Table of contents for Issue 168 July 2016 in RUE MORGUE

“Ruin porn” is a term used to describe the relatively recent photographic subgenre that captures urban decay. Its rising popularity is evident in numerous blogs, social media accounts and art books fetishizing mouldering structures. Some of the most compelling, and frightening, of these images are abandoned institutions such as Massachusetts’ Danvers State Mental Hospital, where Session 9 was shot. We often say that a building in horror film is “a character” in the movie, but here Danvers is the star – a sprawling, bat-shaped 120-year-old brick behemoth full of mystery and trauma (the place where the prefrontal lobotomy was invented). And because it plays itself in the film (aside from a couple constructed sets, such as the morgue), history blends with fiction for an experience that literally cannot be duplicated…

Startlingly incongruous yet somehow familiar, a mansard-roofed, ox-blood-shingled Victorian house is currently sitting atop the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; it’s a recreation of the famous Bates house from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, but constructed out of recycled barn material. The Met’s fourth annual Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden Commission (which runs until October 31), was envisioned by celebrated British artist Cornelia Parker, who titled the piece Transitional Object (PsychoBarn). The psychoanalytic term “transitional object” describes those things (safety blankets, teddy bears, mementos, relics) that strangely fixate us as children, as adults, even as a society when we make difficult or traumatic transitions in life. “I think of the PsychoBarn as a condensation of good and evil, both concepts fused in a single object,” explains Parker.…

The Loch Ness Monster has been found. Well, sort of… According to CNN, a survey team led by Kongsberg Maritime, Ltd. was conducting a detailed scan of the loch when it discovered a large, dinosaur-shaped anomaly lying on the bottom. After some investigation, it was determined to be a sunken prop from the 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. In the movie, a submarine is disguised as a “sea serpent.” The 30-foot (9.1m) creature prop sunk in the loch due to buoyancy problems. The loch has a depth of 745 feet (227m), easily within range of the survey team’s autonomous vehicle, which captured sonar images. Kongsberg’s Senior Subsea Applications Engineer, Craig Wallace, said, “The vehicle is providing insight to the loch’s depths as never before imagined. Finding Nessie…

FROM THE SUPERFICIAL PERSPECTIVE OF A HORROR MAGAZINE WRITER, it makes sense that The Blackcoat’s Daughter, former actor Osgood Perkins’ first film as a writer-director, would not only be a horror film but one that would at least tangentially address his parents’ deaths. Osgood, 42, is, after all, the eldest son of the late Anthony Perkins, star of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) as well as a host of lesser fright fare. The elder Perkins died of AIDS on September 12, 1992, when Osgood was eighteen years old; his mother, photographer Berry Berenson, was a passenger aboard one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11. Was it inevitable, we wonder, that his first directorial effort would be a horror film that explored his feelings about those…

THIS ISSUE: LANCE LOCATES HIS LADY J FOSTER SCARE JUNE Anchor Bay Entertainment June’s young life has always been shitty. After being born into a cult that wanted to sacrifice her so she could be fused with a demon that would bring darkness to the world, she was then fostered out to rednecks only in it for the money. And just when it looked like she’d finally found a good home, her demon nemesis comes seeking the body it was promised. Kudos to director L. Gustavo Cooper for crafting a tense, emotionally stirring film that rests on the believability of the actress chosen to play June. Luckily, Kennedy Brice is perfect for the part. The film’s ambiguous ending is unexpected – but hopefully means a sequel is coming. BODY COUNT:…

SOMETHING WICKED: A GHOST HUNTER EXPLORES NEGATIVE SPIRITS Debi Chestnut Llewellyn Regardless of whether one falls on the Scully or the Mulder end of the believer spectrum, paranormal investigations remain a fascinating subject when in the right hands. Accounts of evil spirits in our world tend to favour non-visual media, and the Lore podcast or the works of Charles Fort are gripping for skeptics and believers alike, while TV series such as Ghost Hunters are about as tense as a tea cozy. In these cases, the truth behind paranormal matters is often a secondary concern to the storytelling. Something Wicked: A Ghost Hunter Explores Negative Spirits is the latest from Debi Chestnut, an author and ghost hunter whose works include Is Your House Haunted?, 5 Reasons Your Home May Be…

Are you a fan but also a creator? Have you ever wished conventions were a little less about buying things and more about honing your horror craft? Well, it turns out StokerCon is dedicating itself to putting a new spin on the old book con concept by making its convention weekend a bona fide learning experience for horror writers, both amateurs and professionals alike. This year’s event, held May 12 to 15 at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, still had everything you’d expect from a more traditional lit con. There were the famous guests, including authors R.L. Stine (of Goosebumps infamy), Jack Ketchum (The Girl Next Door, The Woman), Anne Serling (daughter of Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling) and award-winning editors Stephen Jones and Ellen Datlow, as well as…

