Behind the Couch

Arcane and diabolical: promo still for The Book The Masters of Italian horror, giallo and exploitation cinema are to return to our screens in what looks set to be a collaborative horror film of unprecedented scale. Taking its cue from the likes of V/H/S and The ABCs of Death , The Book will bring together a group of filmmakers renowned for their work in the horror genre, featuring 12 individual episodes, each helmed by a master of Italian genre cinema. Rome, the Eternal City, as narrated by the Italian Masters of Horror. Writers, directors, actors, composers and artists behind the finest Italian genre cinema of the past sixty years will be given the opportunity to showcase their own personal vision of Rome, spread across a dozen episodes. All will be delivered in the unique style and method of each respective director, providing them with a vivid platform to showcase the dexterity and innovation which brought them initial acclaim. Free from studio constraints, The Book pr...

2013 Dir. Colin Clarke When a love-struck man ventures into the foreboding forest that surrounds his village to seek the dubious help of a witch, their forbidden ritual is interrupted by witch hunter William Thatcher Blake. After sentencing the unfortunate pair to death for fraternising with the Dark Lord, Blake is cursed by the witch, and when he returns home, soon realises the full extent of her dark powers… Colin Clarke’s short film unveils itself as an atmospheric love letter to vintage Gothic horror. Witches, ancient rites, dark woods and violent revenge are swirled together in a cinematic cauldron that expertly conjures the spectres of bygone horror. With a distinctly old fashioned feel, there are nods to the likes of vintage Hammer, Michael Reeve’s Witchfinder General and the gloomy dread and sadism of classic Italian Gothic horror. One moment in particular - the scene depicting the unfortunate witch’s grisly demise - pays beautiful homage to Mario Bava's Black Su...

Magheralin, from the Irish Machaire Lainne , meaning "Plain of the Pool", is a tiny village and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. In the centre of the village an ancient stone tower casts its shadow over an equally ancient graveyard. The church that originally stood on this site was identified with Lann Ronan, or the Church of Ian, and is cited in the taxation of Pope Nicholas of 1306 - although no traces of the medieval structure remain today. In 1400 a new church was built incorporating parts of the previous building, and in 1442 a stone tower was added. By 1657 however, the church was described as being in a state of decay and ruin, and was later completely rebuilt along with the existing tower, which still stretches out of the earth and above the olden trees surrounding it. The practice of burying the dead within the church itself was stopped in 1773, but damage to the structure had already been done; the multitudes of the silent dead below no doubt cont...

Issue 18 of Diabolique  is now available to order. Throughout its pages we take a look at horror’s unparalleled ability to provide a window onto the myriad ills of contemporary society. With a political climate marked by division and pre and post-2012 fears about the apocalypse, as well as the sheer amount of underground and mainstream filmic and literary offerings about the End Times currently available, it would seem that the concept of the end of the world is resonating with audiences like never before. We wrestle with these themes and their depictions in everything from The Omega Man to 28 Days Later to The World’s End and everything in between, featuring interviews with acclaimed author David Moody; comic book artist/illustrator Arthur “Zombie King” Suydam ( Army of Darkness, Marvel Zombies, The Walking Dead ); Chew co-creator/illustrator Rob Guillory; criminally charged FX artist Remy Couture; and Before Dawn co-writer/co-stars Dominic Brunt and Joanne Mitchell. T...

He locked away the Necronomicon with a shudder of disgust, but the room still reeked with an unholy and unidentifiable stench. 'As a foulness shall ye know them,' he quoted. Yes - the odour was the same as that which had sickened him at the Whateley farmhouse less than three years before. He thought of Wilbur, goatish and ominous, once again, and laughed mockingly at the village rumours of his parentage.  'Inbreeding?' Armitage muttered half-aloud to himself. 'Great God, what simpletons! Show them Arthur Machen's Great God Pan and they'll think it a common Dunwich scandal! But what thing - what cursed shapeless influence on or off this three-dimensional earth - was Wilbur Whateley's father? Born on Candlemas - nine months after May Eve of 1912, when the talk about the queer earth noises reached clear to Arkham - what walked on the mountains that May night? What Roodmas horror fastened itself on the world in half-human flesh and blood?'  Despit...