Table of contents for Issue 141 Jan/Feb 2014 in RUE MORGUE

For anyone counting, that’s three cover stories in a row featuring movies about demonic possession: Hellbenders, The Exorcist and now Here Comes the Devil. That’s two new films and the 40-year-old classic that kicked off the subgenre and is more popular now than when it was released. Things just kind of worked out that way due to release dates and an anniversary, but it is a good reminder that currently, exorcism titles are giving zombie flicks a good run – well, shuffle – for their money. I wasn’t too surprised when a fairly well-known horror director told me recently that he’s been having trouble securing a deal for his monster movie because all of the distributors he met with were fixated on possession films. This demonic trend began in 2005…

According to a recent press release from Hammer Films, the celebrated studio will remake its 1957 film The Abominable Snowman. President and CEO of Hammer, Simon Oakes, announced that the project is being developed in association with producer Ben Holden, who also collaborated on their upcoming productions of The Quiet Ones and The Woman In Black: Angel of Death. Like the original, which starred Peter Cushing, the updated Abominable Snowman will centre around the legendary Yeti, a creature believed to exist in the Himalaya mountain range between Asia and India. In this modern take, scripted by Matthew Read (Hammer of the Gods) and Jon Croker (the aforementioned Woman in Black sequel), a scientific expedition awakens “an ancient creature that could spell a certain end for them all.” MORE MONSTRO BIZARRO…

1. 28 DAYS LATER (2002) The ending used in the theatrical and home video releases of Danny Boyle’s zombie thriller is hopeful, as our three survivors signal a jet pilot flying overhead. In Boyle’s original ending – added to the theatrical release as a post-credits scene with the caption “What if?” – Jim bites it in a hospital. Selena and Hannah leave his body behind and head off to parts unknown. 2. ALIEN (1979) The ending we know and love has Ellen Ripley defeating the title creature before escaping in a shuttlecraft with Jonesy the cat. Another ending was devised by Ridley Scott, but never filmed. This grim alternate had the xenomorph sneaking up on an unsuspecting Ripley. After tearing her head off, it uses her vocal cords to contact…

THIS ISSUE: LANCE AGONIZES OVER ANTHOLOGIES TRACKING DEVICE DEATH BY VHS World Wide Multi Media Originally called Scream Machine, this anthology centres around a street drug that gets you high by watching VHS tapes (!?). (Note to young ’uns, light years ago the only way to watch a movie at home was to jam an oversized cassette tape into a huge, clunky machine called a VCR.) The segments feature stories about vampires and zombies, a disabled boy who gets his gruesome Christmas wish answered by a deranged Santa, and even one where Jesus battles the Easter Bunny in a hilariously gory death match. Extremely low production values, murky visuals and background noise that sounds as if you’re watching this in a car wash will transport you back to the heyday…

OVER THE LAST DOZEN OR SO YEARS, AN INDEPENDENT ART SCENE HAS SPRUNG UP THROUGH THE BORING LANDSCAPE OF MAINSTREAM FILM ADVERTISING, adding some much-needed colour to a very drab state of affairs. Soon after the advent of late 20thcentury technology-based graphics rendered handmade poster designs unfashionable, underground movie promoters started doing it for themselves. Unfettered by the kind of committee-based processes that can suck the life out of even the best ideas, designers have been crafting interesting and clever posters for classic titles, often commissioned for special film festival screenings or pure art’s sake. In just a few years, the trend has caught on worldwide and currently exists as a thriving example of fans’ dedication to good art. In his new book Alternative Movie Posters: Film Art From the…

Allow me to nerd out for a moment here… The One 7 Movies release of In Hell has both misleading cover art and an unnecessarily complicated provenance. For one thing, there are no lesbian bondage scenes in the film, as the cover implies, nor any sex for that matter. For another, the print used is titled Tortura in both the opening and end credit sequences. The (not always accurate) IMDb lists Tortura as an alternate Italian title for Gloria mundi (1976), which supposedly has a running time of 130 minutes, a lot longer than the 99 minutes on this DVD. Yet there aren’t any cuts apparent on the disc, and it certainly contains all the sleaze typical of the era. Jeez! Anyhow, In Hell is an Italian film set in…

