Table of contents for Issue 109 March 2011 in RUE MORGUE

YOU DON’T HAVE TO SEE THE AVALANCHE OF SCREENERS AND PRESS RELEASES THAT COME INTO THE RUE MORGUE OFFICE TO KNOW THAT THE BULK OF HORROR FILMS CONTAIN EITHER VAMPIRES, ZOMBIES OR AN APOCALYPSE. FANGS, ROTTING FLESH AND TALES OF WHOLESALE SOCIETAL COLLAPSE FIGHT FOR SPACE IN THE GENRE RIGHT NOW. SO A POST-APOCALYPTIC INDIE FILM FEATURING ZOMBIE-LIKE VAMPIRES DOESN’T EXACTLY SCREAM ORIGINALITY. UNLESS, OF COURSE, IT COMES COURTESY JIM MICKLE AND NICK DAMICI, THE MICRO-BUDGET MAVERICKS BEHIND STAKE LAND. Director/writer Mickle and writer/star Damici earned the respect of horror fans in 2007 with their feature debut Mulberry Street, which made the cover of RM#76. It’s a zombie movie-style narrative about the tenants of a soon-to-be-demolished New York City apartment building banding together under the leadership of a former boxer…

RUE MORGUE EXPLORES SOME ORIGINAL VISIONS OF violence AND sexuality FROM AROUND THE WORLD A KILLER SENSUOUSLY PULLS ON BLACK LEATHER GLOVES. A gleaming straight-razor is freed from its sheath, unfolded, and held menacingly. The blade rips through fabric, questing for its target. An eye opens wide with shock. Those enticed by such vivid giallo imagery should acquaint themselves with French filmmaking couple Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, and their first feature, Amer, a fetishistic dream world of dark desire. Essentially a triumvirate of short films, Amer (currently playing select dates in North America, with a DVD release planned for this summer) depicts three stages in the life of a woman named Ana. In the first segment, she’s a child (played by Cassandra Forêt) living with her parents in a…

NOT-SO-DIVINE INTERVENTION THE RITE Starring Anthony Hopkins, Colin O’Donoghue and Alice Braga Directed by Mikael Håfström Written by Michael Petroni Warner Bros. “Have you ever heard of exorcism?… It’s been pretty much discarded these days except by the Catholics who keep it in the closet as sort of an embarrassment…” – The Exorcist. Nearly 40 years after William Friedkin’s classic, if we are to believe The Rite’s premise (and Matt Baglio’s non-fiction book on which it is based), it’s a different world out there for the exorcist trade. There are now official Vatican seminars being conducted in response to a rise in demonic possessions. Cool to see that the Church is no longer embarrassed, but it’s a shaky platform for this movie’s serious theological agenda. Colin O’Donoghue (who?) plays Michael…

UNDER THE BLOODY BIG TOP VAMPIRE CIRCUS (1972) Blu-ray/DVD Starring Adrienne Corri, Laurence Payne and Thorley Walters Directed by Robert Young Written by Judson Kinberg Synapse When Synapse announced last year that it had acquired the North American rights to three of Hammer Studios’ most underrated efforts – Vampire Circus, Twins of Evil and Hands of the Ripper – there were cheers from fans who’d long endured less-than-stellar bootlegs. Now, Hammer aficionados can officially rejoice: the first of these, Vampire Circus, is here in a Bluray/DVD combo. A fairy tale for adults, the plot sees the Austrian village of Schtettel menaced by a bloodsucking nobleman, Count Mit-terhaus(Robert Tayman). After he preys on the region’s children and takes the local schoolteacher’s wife as a lover, the townsmen retaliate by storming the…

The 1981 epic Greek mythology film Clash of the Titans remains a firm favourite among monster fans thanks to the genius of special effects maestro Ray Harryhausen, who treated creature aficionados to a massive vulture, giant scorpions, a two-headed dog, Pegasus the winged horse, the demonic Calibos, the Stygian Witches, Charon the ferryman of the dead, the multi-armed Kraken and, most memorably, Medusa the Gorgon. All in less than two hours! No surprise then that Hollywood saw fit to remake the film, although the less that is written about the 2010 version the better. More importantly, the renewed brand exposure led to the release of a comic sequel to the original film, Bluewater’s Wrath of the Titans, penned by Darren G. Davis and Scott Davis. This four-part story continues the…

Austin is a unique place. So unique that you could say it’s downright weird. Right smack in the middle of conservative Texas, the state capital is known more for its wild side than its Republican dinner parties. Of course, it has its share of obligatory Texas barbecue spots, stately government buildings and spirited college sports culture, but the liberal and eclectic lifestyle of its inhabitants is what stands out the most. Among other self-proclaimed honours, Austin has dubbed itself the “Live Music Capital of the World,” boasting more music venues per capita than any other US city. It’s the only major Texas city that has no ordinance against women appearing topless in public. And there’s even a bridge that hosts bat watching parties (yes, the leathery-skinned flying sort). Austin is…

