Table of contents for Issue 160 October 2015 Halloween Special Issue in RUE MORGUE

If you ever met Wes Craven, saw him at a convention or watched him in an interview, you may have noticed he had a very paternal presence. (We were lucky enough to have him as our guest of honour at the 2008 Festival of Fear.) A father and grandfather with an undergrad degree in both English and Psychology, and a Master’s degree in Philosophy and Writing, he presented himself as well-spoken (and rather soft-spoken), wise, kind and assured. Following the shocking announcement of his death from brain cancer on August 30, the Internet was flooded with tributes and many mourners discussing how his movies helped define their childhood. It’s especially true for those of us coming of age in the ’80s with the Nightmare on Elm Street series, but also…

It seems appropriate that the Toronto Zombie Walk, which was cancelled this year due to insufficient funding, should rise from the dead, however briefly. Organizers held a “funeral” for the much-loved annual event at independent Toronto repertory cinema The Royal this past August. Over 200 “mourners” showed up, many of them dressed as the undead. Those who left a donation in a casket set up on The Royal’s stage were given free tickets to the Canadian National Exhibition. Zombies then shuffled en masse to the annual carnival set up at Toronto’s waterfront. Founding director Thea Munster, who started the walk back in 2003, saw it grow from just seven participants in its first year to over 15,000 in 2014. Organizers never charged an entrance fee, and it became an annual…

1 OUIJA BOARD HANDBAG $35.99 Keep the dead in hand with this 100% leather handbag, modelled after the classic mystical talking board. It’s made with a poly-fabric surface so it won’t bleed, crack or fade… but we can’t say that for the spirits. 2 MEN’S “EYE HAIL GOATHEAD” ROCKER TEE $25 Kids today know that Baphomet is where it’s at. So don’t be shy, hail the Great God Pan with this sleeveless tee by Kreepsville 666, designed to bring two very bad things together: rock ’n’ roll and the devil that spawned it! Available in S, M, L, XL, XXL. 3 MICHAEL MYERS PIN $14.99 Halloween fans rejoice! Your favourite Haddonfield resident is now on an enamel pin by Creepy Co with articulated knife that moves up and down in…

SINCE THE TIME WHEN OUIJA BOARDS WERE PRODUCED AS A CONSUMER NOVELTY, speculations as to their demonic and potentially dangerous influence was shared by both religious fanatics as well as members of the New Age. The myth about the ominous, mystical powers of the boards was reinforced by Hollywood throughout the ages, going back to the silent era. The board’s first appearance was most likely 1920’s Ouija Board, a part live-action, part animated short featuring Koko the Clown. (It’s easy to find on YouTube.) Part of the Out of the Inkwell series, it was created by Max Fleischer, who was also known for his Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman cartoons. Here, the board is used by a superstitious janitor and two sceptical animators, while at the same time Koko is…

BEFORE THE CLASSIC MOVIE MONSTERS WERE REINVENTED, REMADE AND REINTERPRETED BY EVERYONE from AIP to Hammer all the way up to modern directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Roger Corman and Joe Johnston, Universal dragged their famed fright icons back into the spotlight for a series of comedy efforts with stars Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, the Mummy, the Wolf Man, the Invisible Man and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all got to mix it up with the popular comedy duo in a series of films that, in many cases, represented the last appearance of Universal’s iteration of that monster. Though available in past DVD sets, the four-movie run has finally been reunited on Abbott and Costello Meet the Monsters, a new collection from Universal. ABBOTT…

Board To Death I AM ZOZO Anchor Bay Entertainment Ever come across something that just gave you a really bad case of the creeps? A voodoo doll, a blurry old photograph, a bottle of Crystal Pepsi – some things aren’t meant for this Earth! But of all the creepy objects squirrelled away in your attic, none are scarier than a Ouija board. Purportedly based on true events, I am Zozo features five kids who decide to celebrate Halloween alone in a cottage on a remote island, and bring along a Ouija board for fun. They soon find themselves in touch with a malevolent spirit named Zozo who wants to kill them. Shot entirely on Super 8mm, the film has a cool, voyeuristic quality to it, but suffers immensely from…

