Table of contents for RM#195 Pandemic Special Issue in RUE MORGUE

I had a bunch of ideas for themed issues of Rue Morgue when I came aboard as editor – a plague issue was among them, but I never imagined tackling the subject in the midst of one. But here we are, and I imagine I’m not the only one spending time counting my blessings with deliberate, mindful diligence lest I give in to the despair of uncertainty that lurks behind every national news broadcast. I’m still finding it hard to focus, but I love having my partner working from home – except when he interrupts me while I’m writing, and then I fantasize about chasing him through the Manor with an axe. But I try to remind myself that this is understandable given these circumstances (assuming I don’t give in…

1 TWO DEATHS BLANKET $150 USD Likely inspired by the Danse Macabre art movement that was itself inspired by the plague, this 100% cotton blanket depicts Death as both executioner and artist. Whether you sleep like the dead or just want to add some doom to your tomb, this 60 x 80-inch woven throw is equally stunning hanging on your wall as itis draped over your coffin. InnerDecay.com 2 PLAGUE DOCTOR HAND TOWEL $15 USD A towel that doubles as a reminder to wash your damn hands is about as practical as it gets. Embroidered on a flour sack towel or in waffle weave, you can also customize your very own cuss word(in case you’d rather wash your darn, dang, or fucking hands instead). WretchedMischief.Etsy.com 3 BITE ME SPORTS BRA…

THE BLACK DEATH, THE SPANISH FLU, THE YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC, THE EBOLA OUTBREAK… until now, these pandemics have been so far away from our personal experience as to blend with fiction. The current crisis has changed all that, and immersed us all in a very real horror story that has sent the global population indoors to wait out a pandemic that, as of this writing, still has no end in sight. In the face of widespread quarantine, unemployment, and economies teetering on the brink of ruin, we have naturally turned to horror stories – if nothing else, because we have the time. VOD platforms have seen a spike in outbreak movies, from Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, which has become a blockbuster nine years after its release, to the 1995 medical disaster…

“I see no God up here…” so supposedly said cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin when he became the first human being to leave our planet in April of 1961, a mere few years after his country rocked the world by launching Sputnik into space. Egor Abramenko’s feature directorial debut – which borrows its name from that satellite – takes place more than two decades after these events, while continuing to lurk in their long shadows. Sputnik begins in 1983, as a two-man space shuttle falls to Earth. After one crewman dies brutally, the other, Commander Konstantin Veshnyakov (Pyotr Fyodorov), finds himself held in a military research facility in Soviet Kazakhstan. When Tatyana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina), a well-known psychologist on the verge of losing her license due to her unorthodox methods, is brought…

CLONE ALONE DEAD DICKS Starring Heston Horwin, Jillian Harris and Matt Keyes Written and directed by Chris Bavota and Lee Paula Springer Artsploitation Films Never mind the title, which suggests something raunchy or silly when the movie is neither and so much more. Dead Dicks is a best-case scenario of filmmakers making the most of a microbudget. Jillian Harris stars as Becca, who’s thrilled to have been accepted to graduate nursing school, though she’s concerned about leaving her bipolar brother Richie (Heston Horwin). Not long after getting the good news, she visits Richie and discovers a dead body in the closet. Even more unsettling: the corpse looks just like Richie, even though he’s still very much alive. Once Becca has witnessed the explanation for this, the question becomes how to…

DRIVE-INS, DELETE BINS AND OTHER SINS Hi, all. Hope you’ve been having a pleasant plague, a lovely lockdown, and all that. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume you’ve probably been eating sour-cream-and-simulated-salsa pork rinds and watching a veritable buttload of horror movies since March (and sporting the physiques to prove it, you slovenly sluggards), so now your home vid collection is basically a big smouldering pile of been-there-done-that. That’s certainly the case here in the basement, and I’ve also long since burned through most of what’s on offer from Shudder and Netflix, leaving me to pick through various cyberspace delete bins including, for instance, Amazon Prime. Prime, for the uninitiated horror-loving couch tater, is one great big weird crapshoot. They offer a handful of relatively recent…

THE WORLD WAS A DIFFERENT PLACE IN 2014 WHEN BIRD BOX WAS FIRST FEATURED IN RUE MORGUE. Josh Malerman did the interview in person – an act that feels utterly foreign in these long months of social distancing. And while Bird Box’s Malorie and company are undeniably masters of the lockdown, who could have predicted we’d soon find ourselves similarly contained, albeit by a virus rather than giant, sanity-ravaging creatures? Given this turn of events, it seems fitting that Malerman’s follow-up, Malorie, will be hitting shelves on July 21 (courtesy of Del Rey). Yet, releasing a novel in the age of COVID-19 presents something of a challenge. With book tours, conventions and other traditional channels of promotion shut indefinitely, it’s called for some creative thinking. “The biggest problem right now…

