Behind the Couch

Ever since Mary Shelley’s Creature first spoke, uttering the words "I expected this reception [...] All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!" , horror has provided a voice for the voiceless. It has made readers and audiences privy to the outsider's perspective, and in doing so, has challenged mainstream, ‘normative’ values and presented the experiences of the marginalised and ‘othered’. From ground-breaking literary works by Mary Shelley, Ann Radcliffe, Shirley Jackson and Angela Carter, to trailblazing filmmakers such as Lois Weber, Alice Guy-Blaché and Maya Deren, whose work flickered fiercely across the early silver screen, women – historically silenced and marginalised, and currently living in a world where violence against women and girls is practically ambient - have used horror to interrogate and subvert traditional male-centric narratives and examine themes of agency, bodily autonomy, motherhood and restric...

Directed by Michael Felsher and written by Adam Marcus, this documentary commemorates the 30th anniversary of the most controversial entry in the Friday the 13th film series, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday . It unfolds as an irreverent and gushing love letter to not only the film’s avid fanbase, but its characters, cast and crew, and charts its ascent from maligned ‘dreck’  and ‘confusing mess’  to cult classic slasher. Several years in the making, Hearts of Darkness was funded entirely by a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo and has been an obvious labour of love for all involved in its production.  Jason Goes to Hell was the ninth film in the Friday the 13th series and the first to be produced by New Line, who had purchased the rights to the character of Jason Voorhees from Paramount in the early Nineties. Co-written by Dean Lorey and Jay Huguely, and based on a story by Huguely and Adam Marcus, it is infamous for its daringly eschewed approach to the classic...

Penny Vozniak’s documentary follows filmmaker Jennifer Lynch as she spends 8 months in India navigating culture clashes, overbearing studio execs and personal demons while directing "creature feature-love story-comedy-musical" Hisss (2010). Despite the Gods was initially planned as a behind the scenes 'making of' feature to appear on the DVD release of Hisss , several weeks into production, however, Vozniak asked Lynch if she could stay and continue to film as she felt there was more going on and could see a whole other story emerging from the production. The resulting film is as fascinating as it is compelling.  Lynch is such an interesting individual. As an artist and storyteller, she is concerned with the darker side of human nature, her work is full of serial killers and psychologically scarred individuals. After working as a production assistant on her father David’s film Blue Velvet (1986), she authored The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer (1990) in her early twen...

Actress and producer Heather Langenkamp is best known for her role as Nancy Thompson in Wes Craven’s classic chiller A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Directed by Arlene Marechal, I Am Nancy  is an exploration of Langenkamp's experience portraying the heroine and of the impact of the film and its antagonist, Freddy Krueger, on pop-culture. It follows Langenkamp as she attends horror conventions around the world and talks with fans about what attracts them to horror, specifically the A Nightmare on Elm Street films , and what the characters of Nancy and Freddy mean to them.  The film follows on from  Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy , a 2010 documentary chronicling the entire  A Nightmare on Elm Street  franchise, which was executive produced and narrated by Langenkamp, who felt a number of issues were not explored in enough depth. By questioning why heroine Nancy was eclipsed by villain Freddy Kreuger, Langenkamp’s own investigation touches upon w...

2014 Dir. Alexandre O. Philippe Depending on your opinion, Danny Boyle either has a lot to answer for, or has not been given nearly enough credit for the popularity of zombie themed entertainment throughout the last decade. 28 Days Later arguably kick-started the current interest in zombie movies, and while it isn’t strictly speaking a 'zombie' film, Boyle took a fairly typical zombie movie template and fashioned a dark and breathlessly taut film which poked at the same slagheap of ideas and themes (infection, social collapse, global catastrophe) as George Romero’s earlier flesh-ripping classics. Shaun of the Dead quickly followed, and its success convinced studio honchos that zombies were hot again. This prompted them to, for once, throw money at George Romero, who is largely responsible for the overriding popular perception of zombies today anyway, to help him make Land of the Dead , a belated follow-up to his ‘Dead trilogy’. In the few years since then, zombies hav...