DARK STAR SOUNDTRACK John Carpenter WE RELEASE WHATEVER THE FUCK WE WANT RECORDS Co-written by Dan O’Bannon, Dark Star is a rough sci-fi black comedy that helped launch John Carpenter’s career as both director and composer, and while its primitive bleeps and bloops soundtrack hardly stand up to later efforts such as Assault on Precinct 13 and Halloween, completists will be pleased with the package put forth by We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records. Like the original 1980 LP, each side is a made up of one track of incidental music, sound effects, dialogue and Carpenter’s ultra-minimalist synth. While these are not exactly hair-raising compositions, horror fans will recognize certain segments as the forebears of Michael Myers’ stalk sequences. The record boasts some nifty extras, notably a “beach…

DOOM PS4, PC, Xbox One id Software Doomsday is upon us. It’s been twelve years since the Doom series’ last entry left some with a sour taste in their mouths, but id Software is intent on winning gamers back with a new spin on the most influential shooter franchise of all time. The veteran developer’s latest and greatest is a back-to-basics reimagining that pays gloriously gory homage to Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth. Though first-person shooters have come a long way since 1992, the new Doom serves as a bloody great reminder that some things needn’t change. Fast, fun and delightfully intense, doubters rest assured: this game makes good on all its promises and raises the bar for an entire genre in the process. You’ll once again assume…

BIZARRELY ENJOYED your article “Slashed Beauties” (RM#167). Reminds me of my earlier years as a young medic back at a will-not-be-named military medical school over three decades ago. Poetically, I write that “the beauty within/equals that on the surface/dissected graces.” Thanks for a horrifically great article and for triggering a memory. JUAN PEREZ – CORPUS CREEPY, TEXAS I LITERALLY SQUEALED with unbridled joy when I saw the awesome five-page article on Joe Hill in RM#167! I am a huge fan of his work and it was a real treat getting to read such a fantastic interview in my favourite magazine. Looking even more forward to reading The Fireman! Thanks, Rue Morgue. ALISON MCDORMAND, VIA FACEBOOK MY BUDDY @TheDivemistress, winning a gore mag and a bag of spaghetti at RM’s Doctor…

This summer at San Diego Comic-Con, things are going to get loud, as two titans of their respective industries are teaming up for the first time. Legendary metal band Slayer is joining forces with Dark Horse Comics, publisher of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy, B.P.R.D. and many other horror titles for its first-ever comic book venture. While details of the creative team and storylines were still being kept under wraps at press time, the band is clearly psyched to be playing in the graphic novel field with its new publishing partner. “This is the first time Slayer will officially release a comic book, and joining forces with Dark Horse is the best way to do it,” Slayer co-founder and guitarist Kerry King tells Rue Morgue. “They have done an amazing…

CASE NO. 168 A Michigan man was arrested after he admitted to spraying a toxic substance, made in part with mouse poison, onto the produce in roughly fifteen supermarkets across the state over a six-week period earlier this year. One of the fourteen recently discovered new species of tarantulas in the US will be named after musician Johnny Cash. The Aphonopelma johnnycashi, or “Man in Black,” was discovered in the area around Folsom State Prison in California. (Cash penned the famous song “Folsom Prison Blues.”) A worker at Disneyland Paris was found dead in the Phantom Manor haunted house in April; he was killed in an electrical accident while servicing the ride. Samuel L. Jackson agreed to star in Snakes on a Plane based on the title alone, and when…

How did you develop an interest in Guillermo del Toro’s work? First through his films – Pan’s Labyrinth in particular – then through a profile published in the New Yorker that revealed more about his process and the environment he created in Bleak House. Since he’s in his early fifties, some would say it’s premature to have him the focus of a show of this scope. What is it about his work and career that make it fitting for him to be given this treatment now? Del Toro is particularly suited to a museum context because he is steeped in art and art history. A museum isn’t just a venue or platform for him; it’s a resource and a church of sorts. He reveres art and he reveres craft. Not…

IN THIS ISSUE INDOCTRINATION Michael Moreci and Matt Battaglia Z2 Comics ALIENS: DEFIANCE #1 Brian Wood and Tristan Jones Dark Horse DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: SHADOWS OF THE VAMPIRE #1 Jim Zub and Nelson Daniel IDW MARS ATTACKS: OCCUPATION #2 John Layman and Andy Kuhn IDW DOCTOR WHO: THE FOURTH DOCTOR #2 Gordon Rennie, Emma Beeby and Brian Williamson Titan Comics CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA #5 Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack Archie The horror genre loves bone-chilling scenarios torn from the latest headlines. Stories based on real-life serial killers are nothing new, but the Ed Geins of the world are not the only source of real-world nightmares. For years, much of the planet has lived in fear of random terrorist attacks, and while many action movies and TV series such as…

