Behind the Couch

2014 Dir. David Robert Mitchell Like one, that on a lonesome road  Doth walk in fear and dread,  And having once turned round, walks on,  And turns no more his head;  Because he knows a frightful fiend  Doth close behind him tread -  Samuel Taylor Coleridge After Jay (Maika Monroe) and her boyfriend have sex, he tells her that he has passed a curse onto her and now something will begin to follow her. And when it catches up with her, it will kill her. Sure enough, she begins to experience an inescapable feeling that someone, or something, is after her… It Follows is an insidiously creepy, yet beautifully produced shocker, moments of which will haunt you for some time afterwards. Blurring the line between sex and death, it taps into some very dark and primal fears indeed - abandonment, betrayal of loved ones, social ostracism. Most obviously it mines that very specific fear of being pursued so relentlessly by something unknowable, harmful and u...

2007 Dir. Pablo Proenza When her family moves into a new home, photographer Deborah (Lisa Vidal) gradually begins to suspect sinister things are stirring from the house’s past. She catches glimpses of shadowy figures and doorways that aren't there in the mirrors and reflective surfaces. When she talks to her new neighbours she discovers that the previous owner, a famous artist, vanished in mysterious circumstances. Deborah is further convinced something evil lurks within the house as everyone she photographs dies in unnatural circumstances. Is Deborah experiencing a nervous breakdown? Or are there actually evil spirits trapped in the glass surfaces of her new home, waiting to pounce into our world? The mirror has featured heavily throughout horror cinema as a source of danger and fear. Mirrors are often used to address ideas of fractured identity, fear of one’s self, and psychological breakdown. A common visual motif in films in which someone is suffering from psychologica...

The Titanic Mummy On a recent visit to the newly opened Titanic Belfast®, I’m sure you can imagine my excitement when I discovered that one of the myths revolving around the sinking of the ill-fated vessel concerns a mummy that was secretly stowed away onboard. There was even a creepy mummy on display in the centre. Naturally I took pictures. The mummy has been a popular stock figure throughout the history of horror cinema and literature, and it has long been associated with a terrible curse that brings about the untimely deaths of those who dare to enter its sacred burial place and disrupt its slumber. This belief probably stems from the supposed curse on the tomb of Tutankhamen and the death of Lord Carnarvon who was present during its excavation. Six weeks after his involvement in the project, Carnarvon died from blood poisoning caused by a mosquito bite. From Bram Stoker’s 1903 novel The Jewel of Seven Stars , (later adapted as the 1971 film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb...

2010 Dir. Joe Johnston Upon returning to his ancestral home to help search for his missing brother, Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) is viciously attacked by the same mysterious beast that is revealed to have torn his brother to shreds. Quickly recovering from the ordeal, Talbot soon realises that the beast was a werewolf and he is now marked by the same curse – doomed to transform into a slathering beast under the light of the full moon. Can his father (Anthony Hopkins) and his brother’s widow Gwen (Emily Blunt) help him find a cure before it's too late? It’s an amazing feat that The Wolfman made it to cinemas at all given its troubled production history. The project was originally set to be helmed by Mark Romanek ( One Hour Photo and various Nine Inch Nails music videos ), however he was dissatisfied with the level of studio interference and was soon replaced by director Joe Johnston ( Jurassic Park III ). Countless reshoots, re-cuts and test audience screenings later a...

The Hills Run Red hit DVD shelves last year. It tells of a group of young film students who venture into the woods in search of a long lost horror film. The film, titled ‘The Hills Run Red’, was considered by the very few that had seen it to be the scariest movie ever made and shortly afterwards its director, Wilson Wyler Concannon, vanished, taking the only reel of the film with him. The students eventually discover however, that the deranged killer from the movie is real and still very much alive – and filming never finished as he is still killing for the sake of his art. And they are his new co-stars. The Hills Run Red combines post- Scream reflexivity with ‘old school’ horror violence, tension and atmosphere, shot through with a grimy aesthetic to create an interesting homage to old slasher flicks. Director Dave Parker was kind enough to chat with Behind the Couch about The Hills Run Red , early 80s slasher movies, Hollywood hypocrisy and the unbeatable thrill one gets when w...

1963 Dir. Mario Bava AKA The Three Faces of Fear (I tre volti della paura) Mario Bava’s Gothic horror anthology consists of three different tales of horror, each with their own unique tone and style, but all containing that inimitable Bava touch. Each of the films unfolds as an exercise in style, tension and atmosphere, bolstered by intriguing stories that carefully unfold to reveal a deadly sting in the tale. As a whole, Black Sabbath is most satisfying, and none of the segments outstay their welcome. What makes it all even more appealing is the introduction of the film by none other than Boris Karloff himself, waxing lyrical on the mechanics of fear, the uncanny, things that go bump in the night and a treatise on what makes a film scary and why. Each segment is introduced by a title card and contains its own share of nightmare-inducing moments; all beautifully captured by Bava’s ever prowling camera, and rendered dreamlike in the vivid lighting. First up is the giallo-esqu...

2009 Dir. Sam Raimi When loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is ordered by her boss to 'toughen up' if she ever wants to get a promotion, she begrudgingly decides to get assertive: with the wrong person. Mrs Ganush, an elderly gypsy woman, applies for a third extension on her mortgage; Christine turns her down and inadvertently humiliates her. Mrs Ganush places a nasty curse on Christine that will culminate in her being dragged off to hell in three days. Over the next few days Christine’s life is turned inside out by demonic forces intent on torturing her before pulling her down to burn in hell for all eternity... Can she find a way to stop them before its too late? When Ain’t It Cool News described Drag Me To Hell as a ‘juggernaut’, they really weren’t lying. While not particularly scary, this film is the cinematic equivalent of a roller-coaster. The jumps and shocks come so thick and fast that quite often you don’t have time to fully recover before the next on...