“Full fathom five thy father lies / Of his bones are coral made”WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, THE TEMPEST Elsewhere in this issue, you’ll find my positive review of Julie Taymor’s recent cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (p.38). I’ve long loved the Bard; after all, my first experience with watching horror in a theatre was a public school trip to see Roman Polanski’s Macbeth. Yet Shakespeare has rarely crossed over with music for me. Until recently, when I received two different yet equally magical CDs inspired by this very play. The first was a surprise from an orchestral ensemble called The Young Scamels, featuring Jason Noble, Christian Frederickson and Greg King from melancholic instrumental post-rockers Rachel’s. The creatively titled Tempest (File 13 Records) collects music created for a theatrical production of The…

sign up at RUE-MORGUE.COM. Email HAUNTS@RUE-MORGUE.COM UNITED STATES AMOK TIME 2949 Hempstead TPK Levittown, NY 516-520-0975 amoktime.com BERSAL’S CHOP OF HORRORS 1815 Trawood Space D El Paso, TX bersalschopofhorrors.com COLLECTORS CORNER 7911 Harford Rd. Baltimore, MD 410-668-3353 collectorscornermd.com CORNERSTONE COMICS 980 E. Orangethorpe Ave., Ste A Anaheim, CA 800-521-9975 DARK DELICACIES 4213 W. Burbank Blvd. Burbank, CA 818-556-6660 darkdel.com DIMENSION COLLECTIBLES 10 N. Main St. Ambler, PA dimensioncollectibles.net DREAMHAVEN BOOKS 2301 E. 38th St. Minneapolis, MN 612-823-6161 dreamhavenbooks.com HORRORBLES 6731 W. Roosevelt Rd. Berwyn, IL 708-484-7370 horrorbles.com THE HOUSE OF ODDITIES 421 Spring St. Jeffersonville, IN 812-285-1185 thehouseofoddities.com KEITH’S COMICS 5400 E Mockingbird Ln., Ste 120 Dallas, TX 214-827-3060 keithscomics.com MONSTERS INK TATTOOS & PIERCINGS 3924 S. 51 St. Milwaukee, WI 414-545-6385 monstersinktattoos.com NIGHTMARE PRODUCTIONS 285 Derby St. Salem, MA…

ONE OF THE THINGS I LIKE most about Rue Morgue is the way you individualize your covers, unlike some other venerable publications I still enjoy. The extra care taken to make the reader feel each issue has been put together as something unique adds greatly to Rue Morgue’s value. RM#108 being the latest case in point: the lovely lass on display, also the unsettling details lurking in the background (the hanging man, the gloom and coffins). This one is a keeper. Kudos to Gary Pullin once again. Black Death looks like a winner in this year’s medieval death sweepstakes. Also, in the movie Solomon Kane there is a scene involving men dressed in cloaks and bird beaks. Now, thanks to Monica S. Kuebler, I know them to be plague doctors.…

DANIELLE HARRIS HAS EARNED HER SCREAM QUEEN CRED AND THEN SOME. AS A KID SHE FACED OFF WITH MICHAEL MYERS IN HALLOWEEN 4 AND 5, THEN AGAIN AS AN ADULT IN ROB ZOMBIE’S HALLOWEEN REMAKE AND ITS SEQUEL; AS THE STAR OF HATCHET II, SHE RECENTLY WENT AXE-TO-TOE WITH VICTOR CROWLEY; AND SHE’S HAD A RUN-IN WITH THE KNIFE-HAPPY CHROMESKULL IN THE UPCOMING CHROMESKULL: LAID TO REST 2. SOLID RESUME IN THE SLASHER WORLD, BUT THAT DOESN’T NECESSARILY MAKE HER A NATURAL CHOICE FOR THE VAMP-APOCALYPSE-IN-THEHEARTLAND-OF-AMERICA-COMING-OF-AGE-ROAD-MOVIE THAT IS STAKE LAND. When she was approached by director Jim Mickle to co-star in the film as the pregnant Belle, part of a band of survivors hunted by both vamps and religious zealots, it was obviously an opportunity to do something markedly different.…

THE TERM “PROVOCATEUR” – A PERSON WHO DELIBERATELY PUSHES THE ENVELOPE IN AN EFFORT TO SOLICIT ARGUMENT, CONTROVERSY OR BACKLASH – MAY AS WELL HAVE BEEN INVENTED TO DESCRIBE GASPAR NOÉ. In 1998, the French filmmaker’s first feature, I Stand Alone (a.k.a. Seul contre tous), made waves in the film festival world with its brutal portrayal of a disgruntled, nameless French butcher and his relationship with his wife and daughter. Dark, dreary and difficult, the film signalled the arrival of a brave, new voice in cinema. With newfound notoriety but little financing, Noé then called upon his friends, Vincent Cassel and Cassel’s real-life spouse Monica Bellucci, for his second effort, the bludgeoning Irreversible. A pulsing-red journey into the bowels of a gay sex club, Irreversible is a swirling descent into…

