Table of contents for Issue 228 Jan/Feb 2026 in RUE MORGUE

Rue Morgue · 001 Rue Morgue #228 - Intro Full disclosure: I have been super stoked about A Serbian Documentary since Steve Biro told me it was in development a long-ass time ago. Why? Because I fucking love A Serbian Film, and I found myself wishing that I’d been in this position fifteen years ago so I could have put that shit on the cover and celebrated that film for all the reasons that still appear to go unsung. Some horror stories ripen with time, and some material needs room to breathe (or in this case, gag) before we can talk about it with a clear head. Hear me out: I’ve been a horror fan long before I sat in this editor’s chair, and I know it’s impossible to…

Rue Morgue · 002 Rue Morgue #228 - Brotherhood of the Wolf IN THE 18TH CENTURY, THE MOORS AND MOUNTAINS OF SOUTH-CENTRAL FRANCE WERE TERRORIZED BY A SERIES OF ATTACKS from a creature no one could identify. Original accounts of the Beast of Gévaudan described a monster quite unlike any fauna native to the area – a hulking animal larger than a cow with dark stripes along its sides and back, enormous claws and teeth, and the ability to leap (or even fly, according to some) at incredible speed. Having attacked literally hundreds of people over a span of several years only to disappear without a trace, the mysterious beast was primed for cinematic adaptation, and that came in the form of Christophe Gans’ Brotherhood of the Wolf, which…

WHEN FRENCH SYNTHWAVE ARTIST CARPENTER BRUT (COMPOSER FRANCK HUESO) FIRST MADE HIS APPEARANCE NEARLY fifteen years ago, he introduced himself through a two punch that combined horror movie soundtracks and heavy metal with his electronic music. The band immediately set itself apart by mining the synth-heavy horror soundtracks of John Carpenter and Goblin and processing them into dark, ferocious bangers so intensely aggressive that the sound almost fit better at an extreme metal show than a dance club. Now, Carpenter Brut returns with Leather Temple on Hueso’s imprint No Quarter Prod this February, marking the conclusion to a trilogy of albums that also includes Leather Teeth (2018) and Leather Terror (2022), where ’80s teen movie clichés, serial killer horror, and post-apocalyptic warfare are funnelled into what has become a signature…

HUNT, KILL, REPEAT REDUX REDUX Starring Michaela McManus, Stella Marcus and Jeremy Holm Written and directed by Kevin McManus and Matthew McManus Saban Films When you hear that Redux Redux is about a woman repeatedly wreaking revenge on her daughter’s murderer over multiple alternate realities, you might imagine it’ll be another horrific variation on Groundhog Day. Instead, writer/directors Kevin and Matthew McManus confound expectations and deliver a consistently surprising and gripping experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VR0yqjQg7w Redux Redux, coming to theatres February 20, is more comparable to The Terminator: a ground-level thriller that incorporates sci-fi tech and terror trappings with an unerring real-world grit. It also has a similarly compelling female protagonist: Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus), who has gotten hold of a device that allows her to jump through a multiverse that’s a…

“SPEAKING FOR OUR GENERATION,” SAYS FILMMAKER AARON PAGNIANO, “SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE HAD THE COMMON EXPERIENCE AS A TEENAGER OF CLICKING JUST A LITTLE TOO DEEP INTO THE INTERNET LATE ONE NIGHT. SOMETIMES that video would be a David Firth cartoon, or sometimes a Taliban beheading. I remember some late-night deep dives, finding suicide videos or the BME Pain Olympics, and being absolutely repulsed yet compelled to watch more. I think some people would be shocked how relevant a rabbit hole like that still is for teenagers today.” Teenager Rowan (Raquel Lebish) tumbles into a particularly deep and potentially dangerous rabbit hole in It Needs Eyes, the debut feature by writer/directors Pagniano and Zack Ogle. Set for limited theatrical release in early 2026 from Insurgence, followed by a streaming debut,…

FREDDY’S FINGER KNIVES SCRAPING METAL RAILINGS; MICHAEL MYERS’ slow, deliberate breathing behind his mask; shower curtain rings sliding across metal rods; the rhythmic tick of a grandfather clock in an empty house; floorboards creaking under unseen feet… iconic sonic highlights of horror cinema, or unintentional ASMR? Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is the euphoric tingling sensation that starts at the scalp and travels down the spine in response to specific triggers. The term was coined in 2010 by a cybersecurity worker named Jennifer Allen, and now there are thousands of videos dedicated to inducing the sensation, with ASMRtists whispering into microphones, crinkling paper, brushing hair, role-playing spa appointments, and so on. But not everyone gets it. Some people feel nothing at all. Others find the same sounds deeply irritating, even…

Books were my favourite form of escapism as a kid. No matter how crap things got, I could crack open a cover and instantly be transported somewhere new. And as far as kid me was concerned, the bigger the book the better. Good thing I grew up in the 1980s, when no one balked at novels with hefty page counts. (Devouring all 1168 pages of Stephen King’s It at age twelve was a seriously boast-worthy achievement.) Massive books are less common these days, so when Joe Hill’s latest novel landed on my porch (at a whopping 880 pages, it did not fit in the mailbox), its size felt almost confrontational. King Sorrow (out now from William Morrow) is a sprawling story about friendship, the occult, and summoning a force far…

