Behind the Couch

2001 Dir. Stuart Gordon Despite its title, Gordon’s film is not an adaptation of Lovecraft’s short story of the same name. While it certainly borrows elements and themes from it, Dagon is an adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth , Lovecraft’s 1936 novella which tells of a Miskatonic University student’s fateful visit to the titular dilapidated coastal town to study the architecture and weird folklore. While there, he encounters hostility from the bizarre locals who are revealed to be amphibious mutants; the result of an ancient pact between the towns forefathers and a race of sea dwelling creatures known as the Deep Ones… Gordon had planned to direct an adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth back in the 80s, but funding constantly evaded him. When his friend and collaborator Brian Yuzna founded the Spanish production company Fantastic Factory in the early 2000s, Gordon was finally able to realise his project. Dagon is a no nonsense, old-fashioned horror flick that hits the...

1970 Dir. Jess Franco 17th Century England is in the grip of Satanic Panic, and amongst those seeking to rid the land of traitors to the throne and anyone 'in league with the devil’, is Judge George Jeffreys, whose unreasonable sentences and excessively violent tortures are dished out with puritanical abandon. He soon becomes obsessed with Mary, a young women whose sister he accused of witchcraft and whose lover is a rebel against King James II. When the rebels are defeated, Mary tries to save her beau by surrendering herself to the Judge’s cruel lust. Betrayal, bloody torture and murder ensue. Believe it or not, The Bloody Judge marks the first time I’ve reviewed a Jess Franco film for this blog. Despite his insanely prolific career - spanning decades and genres alike - this humble scribbler has seen but a mere scrap of Franco’s films, which, not including my recent indulgence in The Bloody Judge , includes his kitsch classic Vampyros Lesbos and his more recent not so...

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...

2010 Dir. Fernando Barredo Luna The Quintanilla family head back to their old rural farmhouse near Sitges, Spain, for a quiet break during the Easter holidays. Teenage siblings Christian and July set about investigating a local urban legend relating to a series of hauntings and ghostly goings-on in a wooded labyrinth in a gated property beside their house. The pair decides to document their day-to-day investigations on video with the intention of posting the footage online at a later date. Five days later however, the bodies of the Quintanilla family are found in the house, everyone having died in extremely bloody and mysterious circumstances. Atrocious is the kids’ film footage presented to us as police evidence revealing the shocking events which took place during those last few tragic days. Despite the connotations its title might suggest - Atrocious is actually far from atrocious. Unfurling as the latest in a recent wave of 'found footage' films in a similar vei...

2011 Dir. Guillem Morales Julia (Belén Rueda) and her twin sister suffer from a degenerative disease that will eventually leave them blind. When her sister's body is found hanged in the family basement, everyone but Julia assumes that she died by suicide. As she begins her tender-footed investigation to determine the true cause of her sister's death, Julia is sure that she is being watched, but she cannot see her observer. Is it a distorted result of her failing eyesight or is she only imagining things? Or could it be that the man she believes is watching her every move is invisible? Increasingly isolated after an operation – a last ditch attempt to save her sight - Julia’s nerves are fraught and her psyche seems to be completely unravelling. Is it merely her imagination getting the better of her, or is her sister’s mysterious killer now toying with her too? Julia’s Eyes is a dark and engrossing thriller that initially looks set to unravel as a vaguely supernatural spo...

2000 Dir. Brian Yuzna When John Jaspers’ girlfriend is brutally murdered by a gang of thugs he loses the will to live and plans to kill himself by jumping off a bridge. Just before he jumps he is approached by the sinister "M" who offers a dubious proposition: he will enable Jaspers to wreck brutal revenge in return for the man’s soul. Jaspers accepts and is transformed into Faust, a demon-like superhero who embarks on a bloody trail of vigilante vengeance… However when “M” returns to claim Jaspers’ soul, all hell breaks loose when Faust refuses to stick to the bargain. “I am the pornography that makes you hot!” Based on the cult graphic novel by David Quinn and Tim Vigil, Faust was the first film produced by Brian Yuzna’s Spanish production company, Fantastic Factory. Something of an oddity, the film is, if anything, an interesting attempt to approach the super-hero movie from a slightly different angle. The notion of an avenging demon is a tantalising one akin ...

2001 Dir. Jack Sholder A man with mysterious bite marks on him is taken to a hospital in Guam. This sparks a search for what could have caused such wounds. A small group of doctors and scientists are flown to the island where he lived to investigate. Needing to make an emergency landing due to technical difficulties, the group become stranded and a brief exploration reveals the island is strangely deserted. Before long the group realise, to their horror, what caused the bites… Strange new breeds of killer arachnids! From outer space! Or something.  On the surface, Arachnid has everything a great B-movie should have (checklist includes CGI aliens, giant spiders from outer space, cheesy dialogue, and loads of macho posturing with big guns), and one could be forgiven for expecting a tongue-in-cheek irreverent romp. What becomes apparent though is that  Arachnid   takes itself quite seriously. Which, of course, is fine, except director Sholder never manages to muster ...

