Table of contents for Issue 128 November 2012 in RUE MORGUE

Best Worst Movie, an affectionate documentary about the infamously schlocky Troll 2, was an unexpected festival hit in 2009. Now, director Michael Paul Stephenson is back with The American Scream, a documentary about three Massachusetts families who transform their homes into elaborate Halloween attractions. Ironically, Best Worst Movie’s success made Stephenson wary of making another documentary. “After Best Worst Movie, it was like, man, you could not align these types of things again if you tried. And that’s what gave me a fear of doing another documentary,” the actor-turned-director admits. “And then we got lucky again.” The idea for The American Scream came about purely by chance when producer Meyer Shwarzstein raised the subject of the home-haunting subculture last spring. Stephenson ran the idea by Fantastic Fest programmer Zack Carlson,…

1 SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN BIGFOOT RETRO FIGURE $37.99 “Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. And then, in the second decade of the 21st century, we will release a kick-ass retro pack, containing not only Colonel Steve Austin, but also a giant action figure of Bigfoot. Any questions?” It’s better… stronger… faster at entertainmentearth.com. 2 DEATH WISH COFFEE $2.99 (sample bag) $19.99 (1 lb bag) Forget the castle vaults, secret laboratories and hunchbacked assistants: if you want to reanimate a corpse, Death Wish Coffee is the way to do it. This dark, highly caffeinated, organic, fair-trade, shade grown brew will give you a jolt like a lightning bolt to the head. You’re aliiiiiive at deathwishcoffee.com. 3 ZOMBIE FOOT DOG CHEW $10 Man’s best friend is exempt from…

BIS ROLE IN THE FILM MAY BE SMALL, BUT ALICE COOPER HAS BECOME THE FACE OF PRINCE OF DARKNESS. When Universal released the film on DVD, the cover image was Cooper’s gaunt, menacing mug, just daring you to come closer. The legendary rocker found himself in the 1987 film after meeting director John Carpenter through his manager, Shep Gordon, who would go on to executive produce They Live (1988) and Village of the Damned (1995) for the filmmaker, as well as Shocker (1989) and The People Under the Stairs (1991) for Wes Craven. Carpenter invited Cooper on set to watch the filming, but soon had him putting on a grimy toque and trench coat. “I’m standing there and I’m watching, and watching, and there are all these street people that…

LONESOME WYATT, HALF OF THE GOTHIC COUNTRY DUO THOSE POOR BASTARDS, DOESN’T WASTE TIME WITH NICETIES. On the fourth page of his debut novel, an “ungodly western horror” yarn called The Terrible Tale of Edgar Switchblade, the title character stabs a priest in the heart, delivers a few sharp kicks to his nether regions, then jams an arm down the dying man’s throat and pulls up a fistful of intestines. If you’re reading the book while listening to its companion album, Behold the Abyss, all this should be going down as the first track, “Thee Beginning,” which proclaims Edgar to be “obscure and violent and obscene / a man of God, a cannibal.” Though the album, made up of thirteen doom-laden dirges, is par for the course for Wyatt and…

THIS ISSUE: LANCE KNOCKS ON WOOD CONTINUITY TERROR LOST WOODS Brain Damage Films Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a group of kids go camping in the woods and get hacked up by hillbillies… Pretty standard stuff, but wait, hang on: there’s also a Sasquatch-looking thing with glowing eyes. Whether or not that little twist interests you, if you choose to watch it, you won’t be able to get past the fact that there’s absolutely no T&A, one of the actors is wearing a really bad mullet wig, and another has the absolute worst fake moustache and a shitty shoe-polish beard that changes its shape and shade from scene to scene and actually completely disappears during a splash in the lake (!). Come on, people, continuity! Some things…

You know ’em, you love ’em, and you’ve probably even bought a few – those ubiquitous multi-pack horror titles clogging up the dump bins at discount retailers. And why not? There’s no quicker way to build an instant home video library than by picking up a hefty set such as the latest release from public domain specialists Mill Creek: 100 Greatest Horror Classics. As you might expect, 100 Greatest Horror Classics is a wide-ranging collection that offers up everything from Alfred Hitchcock’s early works to those notorious poverty row films of the 1940s. Of course, the words “classic” or “great” don’t belong anywhere near most of these no-budget creature features from Hollywood bit-players Monogram, PRC and Republic, but delving into these films can be a horror education in itself, a…

