Behind the Couch

Happy 20th Birthday, Scream ! I can't believe you've grown up so fast. I know it’s now 2017 and you turned 20 last year, but you weren’t released in the UK until 1997 so technically it was twenty years ago this year that I saw you. Technicalities aside, I couldn’t let the occasion go by without writing a little something about you on here. I remember my dad taking me to see you at the cinema because you were rated 18 and I was only 16. I wanted so badly to see you though. I was shocked and intrigued by your teaser campaign on TV, and you starred some people who were in things I loved as a 16-year-old ( Friends ! Party of Five ! Boys on the Side !). You were my first experience of watching a horror film in a cinema with a real live cinema audience (they were quite annoying) and I can still remember the excitement and anticipation. I was equal parts irked and enthralled when the audience reacted to you in such a vocal way. They screamed a lot . I thought you were the greates...

2010 Dir. Kaare Andrews When five friends set off to see Coldplay in concert, rookie pilot Sara offers to fly them there in a rented plane. Shortly into the flight however a mechanical failure results in the plane heading into a steady, unstoppable climb, as a massive storm closes in. As fuel begins to run out and the plane climbs ever higher, emotional tensions within the confines of the small aircraft begin to rise. But the problems onboard prove to be the least of the friends’ worries. Outside, hidden in the depths of the storm clouds, a mysterious and monstrous force is lurking. Its sole purpose is to destroy the plane and its passengers… Altitude comes hot on the heels of various other ‘confinement thrillers’ - such as Wind Chill , Frozen and Buried – in which characters are menaced in a confined location and come under threat from each other as much as the ‘thing outside.’ Kudos to the filmmakers, they’ve actually attempted to create something genuinely different and...

2006 Dir. Roar Uthaug AKA Fritt Vilt A group of friends on a snowboarding excursion in deepest, darkest Jotunheimen are forced to seek refuge in a seemingly abandoned hotel in when one of them breaks their leg. While exploring the building they discover that the hotel was shut down in the Seventies after a series of mysterious disappearances, including that of the owner’s young son. It soon becomes apparent to the group that they are not alone in the hotel; a mysterious psychopath begins to pick them off, one, by one, by one… While the premise of this expertly crafted and smartly scripted Norwegian slasher flick seems to creak under the weight of its own cliché-ridden conventions, the execution of Cold Prey/Fritt Vilt , is what is most surprising and unconventional and sets this film well apart from its myriad contemporaries. We open in typical slasher style, with the apparent death of a young boy at the hands of an unseen assailant in the midst of a blizzard. Skip forward tw...

2008 Dir. Matthias Hoene With the help of his ragtag group of friends, young squaddie Ed must find and win back his girlfriend Jen from the clutches of a mysterious group of hardcore ravers before he flies to Iraq. When he eventually catches up with her at an all-night rave party in the English countryside, Ed discovers that the weird ravers who are hosting the event, are looking for more than a night of fun, and not everyone will make it through to see the light of dawn… Essentially taking a concept that was touched on very briefly at the beginning of the first Blade movie (a vampire organised rave that turned into a bloodbath as the toothy ones begin to feed on the blood of the revellers), Beyond the Rave was originally an online serial aimed at the MySpace generation. Those expecting to see something more ‘traditional’ from Hammer might be disappointed – though the studio must be applauded for its innovation and efforts to engage with younger, savvy 21st century audiences....

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...

Aaron over at The Death Rattle has just completed a mammoth trip through the darkest recesses of slasher movie history this month, notching up an impressive collection of reviews and articles on everyone's favourite slasher flicks. As well as all the usual suspects (Freddy, Jason, Michael), Aaron also explores lesser seen, obscure classics - as well as the Italian precursor to the slasher - the giallo - and offers up recommendations for horror fans who long for a little slasher nostalgia. Aaron invited a few fellow horror bloggers (including myself) to contribute and wax lyrical about their favourite stalk'n'slash films. So head over yonder , and prepare to lose your heart and strip nude for your killer, as The Death Rattle takes you on a doom-laden, blood-spattered trek through slasher movie history... ' Hello? Hello, who's there? Aaron is that you? This isn't funny anymore! Stop screwin' around you guys ...'

2007 Dir. Donn Kennedy In 1877, a fierce, mysterious creature was discovered in the northern woods of Oneida County, Wisconsin. Dubbed ‘The Black Hodag’ by the locals, this legendary monster, rumoured to have a taste for human flesh, was spoken of only in hushed tones by those who even dared to speak its name. Jump to the present day, and a group of college friends are reunited at a funeral. Keen to catch up and reflect on old times, they embark on a road trip into rural Wisconsin to rent a cabin in the heart of the Black Forest where they intend to spend the weekend partying. Their first night in the area sees them spending the evening at a nearby bar, listening to the locals' dark tales of the creature said to stalk the woods. The friends’ cynicism and disbelief soon turns to terror as mutilated bodies begin popping up and it finally dawns on them that they have just become the latest items on the Black Hodag’s menu... Winner of the Best Horror Feature award at the New Yo...