How Sam and Dean Are Kicking It Old School... Way Old School

Dean: I take it we believe the legends.
Sam: When don't we? (3x10)

In my Halloween Is the Greatest Month post I mentioned how critics once considered the rise of the Gothic novel as a movement that just happened to coincide with the Romantic Movement. It wasn't just critics who held this belief as poets like William Wordsworth who described the Gothic as "stupid and sickly" despite the influence Gothic themes in his early works. But not all Romantics held such dislike for the Gothic. Most appreciated the genre and, like Wordsworth, began (or attempted to begin) their writing careers within it. Some, like Byron who tried to deny the genre's influence on his poetic drama Manfred despite the title character's use of alchemy, attempted to distance themselves from the genre while others like Coleridge and Keats seemingly embraced it.

There is a reason why the Romantics had become fascinated with the Gothic and the imagery that came with it. Yeah, it's the rebellion thing.

The philosophers and poets of the Enlightenment were big fans of the neoclassical aesthetic. If it reminded them of Ancient Greece or Rome, then they were all over it like white on rice. The Romantics? Yeah, not so much. They favored Medievalism over the Classical, bringing about a Gothic Revival not just in architecture but in art and literature.

This rejection of the Neoclassical also resulted in a different in a different view of classical mythology. The Romantics still used classical mythological figures in their poetry, but they simplified them, seeing them more as figures that served as metaphors for different facets of the human condition and psychology. Ultimately, the Romantics were more interested in folk lore, legends, fairy tales, and old customs, creating academies dedicated to the study of these largely ignored genres.

This is where the Romantic gets really tied up in the Gothic mode.

In the legends and folk tales finally being studied they found references not only to ghouls, ghosts, witches, and demons, but also alchemy, curses, and other creepy stuff. Creepy stuff that came to be found in their Gothic narratives.

As Supernatural is a Gothic narrative it's no wonder we find this theme of favoring the older, more medieval customs, superstitions, and tools being utilized by the characters.

Sam and Dean don't go after ghosts and monsters armed with Proton Packs or the latest in ghost hunting technology (with the exception of an EMF reader Dean MacGyvered out of an old Walkman). They go in with iron and shotguns packed with rock salt. And going against demons? They relied on just holy water and devil's traps until they got a special knife (Ruby's Knife) that killed them once and for all.

The Impala's secret stash

The boys don't generally use high-tech equipment on their hunts. For the most part they rely on old school tools of the trade, things their medieval ancestors would recognize - holy water, holy words, salt, iron, and anything they can learn from researching "the lore".

That's where most of the knowledge on the supernatural comes from on the show, what Sam, Dean, and Bobby refer as "the lore" - folk lore and legends. Whenever a monster hunter comes across something they're not quite sure about they go back to these tales, reading medieval and sometimes ancient texts to identify the monster of the week and how to kill it.

Actually, what many viewers would believe to be "lore" created for the show is actually founded in reality. The sigils and incantations used on the show come from real texts such as the medieval Key of Solomon and it's 17th century companion The Lesser Key of Solomon. Meanwhile, the incantations  they use for exorcisms are derived from other medieval manuscripts made by monks and used by priests and laymen to do what Sam and Dean do on the show - track down the things that scare people and banish them.

Medieval

Gothic

See the resemblance?

The makers of Supernatural clearly know the Gothic genre's heritage of medieval folk lore. It's directly acknowledged on the show by Sam and Dean's maternal grandfather Samuel Campbell (Mitch Pileggi) when he tells the boys, "You know you had ancestors hacking the heads off vamps on the Mayflower" (6x01).

Apparently the family has been in the monster hunting business since the Old Country as the Winchesters continue in the tradition, so does Supernatural.