Table of contents for Issue 223 Mar/Apr 2025 in RUE MORGUE

Rue Morgue · 001 Rue Morgue #223 - Intro Guys, sound off. Everyone okay? I feel like things are bad; not bad in the usual way that everything feels kinda shitty when you’re deep in the doldrums of Canadian winter – when the air hurts your face and you hope your car starts and frig, I wanted to like that Wolf Man movie better. Things seem extra bad, though – even by my usual winter curmudgeon standards. It’s the kind of bad that makes me look over my shoulder for the other shoe to drop. I find myself being extra careful handling fragile items and speaking to strangers. There’s something tenuous in the zeitgeist right now and I wish I could put my finger on it. Perhaps this feeling has…

Rue Morgue · 002 Rue Morgue #223 - Until Dawn Adapting a video game as cinematic as Until Dawn into a movie (in theatres April 25) might seem like an easy gig, but it was actually a pretty daunting proposition for co-writer/producer Gary Dauberman and director/producer David F. Sandberg. Insofar as the PS4 game was a tremendous success upon its launch in 2015, its classic slasher setting of teens holed up in a wooded chalet had been done to death (if you’ll pardon the pun). Furthermore, among Until Dawn’s greatest strengths as a game were its narrative branching mechanism and state-of-the-art mocap cutscenes that featured actual screen actors, meaning that the player essentially creates a unique horror movie with every playthrough. It all begs the question, does Until Dawn even…

Rue Morgue · 003 Rue Morgue #223 - The Ring The long-haired Sadako crawls forth from a television set, bones crunching as she stands upright, her ghostly features trembling in the grim light of day, her ghastly face just out of view. This image, which spread like a virus across screens all over the world, spawning a franchise and kicking off the J-horror film boom, had its unlikely origins in literature. It was Koji Suzuki’s 1991 novel Ring (Ringu), which became a sensation upon release, that caused a widespread cinematic phenomenon later in the decade and gained international cultural ubiquity in the early 2000s. First adapted for Japanese television in 1995, the book, like the ensuing films, focuses on a mysterious videotape filled with cryptic scenes that causes anyone who…

THIS ISSUE: LANCE DOES THE MONSTER MASH SPIRIT BORED https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2734428/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1 OUIJA NAZI Wildeye Releasing Mash-up movies are worth their weight in gold! Make a film that puts the Loch Ness Monster in outer space or the Abominable Snowman on a summer beach crammed with horny co-eds and you’ve got my attention for at least 90 minutes! With a title like Ouija Nazi, you know this film will rival nuts and gum for the world’s most unsavoury combination, so I’m here for it. This sick flick follows a group of sorority sisters who decide to use the ancestral house of their new pledge for a night of booze and sex. Unfortunately, these doomed chicks awaken the ghost of an infamous Nazi butcher, who is waiting to possess anyone dumb enough to…

An Italian television “series” called Brivido Giallo (Shiver Giallo) aired in August 1989 on the Italia 1 cable network; it consisted of four feature-length films directed by fright maestro Lamberto Bava (Demons) between 1987 and 1989. The four movies – Dinner with a Vampire, Graveyard Disturbance, The Ogre (subsequently a.k.a. Demons III: The Ogre) and Until Death, all co-scripted by horror stalwart Dardano Sacchetti – have not been released together since, a situation rectified this year by Cauldron Films. Its limited-edition Brivido Giallo five-disc set, slated for release in April, brings the quartet together on Blu-ray for the first time, accompanied by a CD of music tracks from all four by composer Simon Boswell. Founded in 2020 by Jesse Nelson and Brian Izzi, Cauldron Films has specialized in Italian genre…

Once upon a time, there were three little girls who lived on a farm in rural Indiana with their mother and her new husband. Like all children, the girls could misbehave, but were overall very, very good. Mommy, however, was very, very bad and prone to murdering people, beginning with her new husband. This made the little girls very afraid, and soon they began to suspect Mommy was really a big, bad witch and that they may be her next victims. Buried Long, Long Ago is based on the real-life antics of Belle Gunness, one of America’s most notorious female serial killers who is believed to have killed at least fourteen people, including children, between 1884 and 1908. Evidence seems to point to insurance policies as a motive, but Gunness…

THE ONYX BOOK OF OCCULT FICTION Damian Murphy, ed. Snuggly Books The sixth volume in Snuggly’s series of anthologies is its first entirely comprised of contemporary authors. No big jump there, since most of the stories are period pieces, set far away from the seemingly occult-proof 21st century. Still, if some deal with familiar topics (spiritualistic seances, witches) and locales (mystical Prague, misty Venice), the best among them provide modern twists and superior updates to the well-known tropes. One of the standouts is the late Ron Weighell’s atmospheric novella The Four Strengths of Shadow, about the student of an old Venetian architect’s papers who uncovers, through spectral means, his strange devotions. Another expert is in a similar situation in Colin Insole’s “Flower of the Sun,” enlisted by the British army…

