Table of contents for Issue 200 May/June 2021 in RUE MORGUE

A COMMON TENDENCY AMONG SEASONED ARTISTS PRESSED INTO DISCUSSING THEIR DEBUT WORKS IS ONE OF SELF-FLAGELLATION. Question Oliver Stone with sufficient rigour about Seizure and not even a reference to Bosley Crowther’s infamous dismissal of Hitchcock’s Psycho (“a blot on an otherwise honourable career”) can entice him into consigning his maiden effort to some gloomy vestibule of Hell. “I know all about residual shame, though,” he concedes disarmingly. Written when Stone was 27 and toiling as a cab driver and Xerox messenger, Seizure is an overwrought tale freighted with dread that revolves around horror author Edmund Blackstone (Dark Shadows mainstay Jonathan Frid), tormented by three sinister figures that inhabit his nightmares as well as his fiction: a knife-wielding dwarf (Hervé Villechaize), a hulking executioner (Henry Judd Baker), and the enigmatic…

HORROR MAY HAVE DEFEATED CENSORSHIP THANKS TO THE ADVENT OF THE INTERNET, but some movies are still banned for reasons that are stranger than fiction. Here are six of the weirdest wrist-slaps in recent cinematic history… Alien Vs. Predator was rated R by the MPAA for “Violence, language, horror images, slime (!) and gore.” Disaster movie 2012 was banned in North Korea for fear it would jinx what Kim Jong-il believed to be the country’s “lucky year.” China banned Ghostbusters (the 1984 original and the 2016 reboot) for fear of promoting superstition. When Claire Danes made critical remarks about the Philippines after shooting Brokedown Palace, the actor and all her movies were banned from Manila. The Hunger Games’ storyline concerning kids engaged in deadly totalitarian resistance…

HARMAGEDDON IMPACT EVENT Wildeye Releasing As a gift to myself for surviving last year, I thought I’d reach into my bottomless delete bin of delights and grab the first three movies my greasy paws came across. And speaking of the end of the world, this first flick is about a group of people who learn the Earth is about to be hit by a meteorite and take refuge in a haunted funhouse attraction that’s built on a bomb shelter. Unfortunately, the inmates at a nearby prison also have designs on the place, hoping to take it over so they can keep all the toilet paper and hand sanitizer for themselves. Though it’s competently filmed and has a cool cameo from Michael (The Hills Have Eyes) Berryman, Impact Event suffers from…

SEVERIN’S SANTA SANGRE 4-DISC DIGIPACK “To me, Santa Sangre is the crown jewel of the Severin Films catalog,” says company president David Gregory. “It’s my favourite movie that we’ve put out – and that’s saying something, because I love most of the films we’ve released. And don’t get me wrong, I love El Topo and The Holy Mountain, but to me, Santa Sangre is Alejandro Jodorowsky’s best and most accessible movie.” That latter term might seem an odd one to apply to the carnival of avant-garde, grotesque, and Freudian delights that is Santa Sangre. Scripted by the director, producer Claudio Argento, and Robert Leoni, it follows a young man, Fenix (played by Jodorowsky’s son Axel), who escapes from an asylum to literally serve as the murderous arms of his mother,…

GOBLIN: A NOVEL IN SIX NOVELLAS A HOUSE AT THE BOTTOM OF A LAKE Josh Malerman Del Rey Two books spotlighting Josh Malerman’s shorter works, previously only available in small press editions, have now been reissued by Del Rey. Both illustrate that the creativity evidenced in the author’s novels is no fluke and that he’s just as capable a storyteller when working in more constrained formats. Goblin is a book about a place: Goblin, Michigan. It rains all the time there, and if you believe the locals, there’s a witch that lives in the North Woods along with the legendary Great Owls. Goblin is the destination of truck driver Tom in the book’s wraparound tale. He’s been tasked with an unsettling delivery with some very unusual instructions. Between the start…

