Behind the Couch

2009 Dir. George Clarke Six contestants. One million quid. And a shitload of zombies. A group of contestants prepare to fight to the death on extreme reality TV show The Knackery. With a reward of £1 million for the last player left standing, the stakes are high. They are raised even higher when a horde of flesh hungry, genetically modified zombies are unleashed to liven things up a bit… Building on the reputation they cultivated for themselves with Battle of the Bone , Yellow Fever Productions have returned to the stripped back, no frills and no holds barred approach to filmmaking that made their debut feature so appealing. Shot in five weeks on a budget of roughly £100, the first cut of The Knackery premiered at the Fellow Fever Independent Film Festival in Belfast last weekend. A ‘knacker’ is someone who slaughters worn-out livestock and sells their flesh, bones and hides. The Knackery is a gruesome reality TV show in which contestants must battle it out to the deat...

2009 Dir. Wyatt Weed While renovating an old church, construction workers unearth an ancient stone cross and what appears to be a wooden stake. Removing the stake from the ground they inadvertently revive Laura (Caitlin McIntosh), an amnesiac vampire who crawls out of the earth and sets off across the city trying to remember who she is and what happened to her. As she desperately tries to piece together her tragic past, she is pursued by the mysterious Julian Hess (Jason Contini) who is aware of her true nature and hell-bent on sending her back to the grave… Shot on a miniscule budget over several weeks, Shadowland marks the feature length debut of writer/director Wyatt Weed and was recently screened at Belfast’s first Yellow Fever Independent Film Festival where it received an award for Best Director. The film unfolds as the epic tale of a woman who has suffered a terrible trauma and seeks to uncover her past to piece together her life. The fact that she is actually a latent va...

2008 Dir. Mark Colegrove Banned in 492 Countries! Private Investigator Jack Steele (Larry Gamber) is hired by a mysterious treasure hunter to help him locate the lost treasure of Marco Polo. Steele’s quest brings him to a strange island off the coast of Argentina rumoured to be populated by a lost tribe of cannibals. As Steele and his small group of treasure hunters explore the island, they realise that the rumours are true and they must utilise all their resources to stay alive and make it off the island in one piece… But who is the bizarre recluse, Alexis Kinkaid (Keith Tveit Langsdorf)? And why do everyone’s lips move out of sync with what they’re saying? Screened as part of Belfast’s first Yellow Fever Independent Film Festival – and winner of Best International Film - Isle of the Damned is a shameless throwback to 80s Italian exploitation movies such as Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox and Deep River Savages – with added satire. The work of Ruggero Deadato is specifi...

2008 Dir. Kerry Anne Mullaney A mysterious neurological pandemic has ravaged Britain. Seeking refuge in a solitary farmhouse in deepest, darkest Scotland, Daniel (Alton Milne), a young man reeling from the death of his family, meets April (Sandra Louise Douglas), a secretive young woman who has been living in isolation for some time. The two eventually forge a tenuous friendship until the arrival of a stranger throws them into turmoil. As well as dealing with serious trust issues, the three survivors must also contend with the infected population besieging the farmhouse on an increasingly frequent basis… The Dead Outside , a stark post-apocalyptic psychological horror film, was screened in Belfast recently as part of the Yellow Fever Independent Film Festival . Intelligent and thoughtful, at times it resembles a sort of pared down, minimalist  28 Days Later . Filmed with a minuscule budget and fully utilising what is essentially one location, the film plays out as a claustrop...

Yellow Fever Productions is an independent production company based in Belfast. In 2008 they produced the award winning Battle of the Bone – a zombie flick set in Belfast on the Twelfth of July and featuring two rival communities forced to put aside their differences and come together to vanquish a marauding horde of the living dead. Not content to produce award winning films, Yellow Fever have organised their own independent film festival right here in Belfast, which kicked off this weekend at the Stormont Hotel. Amongst the film screenings on offer, attendees have also been treated to exclusive workshops, Q&A sessions and a number of special guests. Festival organiser and founder of Yellow Fever Productions , George Clarke, set up the event as a means to support and promote local independent filmmakers and provide them with a platform to showcase their work; as well as giving those in attendance the opportunity to see what other independent filmmakers from around the world ...

1960 Dir. Roger Corman When she returns to her family home after their engagement, Madeline Usher is visited by her fiancée Philip Winthorpe, who wants her to return to Boston with him. Her brother, the severely melancholic Roderick opposes this suggestion. Philip discovers that the Usher lineage has been afflicted by an all consuming malady and that the siblings, the last of the Ushers, believe they are cursed to descend into insanity like their ancestors did before them. A series of morbid incidents unfold over the coming days as events seem set to reach a horrific climax bringing an end to the Usher bloodline, once and for all… It suddenly occurred to me, as such things usually do, that it’s been several months since I last watched anything featuring Vincent Price. Disgraceful. So, after I poured a glass of Russell’s Cellar’s finest merlot, I settled down to watch Roger Corman’s first Poe adaptation, The Fall of the House of Usher. Setting the standard for all his other Poe ...

