Behind the Couch

"There was something of stolid resignation about them all, as if they walked half in another world between lines of nameless guards to a certain and familiar doom." HP Lovecraft, Color Out of Space. Adapted from a short story by HP Lovecraft,  Color Out of Space  is written by director Richard Stanley and author Scarlett Amaris. It marks the return of the cult director, whose last directorial feature was Dust Devil in 1992, though in the interim he has also directed documentaries, short films and written/doctored screenplays, including creepy doppelganger chiller, The Abandoned (2006). There have been many filmic adaptions of Lovecraft’s work throughout the years, most notably from director Stuart Gordon , who proved quite deft in treading the line between the sort of pulpy exploitation and hallucinatory cosmic horror Lovecraft is renowned for. Lovecraft’s work has often been described as ‘unfilmable’ as his narratives tend to focus on conjuring atmosphere, and descr...

In his existentialist tome The Sickness Unto Death , Christian philosopher Søren Kierkegaard stated that the human concept of death marks ‘the end’, whereas in Christian faith it is merely a necessary step towards eternal life, and therefore nothing to fear. Kierkegaard goes on to suggest that when an individual is ‘in despair’ – something which is born out of denying God or God’s plan - he loses himself and risks spiritual death, which the philosopher describes as ‘Sickness unto Death.’ It’s these very themes that are addressed in Éric Falardeau’s debut feature film, the haunting Thanatomorphose ; the title of which comes from the French term meaning the ‘visible signs of an organism’s decomposition caused by death.’ The bleak tale of a young woman who awakens one day to find her body has begun to decay, Thanatomorphose not only features staggeringly visceral imagery, but also unfurls as a deeply personal and thoughtful film. Throughout its duration Falardeau poses provocative q...

2008 Dir. José Mojica Marins At the end of This Night I Shall Possess Your Corpse , the second Coffin Joe film, Joe (Mojica Marins) was cornered in a spooky swamp by torch-bearing villagers who’d had enough of his violent, misogynistic shenanigans. Denouncing God while laughing in their faces, Joe sank into the swamp and apparently drowned. Didn't he? Not so! As a flashback explains, he was pulled up out of the water again and imprisoned for his heinous crimes. 40 years later and he is eventually released from jail, and greeted on the outside by his faithful servant Bruno. How does Joe celebrate his freedom? Why, he goes in search of a woman 'worthy' of bearing him a child - and thus helping him obtain immortality by extending his bloodline! Cue much torture, bloodshed, nightmarish visions and a few familiar faces from the past, as José Mojica Marins finally closes the long-awaited last chapter of his Coffin Joe Trilogy. Embodiment perfectly concludes At Midnight I...

1967 Dir. José Mojica Marins After the success of Coffin Joe’s first outing, At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul , his creator José Mojica Marins (who also portrays him onscreen) decided to resurrect him for further misadventures. This Night picks up straight after the events of At Midnight , as it is revealed that Joe didn’t actually die in the crypt, though he was severely wounded and traumatised by his ordeal. Soon after he is released from hospital and acquitted of his crimes due to lack of evidence, and he’s up to his old tricks again, kidnapping a slew of women and subjecting them to horrific tortures in order to find a woman 'worthy' of bearing him a child - and thus helping him obtain immortality by extending his bloodline.. Made four years after At Midnight , what is immediately obvious about This Night is how much Mojica Marins has honed his skills as a filmmaker. Technically speaking, this film is more accomplished than its predecessor, the script is tighter, th...

1964 Dir. José Mojica Marins Zé do Caixão (that’s Coffin Joe to you and me) is something of a cult figure both in his native Brazil, and in the wider horror community. The creation of filmmaker José Mojica Marins, who also portrays him onscreen, Coffin Joe has appeared in various TV anthologies, comics and sequels, as well as countless appearances in other films by the director. A nightmarishly striking figure - sporting long black cloak, top hat and grotesquely long fingernails - Joe first appeared in At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul , which was also the first Brazilian horror film. A curious and carnivalesque oddity of a film, At Midnight follows the increasingly crazed exploits of undertaker Joe, as he attempts to find a woman 'worthy' of bearing him a child - and thus helping him obtain immortality by extending his bloodline. Addressing concepts such as faith, free will, social responsibility and politics, Marins’ film is an existential horror that unfolds with impi...