THE HISTORICAL NATIVES PODCAST THEME: Indigenous Folklore FREQUENCY: Sporadic The Historical Natives Podcast is a product of Victoria, British Columbia, siblings and horror fans Josef Stafford and Mackenzie Taylor on a journey to connect with their roots. Their aim is to infuse the white-dominated genre with Indigenous voices and folklore – in particular, by exploring the most fearsome legends in Native culture. Often used as cautionary tales for the youth, these legends lean into the dark and gruesome, not shying away from murder, cannibalism, or suicide. While some creatures like the Sasquatch and Wendigo have already made their way into mainstream culture, the Wechuge, Walking Sam, Stick Indians, and Sharp-Elbows prove to be great additions to the horror lexicon. Each episode begins with a short history of a particular group…

HEY, YOUR MAGAZINE is freaking awesome. I just recently started my first round of a subscription, and I truly can’t get enough. I even had a fun time convincing my very Christian father to send me The Witch issue. However, I still can’t get him to send the Hereditary issue because the cover genuinely scares him. HAH! I need your help with that one, that was one of my favourite movies! Being incarcerated, I miss out on a lot. Rightfully so, but the realm of horror movies is one that I miss so much it hurts. So many of my favourite memories are from watching terrifying, mind-bending movies as a kid (the ending of High Tension still echoes through the back of my mind). Amazingly, the discovery of your magazine…

BILLY REDDEN DELIVERANCE'S "Banjo Boy" Early in 1972’s Deliverance there's a classic scene in which city slicker Drew (Ronnie Cox) engages in a banjo duel with a backwoods mountain boy before his canoe trip turns deadly. The boy was played by Billy Redden, now 56, a Georgia native who didn’t actually play the banjo for the scene (a real player’s arms were wrapped around him). The role defined him, however, and he was cast as a banjo player three more times; in Tim Burton’s Big Fish (2003), the Blue Collar TV comedy sketch show, and 2009’s Outrage: Born in Terror. Redden also appeared in Lamberto Bava’s 1984 film Blastfighter and in the 2012 documentary to mark the 40th anniversary of his breakout film, The Deliverance of Rabun County. Redden lives…

IT WAS THE LATE SUMMER OF 1997 AND I WAS HARD AT WORK PUTTING RUE MORGUE’S DEBUT ISSUE TOGETHER. I had grown up on paper and ink magazines – Famous Monsters of Filmland, Cinefantastique, Fangoria, Deep Red, Video Watchdog – and it was from this bedrock that I was struggling to erect what I hoped would be a new standard for genre journalism. Little did I know just how much the media landscape would change in the ensuing years and decades; that a veritable technological bombshell would drop, dismantling so many established names and outlets and overturning our understanding of what a horror magazine is supposed to be. Back in those early days, however, I wasn’t entertaining such existential questions. From features with glossy photos and exclusive interviews to the…

THERE IS STRANGE ALCHEMY AT PLAY IN THE WORKS OF MULTIMEDIA MYSTIC ARTIST OTTO RAPP, ONE OF SPIRAL RAPTURES, DARK STARS, WORMHOLES, AND THE WRITHING OF MUCH SMALLER THINGS. Amongst this fearful symmetry, a kaleidoscope of the grotesque reveals arguably one of the most disturbing paintings committed to canvas: The Deterioration Of Mind Over Matter (1973) which explores the traumatic both consciously (and subconsciously), questioning both an artist’s intentions and the very definition of horror. Born on December 15, 1944, in Felixdorf. Rapp grew up in post-war Austria and later lived most of his life in Canada. His process explores the surrealist movement of fantastic realism as defined by a group of painters – including his “kindred spirit,” Ernst Fuchs – working in late ’50s Vienna when they merged the…

