Across folklore and film, mermaids are creatures of appetite, transformation, and danger. In this episode we explore the many forms these water beings take, from seductive sea maidens to predatory spirits.
We begin with The Little Mermaid, where the famous image of the mermaid saving a prince who has fallen from a boat sits alongside a darker reality: a creature who trades her voice to a sea witch and her flesh-eating eels in order to become human. Desire and sacrifice intertwine, and food quietly structures the story through oysters, bodies, and the painful transformation of the mermaid herself.
From there the discussion moves across folklore and literature. Vanessa reflects on the “landlocked” tension of water mythology in Bless Me, Ultima, where mythic currents persist far from the sea. Allie explores the Inuit myth of the Woman of the Sea, a powerful figure whose relationship with hunger, animals, and the ocean shapes the balance between humans and the natural world.
Scottish folklore introduces another kind of water creature: the kelpie. In The Laird of Morphie and the Water Kelpie from Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales, the kelpie is a shapeshifting spirit whose encounters with humans are rarely benign, reminding us that aquatic beings in folklore often belong closer to horror than romance.
Film continues this darker tradition. The Lure and She Creature present mermaids who hunger for human flesh rather than fairy-tale love, while Ondine plays with the idea of the mermaid in a quieter, more ambiguous way.
Together these stories reveal how water spirits exist between beauty and threat, seduction and consumption. From Andersen’s tragic mermaid to kelpies, Inuit sea women, and modern horror cinema, the aquatic woman carries deep cultural anxieties about food, desire, and the boundary between human and monster.
Have a listen if you haven’t yet and dive into the darker currents of mermaids, kelpies, and the strange hunger of the sea.
Link in bio 🔗
#FoodAndFolklore #Mermaids #Kelpie #Folklore #FoodInHorror
What would you do if you fell in love with a prince on a boat who ate oysters and fell overboard? Since you're a mermaid, you'd save him and fall madly in love with him, right? What would you do if you sold your singing voice to the sea witch and her flesh-eating eels to become human? What would you do if your husband kidnapped a mermaid and kept trying to feed her fish and potatoes when all she wanted to eat was human flesh? We explore these fascinating questions as we analyze the connection between food, horror and fairy tales in Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale The Little Mermaid, along with two other modern fish-female films The Lure and She Creature. So please jump on into the water and join us!
References:
Ondine (2009), directed by Neil Jordan.
The Lure (Córki dancingu) (2015), directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska.
She Creature (2001), directed by Sebastian Gutierrez.
Books
Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima. Berkeley: TQS Publications, 1972.
Gabaldon, Diana. Outlander (Outlander Book 1). New York: Delacorte Press, 1991.
Jarvie, Gordon (ed.). Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales. London: Penguin Books, 1992.
Mother Earth, Father Sky: Native American Myth. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1991.
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What would you do if your horrible mother married a dude with a beautiful daughter who made you and your plain sister feel terrible about yourselves? What would you do if your beautiful stepsister became the house servant and went around in ugly clothes with ashes in her hair and no shoes? What if your mother tried to make you pretty and didn't allow you to eat? What if you found out there was a ball in your village and a handsome prince would be choosing a bride from the local young ladies? You'd probably starve yourself by swallowing a tapeworm and allowing your nose to be broken and reshaped, right? We'll be exploring these ideas and discussing the connection between food, fairy tales and horror in the classic story Cinderella and some more recent iterations, including the highly visceral The Ugly Stepsister film, and others, so please join us! Click the link in our bio above to listen.
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#fearfeasts #fearfeastspodcast #cinderella #foodinhorror #TheUglyStepsister
Fear Feasts is back with a brand-new episode. 🍎🖤
Long before Disney, Snow White is not awakened by a prince’s kiss. Instead, it is an apple lodged in her throat that holds her between life and death.
In Snow White, food is never innocent. Apples, hearts, hunger, and desire collide with beauty, violence, and power!
In this episode, we explore how food functions as threat, temptation, and control in the classic fairy tale and its darker modern reimaginings. Fairy tales reveal their deepest horrors when we pay attention to what is eaten, who consumes, and at what cost.
