Behind the Couch

After suffering a stroke, former dancer Judith Albright (Barbara Hershey) moves into a nursing home, only to discover a supernatural entity is preying on the residents. Written and directed by Axelle Carolyn, The Manor is not only a creepy and compelling work, but is also a sensitive examination of themes concerning old age, independence, and vulnerability. Carolyn’s screenplay demonstrates, in an unforced way, how unsettling and frustrating it can be for older people to move into a care home, experience a loss of independence, and be (however well-intentioned) treated like children by those who care for them. The story is familiar: upon arriving in a new home, a character suspects that not all is as it seems. She gradually becomes aware that something sinister and possibly supernatural is invading the space, yet no one believes her, citing her recent traumas and overactive imagination. During her first night, Judith glimpses a dark figure lurking over the bed of her roommate. Before ...

Written and directed by Jennifer Kent, and based upon her earlier short film Monster (2005), The Babadook is a creepy, powerful meditation on grief and the effects of trauma. It tells of Amelia (Essie Davis), a woman struggling to come to terms with the tragic death of her husband, and whose young son begins to behave erratically, claiming a monster is hiding in their house. Kent utilises a striking expressionistic style throughout to convey the inner turmoil and fear of the characters, and explore themes concerning loss, grief, and motherhood. Her direction is careful, unhurried, and her pacing deliberate, all of which allows the audience to be slowly, surely submerged in the gradually increasing horror. Tensions are already high when Samuel (Noah Wiseman) asks Amelia to read him a mysterious pop-up storybook she has never seen before. The book tells of a weird creature called Mister Babadook, who torments anyone who discovers his existence. The children’s book, and the dark power i...

Set in 1973, writer-director Corinna Faith’s feature debut tells of student nurse Val (Rose Williams) who is forced to work the night shift in an old Victorian hospital in London’s east end. Her first night coincides with scheduled power cuts across Britain as the result of miners’ strikes. With most of the patients and staff transferred to another hospital for the night, only a skeleton crew remains to look after two wards powered by a generator. It soon becomes apparent to Val, who harbours a deep fear of the dark stemming from abuse she suffered as a child, that they are not alone. Someone, or some thing , makes its terrifying presence felt as it stalks the young nurse through the darkened hallways of the hospital...  With its brilliantly simple yet chilling premise, The Power is an atmospheric slow-burn of a ghost story. Like all good ghost stories, this too is steeped in tragedy. Faith establishes a brooding, creepy atmosphere, initially keeping everything rather suggestive. ...

Under the Shadow is the slow-burning and intensely creepy feature directorial debut of Iranian filmmaker Babak Anvari. It is ripe with socio-political commentary. And utterly terrifying. Utilising a culturally specific entity from Iranian mythology, Anvari confronts uncomfortable truths of certain cultural realities, particularly those experienced by women. By setting the story in Tehran during the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), when the city was repeatedly targeted by airstrikes in which thousands of civilians lost their lives, Anvari also addresses the traumatic realities faced by ordinary people living in a war-torn society. When her doctor husband is suddenly transferred to treat the injured at the frontlines, Shideh (Narges Rashidi) and her young daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi) remain at home. As missile attacks on the city occur almost daily, mother and daughter spend long periods of time in the bomb shelter beneath their building. Their relationship soon becomes strained as th...

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...

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 ...

2013 Dir. Hideo Nakata The Complex sees Hideo Nakata ( Ring, Ring 2, Dark Water ) return to familiar territory with an intriguingly structured ghost story which tells of a young woman who discovers her apartment building is haunted by former residents. Unfurling in a slow-burning fashion typical of Nakata’s work, it promises much – an engrossing story, a creepy atmosphere, nightmarish imagery, a plot full of twists and turns and carefully maintained tension – but sadly it never veers too far from a well-trodden path that’s all too familiar to fans of Japanese horror cinema. Head over to Exquisite Terror to read my full review .

2013 Dir. Mark Gatiss When a young librarian is tasked with locating an obscure Hebrew tome for a sinister gentleman, he has a terrifying experience in the stacks. Soon afterwards he becomes embroiled in a search for the last will and testament of the spiritually corrupt uncle of rival siblings… Since the early Seventies the BBC has had a tradition of broadcasting ghost stories during the festive period, predominantly adapted from the work of medieval scholar and former Provost of Kings College, Cambridge, MR James. James wrote many of his, now classic, ghost stories to be read aloud to his friends and colleagues on Christmas Eve. The BBC series drew to an end in the late Seventies but was revived again in the Noughties with adaptations of James's  Number 13, A View from a Hill and a reinterpretation of Whistle and I’ll Come to You . This year’s instalment, another James adaptation, marks the directorial debut of writer/actor Mark Gatiss, best known for his work with The Lea...

