Happy Bloody Birthday, Behind the Couch

Behind the Couch turned 6 years old yesterday.

Over the course of the last year I have revisited Elm Street for its 30th Anniversary, fiddled with the Lament Configuration box during a Hellraiser marathon, had my work nominated for a Rondo Hatton Award, seen Claudio Simonetti perform a live film score for the second time, waxed lyrical about Vincent Price, written my 666th blog post, visited old cemeteries - at home and in London - and written reviews of old favourites, new favourites, French favourites, stuff I've found genuinely terrifying, and some classics I've never had the guts to write about before. I also caught up with my writer friends Christine Makepeace and Jon (Shocks to the System) Towlson to chat about their new books; a creepy Gothic novel and a study of politically subversive horror cinema, respectively.

Away from blogging I have continued to contribute to publications such as Exquisite Terror and Diabolique – my essay on the representations of the family in the films of Tobe Hooper was the cover feature for issue 20 of Diabolique. I also had the absolute pleasure of meeting Exquisite Terror editor Naila Scargill for the first time this year (we’ve worked together for about four or five years now). She took me to a pub in a crypt in London and we drank 'blood shots' and discussed the finer things in life (cats and horror films). While Paracinema magazine is still on hiatus, the website is updated regularly with all kinds of genre related articles and reviews, including my own regular feature, Audiodrome: Music in Film.

This year I have also contributed a little something to Alexandra Heller-Nicholas' forthcoming book on Dario Argento's Suspiria, made some headway on a chapter about Heavy Metal horror films for a new book on sub-genres within horror, and finally finished an essay - which I started over three years ago - on the pornographication/eroticisation of violence in the films of Dario Argento; it’ll be published in the forthcoming issue of Exquisite Terror. Stay tuned for further updates on these...

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by over the last year – here’s to another year. 

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