Table of contents for Issue 82 September 2008 in RUE MORGUE

What makes a man a monster? That’s the question driving Durham County, a new six-episode TV series about a serial killer in suburbia and the cop trying to catch him. Though combining the dark surrealism of Twin Peaks, the dramatic realism and everyday setting of The Sopranos, and the stylistic touches of Six Feet Under, the show is distinctly Canadian. Set in the real-life suburbs of Durham County, Ontario – just outside of Toronto – it stars Hugh Dillon (former front man for Canuck rock band The Headstones) as Mike Sweeney, a hair-trigger cop investigating a series of murders where women are found beaten to death, a lock of their hair clipped as a souvenir. The show – which debuted on Global TV this past May and is out this…

4BIA Youngyooth Thongkonthun, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Parkpoom Wongpoom and Paween Purikitpanya – Thailand An awkward pun on “phobia,” this anthology of ghost stories from four Thai directors includes entries from Parkpoom Wongpoom and Paween Pisanthanakun, who collaborated to great effect to bring us Shutter and Alone. But first up is “Happiness,” which thanks to its slick style and clever pacing, manages to inject some chills into a tiresome techno-horror conceit concerning a lonely girl with a haunted cellphone. Next is “Tit for Tat,” a tale of delinquent teens besieged by a haunted manuscript. This is perhaps the weakest entry, if only for its agonizing overuse of shutterspeed/shaky cam nonsense. The last two are the strongest entries; directed by Wongpoom and Pisanthanakun respectively, they see each filmmaker making his solo directorial debut.…

SHARK SWARM Starring John Schneider, Daryl Hannah and Armand Assante Directed by James A. Contner Written by David Rosiak and Matthew Chernov The Dukes of Hazzard meet Jaws. If you’re a child of the ’80s, like this writer, it’s the first thing that comes to mind when you see that John Schneider (a.k.a. Bo Duke) is starring in a film called Shark Swarm. Well, car vs. shark fans, steel yourself for a level of disappointment that falls somewhere between discovering the milk’s gone sour and finding out you’re adopted. For starters, there’s more gore on the DVD cover than in the film. The repetitious, unimaginative kills consist of poorly animated sharks approaching their victim, said victim thrashing around in the water and a bit of red dye rising to the…

TOMB RAIDERS THE MUMMY (1932) Starring Boris Karloff, Zita Johann and David Manners Directed by Karl Freund Written by John L. Balderston, Nina Wilcox Putnam and Richard Schayer Universal It’s an iconic moment in horror movie history: Boris “The Uncanny” Karloff’s desiccated visage, eyes opening ever so slowly, camera panning down to show the resurrected Egyptian high priest Im-Ho-Tep’s bandage-swathed arms freeing themselves from centuries of immobility. It must have terrified audiences upon its release. The film is The Mummy. The year was 1932, and America was in the grips of the Great Depression. Thanks to Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle Jr., an admirer of the macabre as well as money, some of the studio’s greatest successes were of a “weird” nature: Dracula, Frankenstein, The Old Dark House and The…

The Beds ide, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dracula Mark Dawidziak Continuum So many books have been written about Dracula – analytical academic tomes, pithy trivia lists, coffee table beauties – that my shelves groan under their weight. So why would anyone need yet another one detailing Bram Stoker’s life, novel, all the stage, film and television adaptations, the legacy of the Count from Aurora models to cereal boxes? In the case of Mark Dawidziak’s latest, it’s so you don’t have to read all the rest. Calling any guide that can be lifted with one hand “essential” is risky, yet Dawidziak’s companion to the Count does cover all the basics, and a bit more. The TV critic starts by recalling his own introduction to the vampire king (Abbott and Costello…

