Behind the Couch

With its twisted tale of obsession, and the dark and violent places it can lead to, Missionary follows a typical woman-stalked-by-crazed-harasser narrative. While it refuses to stray too far from a well-trodden path, it doesn’t feel too conventional due to its slow-burn approach, careful characterisation and decent performances.  At times it echoes those early 90s cuckoo-in-the-nest psycho thrillers like Fatal Attraction, Unlawful Entry, Fear and myriad made-for-TV thrillers, in which an unhinged outsider worms his/her way into an all-American family, only to eventually show their true psychotic colours when their obsession reaches fever pitch. Head over to Exquisite Terror to read my full review . While you're there, check out our coverage of the other titles screening at this year's Fright Fest.

Anthology movies can be tricky to pull off properly; by their very nature they can be uneven in tone, the narrative constantly upended when we pull back to the framing story, the differing tones and pacing of the individual segments. When done well though, we get such classics as Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath , the chilling Ealing classic Dead of Night and George Romero’s lurid pulp-fest Creepshow. V/H/S/2 improves on the formula established by the original film; by slim-lining the segments, and by actually featuring fewer segments, the impact is undeniable. Head over to Exquisite Terror to read my full review . While you're there, why not check out our coverage of the other titles screening at this year's Fright Fest . 

Over the past few years Scandinavian horror has been making quite the mark on genre cinema, with filmmakers finding ways to surprise audiences and subvert expectations with titles like Let the Right One In, Not Like Others and Cold Prey . Some even mine spooky Nordic folklore for frights — think Marianne and Trollhunter — lending their films a unique tone quite unlike anything else around. The latest Scandiwegian chiller, Wither , has been touted as the Swedish Evil Dead , and with good reason. Gratuitous splatter FX aside though, it fails to offer much in the way of ingenuity, its set-up all too familiar to horror audiences. Head over to Exquisite Terror to read my full review . While you're there, why not check out our coverage of other titles screening at this year's Fright Fest.  

Last night Belfast’s Waterfront Hall played host to a very special screening of Dario Argento’s nightmarish, witch-infested classic, Suspiria . The screening, courtesy of the lovely folks at the Belfast Film Festival, was accompanied by a live score performed by none other than original Goblin member and long time Argento collaborator, Claudio Simonetti, and his band, the Simonetti Horror project. My ears are still ringing… Suspiria , for the uninitiated, is the terrifying tale of American ballet student Suzy Banyon, who enrols at an exclusive dance academy in Germany. Her arrival coincides with a raging storm and the savage murder of another student. Increasingly odd occurrences and other grisly deaths suggest that there is something evil lurking within the school, and Suzy eventually discovers that it is actually a front for a witches' coven. Often hailed as Argento’s masterpiece, Suspiria is a visceral onslaught of vision, sound and colour. The viewer is bombarded by graph...

1973 Dir. Nicolas Roeg Based on the short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, Don’t Look Now is from a collection of stories revolving around the intrusion of the supernatural/paranormal upon the lives of everyday, normal people. Released on a double bill with The Wicker Man – whose protagonist’s death is, in hindsight, also very much pre-conceived and signposted throughout the film's narrative - Don’t Look Now ripples forth as a devastating and often terrifying study of grief. When their young daughter drowns in a pond in the family garden, John and Laura (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie), attempt to come to terms with their loss and reconcile their relationship by travelling to Venice. John throws himself into his work and denies the possibility that their daughter could be trying to communicate with them from the afterlife. After befriending a spooky psychic and her sister, Laura opens herself up to the possibility that their daughter is trying to reach o...

Writer and physician Michael Blumlein once said "There's a detachment that happens as a physician when you're dealing with frightening, horrifying, or sad events, that you maintain an objectivity that's required, and I do that also when I write." This is certainly true of his 1990 short story Keeping House , which tells of the psychological unravelling of a woman whose husband and child have fled, leaving her to fester in their new home and obsess over its cleanliness. She believes an evil presence dwells in the empty adjoining house; it seems to seep through the walls, leaving traces of damp, mould and other nastiness which she must tackle daily. She perpetually cleans but can never seem to rid her own abode of the manifestations of the dank presence from next door. It malingers about the place like a putrid fog only she seems aware of. Is this a real haunting? A spectral manifestation of her unhappiness? Guilt? Or an unreliable narrator sinking deeper into her o...