I’m well past the halfway mark of my expected lifespan, yet I’ve never lost my fondness for the sort of low-budget, shot-on-video horror fare I used to rent from the bottom shelves of mom-and-pop video stores back in the ’80s. I’m still as entertained by a few earnest gore gags and tasteless jokes as I was when I was a lad. I don’t know if this is a subconscious reaction to aging, or an indication that I’m comfortable with my inner child, or simply easily amused, or just hopelessly immature. What I do know is that a pair of no-budget efforts written and directed by young ’un Eamon Hardiman and recently released by Independent Entertainment left a stupid grin smeared across my grumpy ol’ mug. Porkchop II: Rise of the…

HOST OF US WOULD PROBABLY RESENT THE IDEA THAT WE’RE A PRODUCT OF OUR ENVIRONMENT. That’s because accepting the idea that we’re not the only ones behind the wheel, that the surroundings into which we’ve either willfully immersed ourselves or had thrust upon us are somehow responsible for the person that we’ve become, would be conceding that we’re not fully in control of who we are. But what if that environment was extreme and temporarily inescapable? Oklahoma’s Michael Gottfried, the primary member of dark electronic band Pittersplatter, has no problem admitting that he’s a product of his environment. Well, part of him anyway. Roughly a decade ago, Gottfried’s life “fell apart,” inspiring the invention of a monstrous alter ego to reflect his desire to divorce himself from the ugly side…

I HAVE GRADUATED from hillbilly horror to disease horror, so Antiviral is something I definitely want to see. As we get closer to December 21, 2012 – the Mayan prophesy of the fourth world ending and the fifth world beginning – I can only wonder if our world will face an outbreak of plague that will be biblical in proportion? Disease movies give me the chills. I don’t think I am ever going to run into some sadistic hillbillies, but I do believe I can catch a nasty bug. PAUL DALE ROBERTS – ELK GROVE, CALIFORNIA THANK YOU, Rue Morgue, for making me aware of the documentary My Amityville Horror [RM#126]. The Jay Anson book scared the crap out of me when I was ten and I’ve been obsessed ever…

Donald Pleasence made his television debut in the 1946 British drama I Want to Be a Doctor, and the show’s title turned out to be oddly prophetic for the venerable character actor, as Pleasence continued to play doctors – both healers and professors – right up until the end of his career. He played military men, cops and priests on stage and screen, as well, but his pistol-packing shrink Dr. Loomis became his calling card performance thanks to the success of Halloween. Over the course of his career he also essayed real-life suspected wife killer Dr. Crippen in that eponymous film, a kindly (and ultimately doomed) entomologist in Dario Argento’s Phenomena and a proper mad scientist in The Mutations, in which he tries to cross people with plants, to hell…

HORROR FILMMAKERS HAVE LONG BEEN FASCINATED WITH SURGERY AND MEDICAL PROCEDURES, BUT THE TROPE GETS A SEXUALLY CHARGED TWEAK IN RICHARD BATES JR.’S DEBUT FEATURE. EXCISION, based on Bates’ 2008 short film of the same title, is the gory and perversely funny tale of Pauline (model-turned-actor AnnaLynne McCord), a misfit teen from the suburbs whose fantasies about having sex with corpses and performing surgery on her fellow teens lead her down a very dangerous, extremely bloody path. The film, which co-stars Traci Lords as Pauline’s uptight mother, John Waters as a put-upon clergyman and Malcolm Mc-Dowell as a hostile teacher, earned a world premiere at Sundance earlier this year, and was just released on DVD and Blu-ray from Anchor Bay. In a phone interview, Bates helps us cut right to…

ey, remember that nifty ’50s sci-fi thriller where there’s a monster or an alien or something and the small-town teenagers try to warn the fucking stupid adults but the fucking stupid adults are just too fucking stupid to listen so the kids have to take matters into their own hands and wind up saving the day, or at least holding the monster or aliens at bay until the cavalry arrives? (Pauses, catches breath.) Of course you do. It’s called The Blob (1958). No, wait, it’s Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957). No, no, it’s The Giant Gila Monster (1959). No, it’s… oh, okay, in this case it actually is The Giant Gila Monster. “It all started like an ordinary record hop…” says the trailer. Well, who among us hasn’t seen…