Many of those who have visited Dublin will remember the Guinness-soaked pubs along the rain-slicked cobbles of the tourist-choked, faux-bohemian neighbourhood of Temple Bar. Not to mention the city’s newest monument, the Spire of Dublin (affectionately dubbed the “stiffy by the Liffey”), an oversized silver needle that towers some 120 metres above the river Liffey and the area’s newly gentrified streets. But despite an eagerness to present itself as safe, clean and visitor-friendly, an unsuspecting wrong turn can instantly lead you into urban decay and the city’s dustier corners. Although Dublin may not immediately rank among the Valley of the Kings, Guanajuato or even the British Museum for mummy tourism, the city still hosts its own impressive population of the desiccated and preserved. St. Michan’s Church We start our day…

The Toxic Avenger as a stage musical isn’t just a cool concept, it’s practically an inevitability. In fact, the splatter comedy about nerdy Melvin the Mop Boy falling into a barrel of toxic waste and transforming into a hulking mutant superhero had already been produced twice – albeit on a much smaller scale – prior to the current “authorized” version which is scheduled to premiere at New York’s George Street Playhouse on September 30. “Two separate groups, one in Omaha and one in Portland, produced their own completely independent versions of a Toxic Avenger musical,” Troma president/benevolent despot Lloyd Kaufman tells Rue Morgue. “These were Troma fans, not professional producers, who just wanted to see The Toxic Avenger on stage. Instead of demanding royalties, we pretty much looked the other…

He may be one of the most popular characters in horror comics in Europe, but Dylan Dog has yet to have a big impact in North America. Even still, Italian author Tiziano Sclavi’s eponymous “nightmare detective” will soon make his North American screen debut in Dead of Night, a new film directed by New Brunswick-born Kevin Munroe. “I first encountered Dylan Dog when Dark Horse Comics reprinted them in 1999 with new covers from Mike Mignola,” Munroe tells Rue Morgue. “It wasn’t until I was sent the script years and years later that I realized how big the series was in Europe.” Comics-to-film specialists Platinum Studios bought the rights to Dylan Dog more than a decade ago, and since then have been trying to get the movie off the ground.…

+ In November 2004, 54-year-old Geraldine Kelley made a deathbed confession that the husband she had always claimed died in a 1991 car crash was in fact “in storage.” Her statement led police to his dismembered remains, sealed in a bin at a Somerville, Massachusetts self-storage facility. + Tobe Hooper claims that he got the idea for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre while walking through the hardware section of a department store crowded with Christmas shoppers. + In South Africa, it was not uncommon for the bodies of soldiers who fought in the Boer War to be exhumed by witch doctors, who used the bones for black magic purposes. + Sherlock Holmes scribe Arthur Conan Doyle was interred in the garden of his Windlesham, Sussex estate. When the house was subsequently…

THE BABY’S ROOM Álex de la Iglesia First up in this new DVD set from Maple, “The Baby’s Room” sees young parents Juan (Javier Gutiérrez) and Sonia (Leonor Watling) move into a cheap house in an expensive neighbourhood and soon hear creepy voices coming through their baby monitor. Replacing the device with video cameras, Juan sees a man standing over his child’s crib, but it’s not an intruder, it’s a ghost trapped by a crime that took place there long ago and which now threatens to repeat itself. Director Álex de la Iglesia and screenwriter Jorge Guerricaechevarría (who also collaborated on the 1993 film Acción Mutante) reunite to deliver a thriller that zips along with all the smarts of a choice Twilight Zone episode. THE BLAME Narciso Ibáñez Serrador The…

A BLEAKER BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart Directed by Christopher Nolan Written by David S. Goyer, Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan Warner Bros. “I’m not a monster… I’m just ahead of the curve.” – The Joker From Cesar Romero’s playful lunacy to Jack Nicholson’s malicious glee, and now Heath Ledger’s terrifying insanity, The Joker is the yardstick which measures how the Dark Knight just keeps getting darker. We indeed live in times where the old gods have let us down, so it’s no wonder superhero movies are the escapism of choice. But we’re also too selfaware for the quaint, canetwirling antics of a villain such as the 1960-style Joker; these days we need genuinely evil monsters. And, when it comes to the card-carrying…

