So the format for this guide is that it is split into seven sections. Each of these begins with an opening preamble explaining some of the reasoning for the emergence of these plant based horrors into the world. The rest of each section then picks out notable examples, offering more reasoning for their existence, as well as working through the film's plot from beginning to end, focussing on the plant horror based moments. The sections very roughly charts a chronological journey from around the mid 20th Century up to more modern times; the earlier sections more about older films, though all still include examples from multiple decades of the past 80 years or so.
It begins with 'It Came From Outer Space: Alien Plants'. This includes such classics as Day of the Triffids (I am a huge fan of author John Wyndham, so I had expected to find an adaptation of his novel here). It covers the various Invasion of the Body Snatchers movies, classics, and with these the guide suggests alien plants invading reflected societal fears of invasion, such as during the Cold War era.
'Franken-vine: Man Made Monsters' follows this, here of course these films are stated to reflect a fear of unchecked science, with rogue scientists often the true antagonists. A lot of these involve radiation of one type of another causing mutations. Even not having heard of a lot of these, I of course at least had heard of comic book hero; Swamp Thing, and reading about Attack of the Killer Tomatoes had me recalling I had caught a part of this as a child. I remember thinking as a child the scene in the film where a large group of people are having an important meeting in a comically small room was quite amusing.
It was part 3 'Panic Shroom: Monstrous Mushrooms and Fatal Fungi' (loved all the word puns in those section headings!) where I started to feel that I really needed to check out some of the examples covered. Splinter, Shrooms, The Superdeep and In The Earth all piqued my curiosity. The authors are always keen to express when films have faults, this isn't some propaganda piece for plant horrors, with issues often being pointed out. The Girl With All The Gifts of course featured here, reminding me yet again that my memory is pretty awful!
Branching (pun not intended) the middle of the guide is 'The Root of All Evil: When Trees Attack', with a few of these having the plant horror as a side piece rather than the overarching threat. Of course, as I expected, the infamous tree rape scene from The Evil Dead is delved into, as well as the memorable scene from Poltergeist, and a contrast with its remake's version of that sequence.
'Mystical Di-vine: Plants that are Worshipped or Magical' follows. The Forest, Trick r' Treat and Sleepy Hollow being examples that I was familiar with (but again, my mind had forgotten these involved vegetation as a key feature of the evil.
Penultimate section; 'Thorn This Way: Naturally Evolved Threats' included a look at at horror - The Ruins. I hadn't heard of this, but the description of the film about a group under siege at an old ruined temple complex was very interesting, certainly want to check that one out.
Finally was 'Field of Screams: Grasslands and Cornfields', including of course the beloved franchise of films Children of the Corn. I was vaguely put out that the authors only felt the first three in the series were worth covering, but to be fair, I've ever seen all of the films once, and that was a long time ago, so I am sure they are right when they say the movies move away from the cornfield angle. Cornfields work so well in horror films, as a teen I remember the excitement when my father tried to grow corn. Even though only a handful of stalks were grown, I still remember standing next to them and my mind going wild with thoughts of related horror films I had seen. The Japanese Onibaba, scarecrow horrors, Husk and Dark Harvest, and nature based Cube variant Escape the Field all sounded like films I needed to see for myself. As expected, In the Tall Grass has its own chapter, not a film I thought was amazing.
With that, the guide was over, with nary even a closing word from the authors. I loved reading through this guide, film guides are always something that have interested me, as there will always be some gems that you haven't heard of before included. Early on in the guide there were a few moments were it felt like the same ground was gone over in multiple parts, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment. A balanced look at the subject of plant based cinema, Natural Thorn Killers: A Creeping Guide to Plant Horror was both informative and entertaining, who knew that sub-genre of horror had roots that went so deep? The guide was published 24th April 2026 and is out worldwide with Telos.
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