Table of contents for Issue 145 June 2014 in RUE MORGUE

Canada can’t boast a rich heritage of homegrown monster movies. Cronenberg’s done us proud on the body horror front; we’re got psychos/slashers/boogeymen well-represented in movies such as My Bloody Valentine, Black Christmas, Curtains, Deranged and the Prom Night series; our worthy contributions to the zombie canon include Deathdream, Fido and Pontypool; and The Changeling alone is enough to stake a claim in the history of haunted house cinema. On the monster front, our most famous movie creature is probably the werewolf, thanks to the Ginger Snaps trilogy. Now WolfCop joins those fangy females in representing the lycanthrope as the country’s closest thing to a national movie monster The werewolf makes sense for us Canucks, not only for practical reasons (a warm, ever-handy coat!), but there’s a duality that appeals to…

The world of horror comics lost two of its defining creators this spring. Al Feldstein, editor and co-creator of such classic EC Comics horror titles as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear, died at his Montana ranch on April 29. Artist Dick Ayers, whose horror career stretched from drawing and inking pre-Code supernatural-themed stories in the 1940s and ’50s to illustrating gore-drenched shockers for Eerie Publications in the ’70s, died on May 4 at his home in White Plains, New York. Feldstein was 88; Ayers had just celebrated his 90th birthday. Though Feldstein is best known for his 29-year run as editor of Mad magazine, horror fans will remember him for his role in creating horror comics as we know them today. “Feldstein…

1 FULCI ZOMBIE SOAP $5.95 The dead are among us – and even your bathroom isn’t safe. This carefully moulded opaque soap evokes the iconic rotter from Lucio Fulci’s Zombie and smells like pumpkin pie, which is the official scent of the zombie apocalypse (along with putrefaction, obviously). They will return to wash the flesh of the living at houseofmysterioussecrets.com. 2 SKULL AND BRAIN FRIENDSHIP NECKLACE SET $137 Nothing says “We go together like a cerebral cortex in a cranial cavity” like these brass brain and skull pendants. Split ’em with your BFF – or fall out over who’s the brains of the operation and end up keeping both of them for yourself: all’s fair where love and brains are concerned. Lose your head (and its contents) at shopbop.com (search…

SOUNDTRACK Shooting Guns SONICOUP WolfCop got a little hairier with the announcement that local beardy hard rockers Shooting Guns would be handling scoring duties for the Saskatoon-lensed indie horror comedy. It’s a unique approach, given that the band has no previous experience with soundtracks, but the Polaris-nominated outfit manages to make it work with an epic palate of doomy riff-rock tracks, John Carpenter synth and ambitious psychedelic numbers that manage to combine the two. The opening songs sound like they’re written for a beer commercial, something that seems hilariously appropriate for a movie about an alcoholic Canadian werewolf. They’re head-bopping, fuzzed-out, bluesy riffs, but the album soon shifts gears into no-rock, just-keyboards territory with an obvious Carpenter flavour – Prince of Darkness being the prevailing vibe. A recurring western theme…

THIS ISSUE: LANCE SHARKS THE JUMP Not A Grain Of Truth SAND SHARKS VVS Films “Selachophobia” is defined as the fear of sharks, and while it’s been around for a long time, back in 1975 Jaws made it a cultural phenomenon, causing us to think twice before entering oceans, lakes, pools and, for some, even the bathtub! Undeniably a Jaws spoof, Sand Sharks is set in a remote seaside town where the sheriff has closed the beaches just before a spring break festival due to a rash of unexplained deaths involving prehistoric sharks that can, um, swim through sand. It stars Brooke Hogan, the daughter of Hulk, as the marine biologist (ha ha) determined to stop the rampaging fish. This is a fun film that thankfully never takes itself too…

SHEER FILTH David Flint, ed. FAB Press A mix of trash, porn and boundary-testing alt culture of an era, Sheer Filth collects nine issues of the titular 1990s UK zine that, if nothing else, remain an interesting time capsule. While it’s quite well written, the book’s main pleasure may be inadvertent, as it shines a light on how far horror and exploitation film culture has evolved in the last twenty years. In an era where you can get Blu-rays of one-time obscurities such as Faces of Death shipped to your doorstep tomorrow, breathless articles about Ed Wood, Linnea Quigley and festival reports on Brian Yuzna’s Society seem quaint by modern standards. Though editor and main contributor David Flint was surely breaking ground at the time, today it’s a path welltrod.…