2012 Dir. Franck Khalfoun Just a steel town girl on a Saturday night  Looking for the fight of her life  In the real time world, no one sees her at all  They all say she's crazy  She's a maniac, maniac on the floor  And she's dancing like she's never danced before! Sorry! Wrong Maniac . The Maniac I’m actually referring to is Franck Khalfoun’s remake of William Lustig’s 1980 ‘video nasty’ of the same name. Despite its higher budget, slick production values and the presence of a star name in the titles, this update - co-written by Alex Aja ( Switchblade Romance/Haute Tension ) - is every bit as unsettling, extreme and confrontational as its predecessor. And it's all shot from the perspective of the killer. While aesthetically far removed from Lustig’s cult sleaze-fest, Khalfoun’s slickly lensed take on the tale of a young man who hunts, scalps and murders women on the cruel, grimy streets of downtown LA, is still an immensely vicious and unsett...

Written by Jeanette Winterson Based on the most notorious of English witch-trials, Jeanette Winterson’s latest book, The Daylight Gate , is a tale of magic, superstition, conscience and ruthless murder. It is set in a time when politics and religion were closely intertwined; when, following the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, every Catholic conspirator fled to a wild and untamed place far from the reach of London law. This is Lancashire. This is Pendle. This is witch country. Lurking in deepest, darkest north England, Pendle is a place brimming with bleak moors and dark forests. The events of 1612 are now an established part of English folklore and Pendle is still synonymous with witchcraft and diabolism to this day. Winterson tells of the plight of a group of Pendle women accused of witchcraft and cavorting with the Dark Lord, and the tortures and atrocities they endured at the hands of the law before they were put to death. Reality swirls with augmented fancy. Are these women real w...

2008 Dir. Jim Donovan In a bid to finish her thesis, psychology student Cassie (Clea Duvall) accepts a job at an isolated fire watch tower. The solitude and stress of finishing her thesis – on post-traumatic stress, no less – take their toll on Cassie, who begins to suspect the area may be haunted… Could she be suffering from a nervous breakdown? Or is she really being targeted by a tragic spectre? Or , is something equally sinister but much less supernatural afoot? So many possibilities... As mentioned in the previous review , I enjoy catching random horror films on late night TV. If said random horror flick features Clea Duvall, even better. Boasting a rather similar story to Deadline , The Watch also tells of a troubled young woman attempting to get her life back on track after a traumatic incident in her past. What better way to do that than head out into the middle of nowhere to finish your thesis on childhood psychology, and have a few ghostly encounters that push you t...

2009 Dir. Sean McConville When a screenwriter travels to a house in the middle of nowhere to finish her latest project, sinister occurrences ensue. Given that said screenwriter is recovering from a recent nervous breakdown, staying alone in a big old house in the middle of nowhere, probably wasn’t the greatest idea ever. However it means that director McConville can play that old ‘is she really seeing ghosts or just imagining things’ card... I enjoy catching random horror films on late night TV. Sometimes you’re rewarded for idly flicking through the channels until something catches your eye – favourite films I’ve discovered this way include Cat People , Halloween , The Pit and the Pendulum and Night of the Living Dead . When you see that a horror film starring Brittany Murphy as a writer staying alone in a creepy house has just started – you just have to watch it. Deadline seemed to me to have a lot of potential; a nice (if not wholly original) idea, a pace and tone that ...

Back in 2007, an independently produced magazine focusing on all things ‘genre cinema’ modestly made its way onto the shelves of various indie retailers across New York City. Six years later and said independently produced magazine is still going strong and, more importantly, has still managed to retain its unique perspective. Each lushly produced issue of Paracinema mines the depths of genre cinema by way of a series of essays and features on niche cinema, examining, celebrating and promoting films all too often relegated to the side-lines. Films deemed difficult, dangerous or just plain dire by more mainstream publications, are lovingly dissected and discussed without prejudice or delusion. Issue 20 (!) of Paracinema is now available to pre-order and includes the likes of: A Serbian Film: Transgressive Horror in the Internet Age by Thomas Duke Juice Dogs & Erotic Trauma: An Exploration into Stephen Sayadian’s Nightdreams and Dr. Caligari by Heather Drain The Vehi...

