Table of contents for Issue 67 May 2007 in RUE MORGUE

When our publisher and founder Rodrigo Gudiño left his post as Editor-in-Chief a year and a half ago to pursue filmmaking, I suspected he’d experiment with some pretty esoteric ideas. Knowing Rodrigo as well as I do, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to learn the script for his second short, The Demonology of Desire, was about deviant love. It’s a story that begins with a teenage girl praying to God to send her a man… who’ll hold her down and rape her till she’s bleeding. Regardless of what he’s trying to say with the film (and it is definitely tenebrous), it seems that each person who sees it reacts to it differently. They bring something of themselves to their understanding of the film. Something exclusive to their own history.…

+ Police in Concord, New Hampshire recently launched an investigation after discovering a mummified baby’s corpse had been handed down for generations as a family heirloom. The child, believed to have been born in 1850, is said to be the great-great uncle of its current keeper. + Susan Cabot, star of the drive-in classic The Wasp Woman, was beaten to death with a weightlifting bar by her son in 1986. She was 59. + Followers of Ukrainian superstition believe it’s good luck to find a spider web on Christmas morning. + Among the deleted scenes from The Silence of the Lambs sequel Hannibal is one featuring character actor Leonardo Cimino (“Scary German Guy” in The Monster Squad) as a crazed homeless man living in Hannibal Lecter’s former cell in the…

AN UNSOLVED PUZZLE ZODIAC Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr. Directed by David Fincher Written by James Vanderbilt Paramount Leave it to visionary stylist David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) to resuscitate the moribund serial killer genre. Not that Zodiac – an A-list production all the way – has any relation to the work of hacks like Ulli Lommel, the degenerate mind behind atrocious mass murderer pics Black Dahlia, Green River Killer and, yes, Zodiac Killer. For Zodiac is less about the infamous madman who stalked the Bay Area almost 40 years ago than the men whose lives were tainted by their obsession with the uncaught killer. Fincher’s ensemble cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko) playing Robert Graysmith, the real-life, Pulitzer-nominated San Francisco Chronicle political cartoonist whose initially…

Zombiemania: 80 Movies To Die For Dr. Arnold T. Blumberg and Andrew Hershberger Telos I know I like a book when I take it into the tub, so let’s just say that Rue Morgue’s review copy of Zombiemania: 80 Movies to Die For is in quite a soggy state. If you study walking dead cinema then chances are, you will dig it too. Dr. Arnold T. Blumberg and Andrew Hershberger’s ambitious undead reference book is packed with juice on all your favourite living stiff epics and a few that you might not have even considered part of the zombie canon. The authors have chosen to list the 80 flicks in alphabetical order, from Fred Olen Ray’s abysmal Alien Dead to the utterly obscure Zombies on Broadway. Sandwiched in between we…

Joe R. Lansdale Random House Joe R. Lansdale writes Joe R. Lansdale stories; they’re weird and messed up but have a lot of heart. Everybody should read Lansdale. He’s good for you. He’ll put hair on your chest. People only familiar with his work through the one-two punch of Don (Phantasm) Coscarelli’s adaptations of Bubba Ho-Tep and Incident on and off a Mountain Road, have good reason to plunge into the pool with Lost Echoes, his most accessible work in recent memory. In the tale, which deftly melds the supernatural with some down-home East Texas crime, readers are introduced to Harry Wilkes, who sees horrific visions through the sounds death has imprinted on everyday objects. It is his curse, and now entering adulthood he’s done his best to bury this…

Soundtrack THE HOST Byung-woo Lee MILAN It’s rare when music by an Asian film composer gets released by a North American label, but then The Host is no ordinary monster movie. Much like the film’s shocking cuts between action, horror and melodrama, Byung-woo Lee’s score is emotionally schizophrenic. But that doesn’t harm this hugely entertaining album, which is grounded by a contemporary symphonic style recalling Pino Donaggio’s best horror work. The Host also features distinct, genre-fusing variations of the film’s empathetic main theme; for example, “Running Lonely” has traces of lounge jazz, while the use of electronic rhythms in “Over Wonhyo Bridge” mimics Graeme Revell’s chilling techno-symphonic style. They’re both indicative of Lee’s decision to score the film without any overt cultural references while emphasizing chunks of tension from a…

