Table of contents for Issue 146 July 2014 in RUE MORGUE

The magazine you’re reading fits in the detective genre, which is to say that our mandate has always been to investigate horror in culture and entertainment, in order to better understand and enjoy the genre. As serious horror fans, I think we all do a lot of detective work, gathering information on what scares us and tracking down the content responsible for putting fear in our hearts, perhaps to solve the mystery of why we’re attracted to it. Or just to try to relive the thrill of chasing down the forbidden. Everyone is curious about the mysterious and unknown, but only some of us dare put it under the magnifying glass. It’s certainly no coincidence that our name was taken from Edgar Allan Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue.” That…

1. THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM COLLECTOR SET $24.99/$29.99 Residents of Region 2 rejoice: this exquisite release of the Roger Corman-directed The Pit and the Pendulum by Arrow Films features a slew of bonus features, including a new documentary featuring Barbara Steele and Corman himself, plus footage of Vincent Price reading the works of Edgar Allan Poe before a live audience. The atmosphere is heavy in here… Swing over to arrowfilms.co.uk. 2. GREAT HORROR MOVIE VILLAINS PAPER DOLLS $12.15 Erin A. Ellis’ collection of detailed paper dolls runs the gamut from slashers to psychos: you can dress up Leatherface for dinner or put Norman Bates in Mother’s Sunday best. Ellis has also included a selection of intended victims and nemeses (Wendy Torrence and Clarice Starling, to name two) to take…

WHETHER IT’S DUE TO CASTING, LOCATION, EFFECTS, FOOTAGE, BUDGET OR DISCONTENTMENT ON THE PART OF STUDIOS OR PRODUCERS, IT’S NOT UNUSUAL FOR FILMS TO UNDERGO SOME CHANGES WHEN MAKING THE TRANSITION FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN. But Curtains was radically overhauled by producer Peter Simpson, who excised entire scenes, had existing ones re-edited and later shot and inserted new footage. In order to reveal his vision for the film, original director Richard Ciupka mailed us his shooting script so we could contrast and compare. Written by Robert Guza, Jr. (who also penned the screenplay to the 1980 Simpson-produced cult hit, Prom Night), this Curtains script (dated October 1980) begins not with noted actress Samantha Sherwood (Samantha Eggar) admitting herself into a mental institution to prepare for her upcoming role as the…

REMEMBER THE DAYS WHEN THOUGHTS COULD KILL? WHEN THE COUNTLESS NEURONS AND SYNAPSES THAT COMPOSE THE HUMAN BRAIN COULD HARNESS THE MENTAL POWER TO HURL OBJECTS, INCINERATE BODIES AND EXPLODE HEADS WITH EFFORTLESS INDIFFERENCE? Although audiences trembled at the telekinetic traumas of Carrie, The Fury, Patrick and The Medusa Touch, the most visceral slice of speculative scifi/horror to emerge from this period was David Cronenberg’s (literally) mind-blowing shocker Scanners (out on Blu-ray and DVD from Criterion on July 15). Released in 1981, the titular telepaths are mutants created by the side effects of Ephemerol, a drug prescribed as an analgesic for pregnant women. Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack), a derelict with psychic abilities, is recruited by Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan) to the ranks of ConSec, an organization that is gathering…

THIS ISSUE: LANCE DRINKS WITH DEADLY ANIMALS A BRONX TAIL BLOODMARSH KRACKOON Independent Entertainment Bronxite (yes, that’s a word) Jerry Landi first came to prominence with a 62-minute film he foisted on the world back in 2010 called Krackoon: the tale of a crack-addicted raccoon that terrorizes part of the Bronx, which, believe it or not, wasn’t based on a true story. Bloodmarsh Krackoon is the sequel; it picks up where the original left off with the masked monster, affectionately called Red Eye, and her litter of cubs infected by a toxic sludge that makes them even more deadly to rapists, internet strippers and any wise guys trying to give the Bronx a bad name. Filmed with laughable puppets, lousy CGI and some hit-and-miss acting, it definitely deserves your…

After an uninspiring stint working within the corporate confines of the commercial design and advertising industry, creating concept drawings and sculptures, and doing product development for Disney, Paramount Pictures, Coca-Cola and Warner, Michigan-based artist Doug P’Gosh is now happy to be a full-time monster maker. Hell-bent on ’50s and ’60s pop culture, pin-ups, hot rods, and horror and tiki culture, these days he takes commissions and paints for shows at galleries such as La Luz De Jesus Gallery in LA. He also illustrates gig posters, acts as art director and develops products for Retro-A-Go-Go, an online collectible merchandise company he co-runs with his wife, Kirsten. Though he cites classic American illustrators Norman Saunders, Reynold Brown, Basil Gogos and Jack Davis as his main influences, along with contemporaries such as Todd…