2013 Dir. Bobcat Goldthwait When young city couple Jim and Kelly venture into the wilds of Bluff Creek, California, in search of the legendary Sasquatch, they find much more than they bargained for in this lean, mean tale of man vs. nature. While ‘found-footage’ horror has been much maligned of late, a few titles have proven the effectiveness of the formula — most notably The Blair Witch Project; [REC]; Lake Mungo; The Last Exorcism ; and more recently Trollhunter and The Borderlands . Willow Creek also demonstrates that the format, when utilised effectively, can still offer a downright chilling viewing experience. Even though writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait never strays far from a well-trodden path, his subdued approach and subtle direction result in some rather nerve-shredding moments of tension. Much like The Blair Witch Project , the tension and dread here is established largely through a reliance on sound, shadows and suggestion, and after the initial slow-burn approac...

The terrifying paranormal events that allegedly took place at 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, inspired Jay Anson’s 1977 book The Amityville Horror: A True Story and the 1979 film The Amityville Horror - and its seemingly unending barrage of sequels and remakes. Over the years the validity of the alleged occurrences has been the centre of intense debate and scrutiny, with the Lutz family branded opportunistic frauds. Prominent figures involved in the investigations, from journalists and parapsychologists, to news producers and psychologists, have since weighed in with their opinions, accusations and theories regarding the family and what they claim happened in the house. Eric Walter’s recent documentary is interesting because it features a subject who has remained silent about the whole debacle since his involuntary involvement in it as a child. Daniel Lutz was 10 when he moved to 112 Ocean Drive, and what becomes obvious from the outset of My Amityville Horror is that, regardless...

The Hills Have Eyes (2006) 2013 Dir. Calum Waddell Backwoods: pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) 1. Heavily wooded, uncultivated, thinly settled areas. 2. An area that is far from population centres or that is held to be culturally backward. “ West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight. On the slopes there are farms, ancient and rocky, with squat, moss-coated cottages brooding eternally over old New England; but these are all vacant now, the wide chimneys crumbling and the shingled sides bulging perilously beneath low gambrel roofs. ” HP Lovecraft The backwoods has long held a strange place of morbid fascination in the collective mind of city dwellers. It represents escapism – somewhere to go to negate the hustle and bustle of the concrete jungle; a place which grants...

2013 Dir. Calum Waddell Ever since Alfred Hitchcock filmed Janet Leigh being stabbed to death in a shower in Psycho (1960), stories of knife-wielding madmen - stalking and slaughtering unsuspecting victims - have become a permanent fixture in horror cinema. Hitchcock humanised the monster and made audiences think twice about being alone in the company of that nice looking, quiet guy from next door. You know, the one who lives with his mother?    Slice and Dice: The Slasher Film Forever takes an often irreverent look at the often maligned and misunderstood slasher films which came in the wake of Hitchcock’s masterpiece. Made by Calum Waddell and Naomi Holwill of High Rising Productions, who have been widely acclaimed for their work with Arrow Video and other labels, it is a knowing love letter to stalk and slash cinema. Amongst those discussing the appeal of the slasher are the likes of Tobe Hooper ( The Texas Chain Saw Massacre ), Adam Green ( Hatchet ) Jeffrey Reddic...

1976 Dir. Charles B. Pierce Loosely based on the true story of the ‘Moonlight Murders’, this often unnerving creeper follows a gruff Texas Ranger as he attempts to track down the hooded maniac terrorising the residents of a small town in Arkansas, 1946. Director Pierce adopts a documentary style approach to lend proceedings an air of authority and realism. Throughout, a narrator puts things in context for us, and paints a wonderfully vivid picture of post-war American small town life. Newspaper headlines also flash up on screen to keep us abreast of the grisly goings-on. Just after WWII, the predominantly working class community of Texarkana have welcomed home their soldiers who are trying to return to normalcy and find work. Just as they thought that things couldn’t get anymore downtrodden, a lunatic wearing a sack over his head begins to menace couples on Lover’s Lane, attacking several people and leaving them traumatised. Later on, another unfortunate couple are beaten to deat...