HIGHEST RATING IS THREE. DO YOU WORSHIP CTHULHU? Card Game Toy Vault GRAPHICS:111/2 PLAYABILITY: FF 1/2 SHIVERS: 1/2 Your village has assembled for a meeting after it’s been discovered someone amongst you is a devotee of that tentacled abomination whose name can only be mentioned in frightened whispers. Dissent and mistrust run rampant and death is close at hand as you desperately try to root out the secret Cthulhu worshipper before it’s too late. Meant for groups of five to 30 people, Do You Worship Cthulhu? utilizes a deck of 32 cards – featuring artwork by Ron Spencer (Magic: The Gath ering, Werewolf: The Forsaken) – to determine which role players will assume for the game: Villager, Seer, Protector, Vigilante or… the dreaded Cthulhu Worshipper. A moderator then leads players…

I HAD TO COMMENT on the Grindhouse issue. I saw a bootleg copy [of the film], which I recommend instead of paying for this heap. Not only was the movie not a horror film, but a blatant rip-off of much better films, this included Tarantino’s snorefest Death Proof. Planet Terror was just as awful. I looked for any sign of something fresh rather than the typical “they’re not zombies but infected or addicted or whatever.” It was just as bad as any current horror remake that pretends to be from the ’70s. I love your magazine and I won’t stop reading but I will stop watching modern horror films, even if you praise them. I don’t think I could sit through dialogue of girls talking about guys and sex again,…

EMILY THE STRANGE CANDLES $9.99 each Brighten up the dark arts with Emily’s spell candles for bad luck, heartbreak and protection – or, if you need a little holy hellfire, there’s one dedicated to Saint Emily herself. Each one comes with a collectible metal charm embedded in the wax. Pyromania never felt so magical. Cast a shadow and a spell at darkhorse.com. MEDUSA’S MAKE-UP GHOSTLY GIFT SET $42 Even a snake-haired beast can look glamorous with pure pigment cosmetics from Medusa’s Make-Up. Their Ghostly Gift Set contains body shimmer, two eye dusts, eyeliner, glitter and three brushes, all in a cool cosmetic bag. Forty-eight additional shades are available, including Black Sabbath, Soylent Green, Helter Skelter and Full Moon. Get looks that kill at medusasmakeup.com. TAROT OF THE DEAD $19.95 Shoot…

Cristóbal Jodorowsky was 25 years old when his father approached him for the lead role of his first project in nine years, the Italian-financed horror film Santa Sangre, produced by Dario Argento’s brother Claudio. The movie has since become the bloody gem of the Jodorowsky canon, a considerable achievement taking into account Jodorowsky’s legacy of bizarre, violent and confrontational imagery. Santa Sangre tells the story of Fenix (Cristóbal, credited as “Axel”), a young man confined to a mental hospital after witnessing his father cut the arms off his mother, who survives the attack. Fenix escapes the hospital to rejoin his mother and literally become her new arms, creating one of the most astonishing psychological and murderous bonds ever depicted between mother and son. Rue Morgue talks to Cristóbal Jodorowsky from…

Back in issue 31, Rue Morgue evaluated August Underground as the genre’s first truly unwatchable film due to the graphic nature of the movie, which plays out like a bona fide snuff film. In issue 35, we dubbed the sequel, August Underground’s Mordum, “the most disturbing film ever made.” In just a few short years, these movies have come to be regarded as some of the most shocking the genre has to offer, and are regularly ranked alongside the likes of Cannibal Holocaust and the Guinea Pig series as the best of the worst by fans the world over. More horror fans know of the films than have actually seen them, and fewer still understand them. They’re shot in the style of a home video and are presented as the…