SUMMER SCHOOL randomcreatureface.com In a celebration of horror geekdom, Summer School sees Charles, who runs a horror movie review website, stay up too late for a DVD marathon right before his first day of summer school. Exhausted, he slips in and out of sleep, each time experiencing a nightmare based on a particular horror subgenre, from satanic cults to mutant monsters to Nazisploitation. On paper, this sounds like a crappy amateur fanboy project. However, Summer School is a deliciously dark, paranoid indie creepfest. Each of Charles’ nightmares is a different writer/director collaboration, but with a common thread: he is pursued by some threat, mostly in the confines of his school. Along for the ride are his crush Lindsey and two friends Dennis and Steve, who manage to deliver comedic relief…

This is the first time I’ve dedicated a column to a non-horror film, and it won’t be the last. I don’t plan on doing it often, but only a complete ass-head would deny that scores of films outside the genre have been hugely influential on horror – think Taxi Driver, Straw Dogs, Dirty Harry, Touch of Evil, ’40s and ’50s noir, Hitchcock and Lynch. River’s Edge (1987), on the other hand, is a pitch-black drama that has clearly been influenced by horror, rather than the other way around, so am I going out on a limb here? Fuck no, because it’s one long, unflinching gaze into the abyss that I truly believe every serious horror fan needs to experience. River’s Edge is based on a 1981 murder case in Milpitas,…

SNUFF: A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT KILLING ON CAMERA Westlake Entertainment Snuff is a serious exploration of a chilling scenario. An organized criminal operation films people being murdered, often during the act of sex, in order to sell copies to wealthy collectors. This is the proper definition of snuff: black market murder-porn. The phrase was born out of allegations that Charles Manson and his followers shot and sold footage of murder victims nearly 40 years ago, but a verifiable snuff film has never surfaced. Serial killers have, however, committed some of their crimes on home video. In 1985, Leonard Lake and Charles Ng taped themselves abusing women they would later murder, but did not record the actual deaths. Canada’s most notorious serial killers, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, also recorded the torment…

HELLBOY: THE SCIENCE OF EVIL PSP, PS3, Xbox 360 Konami What’s not to like about Hellboy? Whether you’re a fan of the comic or the movies, you just gotta love that wisecracking, Nazi-bashing, big red sumbitch. That’s why it’s so disappointing that this game, which was lost in development hell for almost a year, is such a monumental letdown. The plot of Science of Evil, which was written exclusively for the game, has Hellboy travelling through six different time periods while battling hordes of enemies unleashed by Herman von Klempt, a Nazi scientist intent on world domination. (Aren’t they all?) Players move Hellboy between gaming arenas, smashing attackers with his Right Hand of Doom or blowing them away with his trusty revolver, the Samaritan. Even though you can inflict massive…

ADIDAS HELLBOY SNEAKERS $100-$150 At last: suitable adornment for your Right (and Left) Foot of Doom, thanks to the demons who run Adidas. One design features the wisecracking demon himself, as played by Ron Perlman, and the other bears the Hellboy logo in gold on devil-red. Cool as hell. Run with Big Red at adidas.com. NOSFERATU COFFIN BOX $65.99 Where better to store your ancestral earth (when you’re not sleeping in it) than a coffin-shaped box adorned with the sinister Max Schreck as Count Orlok? There are a number of shelves in each one, so there’s also room for any self-penned vampyr yarns you want to keep away from marauding filmmakers. Stake your claim at morbiddecor.etsy.com. MAGNETIC MONSTERS TIN $14 Few things are as creepy as the innocent laughter of…