I HAVE ENJOYED THE MAGAZINE for over ten years now. I do not read every issue, as there is no regular distributor here in Ireland, but I had to get the Clive Barker issue, when I saw it would be something special. Congratulations on a brilliant and beautiful issue. I think in terms of an innate, unconscious need to create, Clive bares comparison with the recently unfortunately departed David Lynch. With our Uncle David gone, queer horror weirdos must protect our gay, splatterpunk daddy at all costs. PATRIZIA DAHLIA THOMPSON, VIA EMAIL I AM SENDING A BIG THANK YOU for a trifecta of awesomeness with RM#222 (a trifecta of that number would of course be 666). First, to see Clive Barker as the cover subject was wonderful – especially when…

“For some reason we have a fascination with horror,” says filmmaker Reena Deen of her fellow Singaporeans. “We’ve got a lot a different superstitions, different beliefs. So, if you talk about Southeast Asian horror, it often revolves around the bridging point between religion and spirits. For example, the Hungry Ghost Festival [where people appease the dead through offerings] is technically a religious festival, but it is also about the gates of Hell being open. So, there is a lot of fodder for horror films.” Be that as it may, Singapore isn’t exactly known for its genre output, making Deen’s debut film The Damned Ones remarkable in more ways than one. Her venture into horror filmmaking began during the pandemic when teaching work dried up – her students had disabilities that…

ON THE SLAB: TECHNO HORRORS SEEK 5:38 mins/YouTube via AaronMorgan’s Channel Bickering sisters Heidi (Allisyn Snyder) and Jordan (Clare Grant) have been driving all night and pull into a roadside bathroom. While inside the sketchy facilities, Heidi hears some disturbing noises coming from the other side of the stall door that cause her to make haste. On her way out, Heidi notices a discarded cellphone on the floor and cautiously picks it up, not realizing she is setting a morbid game in motion. Austin native Aaron Morgan packs a lot into his south-of-six-minute runtime with crusty production design, solid camerawork, and a memorable antagonist courtesy of award-winning FX artist Arjen Tuiten. Seek was born out of Morgan’s own random visit to a backwoods rest stop and is meant to be…

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/petrified/id1446214817 PETRIFIED THEME: Modern Irish horror FORMAT: Fiction anthology FREQUENCY: Seasonal For a country that basically invented Halloween, it’s expected that Ireland knows a thing or two about scary stories. Harnessing that energy is the Petrified podcast, a horror fiction anthology from the darkest depths of the Emerald Isle. Having debuted in December 2018, the show now boasts three seasons worth of spooky goodness, meticulously crafted by writer and director Peter Dunne, with Liam Geraghty handling the sound design. Typically about 30 minutes long, each episode spins a dramatized tale of regular people encountering the paranormal or the evils on our own plane and – spoiler alert! – they don’t usually fare so well. Embracing the darkest of topics, Dunne doesn’t shy away from themes of suicide, abuse, or child…

Rue Morgue · 005 Rue Morgue #223 - Listen To My Nightmare THE UNHOLY COMBINATION OF HORROR AND MUSIC CAN LEAD TO A LOT OF GIMMICK, AND YET TORONTO-BASED OPERATIC VOCALIST ALIA SYNESTHESIA HAS MANAGED TO CARVE OUT SOMETHING ENTIRELY unique: a horror/opera fusion of classical music, fictional narrative, voice acting, and visual art – contained in a “Haunted Box” project she calls The Lost Opera. “I have been doing music since I was six years old,” Synesthesia tells me over Zoom. “I started writing stories pretty early on and I was really interested in writing for my friends. These days, I would consider myself more of a storyteller than a musician. Even though I do have skills with multiple instruments, all of my compositions are written around storytelling. I…

1 BLOODY VALENTINE DRIP MINI BAG $101 USD Valentine’s Day might have passed, but you know what they say – if it bleeds, we needs! Part of the Foxblood signature collection, this weekender mini bag features a coffin zipper pull, a removable crossbody strap, a matching wallet (sold separately), and is positively dripping with style. Foxblood.com 2 BAT LICENSE PLATE FRAME $33 USD We can’t stop here, this is bat country! Keep on kreepin’ on with this bat-festooned license plate frame, designed to keep your whip as fashionable as it is fast. Made of durable acrylic and cast in gleaming chrome, it’s the kind of flair that elevates your ride from routine to roadworthy. Store.kreepsville666.com 3 THE EXORCIST OUIJA BOARD $29.99 USD Say hello to Captain Howdy! Not only does…

Stop us if you’ve heard this one: eight teens take a winter weekend holiday to a chalet on a snowy mountain, only to wind up stalked, snared, and slashed by a shadowy figure leering from the nearby wilderness. It’s been the stuff of genre cliché for decades now – that was certainly the case when Until Dawn hit PlayStation 4 consoles in 2015. But what players quickly realized was that Until Dawn was not your typical horror video game (or ordinary slasher movie, for that matter). In addition to boasting some serious genre cred by way of Larry Fessenden (Glass Eye Pix) and Graham Reznick (The Quarry), the game employed then-novel modes of branching narrative storylines and state-of-the-art mocap technology with recognizable screen actors, including Rami Malek and Hayden Panettiere…

