Behind the Couch

1959 Dir. Crane Wilbur Murder-mystery author Cornelia van Gorder rents a country mansion for the summer while its owner, bank manager Mr Fleming, is on an extended hunting trip. Unbeknownst to Cornelia and her faithful PA Lizzie, Fleming has been embezzling bank bonds worth one million dollars, and hidden them in the manor. The two women and their guests are menaced by a notorious killer dubbed 'The Bat' - who uses steel-clawed gloves to tear out the throats of his victims and will stop at nothing to get his hands on the loot! The Bat is based on the 1920 Broadway play of the same name by Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart. It was previously filmed by Roland West in 1926 as The Bat and as The Bat Whispers in 1930. Its stage origins are evident in the sets and locations, mainly limited to a couple of rooms in the sprawling mansion. The premise of a feisty mystery writer renting an old, dark house in the middle of the countryside, while the surrounding area is grip...

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...

2008 Dir. Fabrice Du Welz The lives of Jeanne and Paul Bellmer (Emmanuelle Béart and Rufus Sewell) are thrown into chaos when they think they see their son, thought drowned in the Southeast Asia tsunami in 2004, in a film they watch about orphans living in the jungles of Burma. They set off into an impenetrable heart of darkness in search of an elusive and perhaps unattainable truth, aided only by human traffickers who are intent on exploiting their heartache. Stranded in the middle of a strange and hostile country, the couple are besieged by a band of feral children and begin to lose sight of the hope they once so desperately clung to. ‘When someone dies a horrible death, their spirit becomes confused and angry. It becomes…Vinyan.’ Vinyan unfolds as a strange reflection of Don’t Look Now in its exploration of a couple’s grief, denial, hope and obsession as they try to come to terms with the death of their child. The story tracks Jeanne and Paul’s personal descent into the ma...