Table of contents for Issue 166 May 2016 in RUE MORGUE

My PH levels are dangerously high right now. I’m Phantasizing about drinking a Phanta Phar away, on a Pharm in Phargo. But that’s to be expected when there’s phresh Phantasm news, specifically a new movie and the 4K restoration of the original. If you’re a Phan, like I am, this is bigger than the engine block on a ’71 Barracuda, and twice as hot. One last adventure with Reggie, Mike, Jody and the Tall Man 37 years after the first film is a miraculous thing. With the failure of the proposed big-budget Roger Avery-penned Phantasm’s End, nearly two decades without a sequel and the death of Angus Scrimm this January, it’s also a bittersweet coda to a remarkable horror franchise. I love movies that create their own sprawling mythology, and…

The Internet was abuzz when it was announced at the end of February that the Twisted Twins were going to be mounting the first remake of a David Cronenberg movie. This summer, Vancouver-based, identical twin filmmakers Jen and Sylvia Soska – known for their features Dead Hooker in a Trunk, American Mary and See No Evil 2 – will helm an update of the legendary Canadian director’s 1977 release Rabid. “I want it to be a tribute to his original and his work,” says Jen (pictured left). “We love him. Without him there would be no us. He’s the original trailblazer. We have so much respect for him.” Sylvia (pictured right) adds that the project doesn’t come without some anxiety. “It’s terrifying, though. The response has been incredibly kind, but…

THE WORDS “HAMMER HORROR” IMMEDIATELY CONJURE UP IMAGES OF CHRISTOPHER LEE AND PETER CUSHING in period costume on lavish gothic sets amidst monsters and women with heaving cleavage. More esoteric fans of the legendary British genre studio will certainly smile at another term: “Cornish Duo,” which refers to a pair of unconventional shockers without Lee or Cushing that stand out in the Hammer canon. Both helmed by the late studio maverick John Gilling, The Plague of the Zombies and The Reptile introduced a pair of novel monsters to the UK horror scene – a new type of zombie and a snake woman, respectively. And although the movies are celebrating their 50th anniversaries, they’re both imbued with themes that still resonate strongly today. At their core, Plague and The Reptile play…

GIMME SHELTER 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE Starring John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher Jr. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg Written by Josh Campbell, Damien Chazelle and Matthew Strueken Paramount If you’re gonna hunker in a bunker with a strong woman, don’t punk her or she might turn it into a junker. That’s pretty much the trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane, which came outta nowhere as an addendum to the giant monster movie Cloverfield. The 2008 film featured a bunch of twentysomething partygoers in New York City capturing the arrival of a city-stomping creature from space. While that film unfolds via first-person found footage over a few chaotic hours, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a (literally) contained, chiefly one-location, standard-shot film with three main characters. Mary Elizabeth Winstead (The Thing remake and…

SEX, SCI-FI AND HORROR HAVE BEEN, AHEM, BEDFELLOWS FOR DECADES. Think Ming the Merciless lusting after Dale Arden in the 1930s Flash Gordon movie serials, the bedroom politics of 1950s B-movie I Married a Monster From Outer Space or the alien/human fucking in the Dan O’Bannon-written Heavy Metal comic story “The Long Tomorrow” (1977). Interspecies lust is nothing new. Species upped that animalistic ante in the ’90s with boobs, blood and Ben Kingsley. The 1995 sci-fi/horror hybrid, about scientists Frankensteining alien and human DNA to create a creature with an out-ofthis-world sex drive, twisted Mary Shelley’s ideas with a pedigree that belied its B-movie roots. More importantly, it raked in US $113 million for MGM on a $35-million budget. Of course it was going to get a sequel. Actually, it…

