Behind the Couch

Directed by Leigh Whannell, Wolf Man is a reboot of the 1940s classic The Wolf Man , starring Lon Chaney Jr. It tells of a family stranded at a remote forest cabin who are attacked by a werewolf. As it prowls around outside the cabin, they face another deadly threat from within, as the wounded father begins to transform into a slathering beast...  Throughout folklore, literature and cinema, the figure of the werewolf has been used to explore ideas of mankind's innate savagery; the unleashing of an inner beast, primitive, instinctual, stripped of logic and reason, unshackled from centuries of civilisation and societal conformity. Many of the conventions of the werewolf film were established by Hollywood films: the use of silver to destroy the werewolf, the influence of the full moon on transformation, and the contagious nature of lycanthropy. Aside from the latter, Whannell's film dispenses with these conventions and attempts to establish a sense of realism. While the screenpla...

Many horror films have acted as a lens examining the societal issues, fears and anxieties of the times in which they were produced. As Jon Towlson notes in his book, Subversive Horror Cinema (2014), “Horror cinema flourishes in times of ideological crisis and national trauma - filmmakers working in horror - have used the genre, and the shock value it affords, to challenge the status quo during these times.” Written and directed by Sophia Takal, and co-written by April Wolfe, this loose remake of the classic 1974 slasher of the same name is a socially conscious horror which uses the American college sorority and fraternity systems as a microcosm to examine wider society’s current and historical misogyny. While the basic plot deviates considerably from the original, the tackling of the social issues which form the heart of the story does actually hark back to the original. While Black Christmas  (1974) is credited with helping to establish pre- Halloween slasher movie conventions, ...

Fede Álvarez's remake of Evil Dead (1981) throws out the splat-stick humour of Sam Raimi’s original shocker and ups the ferocity to nearly unbearable levels to create a dark, surprisingly bleak and frequently horrifying film. The basic plot – a group of friends fall prey to demonic forces while staying at an isolated cabin the woods – remains largely the same, but Álvarez introduces a compelling element involving addiction and grief to really flesh things out. The screenplay – co-written by Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues – is an exercise in stripped back storytelling with minimalist plot. There is a welcome emphasis on the use of practical effects instead of CGI, which results in some truly startling make-up and gore, further enhanced by a raw physicality from the actors who all throw themselves into proceedings with grim aplomb. While the violence is certainly outlandish, it is grounded in a gritty realism quite far removed from Raimi’s original, which makes it all the more un...

Dir. Patrick Lussier A remake of the classic 1981 slasher of the same name, My Bloody Valentine actually improves upon the original with a decent script, likeable cast (including Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith and Tom Atkins) and buckets of atmospheric tension. While released well after the post- Scream slasher boom of the late nineties/early noughties, but in the midst of a (still on-going) classic horror remake phase, My Bloody Valentine attempted to set itself apart by filming in 3D - it arguably initiated the current trend of 3D films. While it boasts irresistible retro-slasher leanings, it doesn't do so in a smug, post-ironic manner; it takes itself seriously and at its core is a decent mystery regarding the killer’s identity. Various red herrings are successfully established and Todd Farmer’s screenplay is mindful enough to examine the effect of the ensuing paranoia and mistrust on the residents of the small town community, vulnerable and isolated as it is. A...

1997/2007 Dir. Michael Haneke A middle class family are taken hostage in their holiday home by two young men who force them to play sadistic games for their own amusement. Throughout Funny Games , director Michael Haneke strives to reawaken and stimulate audiences who have become accustomed to stylised cinematic violence and graphic imagery. The film not only assumes the form of a devastatingly cruel home-invasion narrative, but a scathing and darkly humorous critique on violence in modern cinema. Haneke explores, in typically cold and unrelenting fashion, contemporary audiences’ craving for violence and sadistic imagery, and the role we play when watching such films, forcing us think about how we interact with screen violence. It’s an isolating yet utterly involving film. Working as a reflexive commentary on audience expectations and violence in cinema, and an exercise in unrelenting suspense, it exhibits an acute self awareness as it keenly subverts conventional notions of ...

2012 Dir. Franck Khalfoun Just a steel town girl on a Saturday night  Looking for the fight of her life  In the real time world, no one sees her at all  They all say she's crazy  She's a maniac, maniac on the floor  And she's dancing like she's never danced before! Sorry! Wrong Maniac . The Maniac I’m actually referring to is Franck Khalfoun’s remake of William Lustig’s 1980 ‘video nasty’ of the same name. Despite its higher budget, slick production values and the presence of a star name in the titles, this update - co-written by Alex Aja ( Switchblade Romance/Haute Tension ) - is every bit as unsettling, extreme and confrontational as its predecessor. And it's all shot from the perspective of the killer. While aesthetically far removed from Lustig’s cult sleaze-fest, Khalfoun’s slickly lensed take on the tale of a young man who hunts, scalps and murders women on the cruel, grimy streets of downtown LA, is still an immensely vicious and unsett...