TOY STORY HIDE AND GO KILL Cinema Epoch Just when I thought that I’d seen the last of a genre that’s been oversaturated with haunted websites, cursed objects and long-haired ghost girls comes yet another tired offering from the Land of the Rising Sun. Hide and Go Kill follows a group of bored Japanese schoolgirls who visit a website detailing a way to play hide-and-seek all by yourself, which involves gutting a doll, filling it with rice, placing it in a bucket of water, hiding in the dark to listen for it (or something) and waiting for it to come find you. Basically, it’s a lame-ass Japanese version of the Bloody Mary game, complete with ghosts coming out of TVs, girls committing suicide and copious yawns from this reviewer.…

DIARY OF A MADMAN (1963) DVD Starring Vincent Price, Nancy Kovack and Chris Warfield Directed by Reginald Le Borg Written by Guy de Maupassant and Robert E. Kent Fox Made at the height of Roger Corman’s cycle of Poe adaptations, Admiral Pictures’ Diary of a Madman is a decent attempt to replicate the threadbare Technicolor Gothic splendour of Corman’s highly successful AIP series. Though it never quite hits the mark, the film’s shortcomings are offset by Vincent Price’s engaging lead performance, as he matches wits against the Horla, a malevolent, invisible force that compels people to commit murder. You don’t have to be crazy about Price to enjoy Diary of a Madman either, but it helps. The film is based on “The Horla” (RM#102), a creepy short story by 19th-century…

FOR ALL ITS INHERENT SUBVERSIVENESS, HORROR LIT ALSO SEEMS TO HAVE SEVERAL UNWRITTEN RULES, AT LEAST WHEN IT COMES TO MAINSTREAM PUBLISHERS. Among them, write what sells, which is evidenced by the glut of vampire and zombie fare and monster-fied classics on bookstore shelves, and secondly, grown-up readers require adult protagonists. Thankfully, like indie filmmakers, small press publishers live to break the rules and thus are willing to take chances on the unconventional fiction of rising stars such as Michael Louis Calvillo, a Stoker Award-nominated horror author who makes a conscious effort to go against the grain. “I’m a big fan of weird fiction,” states Calvillo. “The stranger the better. I like tapping into universal discomforts and tweaking them, kinking them, raising a lump in the back of your throat.…

BACK IN RM#61, I RAVED ABOUT BONE SICKNESS, a wonderfully refreshing take on the zombie genre from the talented duo behind Morbid Vision Films: director/FX artist Brian Paulin and partner-in-slime Rich George. Their latest effort is another fresh spin on zombies. “We were going to do Bone Sickness 2 because the distributor asked for it and offered us a decent budget,” recalls Paulin. “I had no interest in shooting a sequel, but agreed to do it because it was the first time I had been offered a budget. The money fell through so I moved on and made [the feature] Fetus. In the summer of 2007, I decided to try to do a zombie movie shot within three to four weeks. Two months later, we had all of our character…

A LOT OF MUSICIANS TALK ABOUT LIVING THEIR MUSICAL DREAMS BUT WHEN B.W. BRANDES SAYS IT, IT’S NOT JUST INTERVIEW RHETORIC. The lead singer/songwriter of Montreal “gypsy nightmare” collective The Unsettlers says most of his inspiration for the eleven-piece band’s shadowy folk tales comes from the darkness of his unconscious. Since he was a boy, Brandes has been plagued by vivid nightmares. “I built a colourful circus tent above my bed to try to keep the demons out at night,” admits the likeable frontman, who has more stories under his knit cap than a graveyard has dirt. “They’re extremely violent, extremely grotesque, extremely long, I wake up in cold sweats and it’s just always been that way. … Luckily, my parents were okay with me playing guitar when I was…

While many view the movie remake as an idea lifted from the Devil’s own cookbook, some see remakes as an opportunity to rescue deserving films from cult movie exile. Consider director Sandor Stern, who’s taking a second swat at the piñata with a forthcoming remake of his own 1988 film Pin (a.k.a. Pin: A Plastic Nightmare), a creepy Canadian masterpiece that was driven into cinematic obscurity by the falling fortunes of its distributor. In many ways, Pin is the more sombre, introspective brother of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. After Dr. Linden (Terry O’Quinn) and his wife die in a car wreck, their schizophrenic son Leon (David Hewlett) decides that his father’s life-size anatomical dummy, Pin, is alive, much to the consternation of his sister, Ursula (Cynthia Preston). There’s not a lot…

