Table of contents for RM#180 in RUE MORGUE

Far be it from me to kick off 2018 with easy reading, folks. Truth be told, I had a lump in my throat for the bulk of last year. The election of Donald Trump as US president sent me into an emotional tailspin, a reaction that was less provoked by his promises and policies than the fact that an alleged rapist was awarded the most powerful position in the most powerful country in the world. I had no choice but to accept the election, but the idea of normalizing the reality that influential men used their position to abuse, harass and exploit women was something I couldn’t accept. Following the election, I felt an electric buzz in the public consciousness – a tangible if inexplicable feeling that this confusion and…

1 COFFIN COFFEE TABLE $1,336.00 AUD Turn your living room into a funeral parlour with this coffin coffee table guaranteed to make yours the coolest crypt on the block. Available from three exterior finishes, four interior colours and gold or silver details. Go ahead, make your dead mama proud! hauntcult.com 2 RETRO VHS DESK LIGHT $25.84 CAD Light up some nostalgia with these VHS cartridges turned into LED lamps, featuring retro horror film labels like Halloween, The Thing, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Netflix’s recent nostalgic hit Stranger Things. No need to rewind! etsy.com/shop/nancysjars 3 “LET’S SACRIFICE TOBY” RINGER SHIRT $28 USD Few things are as endearing as watching children play with devil worship, which is why we’re all about this ringer tee designed by Steven Rhodes. Besides, Toby…

ONE OF THE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT HORROR IS THAT IT IS IN THE BUSINESS OF BUSTING TABOOS AND REVEALING THOSE PARTS OF SOCIETY THAT LURK IN ITS DARKEST, MOST COBWEBBY CORNERS. I suspect most readers of this magazine hold this truth to be self-evident, and yet there’s something different about the rape-revenge film. Defined by its three-act structure whereupon a person (typically a woman) is raped, undergoes a transformation from victim to aggressor, and carries out bloody revenge upon his or her perpetrators, the plot device rose to prominence in the context of sleazy exploitation-era horror that became a subgenre of its own, one that has undergone 40 years of tweaks, twists and interpretations. That’s some remarkable tenacity as subgenres go, but there are many reasons why the trope…

BEEN THERE, SAW THAT JIGSAW Starring Matt Passmore, Tobin Bell and Callum Keith Rennie Directed by Michael and Peter Spierig Written by Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg Lionsgate Much like the slasher icons we all adore, the Saw franchise just won’t die. And like all slasher movies before it, there comes a time when the law of diminishing returns utters a death sentence; Jigsaw, the eighth entry in the Saw franchise not only beats a dead horse, it locks it into a 92-minute torture session. In the film, another five ne’er-do-wells awaken to find themselves locked in a horrible death trap – they are to be dragged by the neck toward a door embedded with multiple buzz saws unless they confess and repent. It’s a good old-fashioned murder trap that…

SOUL BROTHER J.D.’S REVENGE (1976) Blu-ray/DVD Starring Glynn Turman, Lou Gossett Jr. and Joan Pringle Directed by Arthur Marks Written by Jaison Starkes Arrow Video Most of the blaxploitation-horror hybrids of the ’70s were riffs on classic characters: Blacula, Blackenstein, Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde, etc. A late entry in the cycle, 1976’s J.D.’s Revenge aims to do something a little different. While it tells a Jekyll-and-Hydetype story of its own, the film is more concerned with character than simply replaying a formula. In 1942 New Orleans, gangster J.D. Walker (David McKnight) and his sister Betty Jo (Alice Jubert) are murdered in a slaughterhouse. Thirty-four years later, cabdriver and law student Ike (Glynn Turman) takes part in a hypnotism show at a Bourbon Street nightclub, which allows his psyche to be…

THE CHRONICLES OF CORUM VOLUME 1 - THE KNIGHT OF SWORDS Mike Baron and Mike Mignola Titan Comics CUTTER VOLUME 1 Robert Napton, Seamus Kevin Fahey, Christian DiBari and Maan House Top Cow/Image MR. HIGGINS COMES HOME Mike Mignola and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell Dark Horse HALLOWS FELL Thom Burgess and Izzy Stanic www.hallowsfell.com BEHIND YOU Brian Coldrick IDW GRAVEYARD SHAKES Laura Terry Scholastic Horror may not be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of the fantasy works of J.R.R. Tolkien or Robert E. Howard, but there’s no denying the supernatural and monstrous elements that inhabit the worlds of Middle Earth and the Hyborian Age. The creations of Michael Moorcock have not permeated popular culture to the same extent as Frodo and Conan, yet his books have nevertheless…