1977 Dir. Lawrence Gordon Clark The removal of an ancient menhir from a family’s back garden unleashes a blood curse upon an unwitting woman. This was the seventh and last instalment of A Ghost Story for Christmas to be directed by Gordon Clark, and the first to feature an original story – not an MR James adaptation – in a then contemporary setting. Written specially for television by Clive Exton, Stigma is also much more graphic than any of the other Ghost Story for Christmas films and features a bleak and doomful tone that, while perfectly in keeping with the sombre tone of the earlier James adaptations, also echoes Exton’s prior work such as Doomwatch (1972) and Survivors (1975–1977) . That the horror plays out within the cosy home of a middle class family enhances the impact. Like all good horror stories it features very ordinary people, mundane even, caught up in an incomprehensibly extraordinary situation. The blending of the ancient (the standing stones) with the t...

Barbara Steele, Daria Nicolodi and Edwige Fenech are but several women that spring to mind when contemplating Italian genre films. Moving behind the camera though, women are much less represented; in fact their presence is downright scant. There are however a few notable individuals who have proved they’re just as able to create cinematic shocks as the boys. One such woman is composer Nora Orlandi. Orlandi’s jazz-infused score for Sergio Martino’s dazzling giallo The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh , enhances the decadent story, and mirrors the dark sensuality pulsing at the heart of it. Head over to Paracinema to read my review. While you’re there, why not pick up issue 19 of Paracinema Magazine. Inside you’ll find the likes of Aural Enigmas: Sound Design in Ti West’s The Innkeepers by Todd Garbarini, and  Corpse Fucking Art: A Guide to Necrophilia in Horror Cinema by Samm Deighan. It also includes my own feature, What’s In A Name? The Rise and Decline of Hollywood Fall Guy ...

2013 Dir. Neil Jordan Byzantium sees Neil Jordan return to vampire territory for the first time since Interview with a Vampire ; echoes of which abound throughout this compelling story of a mother and daughter whose dependency upon human blood, and each other, threatens to become their undoing. Adapted for screen by Moira Buffini, and based on her play, A Vampire Story , the film follows bawdy Clara (Gemma Arterton) and introverted Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan) as they seek sanctuary in a rundown guesthouse in a quiet English seaside resort. Not your typical vampire film, its character driven narrative dispels many of the usual traits associated with cinematic bloodsuckers. Dreamily filmed, Jordan’s careful direction beckons us into the story and immerses us within it. Odd and wonderful things are done in the reconstruction of vampire lore - there are no fangs, only thumbnails that become talons - and while a few conventions remain – blood dependence, immortality, needing to be invi...

2013 marks the 40th anniversary of the The Wicker Man's original release. In celebration of this, and continuing its project to conserve, restore and release for future generations the best of Classic British cinema, STUDIOCANAL announced its intention to release the most complete version of the film possible. The now widely lauded film was released with minimal promotion in 1973 as the second feature of a double bill with Don’t Look Now . The version exhibited to audiences was significantly shorter than director Robin Hardy's original vision. In what has now become an apocryphal episode in British film history, the negatives disappeared from storage at Shepperton Studios, and were then allegedly ended up in a landfill, lost forever. STUDIOCANAL are now appealing worldwide to film collectors, historians, archivists, programmers and fans to support the campaign and come forward with any information relating to the potential whereabouts of original materials. Director Robin...

2013 Dir. Marcus Dunstan When a young woman is captured by a masked psychopath after attending an underground warehouse party, where the revellers were mowed, sliced and crushed to death by a macabre series of contraptions, a group of mercenaries are dispatched by her rich father to track her down. Aiding them is Arkin, a former captive of the killer who somehow managed to escape. Can they get to Elena before she becomes part of his gruesome 'collection'? Attempting to do for The Collector what Aliens did for Alien, The Collection ups the scope of the first film from the get-go, lurching into gear immediately with a series of jaw-dropping bloody spectacles that set the scene for the large scale carnage that follows. The introduction of a group of bad-ass mercenaries, who are attempting to hunt down the mysterious serial killer and do what 'the police can't', also establishes the action-packed ante. These guys mean business. Too bad they’re all two-dimens...

The Hills Have Eyes (2006) 2013 Dir. Calum Waddell Backwoods: pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) 1. Heavily wooded, uncultivated, thinly settled areas. 2. An area that is far from population centres or that is held to be culturally backward. “ West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight. On the slopes there are farms, ancient and rocky, with squat, moss-coated cottages brooding eternally over old New England; but these are all vacant now, the wide chimneys crumbling and the shingled sides bulging perilously beneath low gambrel roofs. ” HP Lovecraft The backwoods has long held a strange place of morbid fascination in the collective mind of city dwellers. It represents escapism – somewhere to go to negate the hustle and bustle of the concrete jungle; a place which grants...