Behind the Couch

Desperate for a hit single, Kate (Jasmine Maimone) and her all-girl rock band acquires a piece of unpublished music by Niccolò Paganini – the 19th Century composer said to have sold his soul to the Devil. They hire an isolated villa to record the music and shoot a video, but end up opening a gateway to hell and conjuring the ghost of Paganini, who stalks and murders them with his bladed violin. Written and directed by Luigi Cozzi ( The Black Cat ), and co-written by Daria Nicolodi (who also portrays Sylvia, the caretaker of the mysterious villa), Paganini Horror is an obscure Italian schlocker that combines tropes of the Haunted House film with supernatural slasher cinema. Its central premise of a rock band playing forbidden music which opens a portal to hell, firmly places it in the realms of Heavy Metal horror, sitting alongside cult titles such as Trick or Treat , Black Roses , The Gate and Rock and Roll Nightmare . Heavy Metal horror is a filmic sub-genre that emerged in the ...

2014 Dir. Gerard Johnstone When delinquent Kylie is placed under house arrest after a botched robbery, she is forced to return to her childhood home and the guardianship of her overbearing mother and timid stepfather. A series of strange occurrences lead her to suspect the house is haunted and as she delves into the building’s history, she not only uncovers a darkly tragic past, but shady family secrets. Beginning as an oddball haunted house yarn, the plot of this New Zealand comedy-horror soon veers off into some very unexpected places; with each twist and turn the well measured pace and careful editing gradually build tension and intrigue, ensuring the viewer is riveted throughout. A rare gem in genre cinema, Housebound  is a comedy-horror that provides well timed laughs alongside genuine shocks, chills and suspense, sometimes in the same scene. Head over to Exquisite Terror to read my full review . 

Directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg, Poltergeist (1982) is a slick, big budgeted, special effects laden extravaganza. It is also a well-written film – now considered a classic - with a sly commentary on the corrupting influence of television, the tribulations of suburban life, colonialism, the ill-treatment of Native Americans, the break-down of the nuclear family unit, and the damaging excesses of capitalism and consumerism. The influence of Spielberg is overwhelmingly evident in the film’s representation of the all American family, and their pursuit of the American dream. With Hooper in the director’s chair however, these moments appear almost satirical, and cracks soon begin to appear. To the central family’s horror, they realise their white, middle-class American dream is built upon the graves of indigenous people, and their suburban ideal crumbles when vengeful spirits abduct their young daughter, Carol-Anne... Head over to Eye for Film to read my ful...

2006 Dir. Rick Bota Two years after the death of their friend, who died while playing an online game based on the Hellraiser mythology, a group of teenagers find their own lives endangered. Accepting an invitation to an underground rave party at an isolated mansion, they’re told by their sinister host that the Cenobites and the puzzle box of Hellraiser infamy are actually real. Before long, the gamers are picked off one by one as nightmarish fantasies become entwined with disturbing reality... The eighth instalment of the on-going Hellraiser series, Hellworld , like Deader before it, didn’t actually start out as a Hellraiser film. Based on a story by Joel Soisson (writer of Mimic 2, Hollow Man 2 , and various Prophecy sequels) called The Dark Can’t Breathe , Hellworld unfolds as a strange and rather bland fusion of slasher flick and creaky haunted house yarn. The narrative essentially consists of teens partying at a spooky mansion, splitting up to explore said mansion, ve...

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 ...

Rural Non-Fiction History by McMorr I dwell in a lonely house I know That vanished many a summer ago, And left no trace but the cellar walls, And a cellar in which the daylight falls And the purple-stemmed wild raspberries grow. O'er ruined fences the grape-vines shield The woods come back to the mowing field; The orchard tree has grown one copse Of new wood and old where the woodpecker chops; The footpath down to the well is healed. I dwell with a strangely aching heart In that vanished abode there far apart On that disused and forgotten road That has no dust-bath now for the toad. Night comes; the black bats tumble and dart; The whippoorwill is coming to shout And hush and cluck and flutter about: I hear him begin far enough away Full many a time to say his say Before he arrives to say it out. It is under the small, dim, summer star. I know not who these mute folk are Who share the unlit place with me— Those stones out under the lo...

