Behind the Couch

A few weeks back I was invited to make a podcast with Aaron Duenas of The Death Rattle . We chatted for a couple of hours over Skype - Aaron in Hawaii, me in Northern Ireland - about Italian horror cinema, my book on Dario Argento, and the little seen Italian-shock cult oddity, The Spider Labyrinth . The podcast is now online, so why not head over to The Gentlemen's Blog to Midnite Cinema to check it out.  For great appreciations and critiques of everything from Seventies Ozploitation to lesser spotted Eurocrime titles, plus a slew of in-depth interviews with the likes of Laurence Harvey ( The Human Centipede II ), Sherilyn Fenn ( Twin Peaks, Boxing Helena ) and John Jarratt ( Wolf Creek, Picnic at Hanging Rock ) to name but a few - don't forget to check out Aaron's blog The Death Rattle . Adios!

Gerard Damiano’s moody 'porno-chic' title The Devil in Miss Jones (1973) straddles an odd divide between art house and hardcore pornography. Upon release it was described as "More morality play than masturbation aid." It follows the tragic story of Justine Jones (Georgina Spelvin), who dies by suicide only to end up facing an eternity in Hell because she took her own life. She insists that if she’s given another chance she can ensure she lives a life that truly warrants such eternal damnation. So begins an X-rated and oddly emotional odyssey of lust. The lush piano driven score courtesy of Alan Shuman highlights the melancholy at the heart of the story and negates typical conventions of kinky Seventies porn soundtracks. Head over to Paracinema.net to read my review of Shuman’s wistful score.  While you’re there, why not pre-order a copy of issue 16 of Paracinema Magazine? It’s packed with in-depth critiques and articles on the likes of The Devils, Assault of...

2000 Dir. John Fawcett ‘Monstrosity is explicitly associated with menstruation and female sexuality... woman’s monstrous nature is inextricably bound up with her difference as man’s sexual other.'  Laura Mulvey ( Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema ). ‘The release of sexuality in the horror film is always presented as perverted, monstrous and excessive; both the perversion and the excess being the logical outcome of repression.’ Robin Wood ( The American Nightmare ). Written by Karen Walton, Ginger Snaps tells of a young woman who is attacked by a werewolf on the night she begins to menstruate, and begins to transform into a monster. Links between the menstrual cycle and lycanthropy cunningly swirl together to form a twisted tale of monstrous pubescence filtered through a chilling body-horror narrative. The result is a dark, savagely funny and haunting film that staggers blinking and bloodied into the unkind light of day as the most significant ‘menstrual horror’ since Carr...

Issue 16 of Paracinema Magazine is now available to pre-order. Amongst the myriad articles are This Ain’t Hollywood XXX: The Cultural Significance of the Porn Parody by Justin LaLiberty; “Images of Horror and Lust” in Ken Russell’s The Devils by Samm Deighan; Rehabilitating Daddy, or How Disaster Movies say it’s OK to Trust Authority by Jon ( Shocks to the System: Subversive Horror Films ) Towlson; The Films of René Laloux: Notes on the Golden Age of French Science Fiction by Derek Godin; plus much, much more. There’s also my essay,  Shadowy Suggestion in the Weird West: Val Lewton’s Apache Drums.  Sound good? Fancy picking up a copy? Head over to Paracinema.net and pre-order one now . Support independent publishing! 

1981 Dir. Gary Sherman This original and atmospheric horror flick comes courtesy of the director of cannibals-in-the-London-Underground shocker Death Line and the chaps responsible for penning such classic genre titles as Alien , Return of the Living Dead and Total Recall (Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett). It should come as no surprise then that it unravels as a rather unconventional and off the wall yarn with more than a few surprises up its bloodied sleeve. When a number of vicious murders occur in the sleepy seaside town of Potter’s Bluff, Sheriff Gillis (James Farentino) suspects that something sinister is afoot. The further he submerges himself in the investigation, the more he realises that all is not what it seems in Potter’s Bluff, nor has it been for some time… Opening with a shot of a black and white photo of the town that dissolves into live action, Dead and Buried immediately evokes contemplative notions of yesteryear and its roots in the past. This concept und...

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...

2012 Dir. Monthon Arayangkoon A recent emergence of striking fright flicks from Thailand has included a number of memorable titles such as Shutter, 4bia , Meat Grinder , Sick Nurses and The Victim – not forgetting of course the moody The Eye films. The House is the latest edition to this strikingly eclectic fold and it boasts the same unique tone and idiosyncrasies as its creepy peers.  The serpentine story coils around investigative journalist Shalinee (Inthira Chaloenpura) who is commissioned to make a documentary about several doctors who brutally murdered their wives. As her investigation continues, she uncovers some odd connections and similarities between the killings, including the sinister fact that throughout the years, all the murderous doctors had at one time or another lived in the same house near the hospital. Despite warnings from spooked (and spooky) neighbours, Shalinee enters the house in search of further clues. What she finds there plunges her and her hu...

2008 Dir. José Mojica Marins At the end of This Night I Shall Possess Your Corpse , the second Coffin Joe film, Joe (Mojica Marins) was cornered in a spooky swamp by torch-bearing villagers who’d had enough of his violent, misogynistic shenanigans. Denouncing God while laughing in their faces, Joe sank into the swamp and apparently drowned. Didn't he? Not so! As a flashback explains, he was pulled up out of the water again and imprisoned for his heinous crimes. 40 years later and he is eventually released from jail, and greeted on the outside by his faithful servant Bruno. How does Joe celebrate his freedom? Why, he goes in search of a woman 'worthy' of bearing him a child - and thus helping him obtain immortality by extending his bloodline! Cue much torture, bloodshed, nightmarish visions and a few familiar faces from the past, as José Mojica Marins finally closes the long-awaited last chapter of his Coffin Joe Trilogy. Embodiment perfectly concludes At Midnight I...

