Table of contents for Issue 123 June 2012 in RUE MORGUE

If it’s good to be king, then it’s downright brilliant to be Stephen King these days. In April, Syfy announced it’s bringing King’s 1987 fantasy novel Eyes of the Dragon to television as a “long-form” project; MGM recently cast Chloë Grace Moretz (Let Me In, Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows) in the title role of yet another big-screen adaptation of Carrie; and topping it off, April also saw the premiere of a low-budget tribute to the man and his work. Though You Can’t Kill Stephen King captured the People’s Choice Award at its premiere at the Lewiston Auburn Film Festival in Maine, and recently secured a distribution deal from Camelot Distribution Group, what horror audiences will make of a horror-comedy about six young people who seek out the author in a…

1 VAMPIRE KITCHEN TIMER $12 Burning your cupcakes totally bites – but with this wee bloodsucker on hand to remind you when it’s time to feed, you only have to worry about things turning into a pile of smouldering ash when the sun comes up. Vamp up your kitchen at kitchensonthesquare.com. 2 VOODOO BONES SHOWER CURTAIN $39 When you wash away all that bad mojo, make sure it stays in the tub and runs down the drain with this 100-percent cotton, machine-washable shower curtain from Sin in Linen. Even if you don’t know a thing about voodoo rites, it’ll add a little eerie magic to your morning ritual. Bathe your bones at sininlinen.com. 3 OUTLANDISH MINI FIGURE GUYS SERIES 1 $10 (set of five) Inspired by the likes of Monster…

THE PHRASE “BASED ON TRUE EVENTS” has been so overused in horror film marketing that it doesn’t mean much anymore. But if any film could reclaim those four words, it’s Snowtown On May 20, 1999, after a year-long investigation spurred by a missing persons report, South Australia Police entered a disused bank vault in the rural village of Snowtown, 150 km north of Adelaide, and made a horrific discovery: six plastic barrels filled with acid and the bodies and body parts of eight people. The case was dubbed the “Bodies in Barrels” murders by the media. The following day, John Bunting and Robert Joe Wagner were arrested and charged in the deaths. Then, following the most extensive criminal investigation in Australian history, Bunting was charged with an additional four murders,…

IT’S DARKLY COMEDIC, WITH ROMANTIC UNDERPINNINGS,Δ DEADPANS IRISH-BORN ILLUSTRATOR JOHN MCCREA ABOUT THE NEW MARS ATTACKS COMIC BOOK SERIES THAT DEBUTS THIS MONTH FROM IDW PUBLISHING. “It’s about a Martian’s love of blasting humans. I’m happy to be drawing things that bring me joy – exploding buildings, mass destruction, vapourizing intestines, etc.” The series, scripted by Chew writer John Layman and drawn by McCrea, takes its thematic and narrative cues from the classic Topps trading card series, but moves the bulk of the action from the 1960s to the present day. The first story arc is centred around Buck Spencer, an astronaut-turned-United States senator who earned the distinction of being the first human to set eyes on a rogue Martian saucer back in 1962. Spencer’s fate is entwined with that…

ACON ARTIST WITH THE ABILITY TO ALTER HIS FACE AT WILL; A GAME OF POOL WITH ETERNITY AT STAKE; A WOUNDED COP WHO MIGHT BE DEATH ITSELF; A COTERIE OF ELDERLY PEOPLE MAGICALLY RELIVING THEIR LOST YOUTH THROUGH CHILDREN’S GAMES. These are the extraordinary imaginings of George Clayton Johnson who – along with his contemporaries Rod Serling, Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont – formed the creative cornerstone of The Twilight Zone. Four of Johnson’s stories have been selected for Image’s new Blu-ray Twilight Zone: Fan Favorites (out June 5), which assembles nineteen of the show’s greatest episodes. Taking a break from Jessica’s Run, a belated sequel to Logan’s Run, the classic novel he co-authored with William F. Nolan, the 82-year-old writer discusses his episodes in the new collection. Tell me…

DEAD QUIET ON SET FRIGHT FLICK Vicious Circle The film industry has often been referred to as cutthroat, and Fright Flick is proof. The movie follows a production crew holed up in a hotel making a sequel to a film whose leading lady was murdered a few years prior. The director is a pompous ass, the producer a jerk and the crew are either plotting to make their own film or busy fucking each other over to get ahead in the business. So when some of ’em turn up with crowbars rammed through their heads or hedge clippers shoved in their eye sockets, everybody suspects everybody else. Very low-budget, Fright Flick still manages a polished look and has enough naked bimbos, buckets of blood and cheesy gay-themed humour to make…