SALEM RAGES IS CUT FROM THE SAME CLOAK AS ROB ZOMBIE’S THE LORDS OF SALEM… ALMOST. Both the movie and the band explore the connections between witchcraft, history and music, but whereas Zombie’s film uses music and witchcraft as the key to unlocking long-dormant dark forces in a sleepy Massachusetts town, Salem Rages uses music and witchcraft to explore a history of persecution, violence, fear and misunderstanding in Western culture. “The witch theme I see as a metaphor for any person prosecuted or put down for their beliefs and behaviour,” says frontman Roman Remains. “We have all been victims of narrow-minded beings. From activists like Pussy Riot, to youth in Afghanistan who are denied access to Western culture such as skateboards.” These themes work well for the British band, whose…

Thirty years after its premiere, Angst remains confined to cult status, woefully underappreciated in genre circles, despite its considerable legacy. The Austrian film’s plot is simplicity itself: a convicted murderer is let out of prison only to break into a house, where he tortures and kills an elderly lady, her young daughter and disabled son. He’s caught the very next day at a diner, with their corpses in the trunk of his car. And that’s all, folks. Doesn’t sound like much, and surely Angst doesn’t reinvent the wheel in terms of story. What it does reinvent, however, is the portrayal of a psycho killer. Directed by Gerald Kargl, Angst succeeds in portraying the alienated, chaotic, warped world of a man utterly controlled by his savage passions, and it uses a…

AS SOMEONE WHO has loved Rue Morgue since the very first issue I picked up at a bookstore around 2006 and have looked forward to the newest issue each month. I must congratulate you on RM#138, your 50 Years of Gore issue. You really knocked it out of the park with this one! Like always, I read it from cover to cover, and enjoyed all of the usual columns, but really especially enjoyed the cover story! Fifty years of gore by The Gore-Met, including Lewis, Argento, Savini, Buttgereit and Vogel? Absolutely amazing! I was also surprised and blown away by the two Videodrome pieces by Michael Doyle and Liisa Ladouceur. I rarely subscribe to any magazine, but I decided tonight that it’s long overdue. DAN DETITTA – ADDRESS WITHHELD I…

These days, it’s not unusual to have an international company with no corporate office, but you probably won’t find many producing content specifically for fans of ’80s and ’90s horror. Necrostorm is a collective that, since 2010, has been producing retro-style splatter films with a very modern approach. This year the company is expanding into video games, music and collectibles. “Our mission is simple,” says Necrostorm president and founder Giulio De Santi, who is based in Rome, Italy. “Produce movies, games, cartoons and whatever, that convey an ’80s and ’90s vibe, a big amount of ridiculous violence, frenetic action and a huge dose of nostalgia.” Responsible for recent throwback gore-fests Adam Chaplin [p.56] and Taeter City, Necrostorm enters the gaming world with Death Cargo (out early 2014, pictured), a tournament…

CASE NO.141 A 69-year-old Belgian widow was recently discovered to have spent a year sleeping beside her husband’s decaying and mummifying corpse after he died suddenly from an asthma attack. The “Murder House” from the first season of American Horror Story also appeared in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode “Fear Itself.” A San Francisco man recently discovered that an aerial photo of his son’s murdered body was being used by Google Maps since the crime occurred in 2009. Google has taken steps to remove the image. At one time, American evangelist Billy Graham claimed that a real demon resided in the film reels of The Exorcist. Before co-writing and directing Dead Ringers, David Cronenberg wrote a treatment for an unrealized project titled Roger Pagan, Gynecologist. In 2001, actor Ashton…

