Behind the Couch

Head over to Paracinema to read my review of Session 9's creepy soundtrack by Climax Golden Twins. I'll be reviewing a film soundtrack every month for the new Audiodrome: Film In Music feature.   And check out my interview with Rob Millis from Climax Golden Twins, also over at Paracinema. While you're at it, why not treat yourself to the latest issue of Paracinema Magazine. It's really rather good! The following article was published on Paracinema.net on 28th October 2011 Session 9 – Climax Golden Twins If ever a soiled gurney being wheeled through an empty and decaying building ever needed ‘musical’ accompaniment – this would be it. Session 9 is the intensely unsettling story of an asbestos removal crew who begin working in an abandoned asylum. Under pressure to get the job finished in as little time as possible, the group begins to fracture beneath the strain of the job and the oppressive atmosphere of the building, leading to the unveiling of dark, blo...

London-based writer, editor and now publisher Naila Scargill, has harboured a deep-rooted fascination with the horror genre since a young girl, and it has long been a source of frustration to her that our beloved subject is rarely taken seriously as the relevant art form that it is. Having worked as deputy editor on the now defunct Gorezone Magazine, and with increasing frustration witnessed its downward trajectory into salacious, gutter-press titillation, Scargill needed to sate her appetite for an intelligent and thought-provoking horror magazine that actually focused on horror. And thus, having emerged from that particular wreckage with dignity just about intact, she has created Exquisite Terror - a brand-spanking-new and independently produced periodical; the intention of which is to take a more academic, analytical approach to the genre of horror. Issue 1 includes an in-depth essay on actor Donald Sutherland and his career in the 1970s; an interview with promising new Spani...

Following on from its well received premiere at the 3rd Yellow Fever Independent Film Festival in Belfast last month, and its award winning stint at this year’s Freak Show Film Festival in Orlando – where lead actor Robert Render picked up the award for Best Actor – George Clarke’s creepy spookfest The Last Light is set to chill the spines of audiences at Belfast’s Strand Cinema on Saturday 29th October… The Last Light is the dark tale of a maintenance man called on to ensure an old derelict house – formerly a psychiatric hospital, no less - is securely boarded up after a reported break-in. On what is supposed to be his last day on the job, he experiences increasingly chilling occurrences. Initially believing that wayward kids are playing a prank on him, it soon becomes evident that something much more sinister is afoot… The Last Light is a moody, atmospheric and old fashioned haunted house yarn – perfect viewing on All Hallow’s Eve… Read more about the film here . Tickets...

Aaron over at The Death Rattle was kind/drunk enough to present me with the iDig Your Blog Award. As such it is my duty to gratefully accept and spread on the accolades to a few other blogs I dig… 5 Blogs I dig… SADFAY Belfast-based musician/producer Martin Byrne has been composing, producing and recording a song every day this year. A daunting task indeed, but Martin’s commitment to the project is nothing short of inspiring. Each visit to his blog results in an album’s worth of listening material. Great stuff. Plus, his latest track, The Slasher , appears to be an homage to John Carpenter and synthy slasher goodness from the 80s... It All Happens In The Dark A lover of slasher flicks, damsels in distress and feisty final girls, Cody’s breezy reviews and reflections on horror films old and new boast an infectious sense of humour and an ever fresh perspective. Currently on hiatus, here’s hoping Cody rejoins us soon for the sequel! Unflinching Eye A visit to Ayl...

“Wine is bottled poetry” - Robert Louis Stevenson. Okay, so while all of this month has been dedicated to watching the Halloween films, my intentions to try some pumpkin wine for October’s featured bottle were put on hold when I heard there was a new addition to the Crystal Lake Wine series… Plus, the suburban sprawl of Haddonfield made me long for the greenery of Crystal Lake. Survivor’s Syrah is a smooth and inviting red with hints of toasted coconut followed by notes of poached Anjou pear, strawberry jam and dried blueberries. The perfect weapon in a bottle for those trying midweek times. To promote the latest addition to the Crystal Lake Wine range, filmmaker, avid Friday the 13th fanatic and fine wine connoisseur Curtis Pew has filmed Back To The Lake II , an eight-minute short and the second instalment of the Back To The Lake commercial series. It stars Adrienne King, Dallas Bobbitt and Nicholas Matthew Walker. Check it out here . Crystal Lake Wine is produ...

