Behind the Couch

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Sean Keller - co-writer of Dario Argento's forthcoming thriller, Giallo. Head over to Cinefantastique and check it out ... The film stars Adrien Brody as an eccentric detective hired by air-stewardess Emmanuelle Seigner to track down her sister (Elsa Pataky), who has been abducted by a crazed psychopath known as Yellow. Yellow is obsessed with mutilating and destroying beautiful things... Will they find her in time to save her life and put a stop to Yellow's devious plans? Find out later this year when Giallo is released. The film premieres at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June. The following interview was published on cinefantastiqueonline.com on on 26th May 2009  Yellow Fever: Sean Keller on Writing “Giallo” for Dario Argento Posted on May 26, 2009 by James Gracey Giallo (plural – gialli) is Italian for ‘yellow’ and the term comes from the lividly coloured covers of pulpy crime thriller paperbacks popular in ...

1968 Dir. Jack Hill AKA The Maddest Story Ever Told Cannibal Orgy After the death of their father, the three Merrye siblings Virginia (Jill Banner), Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn) and Ralph (Sid Haig) find themselves in the care of their ailing butler Bruno (Lon Chaney Jnr.). Suffering from a hereditary mental illness as a direct result of an overabundance of inbreeding, dubbed the Merrye Syndrome - due to its exclusivity to their family line - the three siblings are undergoing a startling mental regression, becoming increasingly childlike. They spend their days playing macabre games around their crumbling mansion as Bruno tries, to varying degrees of success, to keep their existence hidden from the outside world. Those unfortunate enough to stumble onto the grounds of the secluded house meet with gruesome deaths at the hands of the 'children', who just want to ‘play.’ Their solitary lives are impinged upon when distant relatives Emily (Carol Ohmart) and Peter (Quinn R...

1961 Dir. Roger Corman Renzo Capetto (Antony Carbone) seizes the opportunity to get his hands on some dosh when civil unrest breaks out in Cuba. He agrees to help General Tostada and a group of exiled Cuban nationals escape on his boat with a sizeable portion of the Cuban treasury. He then plots to kill the men and blame their deaths on a legendary sea monster. So far, so good. Capetto is joined by his faithful, if rather dim-witted motley crew. What Capetto doesn’t count on is an actual sea monster turning up to throw a major spanner in the works. The stage is set for shenanigans on the high seas, quirky beatnik characters, shoestring budgets, ludicrous acting and one of the best bargain-basement monsters ever committed to celluloid. Dear reader, I give you Roger Corman’s sublime  Creature from the Haunted Sea ! Creature from the Haunted Sea belongs to a group of Corman films collectively referred to as the ‘Puerto Rico Trilogy.’ The other two are The Last Woman on Earth an...

If you, like me, are watching the pennies, relying on the kindness of strangers, or just in search of a great bargain - why not head over to Paracinema and pick up their premiere issue - for only $5 . Included in issue 1 is: Into The Green Inferno: Italian Cannibal Films by Tim McLean, Sound And Sountrack: Diegetic Thrills & Chills In Session 9 by Matthew Monagle, Jeffrey's Strange Discovery: Gender, Sexual And Parental Roles In David Lynch's Blue Velvet by Dan Burns and much MUCH more.

1933 Dir. Frank Strayer A small German village is plagued by a number of mysterious deaths, all of which leave the victims drained of blood. The town elders suspect the work of vampires and a number of large vampire bats are spotted in the area. Sceptical Police Inspector Karl Brettschneider (Melvyn Douglas) suspects the work of a psychotic serial killer who needs the blood drained from his victims for some sort of bizarre experiment… Is he right? Well, he’s not wrong. The Vampire Bat is a surprisingly entertaining piece of schlock that also stars Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray. Aside from the big names attached to it, the film’s only other notable trait is that is was one of the first films to attempt to capitalise on the success of Universal’s horror epics Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931). It mixes elements from both these films (and a slew of others) to intriguing, but arguably unmemorable effect. The somewhat loose story ambles along briskly enough and there are a couple...