I’ve been somewhat hesitant to speak about digital comics in this column, primarily because I will always prefer the printed page to a backlit screen. However, there’s no denying the digital medium brings many advantages to the comics genre. Viper Comics is a relatively new player in the field, having been established in 2003. In that time, however, the company has garnered attention for critically acclaimed series such as Dead@17, about a resurrected girl who fights demons, and the steampunk western Daisy Kutter. While still maintaining a number of print series, Viper is making inroads in the digital market, an area the company believes is rife with potential to reach a much wider audience. In spring 2012, Viper premiered its first fully digital title, Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter, a fourissue…

FILM VIOLENCE: HISTORY, IDEOLOGY, GENRE James Kendrick Wallflower Horror films get a ten-page chapter in this 140-page book, but they are also evoked and analyzed throughout this intelligent, concise and well-supported overview of the meaning of violence in the movies. The approach is scholarly, but the text is clear and highly readable. Recommended for those who like to think deeply about the onscreen nastiness they ingest. DEJAN OGNJANOVIC PRAY TO STAY DEAD Mason James Cole Print Is Dead It’s 1974, the Cold War is raging – and suddenly there are zombies. The survivor tales intertwine and overlap in Pray to Stay Dead as various stock characters struggle to stay alive. The zombies ultimately take a back seat to the over-the-top (and slightly unrealistic) human drama. But, as far as paint-by-numbers…

WHEN ULTIMATE GROSS-OUT DEATHGRIND BAND CATTLE DECAPTITATION was wrangling ideas for how to promote its new album, Monolith of Inhumanity (out now via Metal Blade), the band members thought being immortalized as Garbage Pail Kids would be right up their decrepit back alley. Lyrically, the San Diego band’s music touches upon the mistreatment of animals, and imagines putting humans through similarly horrible animal testing, and slaughter. Visually, the band isn’t afraid to be offensive or choke the gag reflex either. The cover art for the 2004 album Humanure, which depicts a cow excreting human remains, is enough to make Ted Nugent a vegan. It seemed like Cattle Decapitation and the notorious gore-toon sticker trading cards were a match made in Hell, and who better to make the morbid mash-up a…

THE ADVANCE REVIEWS of Cabin in the Woods and The Raven [RM#122] are most welcome. I’m looking forward to both of these films. One looks to be something original to the genre, while the other looks ready to lay the big one. John Cusack is a fine actor but perhaps not right to play a gothic icon, the doom-haunted Edgar Allan Poe. Still, better him than Sylvester Stallone! GARY KIMBER – PICKERING, ONTARIO JUST A SHORT NOTE to let you know I love the new Rue Morgue column “The Fright Gallery.” I’m lucky enough to have procured a copy of the fantastic Mondo print of Zombie. It kicks ass! Looking forward to more Fright Gallery goodies. DIANA BOWMAN – WILLISTON, FLORIDA WAS PRETTY EXCITED to see Poltergeist on the cover…

(RCA/RVC Corp., 1981) One of the most popular horror flicks to come out of Canada, the 1980 cult slasher Prom Night is remembered as much for its soundtrack – courtesy of prolific composers Paul Zaza and Carl Zittrer – as for stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielsen. This rare Japanese soundtrack LP (of which only a few thousand copies were pressed) contains ten cuts, including the disco tracks “Love Me Till I Die” and “Prom Night 2,” heard during the film’s infamous dance sequences. Never released in North America, copies have been known to sell for hundreds of dollars on eBay. MORE CRYPTIC COLLECTIBLES AT RUE-MORGUE.COM…

CREEPY BRAWLERS MONSTER BRAWL Starring Dave Foley, Art Hindle and Robert Maillet Written and directed by Jesse T. Cook Anchor Bay Confession: I’m an old-school wrestling fan. Like a lot of guys my age, I spent my preteen Saturday afternoons watching Jake “The Snake” Roberts pull cruel pranks on Randy “Macho Man” Savage while Papa Shango and The Undertaker conjured up supernatural hijinks in the squared circle. But that doesn’t mean I ever thought it’d be wise to combine the format with my other childhood love: monster movies. Despite the idiotic premise, Canadian director Jesse T. Cook’s Monster Brawl is as good as one could expect: a corny, very violent flick designed for the midnight movie crowd. The event set up: eight classic monsters – Mummy, Werewolf, Frankenstein, Cyclops, Witch…

OF ALL THE HORROR TRENDS THAT weaved in and out of the 1960s – the gory fever dreams of H.G. Lewis, Roger Corman’s psychedelic Poe adaptations, the low-budget Psycho knock-offs – one of the most enduring has been the so-called “Grande Dame Guignol” films. Starring faded screen queens such as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, these hyper-arch horror films were emotional steam-cookers that specialized in hysterical acting, cutting dialogue and decaying decadence. Newly re-released as part of Sony’s MOD DVD slate, Die! Die! My Darling! (1965) is one entry that owes much to earlier subgenre classics Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), but also manages to transcend the southern gothic touches of its predecessors. Just as the earlier movies provided vehicles for Davis and Crawford,…