RESIDENT EVIL 3/RESIDENT EVIL RESISTANCE PS4, Xbox One, PC Capcom Last year, Capcom delighted fans of the long-running Resident Evil series with a rerelease of Resident Evil 2, a stunning remake that met with praise from fans and critics alike. Now, the newly created M-Two branch of the veteran Japanese developer returns with a reimagining of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, which is fitting, since the original games were similarly released back-to-back. And though this Resident Evil 3 remake provides some of the best gameplay in the series yet, it’s a few bullets shy of last year’s slam dunk. This time focusing on returning Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) member Jill Valentine and Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service member (U.B.C.S.) Carlos Oliveira, RE3 fleshes out Raccoon City’s final hours before…

I’VE BEEN READING editorials for years now and this one was very special to me. First, it brought tears to my eyes! Second, I think it is the first text I’ve read since the start of this pandemic makes sense. You pointed out all the terms that are important and way more. Third, as a long-time reader and subscriber, I am used to being pinned as a weirdo for my love of horror, and you wrote so well how we, horror fans, are affected in a different way by all this. I’ve tried to explain all that to my relatives for years and they don’t really understand, but you explained it so well. Many thanks to you. What a pleasure it is to be a weirdo among all those weirdos…

It’s summertime, and since most of us aren't going to be able to head to the beach to cool off or catch some waves, we may as well watch a bunch of movies where these fun-filled activities result in horrible, bloody death. Shark attack films such as Jaws, The Shallows, 47 Meters Down, and Open Water are staple summertime viewing for horror fans, not to mention made-for-TV schlock like the Sharknado series. But just how likely is that refreshing dip to end in a shark’s gaping maw? According to Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File (“the world’s only scientifically documented, comprehensive database of all known shark attacks”), your overall risk of dying by shark is roughly one in three million. You’re about ten times more likely to die in a…

“THEY’RE US, THAT’S ALL.” THOSE WORDS, UTTERED BY KEN FOREE’S PETER IN DAWN OF THE DEAD, as the cast of survivors looks upon a horde of cyan-faced ghouls as they slap at the glass doors of a shopping mall entrance, have been applied to describe myriad ways in which zombies are metaphors for humanity, just hungrier, smellier and a little bit crankier. But the zombies of horror fiction also reflect something that plagues the real world… pun intended. Like zombies, viruses by nature occupy the liminal space between life and death – made up of tiny particles that are inert until they make contact with host cells to release their protein. The parasite spreads as it clones itself with impunity, unconcerned with age, race, gender or creed. Thus, zombies are…

THIS ISSUE: LANCE COUNTS THE DAYS LEFT IN QUARANTINE MY BRAIN IS MUSH 3 HOURS TILL DEAD Sector 5 Films At the time of this writing, I’ve been self-isolating for 22 days and already feel like I’m losing my mind – there are only so many times I can arrange and rearrange my delete bin DVD collection by title, case colour and kill scenes. The group of kids in 3 Hours Till Dead go camping in the woods for two weeks, unaware that a pandemic has ravaged the world, so their return to civilization comes with the realization that an infection has turned everyone into gut-munching zombies. Like COVID-19, there’s not much to like about this Canadian clunker; sure, it’s got a decent amount of blood, but not nearly…

One of the great things – one of many, admittedly – about giant monster movies is that even before the anticipated scenes of mass destruction, there’s a potent atmosphere of unseen menace. As the film’s human characters go about their mundane lives, Gamera, Godzilla or another of their kaiju contemporaries slumbers silently just below the surface, waiting to be let loose by human folly to stomp, smash and trash our biggest cities. Everyone knows that 1965’s Gamera and other Japanese monster movies are metaphors for the 1945 nuclear attacks on Japan, but they are also oddly prophetic about contemporary crises. This early classic, which appears on Arrow Video’s exhaustive new Gamera box set along with ten more adventures in cinematic carnage, has gained new relevance as a result of the…

END OF THE ROAD Brian Keene Cemetery Dance Pack your bags! Collected here for the first time are Brian Keene’s weekly columns, originally written for Cemetery Dance during his 2016 Farewell (Not Really) Book Tour to promote his novels Pressure and The Complex. After Gabino Iglesias uses the book’s intro to explain why Keene isn’t an asshole, we’re treated to the passenger side of a writer’s journey as he hits the road towards the twilight of his life’s work and beyond. Through a maze of hotels, conventions, and fan interactions, we can’t help but understand what fuels Keene’s dark and humble heart. His love of our genre flows through his veins and comes to fruition in the ink scrawled across each page, interspersed with photographs as raw and real as…

BLOOD ON HER NAME SOUNDTRACK Brooke Blair & Will Blair DEATH WALTZ RECORDING CO. Matthew Pope’s Blood On Her Name asks viewers the question “what would you do if you accidentally killed someone?” and answers it with all the guilt and inner conflict you can imagine, set to a suitably dark and tense score by Brooke and Will Blair (Green Room). Built strictly around murky atmosphere with little by way of dominant themes, the music from Blood On Her Name is a pulsing, bubbling soundscape that evokes late-night drives, “will she get caught?” scenarios, and uncomfortable face-to-face confrontations. Yes, the Blairs’ work here is indeed “just” background music, but with the narrative context in mind, it offers an incredible amount of angst, emotional veracity, and an oddly comforting dark underbelly.…