THANK YOU for yet another amazing Halloween issue. I particularly enjoyed the material on lost horror films. This made me recall a long-standing hope for the release of a film that I never noticed grace the pages of Rue Morgue. It Came From Trafalgar boasts an all-star cast of horror legends, but was either never actually completed, or never commercially released. Is this film real and, if so, why is it never spoken of? TONY WILLIAMS, VIA EMAIL Hi Tony, It Came From Trafalgar is indeed a real film – one that has only ever screened in 2009 at genre conventions across the U.S. As you note, it has never been released but we would love to see it! Any producers out there listening? -Ed JUST WANTED TO SEND along…

A SERBIAN FILM IS ONE OF THOSE MOVIES WHICH, FOR BETTER OR WORSE, ONCE SEEN CANNOT BE UNSEEN. When it came out, some loved it, many hated it, but few were calmly twirling their thumbs somewhere in between. Many diehard horror fans detest its very synopsis and refuse to see it to this day, preferring a sort of second-hand hate. And yet, whether considered an exercise in depravity, shock for shock’s sake, or some kind of valid metaphorical statement – muddled for some, crystal clear to others – the beast just refuses to die. No list of the most shocking, controversial, and transgressive films made since the turn of the millennium is complete without A Serbian Film, and its title often occupies the number one spot. The 2010 film continues…

PENTAGRAM SNACK PACK https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7830062/?ref_=fn_t_1 UNDERNEATH: AN ANTHOLOGY OF TERROR Darkside Releasing By their very nature, anthologies aren’t for everyone. No matter what the plot, theme, or premise (or lack thereof), they usually get filed as “some-worked-others-didn’t,” even if we can’t quite agree what entry goes where. I admit, I hadn’t heard of this Canadian outing before but thought I’d give it a try, so I put down my poutine and slapped it onto the TV. The five chapters presented swirl around the idea of demonic possession – fighting it, watching it take control, and finally, succumbing to it. Though at times these tales come off as a serial killer’s demented dreams and deepest fantasies, overall Underneath boasts an assortment of competently crafted episodes that boast a frenetic soundtrack and employ…

Before I ever saw Tourist Trap, I was a fan of its score. When David Schmoeller’s wax-museum creeper first opened in 1979, I wasn’t yet old enough to see every horror film that hit theatres, even those that (somehow) got PG ratings, like Tourist Trap did. I didn’t catch up with it until a few years later on video – but before that, I got ahold of its soundtrack LP on the Varèse Sarabande label. If I may diverge from this column’s mission statement for a moment, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of Varèse Sarabande to fans of horror films and their music in the late 1970s and ’80s. In terms of collectibles for favourite flicks, soundtrack albums could be said to be the Blu-rays of that period. Founded…

Writer Bruce Brown has spent a large part of his artistic career introducing the works of H.P. Lovecraft to younger generations. His first book, Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom, features Lovecraft as a child and immerses him, fairy tale-like, in a Lovecraftian world. That was followed by two more books in the series and Dr. Herbert West: Astounding Tales in Medical Malpractice. Brown has now unleashed The Cats of Ulthar: A Tale Reimagined, co-written with Emily Webber, though this time his intentions are slightly different. “With Cats I wanted to depart from writing stories for all ages and reimagine a favourite Lovecraft short story,” he explains. “The original tale is told by an unnamed narrator. I wanted to write something raw and unique, and I thought it would be…

THE BEST WEIRD FICTION OFTHE YEAR, VOL. 1 Michael Kelly, ed. Undertow Publications When an anthology contains “Best” in its title, you expect a certain level of quality, and The Best Weird Fiction of the Year, Vol. 1 absolutely delivers. The anthology serves as a new “sibling” to the five The Year’s Best Weird Fiction anthos, which Michael Kelly edited between 2014 and 2018. His curatorial hand proves itself just as steady as ever, delivering a thematically broad collection of stories spanning the many nooks and crannies of weird fiction. While weird fiction can drift into the obtuse and inscrutable, the majority of the tales here place the strange front and centre, readily accessible and held out for all to see and examine. Horror intermingles fluidly with the more speculative…

https://mellowdeath1.bandcamp.com/ MELLOWDEATH JAZZ Mellowdeath CRUEL NATURE RECORDS German drum and bass duo Mellowdeath dubs its music “nightmare jazz,” a genre that purports to be a cross between a cinematic soundscape, a haunted circus, and a David Lynch western. We’re not totally sure what that means, but this self-titled debut is best described as spastic, adlibbed jazz, made up prominently of surf tones with guest appearances on guitar, trombone, and theremin that evoke the playfully demented Mr. Bungle performing in a smoky jazz club full of metalheads. Opener “Demon Slither” is the most surf-sounding track before it transforms into an out-of-control hyper-speed jazz number. “Omacore” and “Krankenstation” lean more toward metal (albeit with theremin), and “Verfolgungsjagd” is a bluesy number that feels mostly improvised. Both band members are female, and the…