HAVE YOU EVER HAD A TEACHER WHO MADE YOUR LIFE SO MISERABLE THAT YOU THOUGHT HE OR SHE MIGHT BE SATAN INCARNATE? That’s the idea behind former Murderdolls guitarist Acey Slade’s new comic book Guitar Teacher From Hell, written by Slade and illustrated by independent cartoonist Steven Reardon Jr. In a unique riff, the book aims to not only tell a dark horror-fantasy story that kids of all ages can relate to, but to actually teach people how to play guitar. It’s one of the first projects created under Slade’s new cartoon property, designed to be an entertainment-educational hybrid for young creatives. “I was approached by Steve Reardon and Dylan Moller [both partners in the property] through one of my endorsement guys,” says Slade of the project’s origin. “Steve had…

I’VE COLLECTED Rue Morgue for two years now, and that is my favourite cover of all time. I’m a diehard Hellraiser fan. This is incredible. @BAIRD9965, VIA TWITTER CLIVE BARKER is the man and your magazine is the future of horror! Kudos to you for featuring a milestone horror movie – Hellraiser still chills and thrills 30 years later. I remember seeing it for the first time on VHS and your piece brought me back to those days where getting a movie at the video store was a bit dangerous. Thanks for the memories. TRAVIS O’BRIEN, VIA FACEBOOK HERE’S TO 20 (at least!) more years of @Rue-Morgue, always insightful, always fun to read #Horror. @JAMESJPATTERSON, VIA TWITTER THEY SAY YOU shouldn’t meet your heroes. But I’ve been lucky. I remember…

CONVENTIONS JANUARY 12-15 HAUNTCON New Orleans, Louisiana hauntcon.com JANUARY 13-14 WALKER STALKER CON Portland, Oregon walkerstalkercon.com/portland FEBRUARY 2-4 DAYS OF THE DEAD Atlanta, Georgia daysofthedead.net/atlanta FEBRUARY 16-18 MAD MONSTER PARTY Charlotte, North Carolina madmonster.com MARCH 1-4 STOKERCON Providence, Rhode Island stokercon2018.org MARCH 2-4 NEW JERSEY HORROR CON AND FILM FESTIVAL Woodbridge, New Jersey newjerseyhorrorcon.com MARCH 4 UNDERGROUND MONSTER CARNIVAL Oklahoma City, Oklahoma undergroundmonstercarnival.com MARCH 9-11 MONSTER-MANIA CON Cherry Hill, New Jersey monstermania.net MARCH 22-25 TRANSWORLD’S HALLOWEEN & ATTRACTIONS SHOW St. Louis, Missouri haashow.com MARCH 23-25 HORRORHOUND WEEKEND Cincinnati, Ohio horrorhoundweekend.com APRIL 6-8 CINEMA WASTELAND Berea, Ohio cinemawasteland.com APRIL 7-8 WALKER STALKER CON Chicago, Illinois walkerstalkercon.com/chicago APRIL 13-15 MONSTERPALOOZA Pasadena, California monsterpalooza.com APRIL 26-29 CALGARY COMIC AND ENTERTAINMENT EXPO Calgary, Alberta calgaryexpo.com APRIL 27-29 MOTOR CITY NIGHTMARES Novi, Michigan motorcitynightmares.com MAY…

OVERLOOKED, FORGOTTEN AND DISMISSED THIS ISSUE: LANCE GETS A CHECK UP TOO SICK FOR LANCE THE HOSPITAL 2 MVD Visual I turned 50 this year. My eyesight sucks, I’m losing my hair, and those damn kids are playing their damn music too damn loud! If you missed the first Hospital movie, don’t worry, as the first few minutes of this sequel will fill you in: a bunch of people were raped, tortured and killed in an abandoned hospital but a couple of girls were able to escape. Now, five years later, the killers want to finish the job. Though it’s filled to the gills with gruesome deaths and sadistic torture, The Hospital 2 is also pumped full of stilted dialogue, jiggling man-boobs and absolutely repugnant rape scenes. I was…

Bowen Cries Uncle Welcome to the basement of a beaten man. A man bowed, humbled, cowed, conquered – and by what? A shitty film. But not just any shitty film, Wretched Reader, oh no – a film so profoundly shitty that any attempt to adequately describe just how shitty it is, and why, renders me an inarticulate, sad, sputtering mess, flailing around like a three-legged cat trying to bury a turd in a frozen pond. After eighteen and a half years at Rue Morgue, I have finally seen a film bad enough to render me incapable of doing my job. It’s called American Satan, which is bad enough. The plot concerns a rock band that makes a pact with Satan, which is also bad – potentially even worse – yet…