YES! RICK HIPSON “Horror fans won’t just face the terror head-on, we’ll lead the charge until we stitch this world back together, just like the genre has taught us.” WITH VIRAL OUTBREAK-THEMED FILMS SUCH AS CONTAGION (2011) AND OUTBREAK (1995) TRENDING HIGH ON STREAMING SERVICES, folks are clearly searching for a psychological grip on how to deal with our current global pandemic. We horror fans have always been at the forefront of wrapping our hearts and minds around tragedy; after all, our favourite books and movies keep us up at night contemplating best practices during worst case scenarios. We take a flashlight to the monsters under the bed if only to better understand the horrors that might lurk beneath. We’re the ones actively cracking open that forbidden seal, if only…

ISSUE # 195 A village on the island of Java, Indonesia, recruited volunteers dressed as “shroud ghosts” in an attempt to scare people into staying home during quarantine. Freddy Krueger’s appearance was inspired by a hobo who A Nightmare on Elm Street director Wes Craven saw staring at him through his window when he was ten years old. A human head remains conscious for approximately twenty seconds after being decapitated. Author Dennis Wheatley once invited Aleister Crowley to dinner, and ended up basing his character Mocata from The Devil Rides Out on the notorious occultist. The Mount of Olives in Israel is the oldest, continually used cemetery in the world. M. Night Shyamalan considered calling his 2002 movie The Alien Bulletin or Visitors before settling on Signs. In 1924, Thornton…

ZOMBIES, ONCE SPAWNED BY VOODOO, ANCIENT CURSES OR VAGUE SCIENTIFIC MOTIVATORS, ARE NOW LARGELY THE PRODUCT OF VIRUSES, either naturally occurring or artificially created, reflecting growing worldwide fears of pandemics (and occasionally exploiting them directly, via such dreck as SARS Wars: Bangkok Zombie Crisis). After decades of zombie outbreak movies, there didn’t seem to be anything left to say on the subject – until South Korean writer/director Sang-ho Yeon shouted out loud to the contrary with Train to Busan. Exploding across the international cinema scene in the summer and fall of 2016, Train was Yeon’s first live-action feature after a critically acclaimed career in animation (including the similarly themed Seoul Station, which launched first but became a de facto prequel to Train). Set aboard the titular conveyance as it becomes…

Encyclopedia Brown or Harriet the Spy are hardly the first names that come to mind when you think of the horror genre but, for many adults, those mystery adventures offered their first childhood glimpse into a world full of peril, thrills, and the occasional spook or two. They’re certainly the kind of stories that left an indelible mark on writer Ed Brubaker. Though best known for his crime and gritty superhero stories, Brubaker had long wanted to create something that hearkened back to the young adult tales he grew up on. That opportunity finally presented itself when he was approached by artist Marcos Martin to collaborate on a project for Panel Syndicate, an online publisher offering DRM-free, pay-what-you-can digital comics. The result is Friday, a “post-YA” horror series that combines…

THE YEAR OF THE WITCHING Alexis Henderson Ace Good news, witch fans. In the wake of the recent boom, the stories keep on coming, and Alexis Henderson’s The Year of the Witching has been one of my favourite 2020 releases thus far. The novel invites us into Bethel, a deeply pious, walled community lorded over by a prophet and a series of rigid, centuries-old traditions, including very regressive roles for women. Bethel is haunted by the woods that surround it – they’re not only the inspiration behind tales used to frighten children, but contain some very real witches. Into this world, Immanuelle Moore is born. Her mother, once chosen to become one of the prophet’s wives, instead got pregnant with her lover’s child and ran off to the woods to…

As you’ve probably guessed, this issue of Rue Morgue was created during the quarantine. As of this writing, no one knows who, or how many, will be lost to the pandemic, but near the beginning of the crisis, the horror world did lose one of its most important composers (not to COVID-19, though his caregiver reportedly tested positive) – avant-garde composer Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020). Though not technically a horror movie composer, or even a film composer for that matter, Penderecki’s music was used prominently in some of the genre’s biggest films, including The Exorcist (1973) and The Shining (1980) and continues to be a huge part of what makes these films so terrifying. Director William Friedkin initially approached Penderecki to write music for what would become his landmark demonic possession…

FOR TAIPEI-BASED PSYCH DUO MONG TONG, THE INF LUENCE OF TAIWAN LOOMS LARGE – everything from Taiwanese folklore and ghost stories, through to video games and pulp paperback art forms a swirling melting pot of sonic, visual, and conceptual influences touching everything on the band’s debut album Mystery 秘神, out now via Guruguru Brain. The new record proffers music that’s catchy and compelling but also quietly unsettling, hitting that sweet spot where fuzzy, dream-quality nostalgia brushes up against the strange, slightly skewed sense of something being ever-so-slightly off. “In ’80s Taiwan there were TV shows and magazines like 神秘雜誌 [Mystery Magazine] and 靈異之旅 [Spiritual Journey] talking about ghosts, the occult and supernatural events,” says Hom Yu of the band’s mysterious sound and his own fascination with fading arcana. “Although those…