BEFORE MOVING TO MEXICO, ADRIÁN GARCÍA BOGLIANO HAD ALREADY ESTABLISHED HIMSELF AS A PROLIFIC WRITER, DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER OF INDIE HORROR IN ARGENTINA. Often collaborating with his brother, Ramiro García Bogliano, he’s explored religion, abortion, cults, politics, incest, rape and revenge, and more, carving out a niche in a country not known for its genre films. Many of these earlier titles remain difficult to find in North America, although some have hit DVD or even Netflix. Here’s what to look for… GOTAS DE SANGRE: THE SHORT FILMS OF ADRIÁN AND RAMIRO GARCÍA BOGLIANO (1998 – 2001) A two-hour collection, Gotas de Sangre (Drops of Blood) presents the earliest work of The Brothers Bogliano, showcasing their playfulness and broad range of interest in the genre. Several of the shorts are rather…

JANUARY 23 – 28 HAUNTCON (Tradeshow for haunted attraction and Halloween industries) Houston, Texas hauntcon.com FEBRUARY 7 – 9 DAYS OF THE DEAD Atlanta, Georgia daysofthedead.net MARCH 7 – 9 HORROR REALM SPRING BREAK MASSACRE Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania horrorrealmcon.com MARCH 7 – 9 MONSTER-MANIA CON Cherry Hill, New Jersey monstermania.net MARCH 20 – 23 TRANSWORLD’S HALLOWEEN & ATTRACTIONS SHOW (Wholesalers’ convention, not open to general public) St. Louis, Missouri haashow.com MARCH 21 – 23 HORRORHOUND WEEKEND Cincinnati, Ohio horrorhoundweekend.com MARCH 28 – 30 MONSTERPALOOZA Burbank, California monsterpalooza.com APRIL 4 – 6 CINEMA WASTELAND Strongsville, Ohio cinemawasteland.com APRIL 18 – 20 RUE MORGUE FESTIVAL FEAR NATIONAL HPRROR EXPO 2014 Vancouver, British Columbia fanexpovancouver.com APRIL 24 – 27 RUE MORGUE FESTIVAL FEAR NATIONAL HPRROR EXPO 2014 AS PART OF CALGARY COMIC AND ENTERTAINMENT…

After hosting tributes to the likes of Tim Burton, Federico Fellini and James Bond, the Toronto International Film Festival museum opened its doors in November to its first original exhibition: a celebration of a bona fide royal figure in Canadian horror. Housed in the main gallery of the TIFF Lightbox (a state-of-the-art complex dedicated to presenting films in the most pristine conditions possible), David Cronenberg: Evolution offers a vast, detailed collection of body horror riches. Elegantly displayed in three sections according to his chronology of films, the exhibit attempts to trace a vague evolution of themes across the director’s bizarre body of work. Regardless of the curatorial gobbledeegook that precedes each section, every Cronenberg feature is given its proper respect and is accompanied by a juicy arrangement of artifacts and…

ZOË BELL HAS BEEN SUBJECTING HER BODY TO BONE-CRUNCHING ABUSE ONSCREEN FOR MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS NOW. Since she first leapt out of a moving car on a New Zealand soap opera in 1992, Bell has become one of the world’s highest-profile stuntwomen. She served as a stunt double for Lucy Lawless in the cult-favourite television show Xena: Warrior Princess and later for Uma Thurman in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill. She went on to star opposite Kurt Russell in 2007’s Death Proof; and however polarizing Tarantino’s half of Grindhouse might have been, it marked a turning point in Bell’s career by putting her face onscreen, sometimes while clinging to the hood of a speeding Dodge Challenger. This month, the 35-year-old New Zealander is expanding her resume once again with Raze,…

LET THE OLD DREAMS DIE John Ajvide Lindqvist Thomas Dunne Swedon’s John Ajvide Lindqvist has become immensely popular in North America since his novel Let the Right One In was adapted for the big screen. His latest book, Let the Old Dreams Die, will appeal to his many fans, with its imaginative collection of dark and supernatural stories and short novellas, which range from weirdly beautiful to chillingly painful. Most anticipated are the two sequels included in the book: “The Final Processing” adds a chapter to Lindqvist’s philosophical zombie novel Handling the Undead, and “Let the Old Dreams Die” acts as an epilogue to Let the Right One In, dropping hints as to the later adventures of Oskar and Eli while launching into an original tale about the officer investigating…