RIGHT TO DIE Starring Julia Anderson, Martin Donovan and Anna Galvin Directed by Rob Schmidt Written by John Esposito Anchor Bay If you’ve read any EC Comics, you’ll notice their influence on Rob (Wrong Turn) Schmidt’s Masters of Horror episode. Penned by John Esposito (Graveyard Shift), Right to Die uses the EC template – which keeps the ghoulish garish and the message moral, plus heavy doses of the one thing the old comics used to lack: sex. Returning home from an unsuccessful weekend getaway meant to repair their fractured marriage, cheating husband Dr. Cliff Addison and his scorned wife Abby (Martin Donovan and Julia Anderson, respectively) are involved in a car accident in which Abbey is nearly scorched to death. Bound almost completely in bandages (recalling a similar but much…

CAT DEAD, DETAILS LATER RE-ANIMATOR (1985) Starring Bruce Abbott, Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton Directed by Stuart Gordon Written by Dennis Paoli, William J. Norris and Stuart Gordon Anchor Bay “It’s timeless in its brashness. This is the movie that will not die.” – Jeffrey Combs. On that prescient note, Re-Animator – Stuart Gordon’s gore-soaked Lovecraft adaptation about a serum that brings the dead back to life – now has more in common with Dawn of the Dead besides hyper-violent zombie action. Like Dawn, it’s being reissued every time you turn around, each time with just enough new goodies thrown in to make the last one semi-obsolete. So what new and improved whistles and bells does Anchor Bay’s 2007 version offer, besides all the extras preserved from Elite Entertainment’s previous…

Inspired by true events. Invoking that descriptor in the context of a ghost story often warns me that sensationalism, not suspense, lurks around the corner. Normally, the fruits of a work “inspired by true events” are anti-climactic, so it’s a good thing then comic book writer Serena Valentino decided to not go the normal route. Her haunting 1140 Rue Royale – originally serialized in Nightmares & Fairy Tales (issues #13-18), and now available collected – is a compelling character-driven tale of ghostly vengeance told with respect for both the material that inspired it and the comic’s readers. The story’s titular address is that of a Victorian house in the French Quarter of New Orleans – still standing post-Hurricane Katrina – where, in the 1830s, deranged socialite and notorious sadist Delphine…

SAFFRON AND BRIMSTONE Elizabeth Hand M Press Set against a gloomy, semi-realist backdrop of magic and transformation, Elizabeth Hand’s colourful characters – from dying pagans to broken-hearted nymphs – are forced to confront their darkest fears and desires in this collection, aptly subtitled Strange Stories. Hand’s prose is replete with Gothic elegance and the hope she offers at the close of each tale is always tempered with a deep sense of underlying darkness. Claire Horsnell VAMPIRE BEACH: RITUAL Alex Duval Simon Pulse Jason, a student at an affluent Malibu high school populated by teenage vampires, finds himself fighting for his life when a crossbow-wielding maniac starts offing his bloodsucking buds. Geared for the younger crowd, this third installment of the Vampire Beach series is low on gore and only a…

Situated on the banks of the river Avon in England’s West Midlands, Warwick Castle cuts an impressive figure against the skyline. Amidst rolling green hills and landscaped grounds (including a peacock-filled rose garden and a Victorian-styled greenhouse packed with exotic plants) the castle looks peaceful and idyllic. Yet there’s been a fortification of one kind or another in the spot since about 914, so in spite of how pretty it looks now, there’s all manner of nastiness tucked away in the Castle’s shadowy history. Nowadays, the long, hilly, hedged-in approach to the castle starts in a tree-lined car park. But as you leave the modern vehicles behind, you’re treading in the footsteps of the countless nobles who have occupied the castle throughout history. The Earls of Warwick have been involved…

“Don’t let me operate heavy machinery,” jokes a very frazzled-looking Frank Darabont in between shots on his adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist. Darabont, whose past King adaptations include the Shawshank Redemp tion and The Green Mile, is understandably tired five weeks into the seven-week shoot, which is taking place in Shreveport, Louisiana. Due to budget and time constraints, the cast and crew have been working fourteen-hour days, six days a week, covering up to nine script pages a day. Darabont has even spent some of his lunch breaks working with his editor. “I’d love to split the difference between this and a [big budget-type] Green Mile schedule,” he notes. “[That would be] a happy medium.” Darabont had been talking with King about The Mist for nearly twenty years, and…