BAD CLOWNS Benjamin Radford University of New Mexico Press In the introduction to Bad Clowns, author Benjamin Radford states that, “I myself harbor no particular love nor fear or hatred of clowns, whether bad or good; this book is not an attempt to exorcise demons or resolve some latent childhood phobia.” Well, how pleasant it must have been for Radford to explore all manner of these facepainted fiends, from folklore to pop-culture, without flashbacks of being forced to sit on a clown’s lap at a classmate’s birthday party! Divided into thematic chapters broaching topics such as early clowns, comic book clowns and clowns on film, Bad Clowns offers a very diverse look at the entertainers. Each subject is explored with the thoughtfulness of an academic who hasn’t forgotten people might…

Rue Morgue’s Dark Carnival is upon us, and amongst the guests is illustrator Abigail Larson. Hailing from Virginia, her art looks like what might happen if Maurice Sendak, Tim Burton and Walt Disney hopped into a time machine and went back to paint portraits of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. She cites Golden Age illustrators such as Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac and Edward Gorey as influences, and it’s easy to see why – there’s a classical quality in her work, which also includes sculpture. Her first solo show was hosted by the Poe Museum, she’s published three books (a fourth one is coming in November) and has been nominated for Best Illustrator honours at the 2016 Hugo Awards. In short, you’ll be seeing a lot more from her. What…

In RM#161 we covered Canadian murder ballad revivalists Murder Murder, who dig into Northern Ontario’s sordid history for lyrical inspiration. Now, a new project called American Murder Song by Terrance Zdunich and Saar Hendelman, the composers behind cult musicals Repo! The Genetic Opera and The Devil’s Carnival, explores the murder ballad south of the border. The mysterious American Murder Song is a multi-faceted project comprised of a series of EPs including Dawn (released in May), Providence (released in June), and a third due in July; and a touring musical whose dates should be announced this month. There are also a series of YouTube videos, which hint at a film version. I caught up with Zdunich and Hendelman to learn more. How would you describe American Murder Song to the uninitiated?…

Written on animal skin, inked by a mad monk and co-signed by the Devil himself, the Codex Gigas sounds like the premise of a horror film rather than a piece of history. Yet, it’s real. Written in early part of the 12th century, the Codex Gigas (Latin for “large book”) has gained fame for not only being the physically largest manuscript from the medieval period (36” tall, 20” wide and 9” thick) but also for its sinister history. Often known as “the Devil’s Bible” it contains a variety of texts, including the New and Old Testaments of the Bible, incantations, exorcism rites, medical advice and even grammar tips. One particular page, however, has been the source of the book’s reputation; in the middle of the Codex Gigas lies an ominous…

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival is always a momentous event in the world of genre cinema; known for its high-energy audiences and breakout potential, a slot in Fantasia’s lineup is one of the most coveted honours on the festival circuit. But 2016’s event, kicking off on July 14 and running through August 2, could set a new high-water mark, as this year is Fantasia’s twentieth anniversary, and the staff is celebrating with an eclectic lineup of premieres, repertory screenings and spotlights, as well as personal appearances by two of modern horror’s most influential filmmakers. “We always feel pressure to surpass what we’ve done before, but then it’s almost an impossibility to consciously do that because we’re always working at volume eleven on any given year,” says Fantasia co-director Mitch Davis…

1 BAT CLOCK $55 Make sure you’re out of the belfry on time for your evening feeding with this batass wall clock. The 12” by 16.5” timepiece is created with high-gloss paint on clear acrylic Plexiglas. The quartz movement clock requires one AA battery and zero human blood to run – we think… 2 THE SHINING CARPET PATTERN TIE BY JOHNNIEBLUEBOWTIE $44.50 All shirt and no tie makes Jack a dull boy. That’s why you need JohnnieBlueBowTie’s medium-weight specialty cotton tie with the classic Overlook Hotel carpet pattern from The Shining. It’s 55” long and 3” across at its widest point, making it ideal for your next job interview at a cursed hotel. 3 MONSTER HAND TOWEL SET BY SOURPUSS $18 After a day of terrifying villagers and trashing the…