REAL WOLFMEN: TRUE ENCOUNTERS IN MODERN AMERICA Linda S.Godfrey Tarcher Author Linda S. Godfrey is considered by most in the cryptozoo/paranormal realm as the authority on the phenomenon of “real-life werewolves,” and rightly so. She has penned five books on the subject, including the classic The Beast of Bray Road (2003). Her latest, Real Wolfmen, is the ultimate examination of the phenomenon, offering a well-documented, thought-provoking and altogether eerie trip through the bizarre accounts of werewolf-like creatures that have been reported all over the US. There is, of course, no tangible proof that these hybrid man-beasts actually exist, but regardless, Real Wolfmen does show that a strange trend is indeed taking place. Over the years, hundreds of reports have surfaced in which common folks claim to have come faceto-muzzle with…

Cancer has been casting a pall over the world of horror literature this year. First, we had to say a premature, heartbreaking goodbye to talented up-and-comer Michael Louis Calvillo (see RM#123), and now award-winning author Tom Piccirilli (see RM#46) has been called to the front lines of that same war. After nearly ten years of working in the genre, I’m admittedly desensitized when it comes to fictional horrors, but not real ones. And right at the top of my list of things that terrify me is the Big C. While we can take some precautions against certain forms, in the end, it’s still very much a lottery of luck and genetics. It may sound weird, but to me cancer has always seemed like some insidious monster from a horror story.…

ERASERHEAD SOUNDTRACK David Lynch and Alan R. Splet SACRED BONES RECORDS Arguably one of the most important moments in David Lynch’s career was the beginning of his partnership with visionary sonic architect Alan R. Splet. When the director’s inaugural mindfuck masterpiece Eraserhead hit the midnight circuit in 1978, people were immediately enthralled/repulsed by its gorgeously nightmarish mise-en-scène, but perhaps the most unsettling aspect of the picture was its simple yet broodingly effective sound design. The clanging of industrial factories and absurdly amplified room tone gave birth to those notorious Lynchian atmospherics, which seemed to emanate from a boiler room in the basement of Hell. Brooklyn’s Sacred Bones Records has created the ultimate (black) Christmas present in the form of a remastered vinyl version of the film’s rare soundtrack recording, containing…

WOULD YOU RATHER the American presidential election be decided by a Death Race across the US, or by Jigsaw’s traps? Jigsaw’s traps. Mitt wouldn't last ten seconds in one. Joe Kontor Either way… as long as Obama loses… Bob Womack Death Race all the way! Line up all the chumps who think they have a say over women’s bodies AND GO TO TOWN! Rob Morganbesser Jigsaw’s Traps. Much as I love the Death Race, it would give WAY too much power to the NASCAR set. Ian M. Davison Mitt would expect someone else to sacrifice himself for him in the very first trap, so things wouldn't turn out well for him. Timothy Tompkins Both, Jigsaw traps, then onto the Death Race. Everybody’s happy, and you know who really wanted to…

IN THE LATE 1980s, MIDI STACKS, SYNTHESIZERS AND RECORDING EQUIPMENT IN GENERAL WERE IMPROVING AT AN incredible rate, and John Carpenter and Alan Howarth were taking full advantage of the technology. Their sixth soundtrack collaboration, for 1987’s Prince of Darkness, resulted in a pioneering horror score, a doom-laden, ambient work befitting a movie about a religious apocalypse. True to form, the music kicks in over the opening credits with a thumping rhythmic bass line, which clears a path for the synth melody and the introduction of the recurring choral passages. “The seed is planted and it develops throughout the movie,” says Howarth (pictured below), explaining that the score is designed to have a more subtle effect than previous, more thematic Carpenter soundtracks. “When actors are carrying a scene you don’t…

IT’S RATED 29 PERCENT ON ROTTEN TOMATOES, AND IT FAILED TO RECOUP ITS $50 MILLION BUDGET DOMESTICALLY, BUT IN THE SIX YEARS SINCE ITS RELEASE, SILENT HILL HAS CULTIVATED A FANBASE THAT APPRECIATES ITS BEAUTIFUL, PAINTERLY VISUALS; NIGHTMARE LOGIC NARRATIVE; AND MENAGERIE OF HELLSPAWN. Thanks to this delayed appreciation for Christophe Gans’ adaptation of the video game franchise, plus a profitable overseas box office, producer Samuel Hadida decided to return to the abandoned town with a terrible past, which sits atop a demonic underworld. For a while there was official talk of Gans returning for the sequel and directing a script penned by Roger Avary (True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Beowulf). But after Avary was arrested for vehicular manslaughter and Gans moved on to the French film Fantômas, Hadida enlisted Michael…