1 HORRIFIED CANDLES $33-35 CAD Whether for warmth, light, or scent, candles are a must for every spooky lair, so add some fright to your light with Horrified Candles’ classic monster line. Featuring fragrance blends inspired by some of the genre’s all-time greats – The Headless Horseman, for example, smells of woods, oakmoss, and night air, while The Mummy conjures spices, chamomile, and something called guaiacwood that sounds appropriately ancient and evil. Horrifiedcandles.com 2 TYPE O NEGATIVE COFFEE IV BLOOD BANK $24.99 USD Let me caffeinate you to death… with this coffee in a blood bag, inspired by the immortal goth rock act that blended goth metal and sex like cream and sugar. With a flavour profile consisting of dark chocolate and “blood”(?) and available in four different grinds, this…

IT WAS A YEAR INTO THE NEW MILLENNIUM, AND THE HORROR GENRE WAS LOOKING FOR NEW BLOOD. IT WAS FINDING IT IN THE FAR East, with an ever-evolving J-horror craze reflected in the release of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Kairo (a.k.a. Pulse), Sion Sono’s Suicide Club, and Takashi Miike’s unforgettable Ichi the Killer. Closer to home was Alejandro Amenábar’s European/American co-pro The Others and Brad Anderson’s independent chiller Session 9. Shuffled in among these titles was a completely unique French-language horror film called Brotherhood of the Wolf by a new name on the scene: Christophe Gans. A lushly produced and conceptually audacious film, Brotherhood of the Wolf is a genre-blending historical drama set in 18th-century France, where the hunt for a mysterious beast takes place amid political strife, civil upheaval, romance, folklore,…

Rue Morgue · 003 Rue Morgue #228 - Karmadonna THE LINGERING CURSE OF A SERBIAN FILM IS MANIFOLD. FIRST, THE FILM’S NOTORIETY SLOWED DOWN THE CAREER OF ITS co-writer, Aleksandar Radivojević, because no one wanted to finance his next project. Then, after fifteen years of unsuccessful attempts, when he finally debuted as a director, everyone kept comparing his movie to A Serbian Film. People wondered where the man who conceived “newborn porn” would go next. As it turns out, Karmadonna is more explicitly satirical and blackly humorous, while its gore, shocks, and transgressions are a fair bit more palatable. The plot is jump-started by a phone call from an entity identifying itself as God, who blackmails the pregnant Jelena (Jelena Djokic) to go on a killing spree guided by…

BEST FEATURE FILM WEAPONS Zach Cregger Warner Bros. BEST FIRST FEATURE THE UGLY STEPSISTER Emilie Blichfeldt Shudder BEST INDIE FEATURE DANGEROUS ANIMALS Sean Byrne IFC Films GORIEST FILM FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein Warner Bros. STANDOUT PERFORMANCE: AMY MADIGAN ASAUNT GLADYS Weapons BEST SHORT FILM LOOK CLOSER Tyson Edwards BEST TRAILER KEEPER MOST ORIGINAL CONCEPT GOOD BOY MOST LIKELY TO START A LONG-RUNNING FRANCHISE HEART EYES BEST DOCUMENTARY STRANGE JOURNEY: THE STORY OF ROCKY HORROR Linus O’Brien Kaleidoscope Film Distribution BEST QUEER REPRESENTATION QUEENS OF THE DEAD Tina Romero IFC Films/Shudder BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS BRING HER BACK BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT 28 YEARS LATER BEST BLU-RAY/DVD PACKAGING THE BROOD Second Sight Films MOST WELCOME REISSUE FREAKED Drafthouse Films/Umbrella BEST SCORE SINNERS Ludwig Göransson BEST ALBUM SAD WITCH CULT Lonesome…

ON THE SLAB: IN THE NAME OF ONE’S ART LOOK CLOSER 4:41 mins/YouTube via Tyson Edwards’ Channel This tight short film begins simply enough with a young painter (Thompson Sewell) labouring over a still-life painting in the middle of the night. Exhausted, he takes a moment to rest his eyes, only to find that his work has been inexplicably replaced by a mysterious canvas-sized package. At the behest of the accompanying tag that beckons him to “look closer,” he unwraps it to find the most disturbing piece of art he has ever seen, and things only get worse from there. North Carolina native Tyson Edwards has not only crafted one of the most effective creepers in recent years, he also managed to do it within a mere five minutes of…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9b3YBcTFt8 THE CABIN FACTORY Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, PC International Cat Studios/Future Friends Games It’s your first day at a company that manufactures spooky cabins for commercial purposes. Your job? Suss out the ones that are actually haunted and flag them as dangerous. Properly categorize eight cabins to win. First things first, trainee: creepy as fuck does not mean haunted. Cabins will roll up to your workstation in a wide assortment of strange and unsettling configurations (filled with giant stuffies, for example, or with all the furniture on the ceiling, and featuring the motionless inhabitants doing any number of ominous things), but unless something is actively moving, the cabin’s not haunted. Occasionally the hauntings extend beyond the cabin walls, calling for some extra problem solving if you want to stay…