Creepy masks are responsible for some of the most iconic images of the last few decades of horror cinema history – Jason’s hockey mask, Scream’s Ghostface, Hannibal Lecter’s muzzle, etc. These covers are usually used either to disguise their wearer or give a killer a blank, almost inhuman expression as they go about their bloody work (think of Michael Myers). But in classic horror, masks often served not to hide an identity, but to create one. From the Phantom of the Opera to face transplant recipient Christiane in Eyes Without a Face, masks usually indicated a fear of the horror within, including Vincent Price’s ’60s outing for AIP, The Oblong Box, hitting Blu-ray this month from Kino. Following the classic horror leads of Phantom of the Opera and Price’s own…

tRICK-OR-TREAT! TRICK-OR-TREAT! GIVES US SOMETHING GOOD TO EAT! IF YOU GOBBLE UP HORROR STORIES LIKE CANDY EARTHLING PIBLICATIONS' HALLOWEEN SERIES strives to ensure you get something good to sink your teeth into each and every year. Curated by owner/editor Paul Miller, it unofficially kicked off back in 2004 with a limited-to-fifteen-copies handmade hardcover of Glen Hirshberg’s haunted house novella Mr. Dark’s Carnival, and has in the ensuing decade published works in much larger runs by such genre mainstays as James A. Moore (Blood Red), Conrad Williams (The Unblemished), Peter Crowther (By Wizard Oak) and Gary McMahon (The Bones of You). “Horror has been my favourite literary genre since I first read Poe and Lovecraft when I was nine years old, [and] Halloween has always been my favourite holiday,” says Miller of…

Online harassment of women is a pernicious and serious issue. While perhaps simplifying things, women are essentially harassed for one of two perceptions: that they’re a challenge to male dominance or that their sexuality is a commodity to be possessed. The Gamergate fiasco last year is an egregious example of the former. Prominent women critical of the misogyny inherent in video games and the industry were subjected to an anonymous and coordinated campaign to silence them through threats of rape and murder. Similarly, “creeping” is a term that describes cyber-stalking women through their social media activity. Matthew Gunnoe chose to address this in his 2012 film Creeper, released last month on DVD by Unearthed Films. In it, Erica (Monica Chambers) and Cally (Rohnja Morrow) are tired of being harassed on…

IF YOU’VE EVER SAT AROUND A CAMPFIRE WITH A SEASONED STORYTELLER SPINNING A GHOST TALE, YOU KNOW THE POWER OF the oral tradition to spook, scare and otherwise shock you. Cadabra Records, a new label specializing in creepy spoken word albums, hopes to replicate that feeling right on your home turntable with its debut release Where Is Abby? & Other Tales, featuring a handful of stories by renowned artist and author Lee Brown Coye (1907–1981). It’s a release that aims to bring renewed legitimacy to a subgenre too often associated with budget Halloween LPs featuring corny sound effects and haphazard stories. “The spoken arts are very under-appreciated,” says Jonathan Dennison, founder of the Syracuse-based label. “They provide another dimension of the written story. Listening to a spoken word record on…

COMMENTS QUESTIONS CRITICISM ANOTHER MONTH, another new issue of Rue Morgue [#159]! Wow. What a stunning cover! Just beautiful. @RueMorgue, @Astron6. @PALEALERIDER, VIA TWITTER HELL-O RUE MORGUE, I have been a horror kid all my life and until recently I only picked up the occasional issue of Rue Morgue (Hellboy, The Cramps, etc.) but now, thanks to HorrorBlock, I am hooked and realize what I’ve been missing. I really like the coverage of all things horror and have read the issues I’ve gotten cover to cover and am looking into back issues. I am really into horror toys, it all started with the 18” Kenner Alien figure when I was five or six years old. I have amassed a huge collection of horror stuff over the years and have a…

WHAT IS HORROR MUSIC? IT’S NOT AN EASY QUESTION. JUST AS HORROR FANS ARE TYPICALLY DRAWN TO DIFFERENT TYPES OF HORROR FILMS, FROM SLASHERS TO SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS, THERE’S NO ONE MUSICAL GENRE SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO APPEAL TO HORROR FANS. “Horror” has been linked to music in such diverse genres as Halloween novelty records for monster kids, heavy metal designed to offend parents, campy punk played in small clubs, and industrial noise-terrorists who create sounds that get under your skin. Horror also pops up in country, blues and hip hop. Rue Morgue’s Audio Drome music section has always been more of an art than a science when it comes to finding the right balance of genres and artists that in some way utilize horror, whether through image, lyrics or sound. The…