Rue Morgue · 004 Rue Morgue #223 - The Scent of Fear In the avant-garde corners of perfumery, certain scents have achieved notoriety for challenging sensory expectations – compositions that blur the lines between artistic statement and olfactory experience. Far from a simple pursuit of shock value, these explorations suggest a complex dialogue between creators, performers, and audiences exploring the outer limits of scent as an art form. The “most disgusting” ultra-niche label hints at something more nuanced than pure provocation – a collective investigation of sensory possibilities. Among the most frequently discussed in these experimental fragrance circles are Toskovat’s Inexcusable Evil, with its harrowing narrative of blood, bandages, iodine, and burning flowers; Eau de Space’s stark blend of hot metal, burnt steak, and gunpowder; and the notorious Sécrétions Magnifiques…

SPLATTER SIMIAN THE MONKEY Starring Theo James, Tatiana Maslany and Christian Convery Written and directed by Osgood Perkins Neon The tonal 180 that Osgood Perkins pulls in The Monkey – from his usual brooding, slow-burn horror to Final Destination-style splatstick – is the most conspicuous difference from his past work, but not the only one. It’s also the first time he has dealt with a male protagonist, in which the terror is brought on not by a hostile outside world so much as via a deranged family tradition. Of course, there are familiar Perkins tropes here too: rural settings bleakly photographed, scary music that swells only to be abruptly cut off, though the latter too is played more for anarchic humour than full-on fright. Given a brief tale (by Stephen…

The Best Policy “INCUBUS IS A HORROR FILM THAT SHOWS HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO UPHOLD HIGHER PRINCIPLES WHEN FACED WITH THE NEFARIOUS PULL OF CORRUPTION.” If our future seems more uncertain than ever these days, you have to wonder if there’s a direct connection to the kinds of people we continue to elect as our leaders. Look around and it’s plain to see that, for all the other problems out there, we’re not exactly promoting our most selfless citizens to lead us to a better tomorrow. One of the chief culprits of our modern predicament is this weird misconception that prominent business executives make the most honest political leaders – as if the corporate world doesn’t have its own troubling issues with morality and integrity. The rare ability to…

I can remember any number of completely useless morbid facts from my years writing the Coroner’s Report column in this magazine. Here’s one: more people die during winter than in any other season. Maybe that’s why it feels like every January there’s another obituary to pen here in the library. Confession: I find writing obits really difficult. Seriously, just ask Andrea how many days this column is now overdue. It seems an insurmountable task to properly celebrate a life and career in the few hundred words allotted by a magazine sidebar. A task made exponentially more difficult when it’s for one of our own, because while Canada may be large in territory, our genre scene is relatively compact and tight knit. When one of us departs this mortal coil, the…

https://www.amazon.com/Sender-Soundtrack-Trevor-Jones/dp/B005FX1YG6/ref=sr_1_13?crid=2BKM6V1DAKR43&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.b88mfaYkXvMTSilApFYXfjWR77blbO2ihnwXt901kUhXwLnmi78bS18ebX5nUtCQP8XQRKivnYsaXGvYXiLNfXd77tGuhMDIfyOi5a7OZ_Xk8ySaz-T-AIeuGYwDknPhsjnoVmnP53F7P2-N1Q5O3rn0Wewt9EXcfAbOEpgvwWNvAGsg9NRyK8w_zXB2peJ1iNjoKs1QAmuu1UCgtkB-viGeqra84ugH-pvwObJVUkE.H78iuRGwN2HhtUvuzH8EgNCTMNm6JtwfdmMNoWv9rzo&dib_tag=se&keywords=The+Sender+cd&qid=1738865732&sprefix=the+sender+cd%2Caps%2C100&sr=8-13 THE SENDER SOUNDTRACK Trevor Jones TERROR VISION No stranger to scoring genre movies or such big-budget fantasy classics as Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, Trevor Jones has been the secret ingredient to many great films over the years, and Terror Vision does a public service by resurrecting his 1982 score for the Roger Christian cult classic The Sender (previously released on CD by La-La Land). Performed by the English Chamber Orchestra, this score is moored by a pair of recurring four-note motifs often heard on woodwinds, and there’s a haunting, lyrical quality to the thematic material that helps evoke the melancholic nature of the film. In addition, Jones makes use of electronic elements and eerie, wordless vocals, creating a score that oscillates easily between beauty and terror. Although it…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNqSddv4QbM ALIEN: ROGUE INCURSION Survios PSVR2, Steam VR, Quest VR Nine years ago, on the eve of the PSVR’s launch, I had an opportunity to try it out. At the time, movement and combat within the game environment felt awkward and clunky, stripping the experience of the immersion VR was designed to provide. Flash-forward to the present day and the arrival of Alien: Rogue Incursion for the PSVR2. I slip on the helm, don the controllers… and holy shit, I’m in the world of Alien. Everything looks fantastic and it’s utterly immersive, from the way weapons and other tools are holstered and unholstered, to how doors are opened and electrical boxes rewired, to climbing ladders and crouching and wading through fetid water. Atmosphere, environment, and story are all things Alien:…