Behind the Couch

2012 Dir. Ryan Smith Bus crash survivors Ana and Freddie (Karolina Wydra and Steven Strait) awaken to find they are the only people left in their small town, and their attempts to leave are thwarted by a towering wall of impenetrable fog completely encircling the place. Before long they discover that all is not what it seems, and as the sinister fog continues to encroach upon them, they realise their time is running out… Incorporating elements of sci-fi, horror, comic books and fairy tales, and conveying a strong influence from the likes of The Twilight Zone and Carnival of Souls , Ryan Smith's feature debut is an intriguing genre hybrid that, despite revealing its major twist early on, unfurls as a quietly powerful and compelling yarn. With striking visuals, twisting plot, assured direction, strong lead performances, and engaging ideas concerning destiny, fate, and redemption, After  is a strangely touching and haunting film. Head Over to Exquisite Terror to read my f...

Issue 18 of Diabolique  is now available to order. Throughout its pages we take a look at horror’s unparalleled ability to provide a window onto the myriad ills of contemporary society. With a political climate marked by division and pre and post-2012 fears about the apocalypse, as well as the sheer amount of underground and mainstream filmic and literary offerings about the End Times currently available, it would seem that the concept of the end of the world is resonating with audiences like never before. We wrestle with these themes and their depictions in everything from The Omega Man to 28 Days Later to The World’s End and everything in between, featuring interviews with acclaimed author David Moody; comic book artist/illustrator Arthur “Zombie King” Suydam ( Army of Darkness, Marvel Zombies, The Walking Dead ); and Before Dawn co-writer/co-stars Dominic Brunt and Joanne Mitchell. This issue also contains my own piece on the three cinematic adaptations of Richard Mat...

Back in 2007, an independently produced magazine focusing on all things ‘genre cinema’ modestly made its way onto the shelves of various indie retailers across New York City. Six years later and said independently produced magazine is still going strong and, more importantly, has still managed to retain its unique perspective. Each lushly produced issue of Paracinema mines the depths of genre cinema by way of a series of essays and features on niche cinema, examining, celebrating and promoting films all too often relegated to the side-lines. Films deemed difficult, dangerous or just plain dire by more mainstream publications, are lovingly dissected and discussed without prejudice or delusion. Issue 20 (!) of Paracinema is now available to pre-order and includes the likes of: A Serbian Film: Transgressive Horror in the Internet Age by Thomas Duke Juice Dogs & Erotic Trauma: An Exploration into Stephen Sayadian’s Nightdreams and Dr. Caligari by Heather Drain The Vehi...

"Mouldy mildew, mother of mouthmuck!" Issue 18 of Paracinema Magazine is now available to pre-order... Packed full of ridiculously good ‘letters that stay’ on all kinds of genre cinema, this issue includes the likes of When Single Shines the Triple Sun: Duality and Self Discovery in The Dark Crystal by Christine Makepeace, Marriage Bites: Lesbian Vampires and the Failure of Heterosexuality in Daughters of Darkness by Erin Wiegand, 3D’s Use and Potential in Today’s Cinematic Landscape by Caleb McCandless, Speed Racer: The Art of Absurdity by Patrick Smith and The Goriest Film You Never Saw by Jose Cruz. Head over to Paracinema.net and pre-order a copy. Support independent publishing, or, you know, face the wrath of the Skeksis! 

Issue 17 of Paracinema Magazine is now available to pre-order. As ever, its packed to the gills with all manner of insightful and provocative articles and essays on genre cinema. Amongst the titles in this issue are “Endemic Madness”: Subversive 1930s Horror Cinema by Jon Towlson , You Can Clean Up the Mess, But Don’t Touch My Coffin: The Legacy of Sergio Corbucci’s Django by Ed Kurtz and I Don’t Want to See What I Hear: Paranoia and Personality Eradication in The Conversation by Todd Garbarini. Issue 17 also contains one of my own essays, an examination of the Gothic influences of Sergio Martino’s giallo Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key , titled Black Cats and Black Gloves.  Sound good? Head over to Paracinema.net to pre-order your copy now. Go on, support independent publishing.