ANGUISH (USA) SONNY MALLHI Anguish confronts the issue of teenage mental illness using possession as a metaphor for schizophrenia. The first half of the film, a straight teen drama, boasts an unbelievably naturalistic performance from Ryan Simpkins (Surveillance) as Tess. Quiet, lonely scenes of her skateboarding in the fog or hovering on the periphery of her new high school’s clique perfectly capture feelings of adolescent isolation and self-consciousness that act as a precursor to her break with reality. Unfortunately the film jettisons all originality and ambiguity in favour of paint-by-numbers boo scares and a silly secular exorcism finale. AM ANTISOCIAL 2 (CANADA) CODY CALAHAN Antisocial (2013) took an interesting if not unique idea – what if social networking turned us into real zombies instead of metaphorical ones? – and…

THE MOST HORRIFYING THING ABOUT CHRISTMAS IS USUALLY THE CREDIT CARD BILLS AND DINNER WITH THE IN-LAWS, but one film aims to change that. A Christmas Horror Story (the title a riff on the Bob Clark Canadian holiday classic A Christmas Story) is an anthology whose four stories weave in and out of each other like the ones in the 2007 film Trick ’r Treat, meaning that the tales, characters and themes exist as different narrative threads in the same universe instead of being presented one after the other, as in Creepshow or Tales from the Crypt. “The problem with those movies – and I do love them – is that you can sometimes get film festival fatigue watching them because each story has a beginning, a middle and an…

Enzo G. Castellari experienced a late period re-evaluation when Quentin Tarantino cited the spaghetti exploitation director’s Dirty Dozen knock-off, The Inglorious Bastards, as a major influence on his similarly titled film. Castellari’s real legacy, however, is his future trilogy: 1990: The Bronx Warriors, Escape From the Bronx and The New Barbarians. Hot on the heels of Mad Max: Fury Road, Blue Underground has reissued these films, but what is to be gleaned from these glimpses of futures past and, uh, future? For starters, remember 1990, when the world marvelled at Mikhail Gorbachev’s birthmark, listened to Will Smith rap and just couldn’t stop doing The Bartman? Well, Castellari’s 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1983) is nothing like that. In proud Italian rip-off tradition, it pilfers from contemporary hits, particularly Escape From New…

MONSTER MASH: THE CREEPY, KOOKY MONSTER CRAZE IN AMERICA 1957–1972 Mark Voger Twomorrows A nostalgic ode to creepy and crawly pop culture, Monster Mash is a fun book that may be the first comprehensive look at the mid-century horror fad. Author Mark Voger captures that period when monster kid madness swept North America following the release of the Shock Theater package that put dozens of classic horror films on TV in the late 1950s, bringing a little bit of fright into every family room. This energetic, heavily illustrated hardback lays out how a steady stream of TV show merchandise, toys, magazines, masks, board games, comics and other pop paraphernalia helped keep horror culture afloat. Unlike, say, the priceless collection showcased in Kirk Hammett’s Too Much Horror Business, Monster Mash is…

WICKED CITY SOUNDTRACK Osamu Shoji TIGER LAB VINYL Tiger Lab, a new label focused on anime vinyl soundtracks, goes horror-noir for its first release, 1987’s Wicked City. Osamu Shoji, a synth artist from the late ’70s and ’80s, provides a varied, often erratic score that is part dark ambient atmosphere, part ’80s new wave/pop and part jazzfunk. Without a recurring theme, it’s all over the place, yet, oddly enough, the constant injections of sound effects and quick shifts in direction don’t detract from its listenability – one can imagine the bass lines and retro synths fuelling any number of slashers or monster flicks. The remastering of Wicked City is superb, resulting in huge, pulsating sounds that pull you into the movie’s world of shape-shifters and secret police. Highly recommended for…

