Yes and no. Steampunk typically emphasizes magic and technology. With its focus on advancing progress through a late Victorian aesthetic, it generally has a much more optimistic worldview than its 20th-century counterpart, Dieselpunk. It doesn’t have all that much in common with grimoire-inspired gaslamp fantasies, chilling tales of ghosts and haunted mansions, and macabre stories of ruthless killers stalking dark city streets, ala Jack the Ripper or H.H. Holmes.

Such tales were originally made famous in the 19th century with titillating serialized fiction called “penny dreadfuls.” Two centuries later, the penny dreadful is enjoying a comeback.

The 3 Laws of Dreadpunk:

Dreadpunk is based in horror or dark fantasy, with a particular emphasis the word “dread”: horror by implication or unseen. Dreadpunk is set within or informed by pre- or early-20th century horror—definitely no later than Lovecraft, with Victorian London serving as the default touchstone for the Dreadpunk aesthetic. Dreadpunk is self-aware and subversive, while still emphasizing classic horror traditions.

“We really need a term for Victorian-based horror,” writer Leanna Renee Hieber told the crowd at Dragon Con. Hieber adopted a Gothic, macabre-inspired lifestyle as a teen and has been living it ever since, through numerous novels that explore gaslamp horror and dark Victorian-inspired fantasy. Here she is, forming a true Dreadpunk trio with Edward Scissorhands and Harry Potter’s evil Bellatrix Lestrange:

“I have to explain to people that I don’t have steampunk elements in my work,” she said. “I don’t have airships and I don’t have gears and I don’t have technology. I have dark magic. I have gaslamp fantasy elements, but dreadpunk sounds more badass.”

“I love the idea of reclaiming gothic horror,” Hieber continued. “Dreadpunk acknowledges the 19th-century roots that gothic horror is built on.” Slow builds and excruciating pacing, unreliable narrators, classic monsters, and yes, the aesthetic touches like gaslamps and plenty of fog are all hallmarks of dreadpunk.