Issue 16 of Paracinema Magazine is now available to pre-order. Amongst the myriad articles are This Ain’t Hollywood XXX: The Cultural Significance of the Porn Parody by Justin LaLiberty; “Images of Horror and Lust” in Ken Russell’s The Devils by Samm Deighan; Rehabilitating Daddy, or How Disaster Movies say it’s OK to Trust Authority by Jon ( Shocks to the System: Subversive Horror Films ) Towlson; The Films of René Laloux: Notes on the Golden Age of French Science Fiction by Derek Godin; plus much, much more. There’s also my essay,  Shadowy Suggestion in the Weird West: Val Lewton’s Apache Drums.  Sound good? Fancy picking up a copy? Head over to Paracinema.net and pre-order one now . Support independent publishing! 

Issue 15 of Paracinema Magazine is now available to pre-order. This issue focuses on the theme of revenge, and amongst the articles on offer are the likes of When Life Gives You Razor Blades: Bloody Vengeance in Hobo with a Shotgun by Christine Makepeace (Paracinema’s editor), Revenge is a Dish Best Served Raw and Wriggling: Park Chan-Wook’s Vengeance Trilogy by Samm Deighan, Going Back Home: Post-Vietnam Masculinity in Rolling Thunder by Adam Blomquist, and much more; including pieces on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and A Nightmare on Elm Street . Head over to Paracinema.net to pre-order your copy now. While you’re at it – why not head over to TLA and vote for Paracinema Magazine, as it’s been nominated for a lovely award.  Support independent publishing.

Paracinema? I'd buy that for a dollar! Well, $7 actually. Issue 14 of Paracinema is now available to pre-order! Hard to believe that the magazine has been going for 14 issues. It has been independently published since 2007 and, as clichéd as it might sound, has got better with every issue. It’s also recently widened its net and is available in various independent retailers right across the length and breadth of the States.  Issue 14 contains a number of exciting features on various genre classics and obscure gems. Articles include Panic in Detroit: RoboCop and Reagan's America by Andreas Stoehr; Blood on the Rubber Chicken: Horror Parodies of the Early ’80s by Mike White; Christ Stopped at San Miguel: Italy’s Economic Miracle and A Fistful of Dollars by Jef Burnham; Catching the Bus: Jump Scares in the Horror Film by C. Rachel Katz; Slavery in 70's Cinema: Mandingo and Drum by Paul Talbot; and (personally speaking, the one I’m most looking forward to checking o...

2010 Dir. Gregg Araki Director Gregg Araki has never been one to shy away from controversial subject matter. His work usually explores the dark side of teenage life, where bad things happen ‘unexpectedly' and the lines between life and death, reality and nightmare are increasingly blurred. His 2005 film Mysterious Skin looked at sexual abuse and its aftermath through the eyes of two teenage boys – one of whom is convinced he is the victim of alien abduction. The Doom Generation was a gloomy, ultra-violent and nihilistic 'Generation X' for the Nineties. His work usually features various depictions of the apocalypse as an almost mundane, matter of fact event and drugged-out characters wander through hyper-retro, candy-coloured sets and broodingly dark cityscapes. His latest film, Kaboom is a fantastical, mind-altering, sex-charged romp through the fickle world of college life that gradually morphs into an increasingly oddball, horror-tinged and absurd story about the ...

It’s hard to believe that Paracinema Magazine has been going for four years now. Four years in which it has consistently delivered thought provoking and increasingly exciting content on cinema that falls firmly outside the mainstream. Within its pages you’ll find passionately written pieces on the likes of blaxploitation films, Italian giallo flicks, cult oddities, extreme Asian sub-genres, horror, exploitation, B-movies and pornography, amongst other lurid and obscure delights. Issue 13 is now available to pre-order. Amongst the tantalising pieces on offer are the likes of the cover feature Blood Is Thicker Than Fear: Maternal Madness in Horror Cinema by Ashley Avard, Dreams That You Could Never Guess: Bela Lugosi on Poverty Row, 1940-42 by Andreas Stoehr, Censoring the Centipede: How the BBFC are Sewing Our Eyes Shut by Liam Underwood and Teenage Riot: Coming of Age in Modern Cinema by Christian Sellers. Head over to Paracinema’s online domain and pick yourself up a copy....

