Table of contents for Issue 96 December 2009 in RUE MORGUE

After an absence of nearly 30 years from feature film production, Hammer Films is back. The legendary British company, known for its series of classic gothic Dracula and Frankenstein movies of the late-1950s to mid-1970s, is in production on the North American remake of Let the Right One In, plus it’s releasing an original feature starring horror luminary Christopher Lee. The Resident, a contemporary psychological thriller due to hit theatres this coming spring, co-stars Lee, Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) and is modelled after the company's “mini-Hitchcock” suspense films of the early ’60s, such as Scream of Fear and The Fanatic. It sees recently divorced doctor Juliet Dermer (Swank) move into a Brooklyn loft where she finds herself the target of an obsessive landlord, Max…

This past September, several families who live near a crematorium in Ottawa began complaining that soot from the burning of human remains was blowing onto their homes. Peter Cushing (The Curse of Frankenstein) considered The Blood Beast Terror the worst film of his career. CAT scans of fossils of the Haast’s eagle, a massive bird which has been extinct for about 500 years, indicate that it might have eaten humans. According to Keith Topping’s A Vault of Horror, Ingrid Pitt (The House That Dripped Blood) was once the “karate partner” of Elvis Presley. At least ten percent of women receiving treatment at Afghanistan’s Herat Regional Hospital burn unit set themselves on fire intentionally in attempts to escape arranged marriages and/or spousal abuse. In the television edit of Snakes on a…

“I DON’T THINK ANYONE GIVES A DAMN ABOUT VIDEO NASTIES,” says David Kerekes, British co-author of See No Evil, a comprehensive history of the video nasties ban. “But then, I’m always surprised when they do.” Yet recent moves by UK censors and an almost-certain swing to a conservative government next year suggest British horror fans may soon give a damn about video nasties as the country appears poised for more crackdowns by the authorities. This past August, 25 years after the British government passed its restrictive Video Recordings Act (VRA), the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) banned the UK sale and distribution of Japanese director Koji Shiraishi’s torture extravaganza Grotesque, with BBFC director David Cooke telling the British media that it “presents the audience with little more than an…

THE IMAGE OF RONALD REAGAN MAKING OUT WITH CLORIS LEACHMAN MAY JUST BE THE MOST DISTURBING THING EVER MENTIONED IN RUE MORGUE. That retina-destroying visual is just one of the strange sights in Golden Age Ghost Tales, a DVD anthology featuring seven episodes of various television shows from the 1950s and early 1960s, courtesy that enduring buccaneer of the video era, Johnny Legend and his Raunchy Tonk label. The saliva-swap between Reagan and Leachman (The Last Picture Show, Young Frankenstein) is from General Electric Theatre’s teleplay “Let It Rain” (1955). In the first of two episodes here referencing the American Civil War, Leachman plays Leah Beth, a Southern Belle to Reagan’s wandering writer, Laren McCall. As he settles into an isolated, decrepit plantation house, listening to family stories about sons…

DEATH DRIVES AN EL CAMINO LIVE EVIL MT Entertainment I’m definitely one to gush over cheesy B-movie actors, and they don’t come any cheesier Tim Thomerson (Dollman, Trancers 1-6) and Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead, The Devil’s Rejects), the co-stars of Live Evil. The film follows a group of vampires fighting for survival after contamination of the human blood supply has forced them into warring clans. Thomerson rocks as a vampire-hunting, el Camino-driving priest armed with a samurai sword, while Foree chews the scenery with a pair of fake fangs as a powerful vampire leader. If you hate the limp-dick Twilight vampires, pop this flick in your player for some good old-fashioned B-movie madness complete with kung fu, car chases, babes, boobs and buckets o’ blood! You can thank…

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA: A DOCUMENTARY JOURNEY INTO A VAMPIRE COUNTRY Elizabeth Miller Pegasus Like the fictional lecherous leech she has become a leading authority on, Elizabeth Miller shows no signs of letting up. Her latest, Bram Stoker’s Dracula: A Documentary Journey into Vampire Country and the Dracula Phenomenon is such a powerhouse of breadth and depth that it might stop other undead scholars dead in their tracks. There is seemingly no end to what Miller has been able to cram into the 400 pages of this encyclopedic look at Dracula and all that it has inspired. You’ve got everything from an advertisement for a tonic from the 1890s that sports the slogan “For the Blood is the Life,” to the cover of the filmbook for 1921’s lost Hungarian movie The…