STATIC IN THE ATTIC SINISTER Starring Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance and James Ransone Directed by Scott Derrickson Written by Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill Summit Entertainment “Bad things happen to good people,” says truecrime scribe Ellison Osborne (Ethan Hawke), “and they still need to have their story told.” It’s one of several justifications Ellison gives for having uprooted his wife and two children and moved them into a house where an entire family – save one conspicuously missing child – was murdered in the backyard. It’s been ten years of strained budgeting since Ellison had a hit book, and he figures he needs to get real cozy with some ugly trauma in order to crank out another. (Un)luckily for him, he hits the motherlode on his first night in…

Love sucks. And while you may think that’s an attempt at a clever introduction to a love story involving vampires, rest assured fangers play no significant role in Love Monster, a new digital comic by Christopher Howard Wolf and David Cabrera. That said, there are plenty of other monsters, human and inhuman, to be found in this bizarre relationship tale. The hero of the book, Bob, finds himself in the unenviable yet all-too-familiar position of being madly in love with his best friend, Pearl. Unfortunately, Pearl has something of a fetish for bad boys… really bad boys. Serial killers, convicted murderers, zombies, aliens – if it’s mean, Pearl’s into it. Now she’s convinced she’s found the (im)perfect man thanks to dating site seekafreak.com: Bag Head, a crazy, masked killer out…

LOVE YOU TO DEATH: THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE VAMPIRE DIARIES SEASON 3 Crissy Calhoun ECW Press Fans of the CW series who want to delve deeper into the show could do a lot worse than this handy guide. It provides not only an episode-by-episode look at the third season, but also cast and crew interviews, the occasional history lesson when the show’s plot jumps into the past, a bunch of black and white stills, and a timeline to help you keep narrative’s centuries-spanning mythology straight. Definitely for diehards, but don’t let the word “unofficial” in the title turn you off. MONICA S. KUEBLER SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE ARMY OF DR. MOREAU Guy Adams Titan Sherlock takes on the titular mad scientist in this twisted and macabre novel by Guy Adams.…

It seems like Chris Kuchta is hell-bent on paying homage to just about every moment of the genre. Universal classics, Italian splatter, Spanish undead, Hammer, vintage ’80s horror – he’s been steadily painting his way through the horrorverse, creating bold and colourful renditions of his favourite movie monsters. “My painting process is a hybrid Dutch-Flemish technique,” Kuchta explains of his style. “I start by gathering reference material, then a composition is drawn up. Then a detailed under-painting is layered down, and colour is painted overtop. The magic of the technique relies on your ability to draw, and understand value.” Kuchta’s vibrant Creature from the Black Lagoon portrait and Funhouse paintings are rendered with large brush strokes and his knack for composition shines through in details in his Salem’s Lot and…

Whenever I discover a band that rubs my rhubarb, I want to learn as much as I can about them. I want to know how the group came to be, what they sound like live, and maybe even what makes the band members tick. One such outfit is Tucson, Arizona’s The Mission Creeps, who lent us an alternate version of “Monster” – the original appears on 2010’s Dark Cells – for our Hymns Vol. II compilation. You know, the song that sounds like it’s being played by a gang of resurrected surfers in a garage while a black and white horror movie is projected on the wall. Well, last month TMC released Halloween (Refractory Records), a nine-song EP that, frankly, caught me a little off-guard. Gone were the hooky, well-crafted…

“They once had a go at it with bell, book and candle,” egocentric research director Peter Brock (Michael Bryant) intones to his anxious staff of scientists. “Well, we’re rather better equipped…” With this invocation, acclaimed writer Nigel Kneale set the stage for a revolutionary spin on the traditional ghost story that continues to resonate to this day. Having set the standard for televised science fiction and horror with his 1950s trilogy of Quatermass serials for the BBC, he essentially concluded his celebrated tenure at the network on Christmas Day of 1972 with the broadcast of The Stone Tape. A team of electronics experts assemble at Taskerlands, a remote Victorian mansion being refitted for a top secret endeavour: the discovery and development of a new recording medium. Problems arise almost immediately…