Established in 1976, Westport Arts Festival is not only one of Ireland’s longest running festivals, but an on-going celebration of the arts in and around Ireland. With over 100 events spanning ten days, this year’s festival represents one of the most ambitious to date. Amongst the array of events is a drive-in movie series. That’s right; you can watch films from the comfort and safety of your own automobile! A 200-year-old courtyard at Westport House, built by the 2nd Marquess of Sligo no less, will be transformed into a state-of-the-art drive-in movie theatre for a series of screenings of classic movies as part of the Westport Arts Festival. This year there are ten feature films on show ensuring there will be something for everyone, from the epic western Once Upon a Time in the West to the equally epic science fiction spectacular 2001: A Space Odyssey. For fright fans there’s the classic terror of Jaws , the ultimate horror summer blockbuster, and the darkly disturbing Dutc...

Born from a conversation about film magazines in a small Queens, New York apartment in the summer of 2007, Paracinema Magazine has been steadily garnering a reputation as a distinctive, intelligent, and thought-provoking publication since its first issue almost four years ago. Taking its title from a phrase coined by film scholar Jeffrey Sconce, the independently produced, quarterly magazine focuses primarily on all facets of cult and genre cinema. Each issue contains accessible in-depth analytical pieces, critiques, interviews and academic articles on all manner of genre cinema – from Hitchcock, Herzog and Bergman to the likes of HG Lewis, Wiseau and Ed Wood, to name but a few. All is presented in a strikingly designed and attention-commanding publication. Paracinema is essentially for those who want to delve deeper into the lurid depths of ‘periphery’ cinema; each issue contains pieces on a staggering array of movies and genres including, horror, sci-fi, blaxploitation, exploitati...

Now in its fourth year and going from strength to strength, Paracinema is a New York based, independently produced magazine specialising in the appreciation of films that fall outside of mainstream cinema. Written by fans for fans, each issue features in-depth studies of titles from genres such as horror, exploitation, cult, Asian, giallo and B-movies. Within the vivid, exquisitely designed pages of issue 12 you’ll find features such as The Man From Australia: Falling Without a Parachute Through the Films of Ozploitation Filmmaker Brian Trenchard-Smith by Justin Bozung; Howling All the Way Straight to Video by Brett Taylor; and Explorers: Exploring Childhood Escapism by Matthew House - of Chuck Norris Ate My Baby infamy.  *shameless self-promotion alert* This issue also includes my feature  Sketches of Venice in Red: A Comparative Glance at Who Saw Her Die? And Don’t Look Now .  Pre-order your copy now . If you’re on Facebook, you can follow Paracinem...

The latest issue of Paracinema , an independently produced, Rondo Horror Award Nominated magazine, is available to pre-order now. As this is Women in Horror Month, this issue’s contents have been contributed solely by women writers.  Amongst a plethora of insightful and provocative features you’ll find the likes of Rape-Revenge Films: A Guide for the Faint-Hearted by Chelsea Suarez; The Degrading Last Days of Laura Palmer: A Backwards Glance at Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me by Christine Hadden (of Fascination with Fear ); Mental Illness in Horror Films: Lifting the Stigma with Let’s Scare Jessica to Death by Andre Dumas (of The Horror Digest ) and Frankenhooker: Titular Commodification of Women by Lisa Cunningham. Plus much, much more… It costs $7 to pre-order a copy, and you can do that my visiting the official Paracinema website, here . And don’t forget to vote for Paracinema at the Rondo Awards !

The latest issue of Paracinema magazine is now available to order ! This is no ordinary issue, this is a big one: the tenth issue! Independently produced to the highest standard, each issue thus far has been smartly crafted to cater to the more thoughtful genre fan – intelligent, left of centre articles on all manner of cult, exploitation and obscure cinema are the order of the day; and issue 10 is no exception. Amongst the positively tantalising array of articles on offer are the likes of Melodrama in Fast Motion: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls As Not Just Strange but Scathing by Adam Blomquist; Pink Socks and Monsters: Excess in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession by Todd Garbarini and Send In the Clowns, If Your Conscience Can Handle It: The Complications of Watching Clownhouse by Emily Intravia of The Deadly Doll’s House of Horror Nonsense infamy. Support independently produced publications like Paracinema. They are lovingly built out of very little, with much heart and soul po...

