Table of contents for Issue 209 Nov/Dec Xmas 2022 in RUE MORGUE

On one hand, David Cronenberg’s 1988 film Dead Ringers isn’t a typical “Cronenbergian” entry in that it foregoes a lot of the body horror that most people associate with his work. On the other hand, Cronenberg has always explored deterioration of the mind just as much as the body, and that mental degradation is on full display as Jeremy Irons plays twin brothers Elliot and Beverly Mantle, balancing creepiness and sadness in their eerie, codependent relationship. But perhaps most disturbing is how close the Mantle brothers are to their real-life counterparts, Cyril and Stewart Marcus. Just like the Mantles, twin brothers Cyril and Stewart were prominent gynecologists in New York City. Although they were not identical, they were very similar from the time they were children – think Frasier and…

We can all name a few horror movies that play better with (ahem) herbal accompaniment. Thanks to Moldycreations, you can now puff-puff-pass in style! These one-of-a-kind water pipes (bongs to the initiated) are embellished with hand-sculpted monster features including ultra-realistic flesh, toothy grins, and appropriately glazed eyeballs for the midnight tokers. Munchies not included. INSPIRATION “I mostly grew up drawing and didn’t get into sculpting until I was around 30 years old. One series of pictures I drew was called ‘drugs doing drugs’ and I would do a mash-up of a pot leaf drinking alcohol or a beer bottle taking shrooms – this was a play on that series but now it’s a bong doing drugs!” MATERIALS Polymer clay, casting resin, epoxy resin, and acrylic paint PRICE $20 – $1,000…

“I’M A COMPLETE CINEPHAGUS,” SAYS ÓSCAR MARTíN, CHEWING OVER HIS PET TERM TO DESCRIBE HIS UNSLAKABLE FILMIC APPETITE. “I’m like a cannibalistic movie watcher…[I] can watch three movies each day.” Speaking from his home in Madrid, Spain, the director is visibly excited that his first feature, Amigo (2019), will finally be seen by a wider audience after getting off to a rocky pandemic-time start followed by a successful Fantastic Fest premiere. Amigo follows Javi (Javier Botet) who, after being disabled in the accident that also killed his wife, is taken in by his long-time friend David (David Pareja) at a remote cottage nestled in the Spanish countryside. But this kind gesture isn’t born purely of warm-hearted friendship – Javi doesn’t appear to want or appreciate the help. Further, David is…

Thinking Outside Pandora’s Box “THOUGH OFTEN DESCRIBED AS A COMEDY, CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS IS A LITTLE MORE CLEVER THAN IT GETS CREDIT FOR – AT ITS CORE, IT’S REALLY A SELF-AWARE EXERCISE THAT PLAYS WITH THE LINE BETWEEN ARTIFICE AND REALITY.” There’s never been a more exhausting time to be a film fan. Even if you manage to sidestep social media’s minefield of film spoilers, instantaneous reactions, and outlandish hot takes, there’s still an army of obsessive and aggressive online fandoms to deal with. And they seem louder than ever – from “Snyderverse” stans and Marvel maniacs to diehard Johnny Depp defenders, social media belligerence seems to be a sought-after edge in the high-stakes world of studio filmmaking. Sure, it’s great for Hollywood players like Zack Snyder,…

THE LITTLE BOOK OF SATANISM La Carmina Ulysses Press On the surface, The Little Book of Satanism is exactly what it purports to be – an overview of the history of Satan from his pre-Biblical origins through the theatrical non-theism of Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan to the socially conscious political activism of The Satanic Temple. As a primer for those interested in the history of Satan as an archetype, the proliferation of satanic movements, and how Satanism has been used by right-wing fundamentalists as a cudgel to oppress the marginalized, The Little Book of Satanism works brilliantly. La Carmina’s prose is engaging and informative yet never didactic. At an economical 134 pages, it can be read in a single sitting. For those whose appetites for the diabolical run deeper,…

Born in California in 1953, Laurel Near started performing at an early age. She was singing in a trio with her two sisters Holly and Timi when she met director David Lynch through a mutual friend, long-time collaborator Catherine E. Coulson. The idea of the Lady in the Radiator came to Lynch when he was already years into filming his debut feature Eraserhead, and he thought Near was the perfect subject to bring her to life. The sequence was shot over several days in the spring of 1974 and Near described her distinctive makeup as “warm, thick stuff that when it came off it sort of peeled your face off with it.” After Eraserhead, she spent some time in Oregon performing with a dance troupe before returning to California. She…

