Table of contents for Issue 157 July 2015 in RUE MORGUE

What a difference a hyphen can make. A nightmare is, as you know, a bad dream, the experiences we all have while sleeping that fuel feelings of fear, anxiety, sadness or other negative emotions. A night-mare, however, is much more specific, powerful and horrifying, as it’s another name for sleep paralysis: a unique state between consciousness and unconsciousness in which you can’t move or speak but your eyes are open and you experience very vivid hallucinations of a malevolent force in the room with you that exerts pressure on your chest, causing you to gasp for breath. Sleep paralysis affects a minority of the population, but it’s a global phenomenon that’s probably as old as humanity, as evidenced by the fact that it’s been referenced in books, art and folklore…

Montreal is once again preparing itself for the genre cinema onslaught known as the Fantasia International Film Festival. The nineteenth edition of the annual fest runs from July 14 through August 4, and will host 22 continuous days of film screenings, Q&As, spotlights and other special events. Originally conceived in 1996 as a celebration of Asian genre cinema, Fantasia has since expanded its scope to include horror, action, sci-fi and fantasy films from around the world. Last year’s festival attracted 129,000 fans and screened 461 movies from 32 countries, making it one of the world’s largest and most influential genre film fests. Fantasia 2015 will offer some mainstream programming, including the Montreal premiere of Marvel’s Ant-Man. The meat of the festival, though, is genre fare aimed at moviegoers with more…

IN THE WORLD OF POP CULTURE, FEW BOOKS ARE AS CONTROVERSIAL AS AMERICAN PSYCHO, THE 1991 NOVEL BY BRET EASTON ELLIS. At the time regarded as a member of the 1980s brat pack of writers that also included Jay McInerney and Tama Janowitz, Ellis had made his name at just 21 years old with his debut novel Less Than Zero (1985), the sensational bestseller about debauched teens in Los Angeles. Though his follow-up, The Rules of Attraction (1987), about debauched university students, was less successful, it would introduce readers to Patrick Bateman, a minor player in the book who became the titular character in Ellis’ third novel. Set amidst the clubs, restaurants and offices of New York City in the late 1980s, American Psycho is the story of Bateman’s seemingly…

CREATURES OF THE MIND – THE DARK CREATIONS BURIED DEEP IN YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS – ARE THE SCARIEST THINGS YOU CAN EVER EXPERIENCE. Incorporating lucid dream experiments, fevered hallucinations and sleep paralysis, French director Romain Basset digs deep into the terrors of the sleeping brain with his first feature, Horsehead. Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux stars as Jessica, a young woman plagued by puzzling nightmares since childhood, to the point of undergoing therapy. When her grandmother dies, she returns to the family home and the mother, Catelyn (Catriona MacColl: The Beyond, House by the Cemetery), she doesn’t get along with. Jessica soon develops a fever resulting in nightmares involving her grandmother, other family members and a terrifying horse-headed creature. By employing lucid dreaming, she attempts to get to the root of it all, uncovering…

APOCALYPSE WOW! MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Starring Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult Directed by George Miller Written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy and Nick Lathouris Warner Bros. “My name is Max. My world is fire. And blood.” And mutants. Everything in the Mad Max universe has mutated for Mad Max: Fury Road. The humans are more physically grotesque; humanity has reached new levels of cruelty; highway war machines have morphed into fire-breathing monsters; and the infernal landscape is inflated by impossibly huge sandstorms and fiery tornados. Behind it all is George Miller – the 70-year-old writer/director/producer of the original Mad Max trilogy – who’s even remade himself, from the guy whose last three films starred talking animals, to the creator of the best, darkest, modern action movie in…

They say that behind every great man stands a great woman, but this dusty cliché becomes the source of uncertainty and fear in 1962’s Burn, Witch, Burn, a UK-shot tale of suburban witchcraft that hits Bluray this month, courtesy of Kino Lorber. This smart and well-made film, originally titled Night of the Eagle, soars above most horror programmers of the era, using a familiar set-up to tap into unease over evolving gender roles – and more specifically, one man’s anxiety about whether he really wears the pants in his marriage. Made at a time when there was a surge of women entering the workforce to pursue their own careers, the film focuses on the relationship breakdown between Professor Norman Taylor (Peter Wyngarde) and his wife Tansy (Janet Blair) as they…