GIANTS WITH HUGE TEETH, SHARP CLAWS AND SCALY SKIN… until someone proves the existence of a Loch Ness monster or yeti, dinosaurs remain the only monsters that really existed. For kids, they’re like a gateway drug into the horror world, and many genre-fans-in-waiting drag their parents to museums and exhibits housing prehistoric remains in order to contemplate the behemoths. The Mecca for dinosaur lovers is The Royal Tyrrell Museum, located near the town of Drumheller, in the heart of southern Alberta’s badlands. The badlands are one of the most peculiar regions of Canada. Over thousands of years, wind, water and frost have eroded the soft, exposed sandstone into steep slopes and unearthly shapes (notably the rock protrusions with flat tops called hoodoos) that look like the terrain of another planet…

HIGHEST RATING IS THREE GRAPHICS PLAYABILITY SHIVERS JU-ON: THE GRUDGE Wii XSEED Games We’ve all heard of or seen a building that we believe is haunted. Whether it is the abandoned factory or creepy old house down the street, it’s the kind of place that makes you uneasy when just walking by. Now that fear can be fully explored from the comfort and safety of your couch, with this game based on an über-frightening Jhorror institution. Wii title Ju-on: The Grudge is being billed as a haunted house simulator by developers who want to provide an interactive experience rather than just a straightforward horror-themed game. That means that even though you’ll come across the weird kid who screeches like a cat and the creepy chick…

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I ENJOYED THE ARTICLE on William Castle and his films in RM#95. I have seen nearly all of Castle’s films, and enjoyed them quite a bit – especially The Tingler and Mr. Sardonicus, where Guy Rolfe was so memorable as the tortured Baron. However, I do have one complaint: Paul Corupe’s review of The Tingler claimed it was Price’s character who frightened poor Judith Evelyn to death, but it was her husband, Ollie, who was the culprit. Just wanted to correct that. Otherwise, very good article. MIKE MCCULLOUGH – SELBYVILLE, DELAWARE I WOULD LIKE TO BUY Andrew Lee a beer for giving the Twilight board game the review it deserved. The Twilight thing has gotten out of hand. Fangoria even put it on the cover of their magazine. Twilight isn’t…

youtube.com/watch?v=N3SULHUiCAw This ten-minute segment from a 1972 episode of matchmaking TV show The Dating Game features Vincent Price posing cheeky questions to three eligible bachelors in place of the usual female contestant. Weird, hilarious and mind-boggling all at once. Must be seen to be believed! zombify-yourself.net In one of the more unique online marketing campaigns of late, the official website for Zombieland allows visitors to upload a photo and, as the title suggests, zombify themselves. Give yourself an undead makeover today! findadeath.com If you’ve ever wondered about the details surrounding a particular celebrity death, chances are you can find them here. Findadeath.com catalogues both classic stars of the silver screen and modern-day thespians, even the occasional musician. Embrace your morbid curiosity. toomanyzombies.blogspot.com Artist Jason Tammemagi has committed to posting one…

1 MONSTER BANDAGES $3.99 Whether you’ve been mauled by werewolves or gnawed on by vampires, exsanguination is messy business. So stem the gore with a monster bandage; they come in a spooky-looking tin and feature four designs reminiscent of Universal’s monstrous brood. Bleed on at perpetualkid.com. 2 NERDCORE CALENDER $25 The annual Nerdcore pin-up calendar gets a horror makeover for 2010. This one features iconic genre movie scenes, riffing on the likes of Frankenstein, Psycho and Poltergeist, re-imagined with salacious models that are guaranteed to make more than the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Get your blood boiling at totallynerdcore.com. 3 TRUE BLOOD JEWELLERY $300 Wanna do real bad things to that sexy vamp in your life? This beautiful line of jewellery inspired by HBO’s True…

CANNIBAL GIRLS “These girls do exactly what you think they do!” screams the tagline in that lurid, drippy poster art, so why can’t they do it on DVD? Long before making Ghostbusters, Canada’s Ivan Reitman wrote and directed this 1973 gimmicky grindhouse flick (an alarm bell warns of gore!), in which a city couple, played by SCTV alumni Andrea Martin and Eugene Levy, run afoul of small-town cannibals at a bed and breakfast. That’s a commentary I’m dying to hear. DAVE ALEXANDER DEATH SHIP This UK/Canadian production about shipwreck survivors taking refuge on a crewless Nazi vessel haunted video stores and late-night Canuck TV in the ’80s, giving us younger viewers nightmares with nasty set pieces, including a drowning in blood. A true trash classic courtesy of writer Jack Hill…