2010 Dir. Gregg Araki Director Gregg Araki has never been one to shy away from controversial subject matter. His work usually explores the dark side of teenage life, where bad things happen ‘unexpectedly' and the lines between life and death, reality and nightmare are increasingly blurred. His 2005 film Mysterious Skin looked at sexual abuse and its aftermath through the eyes of two teenage boys – one of whom is convinced he is the victim of alien abduction. The Doom Generation was a gloomy, ultra-violent and nihilistic 'Generation X' for the Nineties. His work usually features various depictions of the apocalypse as an almost mundane, matter of fact event and drugged-out characters wander through hyper-retro, candy-coloured sets and broodingly dark cityscapes. His latest film, Kaboom is a fantastical, mind-altering, sex-charged romp through the fickle world of college life that gradually morphs into an increasingly oddball, horror-tinged and absurd story about the ...

2011 Dir. Paddy Considine Stifled by his past and his own anger and frustration with the world, Joseph thinks he finds redemption in the form of local charity shop worker Hannah. However Hannah has a dark secret of her own which threatens to shatter both their lives and plunge them both deeper into deadly despair. In Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park there’s a famous moment when the audience and characters are alerted to the oncoming danger of an approaching T-Rex by water rippling in a paper cup. Paddy Considine’s assured and commanding feature directorial debut doesn’t have man-eating monsters in it, but it does feature a one-man rampage against life and the same sense of impending doom and menace as that moment from Jurassic Park ripples throughout. Considine is an actor who made a name for himself with his intense performances under the direction of Shane Meadows. Appearing in films such as Dead Man’s Shoes (which he co-wrote) and A Room For Romeo Brass , Considine soon ...

1995 Dir. Abel Ferrara When New York philosophy student Kathleen Conklin (Lili Taylor) is dragged off the street down a dark alley and bitten by a strange woman, she begins to turn into a vampire. Being somewhat predisposed to philosophical contemplation, Kathleen considers her rapidly changing perspectives on the nature of evil, addiction and humanity. Soon, her need for blood begins to consume her life and she realises that her very existence may have to be dedicated to finding her next fix... “ The entire world's a graveyard, and we, the birds of prey picking at the bones. That's all we are. We're the ones who let the dying know the hour has come .” In Ferrara’s earlier, no less gruelling film,  Bad Lieutenant , the character of Zoe (Zoë Lund, who also co-wrote the screenplay) declares "Vampires are lucky, they can feed on others. We gotta eat away at ourselves." In this line of dialogue the nature of addiction is addressed with a dark poetry that rings...

1964 Dirs. Ubaldo Ragona & Sidney Salkow Due to a mysterious immunity he acquired when bitten by a rabid bat (!), Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) is the sole survivor of a devastating global pandemic. By day he spends his time collecting supplies, strengthening his fortifications and destroying the bodies of the living-dead plague victims. By night he boards himself into his house, as hordes of the vampiric post-human creatures leave their hiding places and congregate outside his home, baying for his blood… How much isolation can one person take? Based on Richard Matheson’s chilling novel, I Am Legend, The Last Man on Earth is a creepy, upsetting and thought-provoking exploration of one man’s increasingly fragile mental state as he struggles to accept his isolated existence in a dark new world. This particular adaptation is the most successful in evoking the desperation, mounting hopelessness and quiet dread of its central protagonist: the other two adaptations, The Ωmega M...

1972 Dir. Mario Bava When she separates from her tour group to look around an old antiques shop, Lisa (Elke Sommer) encounters a man (Telly Savalas) who bears a striking resemblance to a depiction of the Devil she saw in a fresco in the town square. Becoming lost in the myriad streets, she eventually hitches a ride with a bickering couple and their driver. When their car breaks down outside a mysterious villa, they are invited to stay by its occupant – Max, a nervous young man who lives there with his overbearing mother (Alida Valli) and their butler Leandro (Savalas again). Lisa's resemblance to Max’s former lover seems to stir something sinister within the house and someone begins murdering the guests. Lisa soon begins to lose hope as she navigates her way through what can only be described as a waking nightmare, peopled with bodies and mannequins… Due to the success of Bava’s prior film Baron Blood , he was given ‘carte blanche’ by his producer Alfredo Leone to write and d...

2009 Dir. Christopher Smith Jess (Melissa George) is begrudgingly persuaded to take some respite from looking after her young autistic son and join her friend Greg (Michael Dorman) on his yacht for the day. They are joined by a group of Greg’s friends. Their day is shattered when the boat is capsized in a freak storm. They eventually see a huge ocean liner and board it to seek help. Once on board though, it gradually dawns on the group that all is not what it seems and something very ominous is afoot... Director Christopher Smith is no stranger to horror, having already directed Creep - a genuinely chilling and taut horror set in the London Underground that offers plenty of monstrous mayhem - and Severance – a morbidly humorous and very splashy horror about a corporate team building excursion that goes very, very wrong. With Triangle though, Smith keeps things very sombre and gradually builds an overwhelming mood of quiet dread and foreboding before unleashing a highly suspense...