IN REGGIE OLIVER’S INTRODUCTION TO HIS 400-PAGE RETROSPECTIVE COLLECTION, THE SEA OF BLOOD, the British author explains that his writing is inspired by “the terrible strangeness just beneath the surface of the ordinary” and by “the unsettling interaction between the physical and the metaphysical.” Sure enough, Oliver’s stories offer a modern take on the classical English ghost stories as perfected by M.R. James at the beginning of the 20th century. “Though a hundred years separate our lives,” Oliver says, “I feel I have a considerable affinity with M.R. James. There is no doubt that his style, subject matter and technique have influenced mine. He is one of those writers whose strength is in his limitations and who, within a small compass, produced some masterly work.” Yet, Oliver’s writing is far…

In horror, everything old can be new again, so let’s look at two fresh spins on well-worn tropes. After the zombie film, backwoods survival horror is perhaps the most played-out subgenre there is. For every The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Rituals (1976) or The Hills Have Eyes (1977), there are hundred low-budget flicks such as Psycho Holocaust (2009), Bunnyman (2011) or Red River (2011). But however hackneyed movies about hulking brutes stalking and killing people in the woods can be, there’s a certain comfort in knowing exactly what you’re going to get: some splatter! Marcel Walz’ Blood Valley: Seed’s Revenge (2014) is one of those. There’s nothing new in it, the plot is an amalgam of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, but hey, it’s ladled with…

CRADLE OF FILTH FRONTMAN DANI FILTH OWNS MULTIPLE COPIES OF THE MALLEUS MALEFICARUM, WHICH IS NOT SURPRISING GIVEN HIS BAND’S LONG-STANDING PREOCCUPATION WITH THE DARK ARTS. First published around 1487 and known as The Witches’ Hammer in English, the Malleus Maleficarum was, for nearly three centuries, the manual witch hunters used to recognize and pass judgment upon suspected black magic practitioners. It’s also the inspiration for the extreme metal band’s eleventh studio album, Hammer of the Witches (available July 10 from Nuclear Blast Records). “The title of the book was about punishment of witches – witches being pounded by the strong arm of the law, with the Malleus Maleficarum essentially being a guidebook to supposed witchcraft,” explains Filth. “Our album is about putting the hammer in the witches’ hands. It’s…

BBC UK - 1975-1983 If you were a British horror film aficionado during the late 1970s and early 1980s, the place to be on summer Saturday nights was in front of a television tuned to BBC2 to get your fix of the station’s Horror Double Bills. Though the idea of dedicating whole evenings to horror had been a staple of American television since the 1950s, it was a new idea to more conservative British television audiences. For a whole generation of kids in their impressionable early teens, this was their first opportunity to experience the horrors of Universal and Hammer, which had terrified their parents and grandparents before them. Modelled after movie theatre B-movie double bills, the presentations were imaginatively subtitled under names such as Masters of Terror and Monster…

JUST FINISHED and sent off my final Necronomicomics, which will run in July’s issue. Thanks to Rue Morgue magazine for all their support these past four years, and to Ron McKenzie for his continued support of my work during his time as office manager of the magazine. JAY FOSGITT, VIA FACEBOOK [And thank you for the fantastic Necronomicomics, Jay. See more of Jay’s work at jayfosgitt.com – Ed.] ALWAYS THE START of a good day when I find a new RM in my mail! Cool cover [for #155], guys! @BOOBTYRRELL, VIA TWITTER THE RUE MORGUE with a red-eyed Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal on the cover [#155] has the best review of David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows that I’ve read. Dave Alexander neither praises nor bashes the film excessively, which I…

A stay in the ruins of a place associated with a tale of a reanimated corpse isn’t the kind of thing that you’ll likely find listed on Expedia, but for adventurous horror fans, the chance to spend Halloween night in the remnants of Frankenstein’s Castle is a dream – that can come true. Connecticut-based Tours of Terror, organizers of the long-running Dracula Tour excursions to Transylvania, has announced that the 2016 edition of its annual Halloween tour will include a stopover at the place that, according to popular lore, helped inspire Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus. The castle visit will be part of a week-long tour scheduled for October 25 through November 1, 2016. Travelling by coach, the group will divide its time between Germany and…

1. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD TANK DRESS $34.95 They’re coming to get you, Barbara! And they’re dolled up in this Night of the Living Dead Tank Dress by Kreepsville 666 featuring the classic Karen Cooper face on the front and NotLD logo on the back. It’s 95% polyester, 5% spandex and all zombie! 2. HORROR HANGERS $40 Bedeck your pad with some classic horror villainy with this horror icon hanger by artist Trevor Henderson, measuring 25 inches tall when fully stretched out and printed on 100 lb glossy card stock. Michael comes with a gigantic kitchen knife and the blackest eyes… the devil’s eyes. 3. ZOMBIE SIGN $28 Hang one of these ghoul guardians on a wall, door or garden fence and keep those pesky kids outta your azaleas!…

THOUGH SHE’S A CO-ARCHITECT IN BRINGING ONE OF LITERATURE’S MOST NOTORIOUSLY EVIL CHARACTERS TO LIFE, YOU MIGHT BE SURPRISED TO LEARN THAT SCREENWRITER AND ACTRESS GUINEVERE TURNER IS NOT A BIG FAN OF THE GENRE SHE MADE HER BONES IN. “A little known fact about me is I hate horror movies,” says Turner with a laugh, on the phone from Beverly Hills. “I’m just a big scaredy cat. I don’t even watch horror movie trailers. I have nightmares. People think I’m one of those badass chicks who loves them. I had to be tricked into seeing Silence of the Lambs. Same with Let the Right One In. My friends tricked me into seeing that. I was, like, “‘Fuck you guys!’” Turner managed to suppress her fears, however, when it came…

THERE ARE BRAINIACS AND THEN THERE’S ALBERT EINSTEIN. THERE ARE HOT BLONDES AND THEN THERE’S MARILYN MONROE. THERE ARE LEGENDARY CHARACTER ACTORS AND THEN THERE’S DICK MILLER! With the release of That Guy Dick Miller (out now on DVD and VOD by Indiecan Entertainment) – a documentary on the man known for his Roger Corman collaborations and for appearing in almost every Joe Dante movie – Rue Morgue catche up with the 85-year-old thespian to discuss his incomparable career. WAS IT ALWAYS YOUR AMBITION TO BECOME AN ACTOR? No, I started out as a singer then became a writer. It just so happened that I met Roger Corman and a series of funny events led to my becoming an actor. Roger was like a mentor to me as I knew…

MOVIES ARE LIKE PEOPLE; SOME SHINE AND SOME DON’T. The merging of one of cinema’s foremost auteurs, Stanley Kubrick, with a best-selling horror novel by Stephen King, 1980’s The Shining was snubbed by the Academy and bashed by reviewers upon its release, but nevertheless remains one of the most enduring genre films of all time. Yet, despite its devoted fan base, much of the film has remained shrouded in mystery… until now. Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining: Studies in the Horror Film, out now from Centipede Press, makes full use of its 752 pages to cover everything fans of the film ever wanted to know. The hefty tome is packed with academic essays, as well as new and classic interviews with the movie’s cast and crew, including the elusive Kubrick himself.…

COFFIN UP A STORM AEON: THE LAST VAMPIRE ON EARTH Chemical Burn Entertainment It’s been a while since I reviewed any vampire movies, so I dove into the delete bin and got an instant shame-boner from the cover of this DVD, which depicts a fleet of flying saucers laying waste to a city. Unfortunately, there isn’t a single UFO in the film, which follows a girl trapped in an underground storage facility with the decaying remains of an ancient vampire, while an unspecified calamity rumbles outside. Too weak to eat her, he spends his time horking up green shit while expounding upon the fragility of humanity. It might have worked if the director had cut the coughing and chit-chat and focused more on the claustrophobic surroundings. Only watch it…