FOUND FOOTAGE-STYLE FLIMS CONTEMPORARY HORROR CINEMA. The use of found reels and tapes has become a common storytelling trope, but it’s not isolated to visual media. The representation of sound recording equipment and the analogue tapes it produces has been just as popular in supernatural horror films, where they help characters communicate with the dead. Session 9, however, is unique in that the found tapes inform the audience, not the characters, of key connections in the narrative. While Gordon Fleming (Peter Mullan) and his crew try not to lose their heads in the asbestos-riddled asylum, crew member Mike (Stephen Gevedon) stumbles upon the tape-recorded sessions of former patient Mary Hobbes (voiced by Jurian Hughes). The unsettling audio that follows is chilling, as we are introduced to Mary’s three alternate personalities…

Danel Olson, ed. Centipede Press When we’re sifting through the filmography of Guillermo del Toro, it’s easy to get lost in the images. Del Toro is a visual fabulist of the highest order, and the architect of one of modern cinema’s most distinctive styles; no genre fan needs a roadmap to tell us when we’ve entered del Toro country. But for every bleeding ghost or clockwork zombie, there are countless other paths to follow – narrative, symbolic and thematic trails that wind through the barelytamed thicket of the filmmaker’s imagination. The density of del Toro’s world has never been more apparent than in The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth: Studies in the Horror Film, out now from Centipede Press. Though it’s concerned with only two films from del Toro’s oeuvre,…

SKIN DEEP THE NEON DEMON Starring Elle Fanning, Jena Malone and Abbey Lee Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Written by Nicolas Winding Refn, Mary Laws and Polly Stenham D Films There is no doubting Nicolas Winding Refn’s horror pedigree. The Drive and Bronson director is producing the Maniac Cop and Witchfinder General remakes, has helped rehabilitate the reputation of British cult director Andy Milligan (The Naked Witch, Torture Dungeon) and has presented restored versions of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires at no less prestigious a venue than Cannes. What have you done for horror lately? So when it was announced that the Danish filmmaker would follow his divisive drama Only God Forgives (2013) with a horror movie called The Neon Demon, it thrilled those…

Even though conventional wisdom says that we should keep horror movies out of the hands of impressionable children, it’s worth considering whether the genre – for all its nightmare-inducing frights and intensity – could be valuable for young ones. Kids, after all, probably face more fear and anxiety in their days than adults, and who wouldn’t want a head start coping with those scary feelings? In fact, a handful of horror films such as The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (1973) seem intended to help kids come to terms with confusing issues like parental conflict. Now on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory, this middling effort works hard to walk the fuzzy line between family appeal and genuine scares. Like other kid-friendly horrors, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf is largely told through the…

WE’RE LIVING IN A GLOBAL VILLAGE – THAT’S AN IDEA THAT’S BEEN POUNDED INTO US SINCE THE EARLY DAYS OF THE INTERNET. AND WHILE IT MAY BE TRUE WHEN IT comes to telecommuting and sharing experiences on social media, borders still exist in the world of art and literature, often the result of language barriers or just the sheer remoteness of certain places. “The distance is one [of our biggest challenges],” confirms New Zealand-based author/editor Lee Murray. “We’re on the arse end of the world down here. The first stop to anywhere is three hours away by plane. … Because of the time involved, and the cost of travel, we’re not on the top of anyone’s list for invitations to book expos or writers’ conventions. … This means our writers…

Found-footage films are relatively inexpensive to produce and, as The Blair Witch Project (1999), Paranormal Activity (2007) and Cloverfield (2008) proved, can be financially lucrative. Beyond the multiplex, found-footage films are abundant in the underground horror scene, from Welcome to the Jungle (2007) and Long Pigs (2007) to August Underground (2001) and Snuff 102 (2007). Man Bites Dog (1992) is generally considered the first bona fide found-footage horror film, but there was an earlier example made the year before (though released the year after) that through poor distribution had been lost to the mists of time. Camp Motion Pictures, in conjunction with Lunchmeat VHS fan magazine editor Josh Schaefer, have resurrected Jack Perez’s America’s Deadliest Home Video (1993). Horror history is being rewritten! At least by me… Then-tabloid badboy and…

BY THE TIME YOU’RE READING THIS, THE BIGGEST ANNOUNCEMENT IN MISFITS HISTORY HAS ALREADY BEEN MADE: after decades of legal battles, media swipes, rumours and speculation, the band’s iconic vocalist and songwriter Glenn Danzig will reunite with original bassist Jerry Only and its most famous guitarist Doyle (Only’s brother) for the first time in 33 years. But before those shows take place this September in Denver and Chicago, Only has some horror business of his own, namely a new EP on Misfits Records, titled Friday the 13th. “I was originally planning on putting together an album to be released in August, coinciding with a live show in Transylvania,” explains Only, who has been leading the band on vocals since 2001. “But when we confirmed the reunion shows for this September,…