Behind the Couch

1973 Dir. Richard Blackburn Set in 1920s rural America and filmed on an ultra-low budget, this deliciously weird and wonderful adult fairy tale tells of a young girl’s sexual awakening in the rustic abode of a female vampire. When 13-year-old church singer Lila (Cheryl Smith) receives a letter from the titular antagonist (Lesley Gilb) informing the girl her gangster father is close to death and longs to see her one last time, Lila runs away from her puritanical guardian, Reverend Mueller (Blackburn). On her journey she encounters various incarnations of aggressive male sexuality, from the sleazy ticket seller at the bus station and the lecherous man whose car she stows away in, to the coven of undead abominations lurking in the woods around Lemora’s home. Their advances serve to highlight Lila’s perceived vulnerability and objectify her burgeoning sexuality as she wanders somnambulantly through increasingly nightmarish landscapes. When she arrives at the home of Lemora, Lila init...

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...

2011 Dirs. Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo With Livid , the makers of Inside , one of the most intense and shocking of a recent slew of New Wave Gallic horror films, venture down a more fantastical, though no less traumatic route for their sophomore offering. When Lucy (Chloé Coulloud) begins training as a care worker for the elderly, she visits the imposing and isolated home of an ancient, barely alive former ballet teacher called Madame Jessel. The young woman hears rumours of forbidden treasures hidden within the house, and when she tells her boyfriend and his brother, the three decide to break in, steal the treasure, and leave town to begin anew somewhere else. Needless to say when they enter Madame Jessel’s vast and eerie abode, things don’t go according to plan, and the three find themselves at the mercy of a powerful witch with vampiric tendencies… Maury and Bustillo’s screenplay takes time to introduce and establish the three friends. They’re from a small fishing ...

The People Under the Stairs is an atmospheric and tightly coiled horror film with themes that remain relevant, and a dark sense of unease that is still incredibly palpable, unravelling as a compendium of recurring themes and motifs that run throughout much of Wes Craven’s work; race, class, familial strife, generational conflict and the idea of man-made monsters all swirl together in an unhinged and feverishly claustrophobic tale. With its myriad allusions to the likes of “Hansel and Gretel”, the film unfurls as a nightmarish urban fairy tale complete with mutilated innocents imprisoned by wicked parental figures... To read my full review, and for a chance to win a copy of the film on Blu-ray, head over to Exquisite Terror . While you’re there, why not pick up an issue or two of Exquisite Terror the periodical . 

2013 Dir. Andrés Muschietti Imagine, if you will, that Hansel and Gretel were too little girls who were saved by the wicked witch before their father – distraught after losing his fortune in the 2008 recession – could kill them in a raving fit of pique. Surviving for five years in the witch’s house deep in the dark woods, they are eventually discovered by their uncle and his girlfriend, who bring them back to civilisation and attempt to lovingly reintegrate into society. Imagine then, that the witch, who had reared them as her own and loved them dearly, followed them into suburbia to claim them back. This is the central premise of Andrés Muschietti’s darkly beautiful fairy tale horror, Mama .  The figure of the mother has always held a significant place in fairy tales. Fiercely protective and loving, or wicked and cruel, she can be a guiding force of goodness, or a figure of evil intent on harming her young. The central antagonist of Mama - the feature-length expansion of a ...

Jack Zipes is a renowned author and expert on fairy tales. He has written a startling array of art­icles, essays and books on the subject, includ­ing The Broth­ers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Mod­ern World and Break­ing the Magic Spell: Rad­ical The­or­ies of Folk and Fairy Tales . His latest work, The Irres­ist­ible Fairy Tale: The Cul­tural and Social His­tory of a Genre , is avail­able now courtesy of Prin­ceton Uni­ver­sity Press. I recently had the pleas­ure of chatting with Mr Zipes about the his­tory and rel­ev­ance of fairy tales, their endur­ing appeal, and the influ­ence they have had on the super­hero and horror genres. Head over to Exquisite Terror to read the interview . To pick up a copy of Exquisite Terror II, in which I examine the relationship between fairy tales and horror films, go here .  To read about the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood, its history and the influence it has had on cinema and literature, check out Dark Woods, Red H...