“The Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing.” – Spinal Tap “I really hope they somehow have a snake-guy offering a woman an apple.” – Dave Alexander Sorry Dave, bit of a bust on that front. However, at one point in Jaws of Satan (1981) we do get a priest striding boldly across a cave floor littered with rattlers in a clumsy approximation of the Bible passage “Behold, I give unto you the power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19, and yes, I had to Google that), so it’s not a total loss. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Jaws of Satan (just released on a…

THE SHAFT David J. Schow Centipede Press Given his notoriety as the so-called father of splatterpunk and a co-writer on The Crow script, it is frankly weird that David J. Schow’s one horror novel, 1990’s The Shaft, has never seen a North American release until now. Instead, out-of-print foreign editions and old-fashioned word of mouth have helped it accrue a reputation as a lost bloody treasure. Centipede Press has finally remedied this with a beautiful, high-end edition, which is at odds with the filth - both literal and figurative - on display within its pages. The Shaft opens with Miami drug-runner Cruz fleeing to frigid, snowbound Chicago to escape the wrath of his vengeful boss in the wake of a tragic accident. He takes up residence in Kenilworth Arms, a…

SOUNDTRACK DEMONS (1985) Claudio Simonetti RUSTBLADE To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Demons, Italy’s Rustblade label brings Claudio Simonetti’s score back into circulation on CD and LP – a testament to the longevity of the composer’s insanely catchy title theme. The sampled and processed “D-D-D-Dehmonz” vocals add another layer of rhythm to the cue’s existing bass hits and guitar licks, while Simonetti also quotes from Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s deliciously malevolent Peer Gynt. Equally effective is “Killing,” which acts as a motor during the more gory sequences, boasting an assaultive bass pulse for the flesh-hungry hybrids and thick, plaintive synths for the doomed cinemagoers. Rustblade’s mastering of the original score is impeccable, as are the bonus tracks of unreleased, demo and subsequent album and live versions of the Demons theme,…

After six decades of ferreting out the secrets of the human mind, renowned mentalist The Amazing Kreskin has turned his attention to the darkest mystery of all: Internet dating. March saw the launch of The Amazing Kreskin’s Supernatural Dating Society (SDS), a website aimed at helping people connect with fellow paranormal enthusiasts. “There’s a tremendous interest today in the paranormal, whether it’s UFOs or out-of-body experiences or reincarnation or mystical phenomena,” Kreskin says. “I don’t believe in all of this myself, but it lends itself to tremendous discussion.” The famously sceptical performer, who celebrated his 80th birthday in January, rose to fame in the 1970s, when he became a familiar face throughout Canada and the US as the star of TV’s The Amazing World of Kreskin and one of Johnny…

CASE NO. 157 Some stuntmen working on Mad Max: Fury Road were so worried about getting pinned under the film’s tanker truck if it rolled, they unhooked their safety harnesses just before “action” was called so that they could be thrown free if it wrecked. According to Centers for Disease Control, approximately eight people contract the bubonic plague each year in the United States. In April, the New York Post interviewed Christopher Scarver, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s jailhouse murderer. Scarver contends he committed the crime because Dahmer “would fashion severed limbs out of prison food to taunt the other inmates.” Eddie Murphy was at one point considered for the role of the titular villain in 1992’s Candyman. It ultimately went to Tony Todd. In April 2001, while digging his mother’s…

(Playmates, 1991) The ultra-violent 1984 cult classic The Toxic Avenger spawned several sequels and, ironically enough, a children’s animated TV series, Toxic Crusaders (1990-91). The cartoon led to the production of a variety of merchandise, including a line of colourful action figures and vehicles from Playmates. The approximately 4 ½-inch tall toys come with several accessories (e.g. Toxie has a mop, shield and glow-in-the dark Blobbie) and unopened figures can be found on eBay for $20 to $30. MORE CRYPTIC COLLECTIBLES AT RUE-MORGUE…

