Behind the Couch

Aging actress Veronica Ghent travels with her nurse Desi to a remote wellness retreat in the Scottish Highlands to recover from a double mastectomy. The retreat stands upon the ground where thousands of women were persecuted as witches. As Veronica reflects upon her life – as a child star she was groomed and abused by a famous film director – she becomes aware of and begins to commune with powerful forces within the earth which enable her to exact revenge... She Will is the striking feature debut from artist and filmmaker Charlotte Colbert, who co-wrote the screenplay with Kitty Percy, and it unfurls as a bewitching amalgamation of atmospheric folk horror and MeToo-era feminist revenge fantasy. With her roots in the visual arts, Colbert effortlessly conjures an eerie atmosphere enhanced by a rich, stylised aesthetic and piercing imagery, backed by a pulsing Clint Mansell score. The film evokes an unnerving timeline of societal misogyny, paralleling past and present, from the emerging s...

Directed by Marina Sargenti, Mirror Mirror tells of Megan (Rainbow Harvest), a high-school student who discovers the antique mirror left behind by the previous occupants of her new home harbours demonic powers and the ability to grant her wishes… with deadly consequences. With its gothy, at times very campy sensibility, the film has rightly garnered a cult following over the years. At its heart, however, is the timeless notion of an outsider trying to find her place in the world, and with its themes concerning the corrupting influence of power and the consequences of selfishness, it unravels as a dark and spooky contemporary fairy tale.  Megan (Rainbow Harvest), who bears a striking resemblance to Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) from Beetlejuice (1988), is a gothy outsider who despairs at her relocation from LA to small town suburbia. She can’t relate to her mother (Karen Black) and is mercilessly taunted by her classmates because of her looks and quiet demeanour. Harvest perfectly con...

A dark revenge fantasy with echoes of Stephen King’s Carrie and Firestarter , Dark Touch tells of a young girl with terrifying powers that are conjured through pain and rage. When her parents die violently and in mysterious circumstances, Niamh (Missy Keating, who provides a truly compelling performance) is taken in by her neighbours whose own young daughter has recently died. Niamh insists her parents were killed when the house came alive, but authorities dismiss her claims and attribute the deaths to a violent home invasion. Before long though, her neighbours begin to sense that something unusual is now happening in their home, too.  The work of writer and director Marina de Van frequently explores themes such as the vulnerability of the flesh, body dysmorphia and psychological turmoil, and with Dark Touch , she explores the devastating effect of child abuse through the tropes of the evil/demon child sub-genre. Such films (including titles like The Bad Seed, Orphan, Village of ...

2015 Dir. Levan Bakhia Landmine Goes Click is one of those films best viewed without knowing anything about it.* Echoing the likes of Phone Booth (2002) and Buried (2010), and indeed Levan Bakhia’s own debut feature, 247°F (2011), it holds much promise with its high-concept premise. Boasting a constantly twisting plot which intrigues as much as it infuriates, the film explores how the lives of three American friends are altered forever when, travelling through Eastern Europe, one of them steps on a landmine... Unable to move for fear of detonating it, he and his friends are the captive audience of unveiled secrets, shifting dynamics and the darker side of human nature. Head over to Exquisite Terror to read my full review .  *My review is spoiler free and I've tried to be as sensitive as possible regarding plot details. Well, beyond the obvious, anyway. 

2015 Dir. Adam Egypt Mortimer Part ghost story, part slasher film, Some Kind of Hate is an interesting if at times slightly formulaic tale of revenge. However, with its bleak karmic mantra and themes concerning the unique pain of adolescence, the devastating impact of bullying, self-harm and revenge, it’s a frequently intense viewing experience. Mercilessly tormented by bullies, troubled high-school loner Lincoln (Ronen Rubinstein) eventually snaps and violently retaliates. He’s packed off to a desert commune for young misfits, only to again suffer at the hands of bullies. His rage summons an undead avenger, herself the victim of bullying, who begins to wreak bloody havoc on his behalf... Head over to Exquisite Terror to read my full review .

2012 Dir. Paul Hyett During the Balkan War, Angel (Rosie Day), a young deaf girl, watches in horror as her family are murdered by the militia. She is then abducted and put to work in an isolated house specialising in supplying kidnapped women to military personnel for sex. Unbeknownst to her captors, Angel is able to move around the house between the walls and under the floors, watching, learning, and planning her escape. When she witnesses the brutal rape and murder of her friend, Angel can no longer retain her rage and sets out to escape. But not before seeking bloody justice… The Seasoning House is a gruelling and powerful against-all-the-odds tale of survival and revenge. While the subject matter is highly grim, writer/director Hyett’s measured approach works to handle it with surprising delicacy, and resists the urge to stray too far into outlandish exploitation. While events are at times certainly exaggerated, the true horror emerges, fully formed, from the brutal, unspe...