A serial killer is on the loose in Hatfield, North Carolina, and the victims’ gruesome mutilation has earned him or her the nickname of “The Cutter.” One man, Jeremy Samuels, believes the grisly murders are the work of an old classmate, Emily Higgins, who had been mercilessly bullied in her youth. There’s a catch, however: Emily died several years earlier. Has she returned from the grave for vengeance or do the killings have a more rational explanation? Robert Napton and Seamus Fahey throw a few nice twists into a familiar story, like having Emily disliked and tormented by virtually the entire town as opposed to small group of teens, giving her revenge tale a much wider canvas to spill its bloody paint upon. Ironically, if the book has a weakness,…

MEET BOB. HE’S AN ACCIDENT. His unplanned and unauthorized metamorphosis into a vampire is the catalyst behind Rodney V. Smith’s debut novel So I Might Be a Vampire, which pits this newly turned fanger against his addiction issues, stalker tendencies, chronic self-sabotage, and a hierarchy of wealthy and powerful bloodsuckers who just don’t have time for his juvenile shit. “Bob was a lot cooler when I first thought of him,” admits Smith, of how his sharp-tongued, half-black Barbadian, half-Mexican protagonist evolved over the various iterations of the story, which began as a script and was further developed as a serial on Wattpad.com, before becoming a physical release. “He was your quintessential vampire with lots of regrets, but that was when the story I was trying to tell was that of…

THIS VALENTINE’S DAY, PROFESS YOUR LOVE THE ONLY WAY A HORROR FAN CAN: by giving your heart to the special ghoul in your life… or at least a batch of these candy-dipped strawberries decorated to look like the real deal! With a juicy strawberry lurking beneath a shell of sweet candy arteries, your bloody Valentine will surely be impressed with this gory twist on a traditional Valentine’s Day treat. No matter how you might feel about the holiday, we can all agree that the ultimate way to celebrate is with a bloodsoaked bite to eat, and one of your favourite horror flicks. ANATOMICAL HEART DIPPED STRAWBERRIES CANDY CLAY • 1 12-oz bag red candy melts• 1/4 C. light corn syrup OTHER INGREDIENTS • 1 lb. fresh strawberries• 1 12-oz bag…

As interest in horror soundtracks continues to grow, the art of horror movie sound effects and foley work may be lost in the shuffle. Perhaps spooky sounds are not quite as fun to listen to as an actual musical score, but there are tons of cool stories about how certain sounds were achieved in classic movies, from stabbing melons in Psycho’s shower scene, to Carl Zittrer tying forks and knives to piano strings to achieve Black Christmas’ warped sounds, to Myron Schaeffer’s invention of the hamograph used during the psychedelic nightmare sequences in 1961’s The Mask. In this spirit of ingenuity, Mark Korvan, best known as the composer for 2015’s The Witch, recently developed a new contraption with Toronto-based guitar builder Tony Duggan Smith specifically designed to create horror movie…

THE EVIL WITHIN 2 PC, PS4, Xbox Bethesda Though the survival horror subgenre has cooled over the last few years, it’s far from dead. Resident Evil: Biohazard proved that earlier this year and now The Evil Within 2 has arrived to make sure the lesson hits home. And, of course, to scare you. It’s time to go back into STEM – the virtual world of interlinked brains – because shady corporation Mobius has restarted its experiments and, once again, there are psychopaths messing with the framework. This time, the mission comes with some added baggage for your character Sebastian Castellanos, as Mobius has been using the daughter he thought dead as the innocent “core” of the machine, and now he must rescue her. As Sebastian you navigate the splitting,…

WEIRD STATS & MORBID FACTS The title for Stephen King’s The Shining was inspired by the refrain in the song “Instant Karma” by the Plastic Ono Band featuring John Lennon, which has the chorus: “We all shine on.” Irma Bule, an Indonesian Dangdut singer known for performing with live snakes, died in the middle of a concert after being bitten by a king cobra and refusing treatment. It takes approximately seven pounds of pressure to rip off a human ear. The Exorcist author William Peter Blatty apparently loved the poorly received 2005 film Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, calling it “a handsome, classy, elegant piece of work.” When millionaire Derek Mead, 70, got out of the ten-ton JCB tractor he used for lifting hay bales, it lurched forward, rolling over…

WHILE THE HARVEY WEINSTEIN SCANDAL MAY HAVE BROKEN THE DAM THAT HELD BACK COUNTLESS ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT, another recent case raised public awareness about the subject, revealing that one needn’t be a wealthy Hollywood guru to feel that rape is somehow acceptable. In 2015, nineteen-year old freshman Brock Turner was arrested, tried and convicted of felony sexual assault. His sentence of six months of confinement seemed lenient to begin with, but when Turner’s father protested that his son would be permanently marked as a sex offender for a mere “twenty minutes of action,” public outcry rose to a roar. Brock was attending Stanford on an athletic scholarship and he had his whole life ahead of him. Shouldn’t he be afforded some mercy? Mercy isn’t on the agenda for one…

