Behind the Couch

Written and directed by documentary filmmaker Paul Duane, All You Need Is Death follows two underground musicologists, Anna and Aleks, as they travel the backroads of Ireland recording and collecting traditional folk songs. Things take a turn for the sinister when they hear about a woman in County Armagh who can sing them an ancient song, never recorded or transcribed, but passed down through generations of women. Sung in a language older than Irish, the song unleashes an otherworldly force and Anna and Aleks find themselves navigating a shady realm of arcane lore and forbidden knowledge. With its tantalising premise involving the recording of ancient folk songs, and shadowy black markets in which eccentric collectors vie for the rarest recordings, All You Need Is Death is a darkly beguiling folk horror. The story unfolds in rural, backwoods pubs and small farmhouses, gradually straying into strange hinterlands and creepy urban edgelands of disused industrial spaces. The contemporaneou...

Mandrake tells of probation officer Cathy Madden (Deirdre Mullins), who is assigned to help with the rehabilitation of recently released ‘Bloody’ Mary Laidlaw (Derbhle Crotty), who had been incarcerated years prior for the murder of her abusive husband. Rumours have long swirled in the local area concerning Mary’s dabbling in witchcraft and involvement in cases of missing children. No sooner has she been released, than the bodies of several local children are found in the woods near her farmhouse. As Cathy and local police delve deeper, the veil between real and imagined starts to fray and Cathy is drawn into a dark world of occult ritualism and blood sacrifice. Directed by Lynne Davison and written by Matt Harvey, Mandrake is a delicious slice of witchy, Northern Irish folk horror, dripping with atmosphere and arcane lore. While Irish horror is having a moment right now, with acclaimed titles such as Aislinn Clarke’s Fréwaka and Kate Dolan’s You Are Not My Mother mining rich and cr...

When a conservationist encroaches upon an old wood to study a species of invasive fungus, he invokes the wrath of the Hallow – a clan of “faeries, banshees and baby-stealers” – igniting a terrifying chain of events and plunging his family into a hellish nightmare. Written by Corin Hardy and Felipe Marino, and directed by Hardy, The Hallow is a mean, moody, thoughtful creature-feature with strong elements of folk, eco and body horror. In the grand tradition of folk and fairy stories, Hardy’s film warns of the dangers of trespassing in places we have no business being, as well as offering commentary on the importance of protecting the environment and respecting the myriad other species – known and unknown – which co-habit this planet with us. Hardy and Marino’s screenplay eases us into the story, establishing the characters and spending time with them, thus ensuring later, horrific events are reinforced by a strong emotional core and skyward-rocketing tension. Adam (Joseph Mawle) and Cl...

Written and directed by Lee Cronin, and co-written by Stephen Shields, The Hole in the Ground tells of lone parent Sarah (Seána Kerslake), who, after relocating with her young son Chris (James Quinn Markey) to an isolated house beside a vast forest in rural Ireland, begins to suspect he has been abducted and replaced by an otherworldly imposter: a faerie changeling.  While Cronin’s film begins as so many horror films do, with a family moving into an old, creaky house beside a deep, dark forest, it soon becomes apparent that his studied approach, attention to characterisation and mining of creepy Irish folklore will take us deeper into the dark than most. Cronin draws us slowly into the story: Sarah and Chris struggling to settle in their new home; Sarah taking medication for anxiety, and the suggestion she’s escaped from an abusive relationship; the discovery of a massive sink hole in the forest beside the house; an older neighbour who claims faeries abducted her own son years bef...

After the tragic death of their baby daughter, Martha and Tomas (Samantha Morton and Steven Mackintosh) relocate from London to the tiny coastal village in rural Ireland where Tomas was born. They move into his old family home, a small cottage overlooking the Atlantic. When their neighbours perish in a fire, the couple take in their orphaned daughter Daisy, a young autistic girl with complex learning needs. Some of the locals believe Daisy is a faerie changeling, and when several strange accidents and deaths occur in the area, fear takes root within the community, further ostracising Daisy and driving apart Martha and Tomas. Written by Lauren Mackenzie and directed by Aisling Walsh,  The Daisy Chain  is a quietly haunting story of grief, otherness and the contagion of fear. It shares much in common with recent Irish horror titles, such as Aislínn Clarke’s  Fréwaka , with its ambiguous use of folkloric beings, social commentary regarding rural communities left in the dust ...

