Defining the genre “Southern Gothic,” the single concepts “southern” and “Gothic,” or even genres themselves, is a project fraught with pitfalls. As soon as we try to attribute a text with particular generic characteristics, we draw attention to the complications involved in expecting genres or texts to adhere to pre-defined norms and conventions. If any norms or conventions at all can be applied to the classification of the Southern Gothic on screen, they undoubtedly rest on the obvious stipulation that a Southern Gothic text must be at least both ‘southern” and “Gothic.” These stipulations, however, tend to reveal that such categories are as divided as the borders of generic demarcation. “Southern,” for example, if it is to be posited as a condition for Southern Gothic genericity, seems to ensure that the exclusion of films deemed “not southern” can be applied to any film or television series made outside the South. Yet in reality, regional fidelity is an unreliable marker of a southern screen text's southern-ness. Many southern screen texts can be labelled “southern” in the sense that they are shot in actual southern locations. For example, Little Chenier: A Cajun Story, Eve's Bayou (Kasi Lemmons, 1997), Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2003), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Clint Eastwood, 1997), Mud (Jeff Nichols, 2012), Cape Fear (1991), Deliverance, This Property is Condemned (Sydney Pollack, 1966), The Apostle, Southern Comfort, Rectify, and Season One of True Detective all utilize southern sites for the portrayal of specifically southern narratives and plots.