ON THE SLAB: LGBTQUICKIES THE QUIET ROOM 27:41 mins/Crypt TV on YouTube By nature, short films rarely leave room for nuance or character work, but director Sam Wineman takes great care to deliver in both departments in The Quiet Room. When Michael (Jamal Douglas) is admitted to the hospital after a suicide attempt, he’s up against his own survivor’s guilt following the death of his boyfriend as well as an obsessive demon named Hopeless Hattie (Alaska Thunderfuck) who threatens to consume him. Wineman defies expectations throughout this film, featuring queer characters whose stories aren’t defined solely by being queer, exploring depression and suicide in a way that seems realistic yet hopeful, and hiring a fan favourite from Ru Paul’s Drag Race to portray a monster without so much as a…

Gargoyles We all have a few of these lurking in the delete bins of our souls: movies and/or TV shows that enthralled us as kids but shrivel under the jaundiced gaze of adulthood. It’s a lament I’ve heard from many a horror fan about Maximum Overdrive, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, The Legend of Boggy Creek, and any number of second-string kaiju. (Okay, the god[zilla]awful Son of Godzilla even pissed me off as a nine-year-old, but I was already a jaded little shit.) Of course, this isn’t confined to the horror genre; for some years post-puberty, I remained convinced that the Monkees were a real band and was moved by the gritty realism of Sarah T.: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic. However, I’m an odd exception when it comes…

1 SHE CREATURE MAKEUP PALETTE $28 USD Amphibious beauties: take a dive into the divine with this cruelty-free makeup palette by Widow Witch Cosmetix! With fifteen ghoulish, swamp-toned shades (including “Gill-man,” “Milicent,” and “1954”) and a built-in mirror, you’ll be the most comely creature in the whole lagoon. Widowwitchlashes.com 2 CHILD’S PLAY FANDAGES $7.99 USD Even if you’re one of the Good Guys, cuts are bound to happen when you play with sharp objects! Keep your wounds cleaner than your mouth with these collectible “fandages,” featuring five unique designs from your favourite killer doll flick. Now available for pre-order. Entertainmentearth.com 3 CHEDDAR GOBLIN JIGSAW PUZZLE $13 USD Among the many delights on offer in Panos Cosmatos’ 2018 film Mandy, the cheddar goblin who barfs macaroni on some delighted children is…

FOR NEARLY FIVE DECADES, OLIVER STONE HAS CULTIVATED A REPUTATION AS THE PROVOCATEUR PAR EXCELLENCE. ONCE LABELLED “THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA” BY THE L.A. TIMES, THE VIETNAM VETERAN IS AMONG THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL FIGURES TO HAVE EMERGED DURING NEW HOLLYWOOD. Winner of three Academy Awards (two for Best Director), no other filmmaker of his generation has inspired such equally prodigious levels of acclaim and revulsion. Uncompromising works such as Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Natural Born Killers and Nixon have cemented his standing as a socio-politically charged moviemaker of the first rank, one who is unafraid to pick at America’s most painful scabs. Less well known is the fact that Stone commenced his directorial career with two horror films: Seizure in 1974 (see sidebar) and…

ZINE CULTURE HAS EXPERIENCED A RICH RESURGENCE IN RECENT YEARS. Much like the revival of VHS and vinyl collecting, cut-and-paste zinemaking is part of a return to physical media, honouring our collective nostalgia for the pleasures of handmade objects and the communities forged through creation and trading. At their best, zines are purely D.I.Y. (do it yourself); they’re open to anyone and everyone. John Szpunar, editor of the authoritative tome Xeroxferox: The Wild World of the Horror Film Fanzine (2013), fondly remembers the horror zine that changed his life. It was the late ’80s and he was a teenager browsing the shelves of his local comic book shop. Among the back issues of Fangoria, he stumbled across a copy of Deep Red – an irreverent, give-no-fucks zine written, edited, and…