ALEISTER CROWLEY: WANDERING THE WASTE Martin Hayes and Roy Huteson Stewart Markosia Enterprises GUTTER MAGIC #3 OF 4 Rich Douek and Brett Barkley IDW/Comics Experience HEX OF THE WICKED WITCH #1 Frank Forte Asylum Press RIVERS OF LONDON: NIGHT WITCH #1 Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel and Lee Sullivan Titan DOCTOR STRANGE #6 Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo Marvel CONSTANTINE: THE HELLBLAZER #10 Ming Doyle, James Tynion IV and Travel Foreman DC The wickedest man in the world or misunderstood prophet? British occultist Aleister Crowley continues to baffle and enchant people a century after his exploits. Accused by the contemporary press of performing ritual blood sacrifices and numerous sexual abuses, including bestiality, Crowley nevertheless insisted his newfound magicbased religion, Thelema, was benign – despite its nefarious-sounding motto: “Do what thou wilt.”…

FURNACE Livia Llewellyn Word Horde It’s difficult to apply everyday adjectives to Livia Llewellyn’s fiction, and her second collection of short stories, Furnace, hasn’t made this any easier. I’m only reminded of the poverty of my own words in comparison to hers. Luscious, disgusting, mind-bendingly corporeal, sensual beyond imagination: Furnace is that good. In many ways, Llewellyn is proudly centred in the weird fiction explosion currently sweeping the horror lit community. The seeds of cosmic horror planted in her previous collection, Engines of Desire, have grown lushly here, with each story’s mostly female characters succumbing to fates beyond comprehension. These non-linear tales unfurl much like the bodies within them, transforming and regenerating in supplication to nameless forces, all rendered in Llewellyn’s sumptuous prose. However, she also transcends the weird label…

Charles Clary makes mind-bending paper art using a very unusual medium: VHS boxes. He’s collected over 1500 used VHS tapes, sourced from various thrift stores, and strategically cut out areas of the existing box art, putting stacks of thick, coloured paper into them, and cutting down into the layers, with each stack carved out smaller than the last, to achieve vortex-like designs that can resemble guts or smoke. It’s tedious work but Clary finds it meditative and cathartic; he’s created about 400 of the pieces so far, and is able to make them at a pace of about one per hour. It was his struggle at home that led him into the creative arts, while horror films and gory practical effects provided a much-needed escape into creativity. As of press…

JUST GOT THE new issue with Rob Zombie [RM#165]! While I enjoyed the Cinemacabre section (Southbound, Hellions, etc.), it needed to be longer than just three pages. More please! ANDREW ROOTZ, VIA FACEBOOK THANK YOU FOR FINALLY shining a long-overdue spotlight on the beautiful horrors of The Reflecting Skin [RM#164]. This overlooked gem is a real masterpiece of existential horror and the fear that lies just beneath the surface. It’s hardly subtle in its portrayal of violence and human suffering, yet it’s uniquely sublime in its depiction of that suffering. The handsome and alluring serial killers, the weirdly decorated house of harpoons and fish skulls in the middle of a landlocked field, the gorgeous opening sequence where the fields of wheat suddenly give way to an impish and bloody surprise.…

CASE NO. 166 A 40-year-old Romanian woman allegedly tore off her husband’s testicles on International Women’s Day after he neglected to buy her flowers or help with the housework. The iconic Randy’s Donuts chain (seen in multiple movies and TV shows) was named after Phantasm creator Don Coscarelli’s brother-in-law. As of press time the town of Hell, Michigan, is for sale for USD $900,000. Katie Holmes (Batman Begins) was offered the title role on TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but ultimately turned it down so she could attend high school. Dutch citizen Jacobus van Nierop, whom the European media has nicknamed the “Dentist of Horror,” went on trial in France in March for allegedly removing the healthy teeth of dozens of his patients at his rural French practice. He also…

WITH THE DEATH OF ANGUS SCRIMM THIS YEAR, THE PHANTASM FAMILY LOST THE FACE OF ITS FRANCHISE. Scrimm (a.k.a. Rory Guy, August 19, 1926 – January 9, 2016) was as gentlemanly in real life as he is menacing in the movies as the Tall Man. Known for his warmth and wit off screen, he remained especially close with his fellow Phantasm cast members, who share some reminiscences. MICHAEL BALDWIN (“Mike Pearson,” Phantasm, Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, Phantasm RaVager): Of all the cast members [on Coscarelli’s second film, Kenny and Company] at that time, I was the only one who had already acted professionally as a child, and to be a professional [adult] actor was my goal, so when I met Angus I made it a real point to…