HORROR IS NO STRANGER TO TELEVISION. In fact, with the recent boom of genre series it might be fair to say that these days the two are practically bosom buddies. Of course, this has been aided in no small part by the formation of specialty genre cable stations (Monsters HD, Scream, Sci Fi Channel) and the success of Dexter and Masters of Horror on premium cable networks such as Showtime and HBO. Yet, really, one need look no further than the major networks, where Fear Itself, Supernatural and sev eral others already make their home. And there are still more on the way, with new series such as Fringe and True Blood premiering this fall. Interestingly, this isn’t a strictly North American phenomenon either. Genre programming is bubbling onto…

RECTOR… NEARLY KILLED ’ER! REVAMPED MTI Home Video If you like your vampire movies served with a hearty helping of ham and cheese, you’ll want to sample this tasty little entree by writer, director and lead actor Jeff Rector. Rector plays Richard Clarke, a businessman who decides to become a vampire in order to kill his cheating wife. But when his body is accidentally cremated, it’s five long years before his ashes are mistakenly mixed with blood and he reanimates to find himself in the middle of a war between an evil vampire clan and a group of friendly vampires who want to live peacefully with humans. Kudos to Rector for casting Phantasm’s Reggie Bannister, Billy Drago (Imprint) and Martin Kove (The Karate Kid) in this darkly silly little story.…

ABOUT PHRICKIN’ TIME! PHANTASM: OBLIVION (1998) Starring A. Michael Baldwin, Angus Scrimm and Reggie Bannister Written and directed by Don Coscarelli Anchor Bay Phans know it variously as The One Coscarelli Made When He Couldn’t Get the Other One Made, The One Where We Find Out the Tall Man’s Identity (Sorta), The One That Makes Absolutely No Sense if You Haven’t Seen the Others, and probably a dozen or so other sobriquets. Shot for a paltry $700,000 when funding for the epic Phantasm’s End fell through for the umpteenth time, OblIVion is the most narratively ambitious film in the series – in fact, it’s frequently criticized for its ambiguities and non-linear structure – but its revelations and expansions on the series’ mythos have made it a must for Phans, and…

“No one is safe.” The long-time slogan of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead came home with lethal force in March of this year, when issue #48 hit the stands and officially wrapped up the prison arc of the wildly popular book – by levelling the place and almost everyone in it, good or bad. The staggering conclusion to the already ultra-violent storyline – which had been escalating in its intensity since Michonne’s infamous revenge sequence in issue #33 (the first-ever WD issue to get a second printing) – saw Kirkman audaciously kill off almost every cast member with a brevity and efficiency that seemed tragic, yes, but right. As the ever-candid writer commented in the letters column for issue #49, his cast-culling “probably didn’t live up to what [most readers]…

Could a real zombie apocalypse happen? And if it did, would we fare as poorly as the people in horror films and books do? In his latest non-fiction offering, Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead, author Jonathan Maberry explores these questions through a series of candid, eye-opening interviews with law enforcement professionals, doctors and scientists on the cutting-edge, making some startling discoveries along the way. “I’ve always disagreed with the plot device that as zombies rose society would instantly crumble,” says Maberry. “I know too many seasoned cops and military guys to accept that. And the medical community would definitely embrace the opportunity to research a new disease. That’s how grants and Nobel prizes get won.” In order to test his theory, the two-time Bram Stoker Award winner…

THE ABANDONED Alfons Conde MOVIESCORE MEDIA Soundtrack It’s not hard for a composer to find traces of characters and emotional turmoil in an unfocused, clumsily structured thriller, but newcomer Alfons Conde managed to transcend the serious flaws in Nacho Cerdà’s The Abandoned to craft an extremely intimate, yet rich, symphonic portrait of a woman’s terrifying nightmares. It’s a classically written score with periodic dips into modernism, but Conde rarely lingers on a fully developed theme or motif. Cues such as “Olga’s Murder” have the usual stabs and brass eruptions, but Conde adds some chilling tonal streaks through the use of shimmering vocals reminiscent of Ligeti. Interwoven among dark orchestral gyrations is a gentle lullaby (“The Journey”), which morphs into a ghostly soundscape, and then there’s the exquisite “Adagio: Color of…