As demonstrated above, there is a long Gothic tradition in Swedish literature and film. It goes back to the Romantic period and the early nineteenth century when the first phase of imported English and German stories inspired Swedish writers to modify and adapt Gothic conventions to their local audiences. From the beginning, Swedish Gothic were place-focused stories, in which the Nordic landscape takes the role of a labyrinthine Gothic castle as a space of fear and terror. At the same time, the Swedish version of Gothic was densely intertextual with explicit references to well-known and iconic works produced outside Scandinavia. Thereby, Swedish writers placed themselves in a tradition of transnational Gothic, at the same time as they took for granted that their audiences were genre-aware and recognised references to iconic works. The first Swedish vampire story, Viktor Rydberg's The Vampire (1848), is an extended and elaborated response to Polidori's story from 1819, while Aurora Ljungstedt's The House of the Devil (1853) is a Gothic novel in the style of Ann Radcliffe and with explicit references to Radcliffe's novels.

Also, today's Swedish writers and filmmakers place themselves in a global Gothic tradition of canonised novels and films. The impact of international blockbusters, such as Blair Witch Project, has resulted in a domesticated Scandinavian version of mockumentaries with distinct Nordic features. The films are often structured as a journey from the ordinary urban everyday world into a mythological world lurking outside or beyond modern society. Here the force of nature acts as an external monstrous antagonist, such as in The Unknown (2000), directed by Michael Hjorth. In addition, a certain kind of Swedish blend of Gothic and realist narration has gained widespread international acclaim. One of the earliest and most successful examples is John Ajvide Lindqvist's bestselling vampire novel Let the Right One In (2007). It is set in a recognisable and explicitly named suburb outside the Swedish capital Stockholm, and it combines social realism with supernatural elements to address topical social problems. It was immediately translated into English and about 20 other languages. Lindqvist was also asked to write the screenplay to Tomas Alfredson's Swedish film adaptation from 2008, while Matt Reeves American remake, Let Me In, was released in 2010.

The most striking feature of Swedish Gothic since the early nineteenth century is the central part played by the Nordic landscape and mythological creatures of nature known from Nordic myths and popular belief.