PORTABLE GRINDHOUSE: THE LOST ART OF THE VHS BOX Jacques Boyreau Fantagraphics Want cool monsters? Behold: Media’s Slithis, Orion’s Tentacles and Trans World Entertainment’s The Intruder Within (directed by Peter Carter!). How about hilariously terrible artwork? Anything from Regal Video Inc. (Nightmare Circus, Alien Massacre) should fit the bill. What about a reminder of your favourite imprint? There are lots of nostalgically illustrated boxes from Paragon Video (Funeral Home, Night of Bloody Horror, Delirium). And they’re mostly presented warts ’n’ all, with video store stickers, box creases and sun-faded fronts. Compiler Jacques Boyreu opens the book with a passionate, surprisingly technical history/love letter to the analogue format, which, along with Fantagraphics’ killer video box-style design, makes Portable Grindhouse a great gift for tapeheads. Of course, now you’ll want to scour…

IF HANS RICKHEIT’S SQUIRREL MACHINE WAS RELEASED IN THE VICTORIAN ERA THAT IT’S SET IN, CHANCES ARE HE’D BE LOCKED UP IN AN ASYLUM for producing such disturbing, perverse and horrifying imagery. The writer/illustrator’s graphic novel features the fusion of dead animals and low-tech machinery, but that’s only one element in a dense work that is also a surreal coming-of-age tale, a grotesque journey through the subconscious and an exercise in crafting richly detailed absurdities. At the centre of the book – out now from Fantagraphics – reside William and Edmund Torpor, teenage brothers living in 19th-century New England. To the disapproval of their widowed mother, the mockery of their schoolmates and the anger of the local townsfolk, they construct elaborate musical instruments made from the parts – and sometimes…

A quick glance at comic shelves will reveal a number of titles based on existing properties: movies, television shows, toys, assorted celebrities – even the President of the United States. And lest you think every possible avenue has been mined, along comes Distortions Unlimited, undoubtedly the first horror comic based on animatronic props. Some of you out there may recognize the name, especially if you reside near Greeley, Colorado. That’s where, for over 30 years, Distortions has been manufacturing horror-themed props, masks and animatronics to the delight of individuals, businesses, theme parks and even rock stars. (They designed the stage props for Alice Cooper’s Brutal Planet tour.) So how did a haunted house supplier become the focus of a comic book series? Writer and illustrator Daniel Crosier grew up near…

IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE ZOMBIES!: A BOOK OF ZOMBIE CHRISTMAS CAROLS Michael P. Spradlin HarperCollins By trading out words in popular Christmas carols (think “Fresh brains roasting on an open fire” or “Here comes Zombie Claus”), Michael P. Spradlin attempts to create gruesome, zombified versions of 30 holiday classics. However, Christmas tunes are irksome to begin with and nothing, even the addition of the undead, can make them any easier to bear. JESSA SOBCZUK HAMMER GLAMOUR Marcus Hearn Titan In their gothic chillers, Hammer Studios used Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing to provide the menace and a bevy of beautiful women (mostly) to be the victims. In Hammer Glamour, author Marcus Hearn has assembled a lavish collection of production and publicity photos featuring 50 stunning starlets, including…

France has a rich cinematic history, but not much of a tradition of horror films. At least not until this decade’s so-called new wave of French horror, which has given us a slew of graphic and brutal movies, including highlights Irreversible (2002), High Tension (2003), Sheitan (2006), Inside (2007), Frontier(s) (2007) and Martyrs (2008). Over in Belgium, which has a significant French culture, Fabrice DuWelz has found a following with Calvaire (2004) and Vinyan (2008), which almost doubles the number of notable horror films from that country if you include Daughters of Darkness (1971), Lucker the Necrophagus (1986) and Man Bites Dog (1992). It stands to reason then that a recent film reputedly banned in both of these countries must be particularly shocking! Mmm… Silence, We’re Shooting! (Silence, ça tue!)…

Darren Bousman built his reputation on trauma, directing Repo! The Genetic Opera and the first three Saw sequels, and now he’s turned his attention to Troma. The filmmaker is helming the remake of Troma studio’s 1980 film Mother’s Day. Centred around three demented redneck brothers and their equally demented mother, the story has been re-imagined as a psychological thriller starring Rebecca De Mornay (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle). But Bousman is quick to assure horror fans that he has no plans to massacre the original. “The original movie works for what it is, I don’t want to fuck with it,” says Bousman by phone from Winnipeg, where filming wrapped in October. “The characters [in the remake] are very similar to [those in] the original film. It’s just they’re in…