Ukrainian/Chilean surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s films nearly disappeared into the annals of urban legend. The master cinematic philosopher, psychotherapist, Tarot enthusiast, comic strip artist (he supplied several pieces for cult comic magazine Heavy Metal) and mime disciple (he studied under the great Marcel Marceau in Paris) was responsible for some of the most jaw-dropping feats of mind-expanding cinema ever produced. But an early alliance with notoriously controlling music and media figure Allen Klein (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones) spelled disaster for the filmmaker, resulting in some of his most incredible pictures withheld from proper theatrical distribution and legitimate home video release (though bootlegs most certainly abound) – something Jodorowsky has described as “cultural murder.” Now, after the resolution of a bitter 30-year feud, Anchor Bay has released The Films…

DARK RIDE Craig Singer If there was ever a good time to bust out the cliché “Sit back and enjoy the ride,” this is it. Starring Jamie-Lynn DiScala (The Sopranos), Craig Singer’s slasher film features six standard-issue college students on a spring break road trip who break into a horror-themed amusement park attraction only to be terrorized by an escapee from the local loony bin. Playing out like an updated version of Tobe Hooper’s classic The Funhouse, Dark Ride has everything a good slasher film should have – sexy girls, plenty of imaginative, gory death scenes and a faceless, silent, unstoppable killer (this time in a bizarre doll mask). Though it’s an unoriginal concept, Singer still makes it an unpredictable frightfest by combining great sets with atmospheric lighting and –…

Horror journalist John McCarty’s Fearmakers documentary series, initially released on VHS in the mid-’90s, is based on his book of the same name. Seven of the eleven seemingly random filmmakers examined here were deceased by the time McCarty mounted this project, and of the remaining four, Roman Polanski was effectively banished from the US and another was the notoriously press-shy Tobe Hooper, which explains why only Roger Corman and Robert Wise actually make personal appearances in their own segments. Still, plenty of lively commentary is provided by genre luminaries including Richard Matheson, John Carpenter, Stuart Gordon, Dario Argento and more. Each half-hour episode is well made (for the most part) and bound to enthrall the horror faithful. JACK ARNOLD: MASTER OF EXOTIC MENACE One of the more successful entries in…

COWBOYS AND THE CRYING WOMAN THE LIVING COFFIN (1959) Starring Gastón Santos, María Duval and Pedro de Aguillón Directed by Fernando Méndez Written by Ramón Obón CasaNegra Entertainment Despite the efforts of a few pre-war poverty row studios, Hollywood has never had much success combining western and horror elements into one film. Instead, it was Mexico that managed to see past the gimmicky potential of such a union and eventually turn the horror-western hybrid into a viable genre. El Zorro Escarlata (1957), which incorporated monsters, witches and revenge from beyond the grave, is credited as the first Mexican film to spice up the then-sagging oater formula with supernatural elements, and its success led to a short-lived local western-horror boom that produced several fascinating genre crossbreeds, including CasaNegra’s most recent DVD…

WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU! (1980) Starring Norman Chu, Eddy Ko and Melvin Wong Directed by Hark Tsui Written by Roy Szeto Tokyo Shock A variety of schlock is essential to any gorehound’s cinematic diet, and it should include a healthy helping of kung fu. That said, an appropriate appetizer is acclaimed Hong Kong producer/director Hark Tsui’s second feature, the kung fu cannibal classic We’re Going to Eat You! – a chop socky take on Two Thousand Maniacs! with visual homages to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Cannibal Holocaust, and music cues lifted from Goblin’s score for Suspiria. The plot revolves around Agent 999 (Norman Chu), who tracks a notorious bandit (Melvin Wong) to a remote island populated by impoverished cannibals lorded over by a Manson-like leader they call “The…