Dir. Andy de Emmony After placing his wife Alice (Gemma Jones) in a care home, retired astronomer James Parkin (John Hurt) heads for the coast to revisit their ‘old haunts’, including the now out-of-season hotel they honeymooned in. By day he is stalked along the windswept beaches by a spectral figure dressed in white, and by night he is terrorised by strange sounds and someone, or something, attempting to enter his room… In the 2000s BBC4 attempted to reignite the old Ghost Story at Christmas tradition by adapting MR James’s A View from a Hill (2005) and Number 13 (2006). This series was short lived though, as their next outing wasn’t until 2010, and another reinterpretation of James’s classic chiller Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad . De Emmony’s direction captures the atmosphere and tone of James very well, and this film differs significantly from Jonathan Miller’s supremely unsettling 1968 take  due to a disarmingly emotional core. Neil Cross’s screenplay incorp...

1974 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 Treasure of Abbot Thomas tells of a scholarly Reverend and his young protégé’s search for hidden treasure said to have been buried within a monastery by a disgraced abbot. Much to their detriment the duo ignore ominous warnings of an otherworldly guardian protecting the treasure… The Treasure of Abbot Thomas is a rather typical James story in that it unfurls as a cautionary tale involving the unearthing of a mysterious - reputedly fabled - buried object, only for the excavator to fall foul of the supernatural entity protecting said object. In adapting James’s short story for television, screenwriter John Bowen ( Robin Redbreast, The Ice House ) introduces the character of young scholar Peter Dattering (Paul Lavers), who accompanies Reverend Somerton (Michael Bryant, The Stone Tape ) during ...

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...

1973 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, Lost Hearts was adapted from the short story of the same name by MR James. It tells of a young orphan boy sent to live with his much older cousin at a remote house in the countryside. The boy begins to catch glimpses of two ghostly children with holes in their chests where their hearts should be and suspects his cousin may be involved in something deeply sinister indeed… This was the first of Clark’s adaptations for the Yuletide series he didn't write himself (it was written by Robin Chapman). While it isn’t as downright terrifying as some of the other titles in the series (namely Whistle and I’ll Come to You, A Warning to the Curious and The Stalls of Barchester ), it is just as atmospheric and the subject matter is perhaps the darkest written by James; child sacrifice. With its imperilled...

1972 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, A Warning to the Curious was adapted from the short story of the same name by MR James. It tells of a down on his luck amateur archaeologist who goes treasure hunting along the Norfolk coast in search of the fabled lost crown of Anglia, which supposedly helps protect Britain against invasion. He is soon hounded for his trouble by the crown’s spectral guardian… Lawrence Gordon Clark was responsible for many of the James adaptations in this series. Clark’s approach to revealing the horror is in keeping with James’ own quiet approach and it is unveiled slowly, suggestively, so as to heighten the impact and maintain the foreboding atmosphere of dread. The construction of the opening scene, in which an archaeologist is murdered while digging in search of the crown, is masterfully taut and creepy. T...

Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there He wasn't there again today I wish, I wish he'd go away... When I came home last night at three The man was waiting there for me But when I looked around the hall I couldn't see him there at all! Go away, go away, don't you come back any more! Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door... (slam!) Last night I saw upon the stair A little man who wasn't there He wasn't there again today Oh, how I wish he'd go away... Hughes Mearns (1899)

1973 Dir. Nicolas Roeg Based on the short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, Don’t Look Now is from a collection of stories revolving around the intrusion of the supernatural/paranormal upon the lives of everyday, normal people. Released on a double bill with The Wicker Man – whose protagonist’s death is, in hindsight, also very much pre-conceived and signposted throughout the film's narrative - Don’t Look Now ripples forth as a devastating and often terrifying study of grief. When their young daughter drowns in a pond in the family garden, John and Laura (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie), attempt to come to terms with their loss and reconcile their relationship by travelling to Venice. John throws himself into his work and denies the possibility that their daughter could be trying to communicate with them from the afterlife. After befriending a spooky psychic and her sister, Laura opens herself up to the possibility that their daughter is trying to reach o...

Paranormal Entity tells of a family who are increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be demonic, but is certainly most active in the middle of the night. They decide to videotape the ‘activity’ on a series of strategically placed cameras throughout the house. And on handheld cameras when events need to be conveyed with a sense of immediacy or urgency. It is impossible not to make reference to Paranormal Activity while talking about Paranormal Entity . It's essentially the same story but told in a very different way. Whereas Activity drew its audience in with slow-burning chills and intrigue, Entity switches tension for tedium, and slow-burning terror for jump shocks, and becomes repetitious and predictable too early on. In the grand tradition of Transmorphers, I Am Ωmega and The Day The Earth Stopped, Paranormal Entity is the latest mock-buster from The Asylum, a production company famed for producing cheap and cheerful titles that basically capitalise ...