FROM GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES TO DELIVERANCE TO THE EVIL DEAD, THE WOODS HAVE PROVEN EVERY BIT AS POPULAR A SETTING FOR SCARY STORIES AS MOONLIT GRAVEYARDS, ancient castles and old dark houses. In 1977’s unsung survivalist horror masterpiece Rituals, director Peter Carter skill-fully exploits the shifting moods of his film’s rural northern Ontario setting – majestic, austere and serene by day, surreal at dusk, creepy and oppressive at night – to such a degree that the environment itself becomes a secondary character. Retro horror fans who caught the film’s rare VHS releases (including a TV edit retitled The Creeper) have awarded it a cult following; Stephen King has hailed the film, listing it among the must-sees in his 1981 non-fiction book Danse Macabre; and Rue Morgue included it on our…

AS SCARY AS IT GETS PARANORMAL ACTIVITY Starring Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston Written and directed by Oren Peli Paramount It’s a rare thing, being frightened by a horror movie. You almost forget what it feels like. Watch enough of them and you anticipate the filmmakers’ tricks: the jump scares, the cheap ploys that can only shock you once. Paranormal Activity, a micro-budgeted feature from first-time writer/director Oren Peli, frightened me. It frightened the entire preview audience I saw it with. The “serious” movie fans gasped and screamed at the appropriate moments, respectful of the profound experience they were being subjected to; the teenage girls in attendance, perhaps too immature to deal with such terrifying ideas and images, kept up a steady stream of inane banter to circumvent the nightmares…

THE STEPFATHER IS A ROCK-SOLID DOMESTIC HORROR MOVIE from the mid-’80s that slowly built its reputation over the years on the strength of Terry O’Quinn’s performance and Joseph Ruben’s no-nonsense direction. It’s one of the countless movies my friends and I rented in high school after a half-hour of stumbling around the horror section of Jumbo Video. Once we got it home, the first bloodsoaked sequence made it obvious this was no run-of-the-mill genre flick. More importantly, it starred Terry O’Quinn, an immediate marker of quality. Tragically, O’Quinn spent twenty years in actor purgatory after 1987’s The Stepfather, doing guest shots on Earth 2 and The XFiles until JJ Abrams cast him as John Locke on Lost and made him a well-deserved household name. The Stepfather – just released on…

FEW BOOKS HAVE SPAWNED AS MANY SEQUELS, PREQUELS, PARODIES, KNOCK-OFFS AND OUT-AND-OUT RIP-OFFS AS BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA. With his 1897 novel, the author managed to create a truly immortal character by connecting the folkloric vampire with a shadowy historical figure who had an affinity for torturing his enemies by impalement. Though Stoker’s knowledge of the actual Vlad III Dracula (a.k.a. Vlad Tepes, or The Impaler) was superficial at best – he picked the moniker out of William Wilkerson’s book An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (1820) – he selected a name with a rich and horrific real-life cachet, which only added to the mystique of his eponymous bloodsucker. Set against a Victorian backdrop of sexual repression, chivalry and dark gothic environments, including rotting castles and lunatic asylums,…

TRICK ’R TREAT SOUNDTRACK Douglas Pipes LA-LA LAND RECORDS In 2006’s Monster House, Douglas Pipes revealed his knack for capturing horror from a child’s vantage point with a black comedic touch. That skill has been broadened in Trick ’r Treat to include an adult’s fondness for the grisly shocks typical of ’80s horror films and comics. Pipes uses a gorgeous, Herrmannesque orchestral palette, emphasizing strong themes and diverse variations throughout this hour-long score. Musical moods match the film’s nostalgic tone, from a stirring title intro to the little passages of angst that convey how a child feels when a horror that’s been really fun suddenly becomes awfully real. A quiet piano theme and mournful strings capture the tragedy of the characters trapped in a school bus and give the score…

The Rita’s discography reads like a misanthropic agenda: Creature Drowning You (1996), Swingers Get Killed (1998),Weimar Whores (2004), Thousands of Dead Gods (2006), Headless with Leopard Skin (2009), and the list goes on, as the band boasts more than 70 releases (for the complete rundown, visit bakurita.blogspot.com). The music itself is assaulting and invasive, pure noise embedded with distorted horror movie sound clips featuring the screams of Eurohorror starlets such as Edwige Fenech, Susan Scott and Rosalba Neri – not that you would know it from the relentless layering of audio that makes up The Rita’s deafening soundscape of scraping, crushing collapse. Named after the boat in The Creature From the Black Lagoon, The Rita is the work of Sam McKinlay, a Vancouver-based musician, conceptual artist and film writer who…

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