TYPICALLY, WHEN THE MEDIA TOUTS A CONNECTION BETWEEN HORROR MOVIES AND some terrible crime, the link is tangential at best, exploited to play into existing societal fears and sell more newspapers. But not so in the case of Mark Twitchell, an Edmonton, Alberta, genre fan and independent filmmaker who turned the plot of his last short film, House of Cards, into a real-life murder-by-numbers that saw him step into the shoes of his main character, and even keep a diary about becoming a serial killer. Not surprisingly, the strange case inspired a book, The Devil’s Cinema (out now from McClelland and Stewart). “I wanted to explore the psychology behind Mark Twitchell’s actions,” says author Steve Lillebuen. “How could he transform from being a young father and filmmaker into a wannabe…

Italian cult film legend Giovanni Lombardo Radice is likely the only actor in cinematic history who can claim to be in two films in which women get their breasts graphically skewered. How’s that for obscure horror cred? As John Morghen, he appeared in Umberto Lenzi’s Cannibal Ferox (1981) playing a murderous drug dealer forced to watch vengeful natives hang Zora Kerova by her breasts. More recently, he appeared as Mr. Roeg in Domiziano Cristopharo’s House of Flesh Mannequins (2009, but just released on DVD) as a doting but sinister father with a mechanical larynx and a fondness for cigarettes and liquor. (Granted, he’s not actually in the film’s brief pseudo-snuff clip, featuring a woman getting her breasts agonizingly drilled through sideways, but he’s close enough.) An Italian/American co-production, the movie…

While much has been made of 3-D’s potential to put asses back in movie theatre seats, the sound of the multiplexes has mostly remained the same over the past twenty years. Whether the film you’ve peeled yourself off the couch to see is being shown in Dolby Digital, DTS or Sony’s SDDS, each of the three formats currently used in theatres can only handle up to eight channels of distinct digital sound. Could the lack of any significant upgrade in what the multiplexes offer audio-wise be a factor in the growing number of folks staying away from cinemas? I think so, especially when even a $300 surround sound system and a Blu-ray player can easily immerse you deeper into the movie magic within the comforts of your own hovel. Personally,…

NOW PLAYING HOUSE OF THE DEAD 4, DARK LEGENDS: 3D MMO HOUSE OF THE DEAD 4 Playstation Network Sega Sometimes we want a game that immerses us in a world rich with imagination that’s anchored by a great narrative and inventive dialogue. Other times, we just want to shoot the hell out of anything and everything stupid enough to wander into our crosshairs – logic and plot be damned – and Sega’s got just the scratch for that itchy trigger finger. House of the Dead 4, the latest downloadable incarnation of the light-gun arcade game first unleashed in 2005, gets the next-gen treatment as a Playstation Network exclusive. As expected, it benefits from the gloss and sheen of its hi-def upgrade. The graphics are crisp and fluid, and gameplay is…

IT’S HARD TO SAY WHAT’S MORE HORRIFYING: the neurotic hell of adolescence or the romantic comedies of the 1980s designed for teens. For those of us unfortunate enough to have endured such cultural afflictions, The Loved Ones arrives as a long-awaited, cinematic antidote that can best be described as Pretty in Pink meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It’s a vivid, pop horror nightmare that savagely skewers that most loathsome coming-of-age ritual, the high school prom – then shreds it to pieces to expose its putrid, broiling innards. In other words, it’s the movie horror fans wish John Hughes had made. The debut from Australian director Sean Byrne details the troubles of a high school student named Brent (Xavier Samuel), a pasty-faced, pouty-lipped, heavy metal kid who’s paralyzed with guilt following…

Aya Brea Parasite Eve This busty blonde NYPD officer has the attitude and chops to combat any evolutionary anomaly that stands in her way. Equipped with robust mitochondrial powers and sharp wit, Aya is singlehandedly responsible for saving the whole of humanity from certain destruction. Even in the face of imminent disaster, she’s ready to counter with an all-out offensive – complete with rocket launcher. Plus, she’s always looked killer in a simple jeans outfit, and we love her all the more for it. Jill Valentine Resident Evil From investigating Arklay Mansion (in the original RE) to suffering a heinous dye job after being controlled by Wesker (in RE5), Jill Valentine remains the original horror hottie. Headstrong, resourceful and a “master of unlocking,” Jill’s the girl you want on your…