1967 Dir. José Mojica Marins After the success of Coffin Joe’s first outing, At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul , his creator José Mojica Marins (who also portrays him onscreen) decided to resurrect him for further misadventures. This Night picks up straight after the events of At Midnight , as it is revealed that Joe didn’t actually die in the crypt, though he was severely wounded and traumatised by his ordeal. Soon after he is released from hospital and acquitted of his crimes due to lack of evidence, and he’s up to his old tricks again, kidnapping a slew of women and subjecting them to horrific tortures in order to find a woman 'worthy' of bearing him a child - and thus helping him obtain immortality by extending his bloodline.. Made four years after At Midnight , what is immediately obvious about This Night is how much Mojica Marins has honed his skills as a filmmaker. Technically speaking, this film is more accomplished than its predecessor, the script is tighter, th...

1964 Dir. José Mojica Marins Zé do Caixão (that’s Coffin Joe to you and me) is something of a cult figure both in his native Brazil, and in the wider horror community. The creation of filmmaker José Mojica Marins, who also portrays him onscreen, Coffin Joe has appeared in various TV anthologies, comics and sequels, as well as countless appearances in other films by the director. A nightmarishly striking figure - sporting long black cloak, top hat and grotesquely long fingernails - Joe first appeared in At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul , which was also the first Brazilian horror film. A curious and carnivalesque oddity of a film, At Midnight follows the increasingly crazed exploits of undertaker Joe, as he attempts to find a woman 'worthy' of bearing him a child - and thus helping him obtain immortality by extending his bloodline. Addressing concepts such as faith, free will, social responsibility and politics, Marins’ film is an existential horror that unfolds with impi...

It’s that time of the month again to head over to Paracinema.net and check out the latest instalment of Audiodrome . This month I take a look at Angelo Badalamenti’s evocative and moody score for Fire Walk With Me , David Lynch’s dark and disturbing prequel to his cult TV show, Twin Peaks . The film follows the harrowing last seven days in the life of high school home coming queen Laura Palmer, as she descends into a nightmarish abyss of drugs, prostitution and abuse. Fire Walk With Me marked a drastic shift in tone from the beloved series: gone are the cherry pies and damn fine coffees, and all that remains is an unsettling tale of domestic abuse, incest and filicide. Badalamenti’s jazz-based score perfectly immerses us in this strange world, which while dangerous and dark, is not without its moments of abstract beauty. While you’re over at Paracinema’s online lair, why not pick up the latest issue ? It’s really rather good and all the articles address the theme of revenge in...

2009 Dir. Federico Zampaglione Throughout the 60s and 70s, Italy was responsible for producing some of the most unique, striking and disturbing horror films in the history of the genre. Italian cinema was even bigger than its US counterpart in terms of exports. Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Sergio Martino, Riccardo Freda, Lucio Fulci and Ruggero Deodato are just a few of the filmmakers responsible for creating some of the most lurid, bizarre, searingly brutal and unforgettable imagery to ever bleed across the silver screen. Italians were churning out all sorts of genre gold dust; from spaghetti westerns, stylishly violent giallo films, blistering detective movies, to comedies, erotic dramas and explosive action flicks. This Golden Age of Italian cinema began to fade during the Eighties however, and it has been too long a time since anyone but Dario Argento has flown the flag for Italo-horror. Federico Zampaglione’s Shadow should hopefully change all that now. It marks the long ov...

James Isaac directing Kane Hodder on Jason X Director James Isaac, best known for Jason X , werewolf flick Skinwalkers and his special effects work with David Cronenberg, has passed away at the age of 52 after battling a rare blood cancer. Isaac began his career in 1983 as a ‘creature technician’ on Return of the Jedi and Gremlins before moving on to work with Cronenberg on the likes of The Fly , Naked Lunch and eXistenZ . His feature directorial debut came in 1983 with The Horror Show aka House III . In 2002 Isaac directed the tenth instalment of the Friday the 13th series. Jason X's winning sense of humour and genuine adoration of Jason (and his fans) gave the series a much needed jolt of originality and devilish playfulness. Isaac’s work on the vastly underrated film is often overlooked due to its problematic shoot caused by interference from producers, constant re-writes and a delayed release. Isaac was always very candid about his feelings on the film, and was...

Italian giallo films are renowned for their brutal violence, dazzling style and convoluted ‘whodunit’ narratives. The combination of grind-house exploitation, art house aesthetics and bizarre fetishisation of violence, render the giallo a highly distinctive and unnerving cycle of films. The giallo is exclusively Italian and was initially popularized by Dario Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage . The films began to lose their commercial appeal in the late Seventies, but recent films such as Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s Amer , Guillem Morales’ Julia’s Eyes and Federico Zampaglione’s forthcoming Tulpa , to name but a few, highlight the overwhelming influence of the giallo on a new slew of international filmmakers. These ‘neo-gialli’ have sparked a resurgence of interest in the film cycle that looks set to continue with a new short film by Berlin-based filmmaker Ryan Haysom. Yellow is currently in production and looks set to draw heavily from the gialli of yesteryear, wit...