THE YEAR WE TURNED 20 WAS A BIG ONE FOR RUE MORGUE, WITH SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES IN CONTENT, STAFF, AND A NEW PUBLICATION SCHEDULE. It was a big year for the wider world of horror, too – onscreen as well as off. We’ve gained a new titleholder for the highest grossing (domestic) horror film of all time in Andy Muschietti’s long-anticipated It, and Jordan Peele’s breakout hit Get Out sent the horror world reeling with its razer-sharp sociopolitical messaging. (And yes, it’s very much a horror movie.) The community also lost a few of our treasures, namely George A. Romero and Tobe Hooper, both of whom passed away last summer. Amid the soaring highs and the crushing lows, the horror world stuck it out as only our kind do – with…

IN 2012, AUDIENCES WERE INTRODUCED TO THE UNIQUE MINDSET OF FILMMAKERS JUSTIN BENSON AND AARON MOORHEAD via their debut feature Resolution – a movie that, despite its title, provided no easy answers, yet offered plenty of satisfaction for fans of enigmatic genre fare. Following their 2014 monstrous romance Spring, the duo are back to further confound, challenge and engross viewers with The Endless, a sort-of sequel to Resolution that also breaks plenty of fresh ground. Following its premiere at last spring’s Tribeca Film Festival (the beginning of a tour that also took it to Sitges, Fantasia and many others), The Endless was picked up by Well Go USA, which plans North American theatrical and then VOD/disc release in early 2018. This time, directors Benson (who scripted) and Moorhead (who served…

From brutal hurricanes and earthquakes to blistering wildfires to heat waves, the past year has sometimes made us feel like we’re living in a 1970s ecological horror film. Although this particular strain of genre filmdom often presented natural disasters as Earth’s angry retaliation to neglectful human behaviour, there are a few that remain relevant today for how they envision the ways that humanity will have to adapt to deal with climate change. Making its Blu-ray debut from VCI this January, Filipino schlock effort The Twilight People (1972) is a cut-rate riff on H.G. Wells’ classic 1896 novel The Island of Dr. Moreau that seems to anticipate the increasingly catastrophic weather systems that have recently plagued us. The premise of Wells’ novel, in which a mad doctor creates a race of…

TWIN PEAKS: THE FINAL DOSSIER Mark Frost Raincoast Books As Sheryl Lee’s piercing scream rang out in the final moments of Showtime’s Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series, fans who had sat through the show’s eighteen episodes were left with more questions than answers. And they were pissed about it too, as it appears that series creators David Lynch and Mark Frost have no plans to develop another season. However, hot on the heels of his 2016 novel The Secret History of Twin Peaks, Frost’s Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier manages to fill in many of the blanks. Structured as a recap of the lives of the town’s denizens, The Final Dossier takes the form of research compiled by FBI Special Agent Tammy Preston, who was introduced in the new…

As I write this, the seemingly unstoppable nostalgia boom continues in horror. Reviews of Stranger Things season two are filling up my Facebook feed, people are still buzzing about all the records Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of Stephen King’s It smashed at the box office, and even more period pieces have been announced. In this latest genre love affair with all things retro, kids and those hazy, lazy days of childhood reign supreme. And if one needs more evidence of this, look no further than the news from Deadline Hollywood that next up on the adaptation block, courtesy of Sony Pictures, is Dan Simmons’ 1991 horror novel Summer of Night. The book, which is partially inspired by the town the author grew up in and his childhood circle of friends, was…

PORNO HOLOCAUST SOUNDTRACK Nico Fidenco DEATH WALTZ RECORDING COMPANY Even the greasiest VHS collectors would be, um, hard-pressed to offer glowing praise to Joe D’Amato’s sexploitation horror entry Porno Holocaust (1981), with its scenes of awkward X-rated intercourse and terrible gore effects. This only makes the 180-gram vinyl soundtrack release all the more intriguing. Scored by Italian vocalist and frequent D’Amato collaborator Nico Fidenco, Porno Holocaust slides back and forth between thick funk and delirious disco, conjuring images of smoke-filled 42nd Street XXX theatres and fuelling the deluge of sex scenes, while ominous synth occasionally wafts in for more sinister scenes. As crappy as the film may be, there is no denying Fidenco’s instrumentation and command over heightened, lighthearted compositions, regardless of the screen dreck to which they are tied.…