Behind the Couch

2010 Dir. Kaare Andrews When five friends set off to see Coldplay in concert, rookie pilot Sara offers to fly them there in a rented plane. Shortly into the flight however a mechanical failure results in the plane heading into a steady, unstoppable climb, as a massive storm closes in. As fuel begins to run out and the plane climbs ever higher, emotional tensions within the confines of the small aircraft begin to rise. But the problems onboard prove to be the least of the friends’ worries. Outside, hidden in the depths of the storm clouds, a mysterious and monstrous force is lurking. Its sole purpose is to destroy the plane and its passengers… Altitude comes hot on the heels of various other ‘confinement thrillers’ - such as Wind Chill , Frozen and Buried – in which characters are menaced in a confined location and come under threat from each other as much as the ‘thing outside.’ Kudos to the filmmakers, they’ve actually attempted to create something genuinely different and...

2010 Dir. Adam Green Hoping to spend some quality time at a tranquil ski resort, a trio of twenty-something friends Joe (Shawn Ashmore), Dan (Kevin Zegers) and Parker (Emma Bell), instead experience a chilling nightmare when they are unexpectedly stranded on a ski-lift shortly after the resort closes for the week. Unknowingly left dangling high above the ground and with no apparent safe way down as night begins to set in, with increasing panic they soon realize that the threats of frostbite and hypothermia are the least of their worries. Forced to take extremely desperate measures in order to survive the bitter cold, overcome unexpected obstacles and attempt to reach safety, the three friends are driven to ask not only if they have the will to survive, but also to consider what are the worst ways to die… Having already caused quite a stir on the festival circuit, prompting responses from critics such as “terrifying… will do for skiing what Jaws did for swimming” Frozen is ...

2009 Dir. Marcus Koch Devastated by his breakup with Jenny, a depressed and heavily medicated Bill rapidly descends into a hellish world in which the lines between reality and nightmares become increasingly blurred. Bloody visions, ghosts from the past and bodies in the bath all conspire to push Bill ever closer to breaking point… Opening with a fractured series of shots of Bill sopping blood off the kitchen floor and listening to a radio whilst in a seemingly catatonic state, Fell starts as it means to go on: nightmarishly, hazily and disorientating. Koch films such mundane actions and activities as Bill cooking eggs, shuffling around the house, talking on the phone and sleeping on the couch so that they seem ripe with an undercurrent of dread. They take on a hellish, threatening glean and are filmed in tightly constructed close-up shots which better serve to thrust us further into Bill’s rapidly fraying mindset. The script, co-written by the cast (Katie Walters, Kristian D...

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...