Dr Shellie McMurdo

• Contemporary American Horror Cinema
• Special Makeup Effects
• Practical effects in Horror Cinema
• Trauma theory
• Cult film and television
• Analogue media and its use in contemporary media
• Cultural studies
• True crime fandom

Current research projects:

• Splatter Matters: Practical Effects, Gore, and American Horror Cinema (Monograph - forthcoming 2028)

• Bodies of Work: The Soska Sisters, Self, Spectacle and Style.(Article in Horror Studies - forthcoming 2026)

• Below the Bloodline: Fangoria and the Making of a Gendered Special Makeup Effects Canon (Chapter in edited Collection: The Oxford Handbook of Women in Horror, forthcoming 2026/7)

• The Things That Were and Shall Be Again: Evil Dead (2013), Evil Dead Rise (2023), and the Marketing of Horror “Authenticity” through the Promotion of Practical Gore Effects. (Chapter in edited collection: Selling Scary Movies: Horror Film Promotion and the American Market - forthcoming 2028)

• Gore Girls: Gore and Bodily Agency in Brian Yuzna’s Bride of Reanimator and Return of the Living Dead III. (Chapter in edited collection - currently in preparation)

I am a Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Theory and Practice in the School of Creative Arts where I teach on both the BA and MA programmes. I am module leader for Introduction to Film and Television Studies on the Film and Television Production BA, and Co-Module leader for both Connecting Theory and Practice (on the BA) and Investigative Minds: Culture, Research, Industry on the Film Production MA.

I completed my PhD on found footage horror at Roehampton University in 2020, and taught there previous to joining the School of Creative Arts.  

I have published two monographs: Blood on the Lens: Trauma and Anxiety in American Found Footage Horror Cinema (EUP, 2022) and Devil's Advocate's Pet Sematary (LUP, 2023), and I am currently working on my third book: Splatter Matters: Gore and Practical Makeup Effects in American Horror Cinema (forthcoming, 2029).

I have also published several articles and chapters on topics such as Blumhouse Productions, post-peak torture horror, true crime fandoms, and cultural trauma. I have also presented work on varied forms of horror media (films, television, podcasts) at various conferences both in the UK and internationally, including being asked to present keynote lectures and research talks.

I co-founded and co-convene the Horror Studies SIG of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS), and am one of the founding co-editors of Hidden Horror Histories (Liverpool University Press).

My research expertise has been recognised both nationally and internationally, and I have provided expert commentary and consultancy for BBC Radio, The Found Footage Phenomenon (Appleton and Escott, 2022), and several BluRay releases from Second Sight.

• Genre
• Cinema history
• Contemporary American independent filmmaking
• Cultural studies
• Trauma and media
• Cult film and television
• Low/No budget filmmaking