Behind the Couch

After reading the sad news about filmmaker Jamie Blanks , I felt compelled to revisit some of his work. I’ve already written about Urban Legend (one of my all-time favourite slasher films), with its irresistible premise, top-notch cast and slick execution, and his eerie eco-horror Long Weekend , so thought I’d turn my attention to his early 2000s slasher, Valentine . It tells of a group of girlfriends - Paige (Denise Richards), Kate (Marley Shelton), Dorothy (Jessica Capshaw), Shelley (Katherine Heigl) and Lily (Jessica Cauffiel) – who, in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, are targeted by a mysterious killer wearing a cherub mask. A solid slasher with a strong cast, creepy masked killer and several frenzied set pieces to get the adrenaline flowing, Valentine is a real throwback to classic, holiday-themed 80s slashers, such as My Bloody Valentine , Terror Train and Prom Night . Despite coming in the wake of a slew of post-modern, self-referential slashers in the late 90s, b...

Written and directed by Emilie Blichfeldt, The Ugly Stepsister filters the fairy tale of Cinderella through a feminist body-horror lens to lambast the impossible standards women are held to – both in this world and in folkloric fantasy worlds of make-believe. It follows Elvira (Lea Myren), a shy, awkward young woman who is driven by her mother, societal pressures, and by jealousy of her beautiful stepsister, to undergo gruesome cosmetic surgeries to make herself beautiful, win the heart of the prince and marry into wealth. Blichfeldt has created a daring work that blasts open the misogyny inherent in many literary fairy tales, revealing them to be a means of containing and controlling young women. Her screenplay ensures audiences glimpse the full horror of how glass slippers become glass ceilings, as female ambitions are forcibly limited, dreams corralled and bodies cruelly transformed. The film is laced with blood-dark humour as Blichfeldt sets about satirising and carving up patriar...