2013 Dir. Colin Clarke When a man ventures into the foreboding forest that surrounds his village to seek the help of a witch, their forbidden ritual is interrupted by witch hunter William Thatcher Blake. After sentencing the unfortunate pair to death for fraternising with the Dark Lord, Blake is cursed by the witch, and when he returns home, soon realises the full extent of her dark powers… Colin Clarke’s short film unveils itself as an atmospheric love letter to vintage Gothic horror. Witches, ancient rites, dark woods and violent revenge are swirled together in a cinematic cauldron that expertly conjures the spectres of bygone horror. With a distinctly old fashioned feel, there are nods to the likes of vintage Hammer, Michael Reeve’s Witchfinder General and the gloomy dread and sadism of classic Italian Gothic horror. One moment in particular - the scene depicting the unfortunate witch’s demise - pays homage to Mario Bava's Black Sunday/Mask of Satan ; right down to th...

1988 Dir. William Lustig Innocent New Yorkers are being brutally murdered by a uniformed police officer. As the death toll mounts, officer Jack Forrest finds himself accused of the slaughter. With few friends, powerful enemies and a psychopathic slayer still at large, Jack teams up with hardboiled Detective Frank McCrae and fellow officer Theresa Mallory, to prove he’s not guilty and bring down the killer. You have the right to remain silent… Forever! Boasting a cult-tastic cast of 80’s exploitation veterans including Tom Atkins, Richard Roundtree, Bruce Campbell and Laurene Landon, Maniac Cop has so much going for it. The script, by Larry Cohen, coupled with William Lustig’s bruising direction, ensures the film unravels as an entertaining and riveting suspenser. Cohen has made a career out of subverting normal, everyday things into objects of terror: babies ( It’s Alive ), ice-cream ( The Stuff ), paramedics ( The Ambulance ), and public phone boxes ( Phone Booth ). Maniac ...

1980 Dir. James Glickenhaus After returning home to the US from fighting in Vietnam, a traumatised soldier attempting to rebuild his life turns vigilante when his best friend is paralysed by a group of thugs. While it may unfold as a brazenly violent, exploitative and at times trashy revenge fantasy, Glickenhaus’s The Exterminator is also at times a strangely thoughtful commentary on the difficulties of ex-military reintegration, post-war trauma and government corruption. The socio-political subtext about the plight of Vietnam vets and how their own society and justice system failed them on their return home, isn’t just a front for the exploitative violence – the film does make some genuinely stark points – some of which, particularly those about the ordinary working man’s dissatisfaction with greedy, corrupt governments who make us pay for their mistakes – have never been more prevalent. John Eastland (Robert Ginty) fought because he felt he would be protecting the ideals of ...

2008 Dir. Giovanni Rodriquez Several years after experiencing a traumatic incident, siblings Regina and Devon, accompanied by a few of their friends, return to their hometown to sell off their late mother’s house. Ever since the incident, Regina has experienced flashbacks and is deeply traumatised. In order to face her fears, she returns to the nearby cave where the horror first began. Little does she know, what she discovers there will only worsen her deep-rooted terror, as a brutal assailant begins to shoot, slice, chop and stab his way through her friends… At the heart of Red Canyon is an interesting premise. The idea of returning to a place from childhood that was the source of great trauma is one brimming with dark promise. Intrigue is established early on, particularly through Regina’s flashbacks scattered throughout the narrative, and while Rodriquez’s direction exhibits a number of deft moments, the befuddled screenplay tends to detract from what should be a compelling...

1975 Dir. Aldo Lado AKA L'ultimo treno della notte, The New House on The Left, Second House on The Left, Don't Ride on Late Night Trains, Last Stop on the Night Train, Late Night Trains, Last House Part II and Xmas Massacre Two young women take a night train from Germany to Italy on Christmas Eve, and cross paths with three sadistic criminals. What follows is a gruelling night of degradation, rape and murder. In a twist of fate the murderous trio eventually encounter the parents of one of the girls. When the parents realise what happened to their daughter, they exact bloody revenge… A loose reworking of Wes Craven’s harrowing  Last House on the Left , which itself was a remake of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring , Lado’s Late Night Trains is an intense and claustrophobic experience with slow-burning, sustained suspense. Not content to just create a bloody, censor-baiting revenge yarn, Lado contemplates themes of fate, social responsibility and class conflict int...