UNTIL DAWN PS4 Sony Computer Entertainment As I cling to the ledge, his hand outstretched towards mine, I must decide: do I let go and die bloodied on the rocks with my sister, or let her fall into the black pit and take the stranger’s hand, unlocking a fate I don’t entirely trust? Until Dawn can tug at your heartstrings before it rips the still-beating muscle from your chest. It all boils down to player choice and sacrifice. The interactive movie/adventure game is the morbid tale of a group of teenagers dead set on spending a weekend in a remote cabin, only to find that something waits deep within the bowels of that lonely mountain. You, as the player, decide who lives and dies. The familiar, cinematic plot structure shows…

After years of presenting the annual Bram Stoker Awards for excellence in horror literature in conjunction with the World Horror Convention, the Horror Writers Association is striking out on its own once again, for the first time since the 2012 awards, this time in Las Vegas. The convention (and awards banquet) takes place May 12 to 15, 2016, and while that may seem like a long way away, registration for the event’s programming and classes is already underway. One of the key ways StokerCon seeks to distinguish itself from WHC and other literary events is through its Horror University stream of programming. “The workshops program we’re running this year takes things to the next level when it comes to what we can offer our guests via convention programming,” says R.J.…

ON ITS OWN, A OUIJA BOARD IS ABOUT AS MYSTICAL AS A BAG OF SCRABBLE TILES. For all the board’s vaguely occult iconography and the off-the-charts creep factor ascribed to it by movies such as 13 Ghosts and The Exorcist, it’s just a useless slab of wood (or chipboard, if you’re contacting the beyond on a budget) without the planchette that comes with it. For those who believe a talking board is truly a hotline to the beyond, the board simply gives the dead a vocabulary – it’s the planchette that gives them a voice. Though they’re mostly known as Ouija accessories today, planchettes actually predate talking boards by several decades, and were once popular spirit communication tools in their own right. In fact, the first known mention of what…

NEARLY TWO HUNDRED YEARS AFTER THE PUBLICATION OF HER AMARANTHINE NOVEL, MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN HAS PROVED AS RESOLUTELY INDESTRUCTIBLE AS HER MONSTER. Ever since the first one-reel 16mm cinematic adaptation was made by the Edison Company and director J. Searle Dawley in 1910, there have been numerous interpretations, sequels, spin-offs and satires that feature the Bavarian boffin and his unholy progeny. These efforts range from the exquisite (The Bride of Frankenstein, 1935) and the parodic (Young Frankenstein, 1974) to the downright regrettable (Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter, 1966). In 1990, at a time when most variations on the mad scientist theme were thought to be well exhausted, Roger Corman was about to give life to his own contribution to Frankenstein film lore. Twenty years after helming the high-flying historical drama…

GEORGES MÉLIÈS, THE FATHER OF FANTASTIQUE CINEMA, WAS A MAGICIAN BEFORE BECOMING A FILMMAKER, and he utilized his vaudeville-esque artistry to invent some of the first screen effects. In celebration of this, Philippe Spurrell, director of The Film Society in Montreal, curated a spellbinding evening of early genre cinema, live music, 16mm projection, magic, mentalism and even tap dancing! The festivities began with a showing of a rare print of Georges Franju’s The Great Méliès (1952), a tender 31-minute docudrama on the silentera filmmaker starring Méliès’ son André in the titular role. How appropriate that the director who made one of the most exquisite horror films in the history of the genre (Eyes Without a Face) would be the introductory guide for this journey into the phantasmal and oneiric…

“HOSTS ARE REAL. THIS MUCH I KNOW.” THOSE FIRST LINES IN THE TRAILER FOR CRIMSON PEAK ARE A BIT MISLEADING, because although Guillermo del Toro’s latest film features a cavernous spooky mansion rife with floating apparitions, vaporous spirits and other spectral activities, it’s not a haunted house movie. “We have to be very careful not to confuse a haunted house movie with gothic romance,” he explains in a phone interview leading up to the film’s October 16 release (from Universal). “Gothic romance is very much a separate genre, that if you go in expecting pure romance, you’re disappointed because there are a lot of dark and evil things in the tale. And if you go expecting a pure horror movie, you’ll be disappointed because most of the time these things…