1 ROB ZOMBIE COFFEE $13.99 per pound If the thought of Rob Zombie’s deluxe hellbilly mug staring at you over your cup of joe doesn’t keep you awake at night, then his own brand of java probably will. Available in French Roast or Peruvian whole bean, the all-organic brew will give you a Frankenstein-like jolt to start your day. Wake up and smell the corpses at robzombie.com. 2 ZOMBIE JERKY $20 / four 35g bags You already know what to do when life gives you lemons, but what about when it gives you zombies? Lucky for you, Harcos Labs has cooked up some artificial green-coloured, “zombie” beef jerky. Available in “teriyucky” flavour and kinda slimy, zombivores beware. Recycle a rotter at shop.harcoslabs.com/products/zombie-jerky. 3 SKINBAG $400 These bags made from synthetic…

EVEN IF YOU’VE YET TO BEHOLD THE PAEAN TO RIDICULOUS CREATURE FEATURES THAT IS SHARKTOPUS, YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THAT UNFORGETTABLE TITLE. Or heard disc jockeys and late-night talk show hosts crack jokes about it. Or seen pics of the fan tattoos online. Such is the love for this bona fide pop culture phenomenon. In it, Eric Roberts plays the shady Nathan Sands, creator of the sharktopus, the ultimate experimental military weapon. When the creature breaks free of its safety restraints and wreaks havoc across the beaches of Mexico, it’s up to Nathan’s nerdy daughter Nicole (Sara Malakul Lane) and hunky shark hunter Andy Flynn (Kerem Bursin) to battle the beast. Produced by Roger Corman and his wife Julie for the Syfy channel, Sharktopus is indeed classic monster…

DRIVE-INS DELETE BINS AND OTHER SINS I Have I told you lately that I love Something Weird Video? Oh, sure, reissue houses in general rank pretty high among the 21st-century’s greatest gifts to humanity, but Seattle-based Something Weird has been kickin’ it since the creaky old VHS days; its catalogue is staggering, and the prices aren’t half bad either. For the SWV uninitiated, the bulk of this fine outfit’s offerings consist of largely forgotten horror, sci-fi and every imaginable permutation of exploitation and grindhouse fare, filled out with ancient TV curiosities and compilations of trailers, stag loops, “educational” anti-sex/drugs/delinquency propaganda and, well, some shit that simply defies categorization altogether. It’s like a cluttered, labyrinthine curiosity shop you could easily lose yourself in forever, the only downside of which is…

ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST: HOW THE LIVING DEAD DEVOURED POP CULTURE David Flint Plexus Much like the world depicted in nearly every zombie movie and TV show, bookstores are being overrun by the living dead. Zombies have become the subject of survival guides, academic treatises, reworked literary classics, guidebooks and all manner of fiction, much of it reviewed in these pages. And, again, as with that unstoppable flesh-hungry horde, it’s not easy for authors to stand out amongst such a faceless mass. Fortunately, David Flint possesses enough intelligence, style and imagination to make Zombie Holocaust one of the more indispensable surveys of zombie culture. A co-founder of the impressive British alt-culture magazine Headpress, Flint looks at every aspect of the living dead in pop culture, from early non-fiction books on voodoo through…

CARRIE Pino Donaggio KRITZERLAND Once hailed as “the new Bernard Herrmann,” Pino Donaggio already had his own sound for horror when he hit the scoring scene with Don’t Look Now in 1973. His fourth score, for 1976’s Carrie, contains all of his trademarks: a delicate, empathetic theme for a female character struggling in a meanspirited world and a fantastic use of strings. Swelling, textured strings are Donaggio’s forte, as well an overt classical writing style that effortlessly evokes psychological and physical horror. The transitions between moods are light and clean, and his use of brass often accentuates a looming menacing presence, as in “The Coronation/The Blood,” with its delicious Herrman-nesque figures. Kritzerland’s two-disc reissue (limited to 1200 copies) features the complete score and two original songs, plus the original soundtrack…

DEAD SPACE 2 Xbox 360, PS3, PC EA Terror returns to deep space in Dead Space 2, the sequel to 2008’s critically acclaimed third-person shooter. As in all good second installments, no one’s trying to fix what’s not broken; instead EA and Visceral Games have devoted their energies to streamlining the title’s core mechanics and developing a compelling new narrative for players to navigate. It’s four years after the events on the Ishimura and you’re back in the suit of Isaac Clarke, only this time you’re haunted by hallucinations of your dead ex and slowly going insane due to the alien technology that has already turned most of the space colony into hideous mutations. So, yes, you’re going to have to find out what happened and neutralize the extraterrestrial threat…