Exquisite Terror is a brand new and independently produced periodical, the intention of which is to take a more academic, analytical approach to the genre of horror. Issue 2 is now available to pre-order. Amongst the various delights waiting within its pages are Dalliances with the Dead , by an occultist; Upper-class dining with a difference ; by popular demand, the analysis of both classic book and film; and, one of my own articles, an examination of the relationship between fairy tale and horror film. This issue boasts beautiful illustrations by artist Paul Talbot. Check out more of his work here . Pre-order yourself a copy for only £2.45 plus £1 P&P within the UK. For international sales, please contact info@exquisiteterror.com prior to order

'Snow, Glass, Apples' by Julie Dillon With filmmakers like Catherine Hardwicke directing modernised fairy tales for teen horror audiences, it is safe to assume that more will soon follow – think of what Twilight did for romanticising vampires and making them appealing to teen audiences. Love it or loathe it, its influence on popular culture is undeniable. Fans of Twilight no doubt flocked to Hardwicke’s latest offering. A number of Hollywood horror-tinged adaptations of fairy tales are actually already in the works. Amongst them is the Julia Roberts starring Mirror Mirror , with Roberts tipped to play the Evil Queen. Directed by Tarsem Singh ( The Cell ), the film is a dark twist on the classic fairy tale, in which Snow White and the seven dwarfs look to reclaim their destroyed kingdom. Another film that refigures the tale of Snow White, with Snow White leading the charge into battle, is Snow White and the Huntsman , starring Kristen Stewart as Snow White, and Chris Hem...

With its central image of a young woman being stalked and menaced through a dark and foreboding forest by a sly and slathering beast, Red Riding Hood has always had its roots firmly planted in horror. Later literary adaptations of the folk story, by the likes of Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, demonstrate a harsh conservative morality akin to many horror films (particularly certain 80s slasher films) warning of what happens to young people who ‘stray from the path’ and let their curiosity get the better of them. It is essentially a dark tale about rite of passage and crossing the threshold from childhood to adulthood. The forest, a place used time and again in literature and cinema to represent a place of hidden danger, primal fear and dark threat (but also, interestingly, freedom from the restraint and pressures of conservative society) serves as the suitable backdrop; a place that is as far removed from civilisation as possible. What further embeds the tale in horror is...

Throughout the years many filmmakers have adapted various versions of Little Red Riding Hood for cinema, most to investigate or exploit its coming of age subtext. In the early Eighties Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan collaborated with English writer and novelist Angela Carter on an adaptation of her book 'The Bloody Chamber.' 'The Bloody Chamber' is a collection of fairy tales, including Little Red Riding Hood, which Carter had reworked, reinterpreted and filtered through a 20th Century feminist viewpoint to give them a fresh and provocative perspective. Their resulting collaboration was 1984’s strikingly beautiful and dreamlike The Company of Wolves , a film that unfurls as the fever-dream of a young woman experiencing menstruation for the first time. Boasting a narrative of stories within stories and dreams within dreams, The Company of Wolves retains its haunting power even now, with its rich and intoxicating atmospherics. Angela Lansbury starred as the Grandmother w...

"The Company of Wolves II" by Olukemi With Snow White and the Huntsman galloping onto screens in the wake of, and from the same gothic fairy tale stable as Catherine Hardwicke’s Red Riding Hood , and Tarsem Singh’s Mirror Mirror to follow soon after, it looks like fairy tale adaptations are trending at the moment. They’re certainly not a new thing; fairy tales have often provided the basis for films throughout cinema history – either directly or loosely. I thought it might be interesting throughout the course of December to have a look at one of the most recognisable and enduring of these tales – Little Red Riding Hood. The tale of Little Red Riding Hood is centuries old. Most people will be familiar with it thanks to growing up with the likes of the slightly diluted version by the Brothers Grimm, in which a young girl and her grandmother are rescued from the belly of a ravenous wolf by a chivalrous woodsman. Earlier versions of the tale were much darker, and bleaker....

1996 Dir. Matthew Bright When Vanessa witnesses her mother and stepfather being hauled off to jail on drugs and prostitution charges, the teenage tearaway goes on the run from a social worker who wants to put her into care. She sets off to seek sanctuary at her grandmother's house. Along the way however, she encounters a sadistic serial killer who she discovers has been preying on vulnerable young women on the freeway… Matthew Bright’s cult indie hit Freeway is a thoroughly twisted take on the tale of 'Little Red Riding Hood’; a tale that has consistently proved it is ripe for reinterpretation time and again. Much like the original tale not just being a story about a girl eaten by a wolf (it’s actually a rite of passage story warning young women of the dangers of rape), Bright’s take isn’t just the tale of a girl who has a terrifying encounter with a serial killer – it actually unravels as a damning indictment of the US justice system and its inhumane treatment of the...

2003 Dir. David Morwick The grisly murders of several students at a quiet college campus coincide with recent sightings of a red-hooded figure creeping around the local woods. Student Peter Bloom decides to investigate, and before long he realises that the killer, who has a connection to the school library, is also obsessed with fairy tales. Peter must act quickly to figure out the bizarre modus operandi and stop the killer before they strike again… 'A flash of red... Then you're dead. ' I bought Little Erin Merryweather for £1 in a local discount shop. I wasn’t really expecting much; so was pleasantly surprised when it actually turned out to be not half bad. It certainly has its fair share of interesting moments and startling imagery. And it was £1. An intriguing opening sets the fairy tale-image drenched scene, as a young college student is lured into the woods by a mysterious figure in a red cape, only to be pounced upon and gutted. Even though we don’t see ...