Join us as we unravel the uneasy relationship between food, fear, and folklore. 🍎🖤
Episode link in bio and story 🔗
#SnowWhite #FairyTaleHorror #GothicFood #FoodAndFear darkfairytales
What would you do if you and your sibling kept being kicked out of the house by your mean and starving mother and were left to find food on your own? What if you came across a house made of candy, gingerbread and sugar? You'd start eating it unless you were dumb. What if the house was owned by a witch who wanted to fatten you and your sibling up so she could eat you? Gross, right? What if the breadcrumbs you used to track your way home got eaten by some greedy birds? Damn birds. We are discussing the connection between food, horror and fairy tales this season and we really get into the weeds with Hansel and Gretel, so please join us by clicking the link in our bio above.
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#hanselandgretel #fairytale #fairytalehorror #fearfeastspodcast #fearfeasts #horrorpod #foodinhorror #spookyfood ##ghastlygastronomy #gretelandhansel #hanselandgretelwitchhunters
🍷 Fear Feasts Season 5 Ep 1: Little Red Riding Hood
Our first episode looks at fairy tale food horror through the story of Little Red Riding Hood. From the Grimm brothers’ Little Red-Cap to Angela Carter’s The Company of Wolves, and from Neil Jordan’s and Catherine Hardwicke’s film versions to Tanith Lee’s Wolfland and Sarah Hall’s Wolf Border and Mrs Fox, we trace how hunger, appetite and transformation devour the tale across centuries.
What does it mean to carry food through the forest, to be eaten, or to become the eater? In every version, food is never innocent. The basket, the body, and the wolf’s mouth all tell a story about desire and danger, about the fine line between feeding and being fed upon.
🐺 Listen now to Fear Feasts: Little Red Riding Hood 🧺where appetite meets horror.
#FearFeasts #LittleRedRidingHood #FoodHorror #FairyTaleHorror #AngelaCarter #TheCompanyOfWolves #TanithLee #SarahHall #GothicFood #Folklore #HorrorPodcast #MythAndFeast
We're baaaaack.......from the dead! Season 5 has officially arrived and we will be discussing the fascinating connections between food and horror in classic fairy tales! You know, breadcrumbs and poisoned apples and so much more. We will also be analyzing modern reworkings of these tales in both literature and film, and we will have a special guest or two thrown in for good measure. Here's a taste of what's to come this season, so enjoy and don't take any gifts from wicked witches.
#fearfeasts #fearfeastspodcast #foodinhorror #ghastlygastronomy #fairytale #fairytalehorror #foodinfairytales #horrorpod #season5
🎙️✨ Bonus Episode Out Now! ✨🎙️
This clip comes from the Serve It Forth Food History Festival bonus episode, presented by @fearfeasts . In it, @dr_alessandra_pino reflects on how she first found her way into food history and what continues to drive her curiosity about why people make the foods they make. 🍞📖🍇
It’s about memory, meaning, and the flavours that bind us across time ⏳
🎧 The full bonus episode is out now on all podcast platforms- listen today!
Don’t forget to grab your tickets 🎟️ for @serveitforthfest 18 October online - Link in bio
#ServeItForth #FoodHistoryFestival #FearFeasts #FoodHistory #CulinaryCuriosity #WhyWeEat
What would you do if your mother lost her mind after serving meatloaf, cut off your dad's finger, went into a mental institution, came out a psychotic S&M-loving killer, and wanted to cook up a fleshy feast for Halloween? That's the premise of Guile Branco's @guilebranco darkly hilarious and horrific film A Halloween Feast, and the subject of our bonus episode today! If you enjoy meatloaf, moms, and madness, you'll love this episode. We interviewed Branco about his latest film, the connection between food and horror (something we know a little about) and what's next for this up-and-coming actor and director, so give it a listen on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you listen.
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#ahalloweenfeast #guilebranco #foodinhorror #foodinfilms #spookyfood #ghastlygastronomy #fearfeasts #fearfeastspodcast #meatloaf #mom #madness #blackcomedy #satire #horror #horrorfilms #horrorpodcast #horrorpod