Written and directed by Aislinn Clarke, Fréwaka (from the Irish ‘Fréamhacha’, meaning ‘roots’) is a chilling Irish-language folk horror that not only draws inspiration from Ireland’s rich well of creepy folklore, traditions and mythology, but serves as a startling rumination on the cruel, ill-treatment of women throughout its history. It tells of Shoo (Clare Monnelly), a troubled care worker sent to a remote village to care for Peig (Bríd Ní Neachtain), an older agoraphobic woman who claims the Na Sídhe – sinister, malevolent faerie folk - abducted her on her wedding night decades before...  Head over to Eye For Film to read my full review of this dark and haunting work. 

Head over to YouTube to check out the latest instalment of Ghosts with Goblin , a series dedicated to the exploration of ghost stories and real life encounters with the paranormal and supernatural (selected and read from www.yourghoststories.com ). Written, presented and produced by my good friend Marie Robinson, each episode relates to a particular theme, and relevant aspects of science, folklore, psychology and parapsychology are discussed. This week's episode focuses on spooky encounters with apparitions without faces, spectral women in black, and various crossroad phantoms. 

Based on a 19th century Gothic novella by Aleksey Tolstoy (previously adapted for cinema by Mario Bava as a segment in his 1963 anthology, Black Sabbath ), The Vourdalak is the debut feature film from French writer-director Adrien Beau. It tells of the Marquis d'Urfé (Kacey Mottet Klein), an emissary of the King of France who seeks shelter with a family when he becomes lost travelling through Eastern Europe. The family are anxiously awaiting the return of their patriarch, Gorcha, who has gone to capture an outlaw. Before leaving, he forewarned his family that if he does not return within six days, he has been killed and, if he reappears, they must refuse him entry to the house as he has become a vourdalak; a walking corpse returned from the grave seeking the blood of its loved ones... Head over to Eye for Film to read my full review.

Nominated for Best International Short at the International Women in Horror Festival and the Nightmares Film Festival, Childer (an Irish colloquial word for children) is written and directed by Aislínn Clarke ( The Devil’s Doorway , 2018). It tells of Mary (Dorothy Duffy), an introverted single mother, who suspects she and her young son are being stalked by feral children living in the woods surrounding her home. She spends her days obsessively cleaning, trying to maintain order, and preventing her son from playing with the forest-dwelling children. Clarke’s screenplay explores ideas concerning parenthood, obsession, loneliness, and mental illness. The spectre of Shirley Jackson drifts throughout proceedings as domestic, homey spaces become veiled in quiet menace and the seeming innocence of childhood takes on sinister qualities. The beautiful photography by Ryan Kernaghan and art direction by Claire Fox help imbue the story with an eerie fairy tale quality: the little house, neat and ...

With a truly uncommon approach to the figure of the werewolf, The Cursed is a mean and moody shocker with a haunting, weirdly lyrical undertow. After their father, a cold-hearted land baron, ruthlessly slaughters a camp of Romani who staked a claim to his land, young Charlotte and Edward begin to have ominous dreams of a human scarecrow and silver teeth. The dreams draw them and other children from the nearby village to the site of the massacre, and soon after, Edward goes missing. The discovery of grisly remains attracts the attention of a grief-stricken pathologist (Boyd Holbrook), who suspects something supernatural is lurking in the surrounding forest and vows to hunt it down and destroy it. Head over to Eye for Film to read my full review. 

The small press magazine Hellebore is a collection of writings and essays devoted to British folk horror and the themes that inspire it: folklore, myth, history, archaeology, psychogeography, witches, and the occult. The publication takes its name from a poisonous plant strongly associated with witches and the water element – it is also said to have the power to alter perception and open portals to the Underworld and the subconscious. Founder and editor Maria J Pérez Cuervo’s fascination with archaeology, mythology, anthropology and magic stems back to her childhood, and led her to study Latin and Ancient Greek at school before embarking upon a MA in Archaeology for Screen Media. Her writing regularly appears in publications such as Fortean Times, Spirits of Place, The Ghastling, Rituals and Declarations , and Folklore Thursday . According to Maria, she decided to create Hellebore because “The idea of creating something that included all the themes I love was very appealing. Becau...

The debut feature film by Finnish documentary filmmaker Erik Blomberg, The White Reindeer is a heady amalgamation of Scandinavian folklore, Sámi shamanism, societal gender inequality and sexual anxiety. When newly married Pirita (the film’s co-writer, Mirjami Kuosmanen) begins to feel lonely and frustrated as her reindeer-herder husband must spend long periods of time away from home, she visits a shaman for a remedy. He concocts a potion to ensure Pirita is so alluring that her husband will be unable to leave her. However, the potion, combined with Pirita’s emerging latent powers (she was born a witch), transforms her into a bloodthirsty, vampiric shapeshifter who, in the form of a white reindeer, lures men out into the snowy wilderness where she consumes them. With its story unfolding amidst vast snowy vistas and within cosy log cabins (the interiors of which are filled with long shadows cast by glowing hearths) Blomberg’s film is awash with striking imagery and enshrouded ...

