Behind the Couch

Dear, you should not stay so late, / Twilight is not good for maidens; Should not loiter in the glen / In the haunts of goblin men. Goblin Market , Christina Rossetti Of all the strange figures found in folklore and fairy tales from around the world, the goblin is one of the most fascinating. A mischievous and malevolent creature, the goblin is often depicted as diminutive, but extremely cunning and devious, sly and cruel. Human encounters with goblins appear in stories as far back as the Middle Ages. Such stories usually portray the creatures as threatening and dangerous, playing malicious, harmful tricks on those unfortunate enough to cross their path. Head over to YouTube to check out the latest instalment of Ghosts With Goblin , in which my good friend, Marie Robinson - a Missouri-based folklorist - takes a look at first-hand accounts of goblin sightings. Reports come from folklore, the Fairy Census, and various online forums dedicated to the paranormal and supernatural. I prov...

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.

My dear friend Marie Robinson, a writer and folklorist from Missouri, has recorded a new video for Ghosts with Goblin , her YouTube series dedicated to eerie folklore, ghost stories, urban legends and tales of the paranormal. The latest instalment is an exploration of harbingers of death from around the world, including the Welsh Gwrach y Rhibyn (Witch of Rhibyn) and the Irish Death Coach (Coiste Bodhar, meaning 'silent coach'). Join us, as we delve into and read spooky accounts of people's experiences with harbingers of death... You can watch/listen here . 

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...