CENSORSHIP AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE. As these words are being written, the Internet is in an uproar over the decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises to stop publishing six of the beloved author’s books, and the deletion of a scene featuring harassment-happy Pepé Le Pew from Space Jam: A New Legacy. Cries of “censorship!” and “cancel culture!” have been flying everywhere, from people who don’t seem to realize that corporate decisions to remove sensitive material from their own houses, while certainly debatable, are not censorship. For a reminder of what the real thing – that is, government-sanctioned, media-encouraged censorship – looks like, along comes Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor, which premiered as part of this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival and will be released June 11 by Magnolia Pictures. It’s set…

I WISH YOU HELL THE DJINN Starring Ezra Dewey, Rob Brownstein and Tevy Poe Written and directed by David Charbonier and Justin Powell IFC Midnight Pop culture is well enough acquainted with the djinn these days – the shape-shifting Arabic analogue to the genie, who meddles in earthly affairs for the hell of it. This second feature from filmmaking duo David Charbonier and Justin Powell (following last year’s The Boy Behind the Door) takes some creative liberties with the existing djinn mythos, but the kind nobody wished for. Young Dylan (Ezra Dewey, also returning from The Boy Behind the Door) has just moved to into a new apartment with his radio DJ dad (Rob Brownstein) following some soon-to-be-revealed unpleasantness involving the death of his mother (Tevy Poe). Left alone one…

DEVIL’S ADVOCATES: DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS Kat Ellinger Liverpool University Press The prospect of reviewing an academic text that dissects a horror film as beloved as 1971’s Daughters of Darkness is not, by definition, a treat. After all, the majority of scholarly film writing I’ve reviewed within these pages has been as dry as corpse dust. Fortunately, British film writer/podcaster/editor Kat Ellinger understands this and ensures her entry into Auteur Publishing’s Devil’s Advocates series (which examines classic horror films) is far from bloodless. Harry Kümel’s movie is most assuredly a classic, one whose influences Ellinger traces back through not only vampire (and more specifically, lesbian vampire) film history but the Gothic and Decadent literary traditions, fairy tales, and the works of the Marquis de Sade. She also explores the history of…

You’d think after a year of pandemic life we’d be a bit more desensitized to death and tragedy, and yet when the reaper raised his scythe for 53-year-old David G. Barnett, owner/operator of horror imprints Necro Publications, Bedlam Press, and Weird West Books, in one of the most senseless ways imaginable (at the hands of a wrong-way driver on a Florida highway) on February 22, it was clear this was not the case. Every loss hurts. Every loss changes everything. While Barnett suffered a number of health challenges, he didn’t allow them to interfere with his dreams of writing and publishing. In an industry where publishers occasionally get up to nefarious business, he was one of the good ones, as evidenced in the numerous online memorials to him from friends…

SOUNDTRACK LUCKY Jeremy Zuckerman BURNING WITCHES RECORDS There is nothing subtle about Natasha Kermani’s film Lucky; bold and self-aware, its strong message and clever script required an equally strong sonic foundation. Lucky for Lucky, composer Jeremy Zuckerman delivers the goods in spades. Functioning as a crucial narrative element, Zuckerman’s electronic-acoustic hybrid score provides an intimate glimpse into protagonist May’s headspace. Haunting vocals and scratching, visceral strings relay her inner monologue while cold swells of digital sounds and icy synths create a hazy electronic soundscape. This diverse palette of sound and fusion of styles artfully pushes against traditional scoring conventions while providing an exciting and engaging listen. Even when distinct from the visuals, there’s an incredibly effective emotional transference that occurs. Released by Burning Witches as a fourteen-track coloured LP, the…

Ask a horror gamer what it is that sets the video game format over all others and there’s the obvious answer – games add interactivity to the mix, and the difference between watching someone creep around a haunted mansion and actually controlling each step is a substantial one. But what non-gamers might not realize is that this sense of interactivity extends even further into the wider relationship between gamers and developers, which explains (in part) why gaming has one of the most vocal and rabid fanbases of any pop culture media. Take my earliest example of horror gaming: it might sound like fanboy hyperbole, but 1993’s DOOM made me the person I am today. Growing up, I had access to movie theatres, recreation centres, and malls, but my preferred entertainment…