(Plume-New American Library Inc., 1982) An affectionate, darkly comedic homage to the lurid horror-themed EC Comics of the 1950s, 1982’s Creepshow was among the first collaborations between Stephen King and George A. Romero. In lieu of the standard tie-in novelization that accompanied many horror films of the era, Creepshow received a graphic novel adaptation instead. Published by New American Library imprint Plume, the 64-page oversized softcover book featured a beautifully illustrated cover by EC illustrator Jack Kamen and striking interior art by famed comic book artist and Swamp Thing co-creator Bernie Wrightson and his wife, Michele. The book closely follows King’s screenplay and features the same five tales in the anthology, omitting the film’s wraparound segments. Wrightson’s art gives the comic an added gruesomeness, and a few parts end up…

A GROUP OF PEOPLE HEADED INTO DEEP, DISQUIETING WOODS, BESET BY INSCRUTABLE SUPERNATURAL FORCES: before Robert Eggers made his rep telling this story in The Witch, he helped Andy Mitton and Jesse Holland explore similar territory in their 2010 debut Yellowbrickroad. Serving as costume designer on the film, Eggers clothed the seven young researchers and one local woman who ill-advisedly decide to duplicate a fateful hike up a mysterious trail that led a town’s entire population to vanish 70 years before. At the time, Eggers had overseen sets and wardrobe for theatre productions, and both directed and designed short films based on the Hansel and Gretel legend and Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Yellowbrickroad was his first feature, though he can’t recall specifically how he landed the gig. “My guess is…

Cullen Bunn is turning the horror anthology on its head – literally. Presented as a flip comic, Shock Shop tells two twisted tales hosted by comic shop proprietor Desdaemona Nimue Moreau. On one side we have a doomed little ditty, “Familiars,” about a downtrodden divorced man renting a haunted house. Flip the comic over, and encounter “Something in the Woods, In the Dark,” irrefutable proof that a camping trip is no way to solve marital woes. Any which way you choose to start the adventure, Bunn hopes you enjoy his unique take on the popular format. Though probably best known for his long-form, epic horror series such as Harrow County, The Damned and The Sixth Gun, Shock Shop stands as a departure that he welcomes. “I love long, epic stories,…

A COLLECTIBLE This issue, we bid your eyeballs welcome to Grayhouse Studios, a fear factory of unique, handcrafted silicone and resin props and a house of custom display collectibles! Grotesque zombies, rotting skeletons, and monsters you wouldn’t want to meet in your worst nightmares are all here. These gooey, toothy, hairy, ultra-realistic creatures come from the minds (and hands) of Michael Perry and Angela Webber. NAME Grayhouse Studios HOMETOWN “I’m from a small western Massachusetts town and my wife (and partner) is from Iowa.” WEAPON OF CHOICE “We primarily work in silicone and resin. Each piece is sculpted, moulded, cast, painted, etc. Everything is hand-built, one at a time, which includes custom painted inlaid eyes and teeth, silicone gums and tongue as well as punched hair. We also add a…

THE ADVENTURES OF MEMENTO MORI THEME: Death Studies FORMAT: Interviews FREQUENCY: Limited Series As a rule, horror fans are well acquainted with onscreen death, but how often do we really think deeply about the end of our own lives? In an attempt to come to terms with his own impermanence, humanist chaplain D.S. Moss has been exploring the science, mysticism, and culture of death – and he invites us along on his journey via his podcast, The Adventures of Memento Mori: A Skeptic’s Guide for Learning to Live by Remembering to Die. The phrase “memento mori” is Latin for “remember that you must die,” an idea that has existed in many forms in different cultures throughout history. The phrase is said to have originated in Rome, where a slave would…

NOW PLAYING> SCORN, CULT OF THE LAMB SCORN XBOX Series X/S, PC Ebb Software From the ashes of a failed crowdfunding campaign in 2014 comes a highly anticipated atmospheric horror nightmare in Ebb Software’s Scorn. Awakening as a skinless, vaguely humanoid creature, players are thrust into an alien environment where strange machinery requires even stranger methods to operate it. Semi-organic control panels with fleshy finger holes abound, but Scorn’s decaying doorways won’t open without some serious futzing, including puzzles that release eggs containing bloodied, mutant creatures and require manipulating these pitiful beings to occasionally hideous ends. Experimentation is critical, and sometimes those trials result in the suffering of creatures as lost and confused as ourselves, putting the player in the unenviable (but sadistically satisfying) role of mad scientist and torturer.…

WEIRD STATS & MORBID FACTS ISSUE # 209 Jamie Lee Curtis’ salary for 1978’s Halloween was $8000; her salary for Halloween Ends was $3.5 million dollars. A whopping 27 minutes of footage from Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) was reused in the 1987 sequel. Austrian-American mathematician Kurt Gödel developed a fear of being poisoned and refused to eat food prepared by anyone but his wife. He died of starvation in 1978 after she became ill. Freddy Krueger’s iconic red-and-green sweater appears in both Scream (1996) and Scream 2 (1997), being worn by Fred the janitor (played by director Wes Craven himself) and then hanging up in Sidney’s dorm room. Scoptophobia is a fear of being stared at. Baseballer Eddie Waitkus, the inspiration for Robert Redford’s character in 1984’s The Natural,…