If your wallet is wailing from the excesses of the holiday season, fear not, dear reader, you needn’t starve for stories while you’re replenishing your bank account. I’ve selected three free treats from wattpad.com, one of my favourite writing sites, to get you through the lean months. Playing Dead by Lindsey Clarke (a.k.a. @LittleCinnamon) It’s a wonder that Brit Lindsey Clarke hasn’t been courted by publishers yet, as her 2013 vampire novel is a real page-turner. In this tale of an illicit affair born of a murder-for-hire plot gone sideways, our heroine Megan is unwillingly turned into a bloodsucker and thrust into the middle of a long-running war between the vamps and the Varúlfur (a.k.a. werewolves). These fangers are anything but the primping, preening sissies that have risen to popularity…

HALLOWEEN SOUNDTRACK John Carpenter MONDO John Carpenter’s Halloween boasts the most recognizable horror movie music of all time, next to Jaws. The original vinyl pressing of the soundtrack contained only eleven tracks, but a complete 28-track version, including key dialogue excerpts, was released on CD by Varese Sarabande for the 20th anniversary of the slasher classic in 1998. Now Mondo has now stepped in to provide the entire score on vinyl for the first time. They’ve spread it out over two 180g LPs (orange variants exist, though the exact number is unknown), and though there is some slight surface noise, the sound quality matches that of the CD. Of course with Mondo, best known for their high-quality genre art prints, you’re assured the packaging will be the emphasis – for…

For more than 30 years, the novels of V.C. Andrews have been disturbing and titillating readers with their edgy and often incestuous familial relationships and dark subject matter. This January 18, the latest adaptation of Flowers in the Attic, the book that began it all – which was turned into a feature film in 1987 – is set to debut on the Lifetime network. The TV movie is being directed by Deborah Chow and produced by Merideth Finn (The Rite) and Michele Weiss (Little Children), who promises much care was taken in preserving the source material. “We didn’t really make changes to the novel to modernize it,” says Weiss, “except perhaps to update the dialogue. The movie is period, set in the late 1950s when the book is set, although…

1 FOSSILIZED CREATURE HAND PROP REPLICA $299.00 A replica of the one seen in The Creature From the Black Lagoon, this limited-edition Gill-man skeletal hand is perfect for fantasy fossil hunters. Weighing nearly nine pounds and cast in polyresin, it comes with a plaque, booklet about the prop and certificate of authenticity – just in case the market gets, uh, flooded with fake replica Creature hands. Reel in a remnant at factoryent.com. 2 THE TWILIGHT ZONE: THE COMPLETE SERIES $169.98 Travel into the middle ground between light and shadow with this new Twilight Zone box set. The five DVDs contain all the episodes from series 1 to 5, so forget the winter blues and get ready for a journey into a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as…

JANUARY 29 – FEBRUARY 2 GÉRARDMER INT’L FILM FESTIVAL Gérardmer, France festival-gerardmer.com FEBRUARY 21 – 23 NEVERMORE HORROR AND GOTHIC FILM FESTIVAL Durham, North Carolina festivals.carolinatheatre.org/nevermore FEBRUARY 24 – MARCH 9 FANTASPORTO Porto, Portugal fantasporto.com FEBRUARY 28 – MARCH 1 FILM4 FRIGHTFEST Glasgow, Scotland frightfest.co.uk APRIL 3 – 10 INT’L HORROR & SCI-FI FILM FESTIVAL Phoenix, Arizona horrorscifi.com APRIL 8 – 20 BRUSSELS INT’L FANTASTIC FILM FESTIVAL Brussels, Belgium bifff.net APRIL 9 – 13 NIGHT VISIONS FILM FEST Helsinki, Finland nightvisions.info APRIL 11 – 13 H.P LOVECRAFT FILM FEST Portland, Oregon hplfilmfestival.com APRIL 19 SALT CITY HORROR FEST Syracuse, New York palaceonjames.com APRIL 24 – 27 DEAD BY DAWN Edinburgh, Scotland deadbydawn.co.uk JUNE 7 FEARS FOR QUEERS GLBT HORROR FILM FESTIVAL Dallas, Texas doabloodbath.com JULY TBA CRYPTSHOW FESTIVAL Barcelona, Spain…