2013 Dir. Elliot Goldner The Borderlands tells of a small team of Vatican-sanctioned investigators who are charged with proving/disproving an apparently paranormal presence in an isolated church in a remote part of Western England. While the found-footage horror film has been much maligned of late, Goldner’s offering intelligently amalgamates rational scientific investigation with the hint that something otherworldly is stirring within an ancient church, proving that when it’s done right, this format still has the power to unsettle. The found footage angle is actually convincing given the basis of the plot; Vatican-sanctioned investigators needing to ensure their documentation of events is as evidence-based and stringently methodical as possible so they can prove/disprove events. It makes sense then that the church they're investigating and the cottage they're staying in are fitted with cameras, and each team member wears a head-cam. Goldner incorporates elements of ...

1975 Dir. Lawrence Gordon Clark Part of the BBC’s annual series A Ghost Story for Christmas , which ran from 1971 to 1978 and featured some of the small screen’s most chilling moments, The Ash Tree was the last of several MR James adaptations directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. Written for television by David Rudkin, It stars Edward Petherbridge in the dual role of Sir Richard, an 18th century aristocrat who inherits the vast estate of his late uncle, and of Sir Matthew, his 17th century ancestor whose role in local witch trials, and the death of Ann Mothersole (Barbara Ewing), haunts Sir Richard.  With a slim running time (just over 30 minutes) The Ash Tree is one of the shortest entries in the series, but it is also one of the densest. The amount of detail and information packed in, without compromising or diluting the impact of the source material, is admirable. Clarke manages to convey events and flashbacks by utilising an interesting narrative structure and some ...

1972 Dir. Don Taylor The Exorcism was part of the BBC’s Dead of Night horror anthology series from the early Seventies. Unfortunately not all of the episodes of the series have survived – three out of seven are all that is left, but they exemplify the series perfectly, capturing that unmistakably creepy and strangely nostalgic feel of ‘hide behind the couch’ television horror from yesteryear. The Exorcism tells of four friends who gather for Christmas dinner at a recently renovated old cottage in the English countryside. Throughout the evening a series of creepy occurrences suggest the spirits of the previous tenants do not rest in peace… The first episode to be broadcast, The Exorcism unfurls as a thoughtful critique of middle class attitudes and complacency, with several characters attempting to reconcile their wealth with their socialist upbringing. The juxtaposition between their fickle chit-chat, contemporary ‘concerns’ and bountiful Christmas spread, with that of the ...

1971 Dir. Lawrence Gordon Clark Part of the BBC’s annual series A Ghost Story for Christmas , which ran from 1971 to 1978 and featured some of the small screen’s most chilling moments, The Stalls of Barchester was the first of several MR James adaptations written and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. It tells of one Dr Haynes, an Archdeacon who acquires his status through unscrupulous means, and the dire consequences that await him. Nigel Kneale provided a succinct description of James’ work, and the main themes and ideas that move throughout it, when he said: His victim-characters are usually lonely men, antiquarians investigating ancient manuscripts and carvings, bachelor amateurs dabbling in the esoteric. Suddenly and troublingly they may find themselves less alone… the enemies are always waiting, ready to be summoned by an unwitting whistle or tampering with a forbidden lock . Prior to 1971, adaptations of the work of MR James had been scarce (not that they’re exactly ri...

2013 Dir. Lawrie Brewster After the death of his estranged mother, school teacher James Findlay returns to his childhood home, a lonely mansion in the Scottish Highlands, in an attempt to lay to rest the ghosts of his past. Tormented since a boy by dreams of a strange and terrifying entity – a figure dressed in Victorian attire, with elongated limbs, sharp talons and an owl head - James faces a descent into madness and his only hope is to banish the evil presence that haunts him. With the help of Eve, a mysterious young woman who lives on the grounds of the house, he begins to uncover the chilling truth behind his immortal stalker… Set in the remote Highlands of Scotland, and inspired by the unsettling and bleak tales of H. P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen and the creepy Slender Man mythology, Lord of Tears is a gothic chiller that slowly unfurls in an immensely atmospheric and nightmarish manner. Writer Sarah Daly and director Brewster seamlessly fuse together an array of influenc...