This month we feature a band whose identity is wrapped in black magic, witches and the occult. That Blood Ceremony’s sound is so rooted in ’70s rock is no coincidence – its themes point back to the originators of doom and stoner rock, Black Sabbath, the band that introduced an End of Days sound with an unprecedented dark mystique. The last few years have seen the birth of a growing number of similarly occult-inspired bands, and even Sabbath itself is getting in on the act; the (mostly) original lineup returned last year with a new album, 13, and a tour that basked in old school diabolical horror imagery. On that doomy note, I’ve selected four bands that don’t necessarily sound alike but embody that same devilish spirit. SABBATH ASSEMBLY One…

HEY RUE CREW. Congrats on winning Best Magazine at the Rondo Awards! DAVE DA STEWART, VIA FACEBOOK [And a HUGE thanks to everyone who voted for us! – Ed.] MY THANKS TO @RueMorgue for the [May 15 CineMacabre screening] Skype Q&A after the Canadian premiere of Wolf Creek 2. Many thanks for your support, guys. @AARONSTERNS, VIA TWITTER LET ME BEGIN by saying I love your magazine and I have been a subscriber for years. I especially love your honesty, brutal at times, in your reviews of all things horror. One thing I don’t love is your continued use of the word “midget.” In RM#144, in Last Chance Lance’s review of Porn Shoot Massacre, he writes “a horny midget with a mighty big dildo.” First of all, there’s no such…

BOTH HANNIBAL AND BATES MOTEL HAVE FOUND LOYAL AUDIENCES, BUT SPINNING OFF A HORROR FRANCHISE INTO A TV SERIES IS NO EASY FEAT. DOWN THAT ROAD LIES ONE-SEASON WONDERS, SQUANDERED POTENTIAL AND MORE THAN A FEW JUST-PLAIN-DUMB IDEAS. WE ROUND UP SOME OF THE MOST MEMORABLE OF TELEVISION PAST. BEHOLD! THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BARELY PALATABLE… FREDDY’S NIGHTMARES (1988-1990) Nothing sums up 1980s horror quite like Freddy Krueger, and nothing sums up ’80s cinema quite like milking a cash cow until its teats are as mangled as Krueger’s face. The Nightmare on Elm Street films were stylish, populated by likable characters and more imaginative than their competition. As the sequels continued, demand for Freddy increased and the Elm Street franchise sank its money-harvesting claws into television. Freddy’s Nightmares…

ON A SWELTERING JUNE NIGHT IN THE BRONX, IN A FILTHY APARTMENT, SCOTT DERRICKSON IS INSPECTING THE PROP DEPARTMENT’S LATEST WORK: A HORRIFYINGLY REALISTIC CRUCIFIED CAT. The filmmaker – famous for helming The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Sinister – is on the set of his latest demonic horror film, Deliver Us From Evil. He starts laughing: “That’s the worst fucking thing I’ve ever seen! That’s so awesome!” Derrickson beckons over the film’s star, Eric Bana (best known for starring in the 2003’s The Hulk), who immediately beats a wincing retreat, chuckling that he doesn’t think he’ll take a picture for his kids. Bana stars as Ralph Sarchie in this Jerry Bruckheimer-produced adaptation of Sarchie’s 2001 book Beware the Night, about his apparently true adventures as an NYPD officer who…

There is no shortage of stories that equate female sexual power with animalistic attacks – something about all that blood, perhaps. Often the combination of female and feral is literal, especially in horror cinema, which has cross-bred women with apes, cats, wasps, wolves and more since the 1940s and ’50s. One of the more intriguing examples, the snake woman, may have her cultural roots in mythology and religion, but she’s also wound a trail through drive-ins and dive theatres across North America. Whether you immediately think of Medusa’s coiffure or that dastardly apple-hawking reptile in the Garden of Eden, the snake is a universal symbol: a graceful seductress and fertility figure that can turn deadly on a dime. The snake woman’s genesis as a horror cinema mainstay can largely be…

IMAGINE THIS: YOU CAN GO OUTSIDE BUT ONLY BLINDFOLDED BECAUSE SOMETHING LURKING OUT THERE, beyond the threshold of your front door, will inexplicably drive you to madness, murder and suicide should you happen to gaze upon it – even just for a few seconds. Now imagine this threat lingering for years, until you’ve almost forgotten what trees, animals and the night sky look like. This is the quietly insidious post-apocalyptic world of Josh Malerman’s debut novel Bird Box (out now from HarperCollins), which sees the majority of the human race extinguished, nature slowly reclaiming the urban spaces and the few remaining survivors living on in varying states of fear, complacency and mental instability. “I’m not sure I can add anything to the vampire, werewolf or zombie realms, so I’m always…