All That and a Bag of Candy TALES OF HALLOWEEN Starring Lin Shaye, Barry Bostwick and Adrienne Barbeau Written and directed by Axelle Carolyn, Neil Marshall, Mike Mendez et al. Epic Pictures Just like Halloween itself, a good anthology horror film gives us a variety of tasty morsels to chew on while we celebrate all manner of ghoul, ghost and gore. The classic form usually offers approximately five jolting tales of terror (such as in 1982’s Creepshow), but has been known to present as many stories as there are letters in the alphabet (ABCs of Death series). Tales of Halloween, the newest monster kid on the block, finds the sweet spot somewhere in the middle. In this ten-part anthology led by Axelle Carolyn and featuring directorial efforts by members of…

LIKE ONE OF THE CREATURES THAT POPULATE ITS WORLD, THE TREMORS FRANCHISE HAS BURST FORTH ONCE AGAIN TO STRIKE FEAR INTO THE HEARTS OF THOSE WITH GRABOIDPHOBIA. Tremors 5: Bloodlines – a sequel intended to revive the franchise about gigantic subterranean slug monsters that hunt humans – has bought Burt Gummer back with it. The one constant character through all five Tremors films (the first of which was released in 1990 and starred Kevin Bacon) and the short-lived TV series is the paranoid, gun-toting loner played by Michael Gross, who’s still best-known as patriarch Steven Keaton in the ’80s sitcom Family Ties. “There was someone at Universal, our executive producer, Patty Jackson, who has always loved the product. Tremors is very dear to her heart,” says Gross about the unexpected…

IN THE EARLY 1970S, WHEN THE WORLD HAD GONE PSYCHEDELIC BUT MONSTERS HAD GONE GOTHIC – SOME WOULD SAY STUFFY, WITH HAMMER HORRORS – COUNT YORGA WAS HIP. With his elegant wit, calm disdain for the clumsy mortals trying to stake him and fang-in-cheek persona, there had never been a vampire like him. He was very much the man who played him, Robert Quarry (1925–2009), one of the most underrated and unappreciated horror actors of all time thanks to a career in the genre that came late and ended early with the demise of Hammer/AIP/Amicus-type shockers in the ’70s. What his career lacked in quantity, it made up for in quality, however, with memorable turns in Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), Sugar Hill (1974), Madhouse (1974) and, most famously, his starring…

The 1990s saw a huge surge in comics with several new publishers entering the field in hopes of cashing in. The rise of the direct market meant that many companies could easily bypass the Comics Code Authority and push the boundaries of sex, horror and violence like never before. One of the most notorious books to take advantage of this newfound freedom was the zombie gore-fest The Dead, from Arrow Comics. Created and written by Ralph Griffith and Stuart Kerr, The Dead debuted in 1993 as a loose sequel to the duo’s 1980s indie series Deadworld (see p.56). However, the new series would soon overshadow its predecessor amidst a wave of notoriety and controversy. Graphic scenes of torture and genital mutilation were displayed on the covers, leading to an instant…

Crowned the “King of Thrash Metal Art,” Ed Repka’s been blasting our eyeballs for decades with his apocalyptic visions and vibrant colour palettes. He’s painted scores of magazine and album covers, but he’s perhaps best known as Megadeth’s go-to artist, visualizing Dave Mustaine’s conceptual doom, while defining the band’s skeletal mascot, Vic Rattlehead. Repka mostly works as a traditional painter, a rare breed in the illustration industry these days where tablet pens have replaced brushes. He also doubles as Art Director for NECA Toys, designing, sculpting and developing its line of licensed horror collectibles, including painting prototypes for the company’s action figures, Headknockers and giftware lines, plus art directing sculpts, designing packaging and creating action figure box sets, such as the one for Freddy vs. Jason. I caught up with…

In August we were blessed with Meliora, the third full-length from Swedish satanic cult Ghost on Loma Vista. It’s been fun following the band’s meteoric rise in popularity, something that seems to derive from its commitment to secret identities, eccentric demonic stage costumes and, most importantly, a continually evolving sound that combines ’60s psychedelic rock and classic heavy metal in a way that appeals to a huge cross-section of people. I checked in with one of the Nameless Ghouls to find out more about the band’s latest musical incarnation. WHAT IS THE CONCEPT FOR MELIORA? Visually, when you are playing occult-oriented rock music, you automatically end up in some sort of medieval gothic spider-web graveyard world – which I love – but we’ve always thought that if we’re going to…