“Whatwhatwhat?” the Wretched Reader sputters, “No disembowellings, no T&A, no blood farmers? Is this the right basement?” Well, pardon me all to hell for deviating from the usual delete-bin dive for my last column of the year. Truth is, I’m deathly afraid that Super Dark Times, an extraordinary 2017 teen thriller I recently stumbled across (thank you, Shudder) may continue to escape wider notice. It’s December in Kingston, New York, but the town seems to be in a constant state of November – grey skies, brown grass, and bare trees with a 90% chance of malaise. High schoolers Zach (Owen Campbell) and Josh (pre-Ozark Charlie Tahan) have been best friends since childhood. We learn, in the opening minutes, that they’re both obsessed with the same girl but it would appear…

Dr. Amal Robardin, a young Lebanese immigrant living in Brooklyn, is treating her first patient as a therapist. Yasmin is a schizophrenic who claims to be visited nightly by an indescribable yet malevolent presence. When Yasmin suddenly disappears, Amal blames herself and tries to find the young girl, but is soon questioning her own sanity and personal anxieties as she grapples with cosmic forces beyond normal understanding. Tackling heavy issues such as mental illness and diaspora, Where Black Stars Rise feels like a very personal work from writer Nadia Shammas yet it touches on feelings that everyone can relate to, from the fear of not living up to family expectations to the existential dread of knowing we are nothing in the grand scheme of things. It’s these universal feelings that…

As an editor, Matt Cardin has left his mark on several important books, among them the seminal encyclopedia Horror Literature Through History [RM#178]. As practitioner of grim horror tales, his stories were collected in To Rouse Leviathan [RM#189]. And now, at last, all of his essays – once scattered through various hard-to-find publications and out-of-print books – have been assembled in a volume titled What the Daemon Said (available from Hippocampus Press). At nearly 400 pages, it is a heavy book on heavy subjects: philosophical and religious aspects of horror fiction and cinema, from the quest for enlightenment in Frankenstein to George A. Romero’s Dead films, with a special stress on the cosmic and the mystical. All these writings are based on the conviction, as Cardin tells us, that “horror…

AFTER MUCH INFERNAL DELIBERATION, I have decided that being a movie Satanist is not for me. Yes, the robes, fancy daggers, and other accoutrements are cool but, to be honest, it seems like a pretty exhausting lifestyle overall. Going to lengths to hide my penchant for evil from normies, having to relearn all the high school Latin I’ve forgotten… and then there’s the chant circles? Attending an endless cavalcade of meetings and rituals and ceremonies? What a commitment! While the Satanist life depicted in movies is simply too jam-packed and hive-minded for me, I do get a thrill watching their antics unfold like any other black-blooded horror fan. Whether it’s a nanny hanging herself (all for Damien, natch) or Minnie Castevet being nosy with her new neighbours, I can never…

HALLOWEEN MIGHT BE OVER, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN IT’S TOO LATE TO KEEP THINGS SPOOKY WITH A NEW DO-IT-YOURSELF SEANCE ALBUM. You read that right, one of the coolest records I’ve come across in some time landed in my lap this fall season: a glow-in-the-dark vinyl titled Seance! With Zabrecky from In the Red Records. Robert Zabrecky has had quite the varied career across California, mostly using his own vocal cords: he fronted the pop punk band Possum Dixon in the ’90s, did a stint as a professional auctioneer, and has been performing as a magician for the past decade or so. Along the way, he discovered the magic of seances. “I’d attended a few seances in the Houdini Seance Room at the Magic Castle and was drawn to them…

IS THE ERA OF ZOMBIE CINEMA FINALLY DEAD? YES! DAKOTA DAHL “We’ve lost both the ability to be terrified of zombies, as well as the ability to be repulsed by them.” ZOMBIES HAVE TOTALLY JUMPED THE UNDEAD SHARK AND NEED TO GO THE WAY OF THE PET ROCK. Back when George A. Romero turned the subgenre into the rotten powerhouse it is today, he had something to say. The dead coming back to life was once a useful (if heavy-handed) metaphor for our racism, consumerism, jingoism, what have you. Now, zombies are just a shambling backdrop for myriad filmmakers to repeat “the real monsters are humans” – which was fascinating the first three dozen times we heard it, but each subsequent depiction of that well-worn message has become the narrative…