FAMILIAR 30 minutes fatalpictures.com Writer/director Richard Powell strolls through film noir territory before making a sharp turn into Cronenbergian body horror with this tense, uncomfortable tale of a man who confronts his inner monster. John Dodd is a middle-aged milquetoast whose plans to leave his family are threatened by his wife’s unexpected pregnancy. He secretly drugs her in order to abort the nascent ankle-biter, only to decide that even more drastic measures are in order when Mrs. Dodd talks about trying again. Is John a sneaky, murderous bastard, or is he driven by something living inside of him? The answer’s in the climax, when the pitch-black family drama turns into a gory tale of a man and his box cutter. Slick production values, gruesome practical effects, and disturbing narration –…

Humanoid From the Shallow End Even if your scalp has never been plagued with itchy, dry flakes before, I’d recommend using a dandruff shampoo for at least a few days prior to viewing the recently unearthed 1971 fromage farrago Zaat, as it may result in an unprecedented amount of head-scratching. Usually, even the longest-lost title will eventually ring a bell with at least one Rue Morgue staffer, but nobody – not the editors, publishers, art director, interns, creepy janitor who’s currently the subject of a restraining order issued by said interns, nor even I, your tireless delete bin excavator – had ever heard of Zaat prior to Cultra’s impressive new DVD/Blu-ray combo pack reissue. But experience has taught me that when the boss screens it at home and then attaches…

BLOOD SPLATTER: A GUIDE TO CINEMATIC ZOMBIE VIOLENCE, GORE AND SPECIAL EFFECTS Craig W. Chenery Self-published At this juncture in the zombie zeitgeist, everyone has decided whether they’re in or out. If the automatons of festering flesh haven’t wormed their way into your heart in an era when footdraggers can be seen on prime-time TV, they likely never will. But if you’re newly enamoured with the lurching lugs (they call it pus-bag love) and are understandably overwhelmed by the staggering amount of zombie flicks to catch up on, author Craig W. Chenery has penned a rotter reference that’s as focused as a headshot. In fact, the first 200 pages of Blood Splatter are going to be almost exclusively of interest to either those not well versed in shambler cinema or…

I suck at goodbyes. Especially when I’m forced to say them years too soon. This time they’re for Michael Louis Calvillo, who lost his battle with cancer on Monday, April 30, at age 37. On that day, the world was robbed of an insanely talented upand-coming horror author. This isn’t the first goodbye I’ve written in this column, but it is the hardest. Michael was more than someone whose work I’d admired, he was also a colleague and a friend. I first met him (and his amazing wife Michelle) at a horror convention around the time that his 2009 novel As Fate Would Have It was released. As he slid the gorgeous limited-edition hardcover across the table to me, he explained that the book was about love, addiction and cannibals.…

SOUNDTRACK THE RAVEN/AN EVENING WITH EDGAR ALLAN POE Les Baxter KRITZERLAND Soundtrack fans, there are few better ways to get your Poe on than with this limited mono CD, which features two very distinct horror scores by Les Baxter, American International’s in-house composer. With The Raven (1963), he decided to draw from his existing Poe scores and basically have fun, writing self-referential, self-effacing music that matched Roger Corman’s own cheeky sense of humour. The surviving cues include spooky organ and primordial electronica (“Main Title”), drunken xylophone and loopy woodwinds, and a rambunctious orchestral gallop (“Wild Ride to the Castle”) evocative of the teens-in-a-haunted house comedies forced upon him by the studio. In 1970, however, Baxter must have relished a chance to attack gothic horror with more complex ideas, and he…

WHEN I FIRST ATTEMPTED TO REACH MORGAN HÅKANSSON, MARDUK’S FOUNDING GUITARIST, HE WAS REPORTEDLY OFF THE GRID, SOMEWHERE in the Scandinavian wilderness hunting elk and wild boar – presumably with a rifle or bow, though considering the primeval aural punishment his band has consistently meted out since the landmark 1991 Fuck Me Jesus demo, a double-headed axe could not be altogether ruled out. Later, safely re-ensconced in his tranquil abode in Norrköping, Sweden, Håkansson is reluctant to draw a straight line between his feral treks and the most recent epic black metal Marduk masterwork, Serpent Sermon (out June 5 from Century Media Records). “For me, writing extreme music, a 70-ton machine of steel rolling across a battlefield is far more inspiring than sitting around looking in a lake and being…

ROMAN POLANSKI UK – 1967 As the horror-comedy film approaches its centenary, it shows no sign of choking on its own blood. Nascent attempts at this subgenre, such as The Ghost Breakers (1914), helped sire the “Old Dark House” pictures that were often based on stage plays, which wheeled out gothic conventions as mere adjuncts to the capering. The ensuing decades saw the advent of “talkies” and James Whale’s adroit use of humour before the Universal monsters were ruthlessly de-fanged by the likes of Abbott and Costello. By 1967, the parameters of the horrorcomedy hybrid were well established, allowing a 34-year-old Roman Polanski to embark on his own knowing parody of Hammer films. Drawing specifically on Brides of Dracula and Kiss of the Vampire, as well as European folklore and…