The most insane part of a lot of media that supposedly takes place in the rural south is the lack of environmental storytelling that would lead you to believe that it's truly southern if you're from down there. One of the biggest things that feels offputting about like, places that supposedly are in rural Georgia or what have you is that there's no fucking Kudzu anywhere.
Kudzu is a type of invasive vine that comes from different parts of east Asia. "Kudzu" comes from the Japanese name for the plant (クズ). It's been around since the 30's, in the wake of irresponsible farming practices in the American South, where it was planted as a way to keep the soil from eroding. It grows extremely fast (~12in/day, or 30cm/day), and, as seen in the images attached, can climb basically anything it puts its mind to.
I need you to understand that there was dead Kudzu that once threatened to swallow the train station I left Virginia from. It was everywhere. It ate trees, it ate entire patches of forest. It would eat towns if not for the asphalt that prevented it from making meaningful ground and the people tilling it back.
Nothing killed it. It ate houses. It ate a house I lived next to for years because the last family moved out and no one lived there anymore. And this is hardly ever represented in like... games, shows, etc. I understand why at a certain point; it's such dense, ridiculous foliage to render for video games and only people like me who grew up around it would understand, especially when swampland is much more iconic to the deep, deep south and easier to render. When people think deep south heat, they think of getting ate by mosquitoes in the middle of a Louisiana swamp unless they're from down there.
But I feel like if you're gonna represent the inland rural south, kudzu is just part of the deal. I didn't grow up in Louisiana, I grew up around tobacco fields and forests where people shot deer for a living if they weren't working the farm. That's never really represented in the average religious horror experience, for example. I'd like for it to be at some point.
There's something to be said about thematic topics of this unstoppable beast of a vine that will grow and destroy everything in its path for the sake of more sunlight. Gluttonous and all-consuming, it's an invasive species-- when it smothers trees, it's stealing the sun and air from them. Swathes of dead vine covering hills and houses and trees are an iconic part of living in the smaller towns down there- right next to fancy stone brick roads and modern shipping hubs. It is indomitability corrupted. That a now-natural part of the part of the world I grew up in isn't represented commonly bothers me, if only just a little bit.