Dir. Samuel Bayer When a group of high school friends begin to die while they sleep, level-headed Nancy soon discovers that she and her friends are being stalked in their dreams by the vengeful, now demonic, child killer their vigilante parents murdered years ago. Can she stay awake long enough to put a stop to his bloody killing spree and save her own skin? One, two, Freddy's coming for you. Again. In 1984 Wes Craven unleashed his long cherished, low budget slasher movie A Nightmare on Elm Street upon unsuspecting audiences, and single-handedly created one of the most enduring and terrifying movie monsters of all time: Freddy Krueger. The definitive bogeyman for the MTV generation, Krueger reappeared in no less than seven sequels and a spin-off TV show as the series grew in popularity; each one upping his clownish antics and making him more ‘palatable’ for the multiplex crowd. Over the last few years an astounding number of horror films from the Seventies and Eighties ...

Dir. James Watkins A young lawyer travels to a remote village to conduct an inventory of a deceased client’s possessions. He gradually realises that the dead client is connected to a sinister spectral woman is terrorizing the local population, the sight of whom preludes the death of a child. The Woman in Black is an exercise in slow burning horror, and the narrative unfolds with a degree of odiousness and suggestion appropriate for such a traditional ghost tale. From the outset, grief is the overarching theme that binds the story together in this version of Susan Hill’s classic chiller. From the genuinely unsettling opening scene - depicting the suicide of three young girls as they leap from the window of their nursery, accompanied by the sound of their mother’s screaming – to the protagonist’s sustained anguish at the death of his wife; the notion of grief as an escapable snare hangs heavy over proceedings. The film unravels as a spooky and, for the most part, highly effective...

Dir. Rob Zombie After massacring his family on Halloween, disturbed 10 year old Michael Myers is committed to a mental institution. 17 years later, he violently escapes and heads back home to Haddonfield to find his baby sister Laurie, brutally murdering anyone who crosses his path. In November 2005, Halloween producer Moustapha Akkad and his daughter, Rima Akkad Monla, were killed at a wedding party when Al-Qaeda bombed the Grand Hyatt in Amman, Jordan. As the champion of the series since its inception, his tragic death was a blow for the future of the franchise. This, coupled with Dimension Film execs realising (maybe) the error of their ways with Halloween Resurrection , looked set to see the end of the Halloween films. However, following a trend of remaking old horror films from the Seventies and Eighties such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Christmas, Dawn of the Dead, The Hills Have Eyes, The Amityville Horror and When A Stranger Calls , producers recognised that H...

2010 Dir. Steven R. Monroe While staying at a secluded cabin to finish her novel, a young writer is brutally raped and left for dead by a group of local men. Some time later, she systematically hunts down the men to extract merciless and gruesome revenge.  The original I Spit on Your Grave  is a notorious rape-revenge film produced in the 1970s. Written and directed by Meir Zarchi, it generated controversy upon its release for its graphic violence and depiction of the brutal gang rape of the main character (novelist Jennifer Hills, portrayed by Camille Keaton) which lasts about half an hour. It was branded a Video Nasty and subsequently banned. Some critics over the years have suggested the film is ‘pro-feminist’, that Zarchi was exploring 'feminist wish-fulfilment', and that revenge narratives can subvert traditional power dynamics, ultimately empowering the victim. Others have said it can't possibly be a feminist work because rape-revenge films are inherently miso...

Dir. Marcus Nispel When his younger sister becomes the latest person to go missing during a camping trip to Crystal Lake, Clay Miller sets out to find her, with or without the help of the local police. Falling in with a crowd of teens staying in a holiday chalet on Crystal Lake, he is joined by sympathetic Jenna in his search of the local area, while her friends remain at the house to party. Before long it becomes apparent the area is stalked by a hulking psychopath who abducts and murders anyone who encroaches upon the grounds of an old summer camp… It would seem those old campfire tales of a hermetic psycho named Jason Voorhees may have had more of a grounding in reality than anyone ever dared dream of… Let the blood run free! When it was originally conceived, the remake of Friday the 13th was intended to be an origin story, detailing the genesis of mass murderer Jason Voorhees. Writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who had previously worked on Freddy vs. Jason for New Line...

Writer and director Tim Sullivan splattered onto the scene in 2005 with 2001 Maniacs , his satirical remake of Herschell Gordon Lewis’s drive-in splatter classic, Two Thousand Maniacs!  (1964). His follow up,  Driftwood (2006), was about a traumatised teenager sent to a summer camp for troubled young people after he claims his dead brother is haunting him. The filmmaker will soon be seen venturing in front of cameras to portray murderous cross-dressing nun, Sister Mary Chopper, in the forthcoming Bloody Bloody Bible Camp .  Tim very kindly took some time out from pre-production on his dream project, the vampire horror Brothers of the Blood , to chat to me about his latest film - the gruesome sequel 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams , which has just been unleashed on DVD - as well as his fondness for 'splatstick' comedy-horror, and the importance of gay representation in horror films...   What ingredients did Two Thousand Maniacs! possess that made it so ripe for a...