1940 Dir. Jean Yarbrough Dr Paul Carruthers (Bela Lugosi) devises a plan to extract revenge on his employers, the owners of a cosmetics company, whom he believes have exploited and betrayed him, getting rich on a product he created. Concocting a new aftershave (!), he offers it to the sons of his employers and then releases an electrically enlarged bat, trained to hone in on the distinct aftershave (!!), and slaughter its wearer. The series of mysterious deaths sparks the interest of roving reporter Johnny Layton (David O’Brien) and photographer, One-Shot McGuire. The two set out to investigate the murders and put a stop to the diabolical mastermind orchestrating them, before they too become victims of the ‘death-diving’ giant bat. The Devil Bat was produced by PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation), one of the more modest production studios of Hollywood’s ‘Poverty Row.’ PRC produced mainly low budget B-movies, particularly horror films, westerns and melodramas. The film compris...

1966 Dir. Curtis Harrington 1990. Scientists on Earth receive a distress call from an alien ship that has crash landed on Mars. A small rescue team made up of scientists and astronauts are dispatched to rescue the alien crew. Only one survivor is found, a strange woman with lurid green skin. Back on board their own ship, the scientists discover that their guest has an insatiable appetite for blood and it isn’t long before she begins to pick off the crew, one by one… In the 60s Roger Corman’s production company AIP bought the rights to quite a few Russian sci-fi films and wrote new stories around the various special effects sequences; reusing the expensive footage in new low budget films. Queen of Blood is one such film and reuses footage from Russian sci-fi epics Niebo Zowiet and Meshte Nastreshu . These scenes provide a number of the film’s highlights, as much of Harrington’s footage, particularly in the early scenes, with their kitschy ideas about how the future (1990) would l...

Congratulations to Mykal over at Radiation Cinema! whose blog was recently presented with a Great Read Award from I Like Horror Movies . Mykal mentioned a few other blogs that he reads and loves, one of which was Behind the Couch . His kind words are much appreciated. It’s great to see Radiation Cinema receive some well deserved recognition for all Mykal's undeniable enthusiasm and expertise. I plan to crack open a bottle of something red and drink to his good health. Cheers.

Paul Solet’s debut feature film Grace is currently causing quite a stir at various festival screenings, generating shock and acclaim in equal measure. Solet has crafted a genuinely moving, deeply unsettling film. Grace is the troubling story of Madeline (Jordan Ladd), who after losing her unborn child in a horrific accident, still decides to carry the baby to term. Following the traumatic delivery the child miraculously returns to life, but with disturbing consequences. Madeline stops at nothing to ensure her new-born's insatiable appetite for blood is catered for, no matter what. Grace is a thought provoking and character driven film, and one that audiences are not likely to forget in a hurry. I thought it was high time to have a chat with Paul to discuss Grace , the horror genre and the highs and lows of making an independent film. Where did the idea for Grace come from? I was having a conversation with someone and it came up that its actual medical science that if you’re ...

2006 Dir. Mike Mendez When their friend dies in a car accident, Harris (Dominic Purcell), Kira (Josie Maran) and Sid (Marcus Thomas), three old college friends, reunite at his funeral. They decide to catch up and give their friend a fitting send off; so after the funeral they head back to the cemetery with lots of wine, good intentions and high spirits. When they discover a strange poem on an anonymous sympathy card, urging them to celebrate life and dance on the graves of the dead, they do so. A few days later the three are terrorised by the ghosts of the people whose graves they danced upon. Desperate, the trio turn to a paranormal investigator to help them break the curse and save their souls… Director Mike Mendez moves away from the zany comedic aspects of his earlier shocker The Convent , to craft a genuinely dark and thrilling film. After a spectacularly intense and nerve-rattling opening in which a young woman is brutally murdered by an unseen force (recalling the grisly ...

2008 Dir. Alexandre Aja When he is suspended from duty after accidentally shooting his partner, former NYPD detective Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland) gets a job as a security guard at a deserted department store. Determined to put his life back on track, kick his alcoholism and rejoin his estranged family, Ben soon becomes obsessed with the mirrors in the building and the strange visions they seemingly reflect. With no one to believe his wild stories, he sets out to solve the mystery of what lurks within the mirrors before his mind unravels completely… After kaleidoscopic opening credits and a rather unsettling and menacing scene set in the underground, what could have been a supremely creepy and subtly chilling film, soon descends into cheap jumps, cardboard characters and some really quite lazy writing that explains everything, because, you know, we’re just too dumb to be able to follow the story or piece together some information. Director Aja doesn’t display anything that ...

Mario Bava’s anthology Black Sabbath consists of three quite different tales of horror. The Telephone - the story of a woman who may or may not be receiving sinister phone calls from an escaped lunatic; The Wurdalak – a creepy yarn involving vampirism, a doomed family and the recent return of their undead patriarch – played with diabolical glee by Boris Karloff; and finally, The Drop of Water – the supremely unsettling story of a nurse who steals a ring from the deathbed of a medium, only to suffer the ghastly consequences in the privacy of her own home. Each segment of Black Sabbath has its own unique tone and look, from the kitsch glamour of The Telephone to the high gothic atmospherics of The Wurdalak and the opulently stylised The Drop of Water . As a whole, the film is rather satisfactory and none of the segments outstay their welcome. What makes it all even more appealing is the introduction by none other than Boris Karloff himself, waxing lyrical on the mechanics of fe...