CONSUMER CULTURE WE ARE WHAT WE ARE Starring Bill Sage, Ambyr Childers and Julia Garner Directed by Jim Mickle Written by Nick Damici and Jim Mickle E1 Now this is how you remake a film – take a basic concept and recast it in a different place, for a different culture, in order to find new meaning in the theme. We Are What We Are director Jim Mickle and his co-writer Nick Damici transport Jorge Michel Grau’s 2010 cannibal film from the urban slums of Mexico to backwater America. They also change the family dynamic: instead of a patriarch dying and leaving two sons and a daughter to feed, a matriarch dies, leaving two daughters and a son. The machinations of the plots are markedly different, but ultimately both fractured…

IN THIS ISSUE THE DARK OF THE FOREST Russell Hillman and Sergio Calvet Freaktown Comics AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #2 Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Francesco Francavilla Archie Comics FIVE GHOSTS #6 Frank J. Barbiere and Garry Brown Images HELLRAISER ANNUAL 2013 Brandon Seifert, Clive Barker, Ben Meares, et. .al. BOOM! SLEDGEHAMMER 44: LIGHTNING WAR #1 OF 3 Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Laurence Campbell Dark Horse THE RAVEN AND THE RED DEATH Richard Corben Dark Horse In this age of remakes, re-imaginings, deconstructions and reconstructions, it’s refreshing to come upon a release that just revels in what it is: a good, old-fashioned horror story that’s not trying to reinvent the wheel and is all the more entertaining because of it. The Dark of the Forest, by Freaktown Comics’ Russell Hillman and Sergio…

Take a fascination with VHS cover art, add an obsession with the extreme and bizarre artwork of the Japanese movement known as Ero Guro Nansensu (which translates to erotic grotesque nonsense), let simmer in Mexico and what do you get? Guro, a.k.a. Eduardo Santaella, an artist from Mexico City whose surreal pop-culture work pulls in a wide variety of influences, resulting in everything from original creature illustrations to punk collage – but with monsters very much in mind. “I find the element of the absurd inherent in horror very appealing and I always try to represent that visually, and also phonetically,” says the artist. “‘Guro’ sounds a lot like a word in Spanish, so it’s not hard to say at all.” He cites his main influences as Basil Wolverton, Mike…

Belgium’s One Way Static Records is the latest label to venture into the horror soundtrack LP market, but it launched with something unexpected: Wes Craven’s shocking 1972 rape-revenge scumfest The Last House on the Left. Normally when we think of cool horror movie soundtracks it’s fun synth-y John Carpenter classics, grandiose John Williams orchestral scores or the freaky prog weirdness of Italians such as Fabio Frizzi. But the Last House soundtrack, written and partially performed by co-star David Hess, is a very different kind of horror music. Last House on the Left, which was also Craven’s debut, is the most disturbing, upsetting horror movie ever made. In it, Hess plays Krug Stillo, a low-life who, with his equally greasy fellow gang members, rapes and kills two young girls before the…

PATHFINDER RPG Role-Playing Game Paizo It’s Tuesday evening and we’re facing down an angry ogre. His first step towards us shakes the ground, the severed heads he’s stitched to his belt swing in gruesome synchronicity. The wizened Elf on my left hesitates, but the Rogue and Paladin on my right immediately draw their weapons. My shield is still glowing from a spell cast by our Druid companion as I draw my own sword, wondering how we will ever survive this fight. Luckily, the ogre is only three inches high, a miniature figure meticulously painted by our Game Master. The Druid is my girlfriend, the Paladin is an IT specialist, the Rogue a landscaper and the Elf a woman named Tonja. The swords and armour aren’t real either, the dungeon is…