LIKE SO MANY HORRORS OF THE LAST CENTURY, BLOOD CEREMONY WAS BORN IN A BASEMENT. The ’70s-inspired, flautist-fronted band, whose sound has appropriately been dubbed “witch rock,” held its first musical black mass nearly a decade ago, when guitarist Sean Kennedy and original drummer Jeremy Finkelstein met for informal jam sessions in Kennedy’s Toronto basement. “We actually put together a gig in mid-2005 with Alia [O’Brien] playing flute, but she wasn’t our singer at the time,” Kennedy recalls during a break from the group’s latest European tour. “We covered songs like Black Sabbath’s ‘Electric Funeral.’ … By the following year, Alia had become our singer and, because we loved Deep Purple, also started playing vintage organ. Her flute-playing quickly took prominence and I began writing songs with flute melodies. Alia…

A CREEPY DOLL STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD IN THE RAIN. THE SHOCKING DISCOVERY OF A HEAD FLOATING IN A TOILET. A SICKLEWIELDING KILLER IN AN OLD HAG MASK METHODICALLY SKATING ACROSS A POND. Those are just a few of the images burned into the brains of those who sought out Curtains, one of the later releases to come out of the original slasher boom of the late 1970s and early ’80s. Long out of print and only available on muddy VHS tapes and grey market bargain bin DVD compilations, the 1983 film is arguably one of the most underrated offerings from Canada’s golden age of horror cinema. Plagued with production problems that delayed its release for two years, ignored by audiences at the time and disparaged by…

BLOOD RUNS OLD ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE Starring Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch Sony Pictures Classics What do you want out of your vampire movies? Bloodsucking and neck biting, nasty kills with pointy stakes and gory, ripped-out hearts? That’s not what you’ll get from Only Lovers Left Alive. It’s actually not even a horror movie. But if your taste runs towards the atmospheric or the art house, it just might be your favourite film of the year. Let’s start with Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton. Because… My. Lord. As Adam (a wealthy but reclusive rock musician living among the ruins of Detroit) and Eve (his long-time androgynous, angelic-looking wife, who decamps from her life of leisure in Tangiers, Morocco, when she suspects…

THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR: VOLUME SIX Ellen Datlow, ed. Night Shade Books Each year, editor Ellen Datlow scours every new short story/novella anthology, collection, magazine and webzine in search of the best horror from the last twelve months, and with each year that passes – and with short genre fiction currently being in a Golden Age, according to Datlow – the number of volumes to sift through grows. The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Six continues Night Shade’s series with another installment of stories and poems, hand-selected for creative merit, ingenuity and, of course, scare factor. The 2013 retrospective sees authors such as Lee Thomas, Neil Gaiman, Nina Allan, Kim Newman and Laird Barron contribute spectacular shorts and poems, which act as a snapshot of modern mainstream…

SOUNDTRACK WOLF CREEK II Johnny Klimek LAKESHORE RECORDS After collaborating with Reinhold Heil on films such The Cave and Land of the Dead, Johnny Klimek goes solo with Wolf Creek II, delivering an epic soundscape of grungy electric and brass emulations to convey the torment of being stalked, snatched, tortured and dispensed with like rancid offal. Everything seems to be derived from metal – surface hits, shimmering tones, reverb – and the brass samples have been reduced to rippling snarls reminiscent of Elliot Goldenthal’s Alien³, when they’re not part of an aggressive fugue. The score’s grim tone is briefly soothed by two soft cues that underscore an early moment of peace and a rest-in-peace lament (both featuring warm chords on keyboards), and the album closes with a set of source…

AMONG THE SLEEP PC, Mac Krillbite Studio We’ve been waiting over a year for this highly anticipated Kickstarter-backed project, and for the game design alone, the wait has been worth it. But when held up against other indie horror heavy-hitters such as Outlast or Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, this dark fantasy is a little disappointing. Placing you in the role of a toddler, this short, first-person adventure has you enter a sinister, surreal world in search of your mother, who’s been kidnapped by some unknown presence. Along for the journey is an unsettling, talking teddy bear who helps you find items strongly connected to your mom, in order to unlock a passageway to reunite with her. To acquire these items, you must visit different parts of this dream world…

JOHN S. ROBERTSON USA - 1920 Few people realize that the image of one of cinema’s most famous film monsters – the dualistic Jekyll and Hyde – owes less to Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella than to its reinterpretation in early 20th-century silent films. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was perhaps the most frequently filmed Gothic literary work in the Silent Era, adapted at least 29 films between 1897 and 1929 in countries as diverse as Denmark, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. These films cover a wide range of genres from horror to farce and boast the involvement of such iconic Silent Era figures as German director F.W. Murnau and actors Conrad Veidt and John Barrymore. The essence of silent cinema’s reinterpretation of…