Behind the Couch

Northern Irish film director Aislínn Clarke’s feature debut tells of two priests sent to investigate an alleged miracle at a remote Magdalene laundry in the Irish countryside. As well as witnessing the shocking mistreatment of the young women incarcerated there, the two men uncover sinister happenings that suggest occult practices and diabolical rituals are afoot. Before long, they realise they are dealing with a genuine case of demonic possession. Magdalene Laundries were state endorsed workhouses, sanctioned and ran by the Catholic Church. They were cruel and secretive places where Ireland’s ‘fallen women’ were locked away and subjected to forced labour. Many also suffered sexual, psychological and physical abuse at the hands of their custodians. Prostitutes, unmarried pregnant women and mothers, orphans, women with mental health issues or physical disabilities, and women who had suffered abuse were all locked away, deemed to be society’s shameful, ‘dirty secrets’. With the dev...

2014 Dir. John Erick Dowdle Much like the zombie film, the sheer volume of found-footage horror titles, and their varying degrees of quality, has made audiences wary. The risk of experiencing tired retreads consisting of nauseating, shaky camerawork, amateurish acting and low-budget production values is reasonably high. Every so often though, one comes along that reminds you just how exciting and terrifying they can be, and how, when done well, it’s a format which offers filmmakers the opportunity to tell engaging stories in a way that makes them much more immediate and immersive. While As Above So Below is not without its flaws, it is ultimately a very entertaining and frequently nightmarish title pertaining to be the footage of a doomed excursion into the very bowels of hell itself. Part Indian Jones style adventure, part religious horror, it’s a fascinating concept that is for the most part brilliantly atmospheric and expertly executed by director John Erick Dowdle (no str...

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 ...

With its twisted tale of obsession, and the dark and violent places it can lead to, Missionary follows a typical woman-stalked-by-crazed-harasser narrative. While it refuses to stray too far from a well-trodden path, it doesn’t feel too conventional due to its slow-burn approach, careful characterisation and decent performances.  At times it echoes those early 90s cuckoo-in-the-nest psycho thrillers like Fatal Attraction, Unlawful Entry, Fear and myriad made-for-TV thrillers, in which an unhinged outsider worms his/her way into an all-American family, only to eventually show their true psychotic colours when their obsession reaches fever pitch. Head over to Exquisite Terror to read my full review . While you're there, check out our coverage of the other titles screening at this year's Fright Fest.

2012 Dir. Paco Plaza As the families and friends of Koldo and Clara gather to celebrate the happy couple’s wedding, the party soon descends into a nightmarish bloodbath as partygoers, seemingly infected by a strange virus, begin feeding on each other with ravenous bloodlust. [REC] Genesis exhibits a much more playful tone than its predecessors, and while it may be a prequel, it isn’t an origin story documenting the viral demon-possession scourge that rips through the prior instalments. It doesn’t really add much to the mythos of the series aside from presenting a similar situation to that in the first film. In fact, the events depicted in its narrative run in parallel with those of the other films. At one stage we catch a glimpse of reporter Angela from [REC] as she makes her original broadcast from the building where the first film was set. Also adding to its distinction, is its ditching of the use of the ‘found footage/camcorder-horror’ narrative so brilliantly utilised in...

2011 Dir. Kevin Smith When three teenage friends answer an online invitation for sex, they are kidnapped by an extreme right-wing Christian cult who plan on punishing them for their ‘deviancy.’ The prospect of Kevin Smith addressing extreme Christian hate groups through the conventions of horror cinema is, for this writer anyway, an irresistible one. Smith already addressed the dangers of organised religion in Dogma , which, while rather plodding and uneven, was still an interesting departure for the director, famed for his lo-fi slacker-driven stories. While Red State may be a different beast entirely, it also sadly slides into unevenness of tone as the plot eventually crumbles under weighty speeches and a limp, exposition-heavy finale. Differing from the usual religious horror, the threat in Red State comes not from Satan or the occult, but from a fundamentalist right-wing Christian cult who believe their faith entitles them to carry out brutal acts of violence in the name...

1976 Dir. Pete Walker AKA The Confessional Jenny (Susan Penhaligon), a troubled young woman, seeks help at her local church. Unfortunately for her, the sexually repressed priest Father Meldrum (Anthony Sharp) she confesses to, becomes obsessed with her. He begins to stalk her and will stop at nothing, including blackmail and murder, just to get close to her. ‘He's gone out again. You're all alone ... with me.’ If House of Whipcord was Walker’s attack on the British moral conservatism and the justice system, House of Mortal Sin is surely his scathing defilement of the Church, or perhaps just organised religion in general. Released in the States as The Confessional it plunges the viewer into even darker territory than before. Walker drew on his own fears and opinions as a lapsed Catholic to create a more considered and mature film than most viewers would have expected, particularly given its lurid title and subject matter. Typical of Walker though, the film was a de...

1981 Dir. Wes Craven Wes Craven burst onto the horror scene in the 1970s with his distinctive brand of thought-provoking, gritty, survivalist horror titles Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes (both of which have been remade, with the former's 'reimagination' due in cinemas any day now). Before the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984, Craven directed a number of films including the made-for-TV Linda Blair-starring witch-flick Summer of Fear,  and an adaptation of DC Comic’s Swamp Thing. In between these two films, Craven directed Deadly Blessing , a barmy yet haunting tale of fanaticism, obsession and fear. Among others, it starred Sharon Stone in one of her earliest roles. When her husband dies in a suspicious slow-motion tractor accident, Martha (Maren Jensen) is visited by her two friends from the city. They are unsettled that Martha lives right next to an austere religious community of Hittites ('They make the Amish look like swingers...

1999 Dir. Rupert Wainwright After her mother posts her some rosary beads that belonged to a recently deceased Priest, Frankie (Patricia Arquette) begins to exhibit explicit signs of the stigmata – wounds on her body that mirror those inflicted upon Christ when he was crucified. The stigmata are usually only suffered by the devoutly religious – but Frankie is an atheist. Father Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne) is dispatched by the Vatican to investigate, and disprove, this seemingly miraculous phenomenon. When he witnesses Frankie’s affliction for himself, and realises it has no logical explanation, he agrees to help her. They eventually discover a vast conspiracy within the Vatican to cover up religious texts written by Jesus.  The film opens with Kiernan going to South America to study a statue of the Virgin Mary that has cried tears of blood since the death of a renowned local priest. The priest discovered texts he believed were written by Jesus and even though they contradict the co...