JUSTIN BENSON HAS NOTHING AGAINST VAMPIRES. IN FACT, THE CREATURE HE AND HIS CO-DIRECTOR AARON MOORHEAD CREATED FOR THEIR BODY HORROR LOVE STORY SPRING SHARES ELEMENTS WITH THE CLASSIC BLOODSUCKER, IN ADDITION TO A NUMBER OF OTHER MYTHOLOGICAL BEASTIES. He just disputes the evolutionary basis of their immortality. “In vampire mythology, vampires drink blood to remain immortal, and that’s not scientifically sound,” he says. “But ours is.” “Ours is totally scientifically sound,” adds Moorhead, both filmmakers bursting out in laughter. Rue Morgue spoke to the producer-director team on the day of Spring’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last fall. The follow-up to their innovative cabin-in-the-woods film Resolution (2012) casts German actress Nadia Hilker as Louise, a student in a seaside Italian village who crosses paths with…

We may never know what really happened to the Lutz family during their stay at the infamous Amityville house on 112 Ocean Avenue back in late 1975. Over the course of 28 days, the Lutzes experienced several paranormal phenomena leading them to believe the house was possessed by evil spirits. They eventually fled the property forever, but their experiences launched one of the most notorious – and influential – haunted house stories in horror history. Spawning several books and movies, The Amityville Horror franchise has nevertheless been conspicuously absent from the comic page – a strange omission in the current sea of horror movie and comic book tie-ins. Finnish writer Hannu Kesola has rectified the situation with Amityville: The Roots of Evil, a miniseries that finally gives the legendary home…

MODERN MYTHMAKERS Michael McCarty Crystal Lake Publishing Michael McCarty’s entertaining collection of interviews with some true giants of horror and sci-fi cinema – including late greats Ray Bradbury, Forry Ackerman, Richard Matheson and Dan Curtis – has been reissued on the Crystal Lake imprint with a nominal amount of new material. Pity some much-needed copy editing wasn’t thrown into the remix, but that’s a quibble given the dark riches lurking here, so dive in. JOHN W. BOWEN WITHIN THESE WALLS Ania Ahlborn Gallery Books Lucas, a washed-up writer, is lured across the country to a remote town by “the Jeff,” an ersatz Charles Manson, with the promise of finally confessing his secrets. Jeff’s charisma has already claimed ten lives, and Lucas must try to avoid getting his head…

Long-time readers will instantly recognize Joshua Hoffine’s cinematic brand of photography – we featured his work in RM#87 and RM#100. For the uninitiated, Hoffine creates nightmares in still life by constructing elaborate sets and original props with which to stage his images. With the help of FX monster maker J. Anthony Kosar, the resulting images are positively haunting and, often, terrifying too. Hoffine’s latest masterpiece is an incredibly ambitious take on H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth and, as of press time, the project had met the $20,000 Kickstarter goal required to bring this complex image to life. I caught up with Hoffine to get some extra insight into his impending trip to Innsmouth. It’s crazy how much planning and staging goes into one of your photos. Do you use…

Forty years ago Alice Cooper fulfilled a career goal with his first solo album Welcome to My Nightmare, a horror concept record that combined Alice’s shock rock with the over-the-top theatrics he long pushed his original band to adopt. Welcome to My Nightmare (also a TV special, world tour and concert film) features the disco-styled title track, the necrophiliac rocker “Cold Ethyl,” the chilling trilogy “Years Ago”/”Steven”/”The Awakening,” and Vincent Price famously introducing “Black Widow.” As a Coop devotee, I titled this column after his game-changing release, and to celebrate its 40th anniversary I decided to ask some of the top musicians influenced by it to share their thoughts on the album. Slash: It’s just awesome and ahead of its time in terms of composition, arrangements and Alice’s theatrical vision.…

XBOX 360 PS3 WII PC MAC DS PSP TABLE-TOP CARD ROLE-PLAYING IPAD IPHONE REVIEWED THE WITCHER III: WILD HUNT PS4, Xbox One, PC CD Projekt RED/WB Games The Witcher franchise is pretty much the Grand Theft Auto of RPGs. You get sex, nudity, coarse language, casual chauvinism, plus over-the-top gore and mountains of monsters – and despite some of it, and because of most of it, it’s a really great gaming experience. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt certainly lives up to, if not exceeds, its predecessors. You’re back as Geralt, the notorious white-haired witcher (a.k.a. monster hunter), and this time you’re on the tail of the Wild Hunt (an army of ghostly warriors) that has been leaving corpses across the continent. As you chase it, you’ll embark on a variety…