OCULUS SOUNDTRACK The Newton Brothers VARESE SARABANDE Oculus is a score designed to hover alongside dialogue tracks and emerge in short strategic stabs for maximum shock value, as a result it becomes almost inert when separated from its movie. The Newton Brothers’ soundtrack is comprised of waves of bass drones of variable density, rotating thematic fragments and a kind of grey sonic matter that either rises slowly or punches out with ferocity (such as on the screeching “Fingernails”). Chamber strings, processed choir and woodwinds add some warmth and feelings of regret (“Graphic Photos,” “History of the Mirror”), but by the score’s middle there’s an emerging sameness, especially the cyclical use of throbbing drones. It’s clear the music was designed to lock audiences in a state of perpetual angst (if not…

WELL, RM has done it again! Great, informative articles on the King of the Monsters, Godzilla, in RM#144. Just superb. And a side to Last Chance Lance, I love your reviews so much, if I were a woman, I'd bear your children. Then the three of us could watch this crap together! How about an all-Godzilla issue in the future? ROB MORGANBESSER – STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK RUE MORGUE, I've gotta say – although I still enjoy the magazine, I’m pretty tired of what passes for a review in your pages these days. Tal Zimerman, nothing is more tiresome than some nobody trying to make a name for themselves by “reviewing” a movie (Return to Nuke ‘Em High, RM#144) as negatively as possible in the assholish, hyperbolic style you tried…

HIT THE EVANS CITY EXIT ON I-79 AND YOU ENCOUNTER A WOODSY WINDING ROAD LEADING INTO A QUAINT PENNSYLVANIA TOWN that happens to be Ground Zero for the modern zombie movie. Kevin Kriess, founder and owner of Evans City’s Living Dead Museum, is preserving that legacy. “I always felt that Pittsburgh, and here specifically, was a place where someone should do something to commemorate Night of the Living Dead,” he explains. He took on the job and, over the past half-decade, he’s gathered artifacts, props and enough paraphernalia to launch a shop and museum honouring the undead ghouls as created by George A. Romero and company back in 1968. The Living Dead Museum’s raison d’être is to examine how the movie introduced the cultural phenomenon of the zombie to the…

You may have learned about Lewis and Clark’s 1804 expedition across the United States in history class, but chances are you never heard about their tussles with man-beasts, plant zombies and other assorted monsters. Now, thanks to Manifest Destiny, the twisted truth can finally be revealed. Blending real-life historical events with horror elements is hardly a new idea; in recent years we’ve seen a number of these fusions both on the page and on the screen. Ironically, though, it was this very oversaturation that inspired writer Chris Dingess. “I was hanging out and drinking with friends, complaining about the popular story device of taking historical figures, both factual and fictional, and combining them with monsters and creatures,” he reveals. “Then I yelled out, ‘You could just take Lewis and Clark…

”Giger is a definite influence,” acknowledges Randy Ortiz. “Especially when [I’m] working on pieces that require organic and cybernetic to be meshed together. I spend a lot of time searching through his work for inspiration on those occasions.” The Winnipeg, Manitoba, illustrator (self-taught!), who created the WolfCop image you see on this issue’s cover, shares H.R. Giger’s flair for deeply textured, flowing, surreal images that meld the natural with the mechanical. It’s no surprise that he recently illustrated an Aliens screen-printed poster for Mondo, but it wasn’t the first time he gave his spin on the legendary artist’s alien designs for a project. For a previous Mondo gallery show in Austin, Texas, he created Lord Necronom, a franchise mash-up featuring Darth Vader’s mask comprised of Giger aliens. Both works showcase…

As you might guess from the column title, I’m a bit of an Alice Cooper fan, so I’ve been anticipating Banger Films’ (Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey) Super Duper Alice Cooper documentary since it was announced years ago. But with the countless interviews, other docs and books that have already covered Coop’s career, just what’s left to tell of the Alice Cooper story? As it turns out, still a fair bit. Cooper has often referred to himself as two different people: his sinister onstage namesake and the basically normal guy he is offstage (Vincent Furnier). SDAC’s focus is on the development of Alice Cooper as a character, framing the narrative with footage from the 1920 silent version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, giving the doc an olde-timey horror feel. As…

JOE DEVER’S LONE WOLF iPad, iPhone, iPod, Android BulkyPix The line between horror and dark fantasy is a murky one. Both genres employ monsters, graphic bloodshed and brutal storylines with almost equal consistency. So while Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf is definitely dark fantasy, there’s no denying its appeal for horror fans – plus it’s one of the most intriguing tablet/phone games of late. Loosely based on the Lone Wolf gamebooks of the ’80s, which sold millions of copies, the game combines decision-based storytelling with time-based RPG-style combat and random events. You are Lone Wolf, the last surviving Kai Lord; the rest of your warrior order was massacred. After embarking on a mission abroad, you return to find your homeland overrun by evil, its citizens being slaughtered. And you’re the only…

