Behind the Couch

Head over to YouTube to check out the latest instalment of Ghosts with Goblin , a series dedicated to the exploration of ghost stories and real life encounters with the paranormal and supernatural (selected and read from www.yourghoststories.com ). Written, presented and produced by my good friend Marie Robinson, each episode relates to a particular theme, and relevant aspects of science, folklore, psychology and parapsychology are discussed. This week's episode focuses on spooky encounters with apparitions without faces, spectral women in black, and various crossroad phantoms. 

The Titanic Mummy On a recent visit to the newly opened Titanic Belfast®, I’m sure you can imagine my excitement when I discovered that one of the myths revolving around the sinking of the ill-fated vessel concerns a mummy that was secretly stowed away onboard. There was even a creepy mummy on display in the centre. Naturally I took pictures. The mummy has been a popular stock figure throughout the history of horror cinema and literature, and it has long been associated with a terrible curse that brings about the untimely deaths of those who dare to enter its sacred burial place and disrupt its slumber. This belief probably stems from the supposed curse on the tomb of Tutankhamen and the death of Lord Carnarvon who was present during its excavation. Six weeks after his involvement in the project, Carnarvon died from blood poisoning caused by a mosquito bite. From Bram Stoker’s 1903 novel The Jewel of Seven Stars , (later adapted as the 1971 film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb...

The recent direct-to-DVD horror  Terror Trap  tells of a couple who discover the isolated motel they are stranded at is used as a studio to produce snuff movies - films that purportedly depict actual homicide. The staff at the motel are all involved, and the residents of the small rural town the motel stands outside, are also aware of the films being produced there and, chillingly, turn a blind eye. While writing a review of  Terror Trap , I began to think about other films that revolve around the idea of snuff movies... Mute Witness (1994). A deliriously taut exercise in sustained tension and suspense, Mute Witness  stars Marina Zudina as Billy, a special effects make-up artist working on a low budget slasher movie in deepest, darkest Moscow. Staying late at the creepy, crumbling studio one night, Billy witnesses the filming of a snuff movie and is relentlessly pursued around the sprawling studio buildings by the filmmakers. Billy is mute, and therefore can't simp...

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...

1992 Dir. Bernard Rose Whilst researching her thesis on urban legends, student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) becomes intrigued by the legend of the ‘Candyman’ (Tony Todd) – the son of a slave who was brutally tortured and killed because he fell in love with the daughter of a white plantation owner. He is said to appear when his name is spoken five times into a mirror and he has a hook for a hand. Whilst carrying out her investigation, the sceptical Helen repeats his name and is subsequently plunged into a nightmare world where reality and fevered dreams become meshed together as she is stalked by the spectre of the Candyman and held responsible for a series of grisly murders. Could the legend be true or is Helen simply losing her mind? Can she clear her name before it’s too late and she becomes the latest victim of the formidable legend that is the Candyman? Beginning with our protagonists discussing the power of legends and the subtext of folklore, Candyman opens with a creepily...

1974 Dir. Bob Clark Black Christmas is one of the earliest slasher films and strongly contributed to the blueprint, visual grammer and codification of the sub-genre. It tells of the residents of a sorority house who begin receiving unsettling and obscene phone calls during the run up to the Christmas holidays. Someone then breaks into the house, hides in the attic, and begins killing the young women one by one. The tale unfolds at a stalking-through-the-snow pace, ensuring the tension builds steadily to a genuinely shocking and chillingly bleak climax. The characters of Black Christmas are certainly more fleshed out than many other slasher film characters, and several are even quite complex, with rich inner lives. While the film is lauded for establishing various slasher movie conventions, it also addresses social issues such as women’s safety on campus, abortion, alcohol abuse, parental neglect, and domestic violence. With the characters already living with all these perso...