Born from a conversation about film magazines in a small Queens, New York apartment in the summer of 2007, Paracinema Magazine has steadily been making a name for itself as a distinct, intelligent and left-of-centre publication of the highest order. Taking its title from a phrase coined by film scholar Jeffrey Sconce, the independently produced, quarterly magazine focuses primarily on all facets of cult and genre cinema. Each issue contains accessible in-depth analytical pieces, critiques, interviews and academic articles on all manner of genre cinema – from Hitchcock to Ed Wood – all presented in a strikingly designed and attention-commanding publication. Paracinema is for those who want to delve deeper into the often murky depths of ‘periphery’ cinema; each issue contains pieces on a staggering array of movies. Works by everyone from Herzog and Bergman to Carpenter and Wiseau, to name but a few, are analysed in enthusiastic articles written by fans, for fans. The types of fil...

The prolific and versatile career of Sergio Martino spans many movie genres; sci-fi, horror, action, documentary, comedy, war and westerns. With titles such as The Mountain of the Cannibal God, The River of the Great Alligator, The Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence, Naked and Violent, A Man Called Blade and Vendetta from the Future , it’s obvious Martino had a penchant for exploitative fare laden with copious amounts of sex and violence. It therefore comes as no surprise, given that Martino was most prolific in the Seventies and Eighties and not afraid to experiment or dabble with different genres, that he is perhaps most famed for his work in the horror/thriller arena; specifically his violent and stylish gialli. Produced throughout the Seventies – arguably the Golden Era of the exclusively Italian genre - several of these films featured memorable collaborations with prolific actress, Edwige Fenech. Perhaps because of Martino’s willingness to experiment and work in different g...

The brand new issue of Paracinema is almost upon us... It is available to pre-order - simply click here to pick up a copy. If you're a lover of intelligent, well written, beautifully crafted magazines that are created by fans of genre cinema, for fans of genre cinema - you really should pick up a copy. Plus, you'll be supporting independent publishing - which is always a good thing. Amongst the dazzling array of great features included in this, the 9th issue (!) are:  The Death and Life of Cinema: An interview with Joe Dante by Brian Saur, Emanuelle, Transnationality and the Cannibalisation of Cultures by Ben Buckingham, Australia’s Hollywood Pioneers and those who followed by Bruce J. Patience and Devastating Color: Horror and magic in Herschell Gordon Lewis’s The Wizard of Gore by Madelon Hoedt. Get it now. Before it's too late!

Issue 8 of Paracinema is now available. It's hard to believe the magazine is now on it's eighth issue! It's not so hard to believe that it's still as great a publication as it's ever been and just as lovingly put together, designed and compiled by a dedicated and passionate hard-core of individuals. Amongst the staggering array of pieces included in the pages of issue 8 are the following: War May Be Hell, But a Sequel Is Purgatory: Thematic Combat With Battle Royale II: Requiem by Emily Intravia, Love, Loss, and Astounding Growth in The Incredible Shrinking Man and Attack of the Fifty-Foot Woman by Jessie Robie and The Serial Killer’s Mind: Comparing and Contrasting the Male Psyches in Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer by Brantley Palmer. If that isn't enough to whet your appetite, click here to check out more... Support our independent film magazines and help publications like Paracinema to continue producing quality material that you'd be hard...

Issue 6 of Paracinema is available to order now. The latest installment includes insightful and original features such as ' Videodrome: The New Flesh Comes Home To Roost ' by Mel Cartagena, ' The Origins Of Last House On The Left ' by Chelsea Suarez and ' The Anti-Industrial Revolution And The Anti-Aesthetic Approach Of Paul Morrissey ' by Matthew Whoolery. Sound good? Click here for more details about the new issue and click here to buy it ...