Are donuts as fattening as brains? How about a brain-shaped apple fritter (pictured)? It’s just one of the zombie-themed treats for sale at Dawn of the Donut. The independent Spokane, Washington, store opened in August of last year and has seen its customer base grow rapidly on the strength of donuts such as the Double Tap (“raised round, with chocolate icing with Red Hots and raspberry filling”), the Corpse (“raised ring, caramel icing and coarse sea salt”) and the Romero (“raised ring, chocolate icing and mini M&Ms”). “We were hopeful that other people shared our passion for both zombies and donuts,” explains co-owner Martin Judnich. “Big box operations have a unique factor of zero. When was the last time you went to Krispy Kreme, and not only had a great…

CASE NO. 145 In April, a 39-year-old Utah woman was arrested after her estranged husband discovered the corpse of an infant hidden in the garage. Police later recovered six more dead babies on the premises, also believed to be hers. French promotional material for The Exorcist III contained a still from a scene that the studio had cut from the final film, depicting a priest in a confessional booth with his head resting in his lap. In Scottish criminal trials of yesteryear, if a jury found the accused guilty of an executable offense, the presiding judge would snuff out a candle before reading off the condemned’s death sentence. Two California parolees allegedly performed a series of killings between late 2013 and early 2014 while wearing GPS trackers they had been…

COULD WOLFCOP BE THE MOVIE HERO OF SUMMER 2014? While Tom Cruise blows up aliens this June in Edge of Tomorrow, the lycanthropic lawman of WolfCop rips faces off bikers, drives a custom muscle car, howls at the moon, and drinks enough whisky to knock down a grizzly bear, let alone a wolf. What’s not to love? WolfCop is the first film produced by CineCoup, an online “film accelerator” that pitted ten Canadian filmmaking teams against one another last year. The idea was to use social media and viral marketing to create a fan base for a movie that did not yet exist. The initiative, funded by private Canadian investors, awarded the winning team a million-dollar budget to make its film and guaranteed theatrical distribution. It also threatens (promises?) to…

THE CREEPIEST PLACE ON EARTH ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW Starring Roy Abramsohn, Elena Schuber and Katelynn Rodriguez Written and directed by Randy Moore Random Media It’s tragic that some of the places and things that were once so magical to us as kids are actually pretty terrible: McDonalds is a haven for high fat foods, Santa Claus is just a figure used to get people into department stores and toys are useless pieces of plastic. And thanks to alleged toxic lead on rides, covering up of accidents, accusations of homophobia and other incidents, the biggest bummer of all is the discovery that Disneyland is actually kind of evil, and no film in history captures this sentiment so directly as the mind-bending thriller Escape from Tomorrow, which was shot there in secret.…

If you’re one of those folks who lives for deleted scenes, extended cuts and alternate endings, new digital reading format TREEbook may well have been created for you. While, at first, it may sound like a digital version of those kitschy ’80sera Choose Your Own Adventure titles, the platform is actually far more advanced. Pioneered by Medallion Press, it allows authors to not only follow the paths of different characters within a story, granting readers the opportunity to experience a tale from several different vantage points, it also opens the doors for writers to explore the different outcomes a single decision could have on the vaster plot. In other words, it’s an unprecedented way to submerge oneself in a book. This month, Gregory Lamberson’s The Julian Year will be…

This column is a feast of synchronicity, with two oddly titled underground films that complement both last month’s look at Discopath and tie-in with this issue’s celebration of independent filmmaking. First served is rot made in Montreal, Éric Falardeau’s Thanatomorphose. The plot is a disturbing underground art house fusion of David Cronenberg-style body horror, informed by the necrotic sensibilities of Jörg Buttgereit. Laura (Kayden Rose) christens her new apartment by dispassionately fucking her brutish boyfriend, Antoine (Davyd Tousignant). Unable to sleep after he leaves, she futilely attempts to work on a clay sculpture before retiring to bed to masturbate out of frustration. The following day, a weird bruise has appeared her on jaw line, and while she’s showering, a couple of her fingernails snap off. After a party with friends…

HEAVY METAL AND HORROR MOVIES HAVE BEEN LINKED SINCE BLACK SABBATH NAMED ITSELF AFTER A1963 MARIO BAVA FILM. The rise of both genres in the ’80s led to blood-and-fromage classics such as Black Roses, Rocktober Blood and Trick or Treat as film companies tried to cash in on both audiences. Now, Mike “McBeardo” McPadden tackles the mostly unexplored heavy metal movie genre with 666 reviews in Heavy Metal Movies (published by Bazillion Points). The book goes beyond the obvious tie-ins to include sword-and-sandal epics (Clash of the Titans), horror classics (Rosemary’s Baby) and exploitation gross-outs (Cannibal Holocaust). Rue Morgue spoke to McPadden about the connection between heavy metal and horror movies. What inspired you to write Heavy Metal Movies? I needed some sort of organizational umbrella for all my interests,…