1998 Dir. Jamie Blanks After several deaths and disappearances of fellow students, Natalie (Alicia Witt) begins to suspect that a brutal psychopathic killer is offing the campus populace in grisly ways inspired by old urban legends. Trouble is, no one believes her. Teaming up with best friend Brenda (Rebecca Gayheart) and roving student reporter Paul (Jared Leto), she sets out to reveal who the killer is and stop them before its too late… but wait! Who’s that over there? Hello? Hello?? *wonders off alone to investigate a strange noise* An urban legend is a form of modern folklore, usually passed on by word of mouth and concerning an event believed by the teller to be true. They are stories that act as cautionary morality tales that vary over time, and usually carry some significance for the particular communities that propagate them. The premise of Urban Legend - that various students are being murdered in a manner that echoes various notorious urban legends/folktales - is on...

2008 Dir. Michael A. Nickles Five years after being convicted for the abuse of a minor, Leonard Karlsson (Jeremy Fitzgerald) is released from prison bearing a hideously disfigured face; the result of sadistic beatings administered by fellow prisoners. Hell-bent on extracting brutal vengeance on the twelve jury members responsible for his incarceration, he returns to the remote Arizona desert town in which his trial was held. One by one, he abducts and sadistically slaughters the jurors… Opening with a rapidly edited montage under the credits detailing Karlsson’s alleged crimes, subsequent imprisonment and torture at the hands of his fellow prisoners, XII begins proper with a shockingly brutal murder that seems to come out of nowhere, involving a newly wed couple, a shotgun and a lone desert highway. From here we’re introduced to FBI Agent Naughton, who is hot on the trail of a bizarre serial killer making his way across the country, abducting people and skinning their faces. W...

Provocative, grim, shocking and extremely anti-establishment in their outlook, British director Pete Walker’s “terror” films were always controversial—perhaps due to their frequent representation of an unsavory, seedy underbelly of a British society governed by hypocrisy.  With his previous movies, notably House of Whipcord, Frightmare and House of Mortal Sin (a.k.a. The Confessional ), Walker had actively worked to subvert British institutions (such as class, family and the legal system) and outrage as many people as he possibly could by presenting cannibalistic pensioners, murderous priests and private prisons controlled by sadistic wardens. 1978’s The Comeback (a.k.a. The Day The Screaming Stopped ), however, unfolds as a somewhat more conventional offering, and was seen as a deliberate move to reach a more mainstream audience. Head over to Fangoria (!) to check out my full article... The following article was published on Fangoria.com in September 2010. It...

2010 Dir. Daniel Grou aka Podz Middle-aged surgeon Bruno Hamel (Claude Legault), his wife Sylvie (Fanny Mallette) and their eight-year-old daughter Jasmine (Rose-Marie Coallier) live a happy, uneventful life in the suburbs of a quiet town. When Jasmine is brutally raped and murdered by a local man, Anthony Lemaire (Martin Dubreuil), Bruno hatches a meticulous plan to make him pay for his crimes. He will kidnap and torture Lemaire for seven days before executing him and then turning himself in… Directed by Daniel Grou ( Vampire High, Big Wolf On Campus, The Hunger ), aka Podz, and adapted for the screen by author Patrick Senécal ('5150 Elm’s Way,' 'Evil Words') from his best-selling novel, ‘Les sept jours du talion,’ 7 Days is an intense and disturbing French-Canadian thriller that has been described as ' Saw directed by Michael Haneke ( Funny Games ) or Lars von Trier ( Antichrist ).’ Coldly filmed in a stylish, yet detached manner, 7 Days is a harrowi...

2010 Dir. Joey Stewart Tired of being bullied by the high school jocks and their girlfriends, a group of awkward students plot bloody revenge for the years of humiliation they’ve been subjected to. Driven by their deadly vendetta and suicidal tendencies, they gather their tormentors in an isolated barn, under the guise of a highly exclusive party, and begin a long night of retribution… The Final , the debut feature from director Joey Stewart, is at times an uneven and ambiguously centred film that can’t quite decide if it’s a righteous-revenge fantasy or the latest ‘torture-porn’ flick. Since the Columbine High School massacre, a number of films - including  Elephant, Zero Day and The Class  - have attempted to tackle the subject of deadly high school shootings with varying degrees of depth. The Final is the latest to broach this volatile subject, and it attempts to set itself apart from its peers by filtering its already grim subject matter through a cruelly sadisti...