2009 Dir. Sean McConville When a screenwriter travels to a house in the middle of nowhere to finish her latest project, sinister occurrences ensue. Given that said screenwriter is recovering from a recent nervous breakdown, staying alone in a big old house in the middle of nowhere, probably wasn’t the greatest idea ever. However it means that director McConville can play that old ‘is she really seeing ghosts or just imagining things’ card... I enjoy catching random horror films on late night TV. Sometimes you’re rewarded for idly flicking through the channels until something catches your eye – favourite films I’ve discovered this way include Cat People , Halloween , The Pit and the Pendulum and Night of the Living Dead . When you see that a horror film starring Brittany Murphy as a writer staying alone in a creepy house has just started – you just have to watch it. Deadline seemed to me to have a lot of potential; a nice (if not wholly original) idea, a pace and tone that ...

1963 Dir. Robert Wise A parapsychologist seeking proof of the existence of the supernatural invites a select group of people to join him at the reputedly haunted Hill House. Once there, the group experience sinister events that not only threaten their sanity, but their very lives… Are these occurrences the result of a genuine haunting, or are they conjured by the unstable mind of one of the guests? Director Robert Wise was a protégé of Val Lewton’s in the 1940s, and made his directorial debut on Lewton’s production of Mademoiselle Fifi , before working on the moody horror films Curse of the Cat People and The Body Snatcher . Shortly after he filmed West Side Story , Wise thought it high time he paid tribute to the man who gave him his start in the film business. In Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House , Wise found the perfect blend of understated horror, fractured psychologies and icy atmospherics with which to pay homage to Lewton and the low key, suggestive horror of...

2007 Dir. Dave Sapp Jill, a young blind woman struggling with her faith, unexpectedly inherits an old mansion from her estranged aunt. When she arrives at the house, she experiences a number of unnerving events and begins to suspect the place is haunted. She soon discovers a secret tragedy about her aunt that will force her to face her greatest fears, changing her forever… The Haunting of Marsten Manor is a quiet melodrama that could have benefited from an injection of suspense. A mild spook-fest, it is perfect afternoon viewing for fans of gentle TV mystery dramas such as Murder, She Wrote – it certainly exhibits the look and feel of a TV movie. Beginning as many haunted house movies begin, someone inherits an old dark house with a shady past. When they move into it, they're plagued by spooky occurrences. In this instance, it's Jill (Brianne Davis) who learns that she’s been left an old dark house by a dead relative she never actually met. Jill is struggling to come ...

1959 Dir. William Castle Eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren (Vincent Price) has invited five carefully selected strangers to the house on Haunted Hill for a ‘haunted house’ party, much to the chagrin of his wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart). Loren promises to pay $10,000 to whoever stays in the creepy house for the whole night. With no electricity, no phones and no way of contacting the outside world, the guests are locked in the house at midnight. As the night progresses, it becomes very obvious that it will be a memorable one! Ghosts, ghouls and murder – oh my! Darkness. A woman’s scream. Creepy moaning. Rattling chains and creaking doors. A disembodied head ponders the restless ‘ghosts’ on the prowl. Just another Saturday evening then – but it’s also the opening minutes of William Castle’s lovably daft House on Haunted Hill. A clunky, but thoroughly enjoyable ghost-train romp through every creaky old cliché in the book and straight into your heart. Constructed as the cinemat...

1961 Dir. Jack Clayton Governess Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) takes up a new post at an isolated country manor. In her charge are two young children, Miles and Flora, whose uncle wants nothing to do with their upbringing and has given her full responsibility and autonomy. A series of strange occurrences at the house lead Miss Giddens to suspect that the children are possessed by the souls of their former Governess Miss Jessel and her lover, valet Peter Quint. Is something supernatural occurring? Is there something genuinely sinister in the childish games the youngsters play with their sensitive Governess? Or is it all a product of the over-active and neurotic imagination of a repressed and unhappy woman close to losing her clutch on sanity? These are just a few of the provocative questions The Innocents raises. Based on the Henry James novella The Turn of the Screw and co-written by Truman Capote, Jack Clayton’s The Innocents is a masterpiece of understated, ambiguous and half-...