2004 Dir. Paco Plaza Spain, 1851. The inhabitants of a small village are terrorised by a savage serial killer. Ravaged corpses bear both animalistic mutilation and precise surgical incisions. As the village is plunged into panic-ridden chaos, travelling salesman Manuel Romasanta eventually confesses to the crimes, but claims that he is not responsible for his actions because he is a werewolf… Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt is a sensual, unusual, boldly original and, at times, rather uneven take on the werewolf film. It is based on the true story of Spain’s first documented serial killer, Manuel Blanco Romasanta, who confessed to thirteen murders in the mid-nineteenth century. Writers Elena Serra and Alberto Marini (who specialise in lo-fi, brooding horror such as Darkness, The Machinist and The Fragile ) have written a screenplay that concentrates more on presenting the story as a historical drama allegedly based on facts, than a typical monster movie, while director Plaza adop...

Paul Naschy (born Jacinto Molina Alvarez) is a cult icon and one of the most significant figures in the history of Spanish Horror cinema. He is best known for his twelve “Hombre Lobo” movies, featuring the tragic werewolf character, Waldemar Daninsky (played by Naschy himself). The Werewolf and The Yeti AKA Night of the Howling Beast AKA Curse of the Beast AKA Hall of the Mountain King (!), is the eighth in the series, and was directed by Miguel Iglesias, under the alias M.I. Bonns. Made at a time when Spanish horror films were starting to fade out of popularity after their ‘Golden Age’ in the early Seventies, The Werewolf And The Yeti would be the last Daninsky picture for several years, until Naschy returned in 1980 with El Retorno del Hombre Lobo/Return of the Wolf Man ; one of his own personal favourites. The Werewolf And The Yeti’s pre-cert VHS release was banned in the UK by the BBFC under the Video Recordings Act of 1984, and was featured on the “Video Nasties” list. In...

Sexy Killer is the story of Barbara (Macarena Gómez), a promising student at an exclusive Spanish university, who also just happens to be a psychotic serial killer. Events become increasingly complicated when her victims are resurrected by a couple of medical students hoping to solve the case of the 'campus killer.' However, said victims, whilst only too happy to help a zombie detective with his enquiries, suffer the unfortunate side-effect of an insatiable craving for human flesh... They don't let this stop them though and are soon making their way to the campus Halloween party to seek revenge... Kinky, kitsch and ludicrously over-the-top, Sexy Killer  resembles what might happen if Pedro Almodóvar ever directed a slasher movie. It perfectly balances humour with gross-out effects and lovingly references a plethora of old favourites such as Friday the 13th, Scream, Re-Animator and the work of George Romero. Irresistible fun. Head over to  Eye for Film  to read my ful...

1975 Dir. Amando de Ossorio AKA Don't Go Out at Night Night of the Blood Cult Night of the Death Cult Terror Beach The Blind Dead 4 Doctor Henry Stein and his wife Joan move to a small seaside village in the middle of nowhere in order to set up a medical practice. Shunned by the inhospitable locals, and warned to leave as soon as they can by the nervous former doctor, they soon discover that the village harbours a dark and blood-splattered secret. For seven consecutive nights every seven years, the townsfolk congregate on the beach to sacrifice one of their young women in order to appease the savage appetites of the Templar knights who rise from their tombs in a nearby castle to claim the unfortunate victims… Following on from Tombs of the Blind Dead , Return of the Evil Dead and The Ghost Galleon , Night of the Seagulls is Ossorio’s forth and final instalment in his Blind Dead series. Once again the diabolical living-dead Templar Knights return from their graves to...

1974 Dir. Amando de Ossorio AKA Ghost Ship of the Blind Dead Horror of the Zombies Ship of Zombies The Blind Dead 3 The Blind Dead return to hunt tender flesh on the high sea! Two models are out at sea in a new speedboat as part of a publicity stunt. Don’t ask, just go with it. Their boat is surrounded by a thick fog and a seemingly abandoned ship drifts out of nowhere. Radioing for help the models soon decide to explore the vessel and, naturally enough, mysteriously disappear! Their belatedly concerned colleagues set out to find them; but not before consulting with a professor who believes that the ghostly ship contains the living-dead bodies of the Templar Knights! When our intrepid and fashionably dressed rescuers board the ominous ship, they too soon fall prey to the reanimated and blood-thirsty corpses of the Templars… Welcome aboard!  Following on from the Tombs of the Blind Dead and Return of the Evil Dead , Amando de Ossorio quickly filmed a third instalment ...

1973 Dir. Amando de Ossorio AKA Return of the Blind Dead Attack of the Blind Dead Mark of the Devil 5: - Return of the Blind Dead Mark of the Devil Part V: Night of the Blind - Terror Mark of the Devil V Jack Marlowe’s return to his home village of Berzano to patch things up with his ex, coincides with the village’s 500th anniversary celebrations of the slaying of the Templar knights who plagued Berzano’s inhabitants centuries ago. The village idiot, disgruntled because of the way he has been outcast, performs a human sacrifice to reanimate the bodies of the Templars and extract retribution. Sure enough, they rise from the dead and ride on living-dead horses into the village to slaughter anyone they can find. A small band of survivors seek refuge in the town church and try to stay alive until morning whilst the gruesome Templars stand guard outside… Amando de Ossorio really made an impact with his series of highly atmospheric  Blind Dead films, the second of which, fo...