Dir. Rob Zombie A year later, and a traumatised Laurie still struggles to come to terms with the bloodbath that resulted when her psychotic brother Michael Myers escaped from an asylum and came to find her, killing everyone who got in his way. Her worst fears are soon realised when Myers, who has been in hiding ever since, returns on Halloween night to finish what he started a year ago… I first wrote about Rob Zombie’s follow-up to his remake of Halloween when it came out in 2009. You can read that review here . After burning out while making Halloween , Zombie was initially hesitant to helm the sequel. After thinking about it though, and recognising the chance to continue with the story, he decided to film the follow up, imbuing it with the same squalid, dingy and bleak tone as its predecessor. My thoughts on the film haven’t really changed. I still think it is an immensely flawed, but beautifully filmed work. Zombie’s grungy aesthetics litter every shot and he creates a dan...

Dir. Rob Zombie After massacring his family on Halloween, disturbed 10 year old Michael Myers is committed to a mental institution. 17 years later, he violently escapes and heads back home to Haddonfield to find his baby sister Laurie, brutally murdering anyone who crosses his path. In November 2005, Halloween producer/peddler Moustapha Akkad and his daughter, Rima Akkad Monla, were killed at a wedding party when Al-Qaeda bombed the Grand Hyatt in Amman, Jordan. As the champion of the series since its inception, his death was a blow for the future of the franchise. This, coupled with Dimension Film execs realising (maybe) the error of their ways with Halloween Resurrection , looked set to see the end of the Halloween films. However, following a trend of remaking old horror films from the Seventies and Eighties such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Christmas, Dawn of the Dead, The Hills Have Eyes, The Amityville Horror and When A Stranger Calls , producers recognised that ...

2002 Dir. Rick Rosenthal Four years after mistakenly killing a man she thought to be her brother (really, Dimension Films? Really ?), long-suffering Laurie Strode is eventually hunted down by her not really dead actual brother, crazier-than-bat-shit Michael Myers, and murderlised. Making his way back home to Haddonfield, Myers discovers the crew of an online reality show has taken over his house (!) to broadcast a Halloween special featuring a group of dumb-fuck teenagers dared to spend the night in the house of ill-repute. Naturally he goes on yet another killing spree. And it's all caught on camera and broadcast online for other dumb-fuck teenagers to watch. Yes, all of this actually really happens. It really fucking happens. Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later did not warrant a sequel. It was intended not only as a twentieth anniversary celebration of John Carpenter's classic chiller , but as a way to draw the series to a close, with its original heroine finally co...

1998 Dir. Steve Miner With a new name and life in California, Laurie Strode still can’t escape the ghosts of her past and is haunted by the memories of her bloody ordeal 20 years ago, when her deranged brother Michael Myers tried to kill her. Working as the headmistress of an exclusive boarding school, she spends her days ostracising her son John, and her nights swilling booze and tranquilizers in an effort to forget her traumatic past. Since she faked her own death and went into hiding to escape her maniacal brother, she lives in constant fear of him ever finding her. It’s now Halloween 1998, and the waiting is finally over… With the twentieth anniversary of John Carpenter’s classic slasher movie approaching, and Michael Myers AWOL amidst a dirge of increasingly poorly executed and cumbersome sequels involving druids, curses and constellations (oh my!), it was left to actress Jamie Lee Curtis to pitch the idea of an anniversary film to both Dimension Films and the director ...

1995 Dir. Joe Chappelle Six years after she and her psychotic uncle Michael Myers were abducted from the Haddonfield police station by the mysterious Man in Black, Jamie Lloyd and her newborn baby go on the run again with Myers’ in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, relatives of the family that adopted Laurie Strode have moved into the old Myers house and befriended Tommy Doyle, whose obsession with Myers’ leads to the discovery of a family curse that drives the killer to violently eradicate his bloodline – which is bad news for the Strodes. Teaming up with Dr. Loomis, they set out to stop Myers and the cult that protects him once and for all, yada, yada, yada. With Miramax having purchased the distribution rights to the Halloween franchise, it was their intention to give the flailing series something of a reboot and to release further instalments through its newly established genre arm, Dimension Films. Following in the wake of the leaden Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers - com...