THERE NO MISTAKE THE SUNBURNED PHANTOM OF CLASSIX SURF ROCK THAT HAUNTS THE FUZZED-OUT, REVERB-HEAVY MUSIC OF THE GRIM COUNTRY CORONERS But Grim County is a far cry from the bright California beach towns where artists such as Dick Dale pioneered the sounds that would lay the groundwork for heavy metal. It’s a place where monsters lurk in strip-club basements, cursed tapes line the porn shelves at the local video store, and hard-partying greasers OD on the snorted ashes of murdered vampires. That grindhouse sensibility melds perfectly with the EC Comics-style spookhouse shocks in the latest Grim County Coroners project. Tales From Grim County, out now from Sex and Monsters Comics, is a retro 40-page, black-and-white anthology comic with an accompanying full-length album that could easily be the soundtrack to…

THIS ISSUE: LANCE FINS A WAY DEEP BLEH SEA 90210 SHARK ATTACK Rapid Heart Pictures Not that long ago a spine-chilling shark movie proved it wasn’t safe to go back in the water. If you think I’m talking about Jaws then you need to remember what column you’re reading because I’m talking about Sharktopus. Since then, there have been endless shitty shark movies like this one, directed by David DeCoteau (1313: UFO Invasion, Wolves of Wall Street). And, like most of his other films, 90210 Shark Attack features lingering shots of young men prancing about in their skivvies. Set in a Beverly Hills mansion, it follows some unlikable oceanography students getting offed by a bafflingly asinine shark creature. Throw in some brutal acting by Donna Wilkes (Jaws 2, Angel)…

At a time when every city-levelling monster stomping across the silver screen seemed to be a veiled reference to atomic Armageddon, Panic in Year Zero (1962) was the first to show that the survivors of a nuclear attack may not be as fortunate as you might think. This outstanding Cold War nightmare, now on Blu-ray from Kino, follows a family of survivors that must secure the necessities of life while civilization crumbles around them. But as the patriarch, played by Ray Milland, discovers, there’s something even more upsetting than seeing what’s left of the social fabric ripped apart by savage thugs, and that’s discovering that you’re one of them. Milland, who also directs, keeps the pace brisk and manages to get around budget limitations by telling the story almost entirely…

Back in the ’70s and ’80s, Toronto television station City TV, the inspiration for Civic TV in David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983), used to run Late Great Movies. They played films such as Harold and Maude, Pink Floyd at Pompeii, Zardoz and Mad Max. I didn’t know it, but I was being schooled in cult cinema. By the time VHS exploded, I was savvy, and I knew when I rented the Vestron release of Juan Piquer Simon’s Pieces (1982) that it was destined for cult classic status. Pieces is not very good. It’s outrageously awful, truthfully, but that’s exactly what makes it a definitive cult film. The plot is bog-standard ’80s slasher cash-in nonsense. In the righteously gory prologue, a young boy caves his mother’s skull in with an axe after…

Bgfoot, sasquatch, yeti, the abominable snowman – whatever you call these giant bipedal monsters, their muscular, masculine, ferocious image lends itself particularly well to metal. They’re represented this month with recent releases from both California groove metallers All Hail the Yeti and British Columbia’s more crushingly heavy The Mountain Man. On its second full-length, Screams From a Black Wilderness, on Minus Head Records, All Hail the Yeti presents a concept album based around campfire horror stories, each song representing a fully realized spooky tale. The opening track is a story told from a child’s point of view. “‘Before the Flames’ is actually part two of a three-part story told in reverse,” says vocalist Connor Garritty of the song. “It’s about the horrors of the orphanage where a young girl’s parents…

Thirty years after its 1986 debut, legendary indie horror comic Gore Shriek is enjoying a revival. FantaCo Publications’ notoriously gruesome anthology had an all-too-short run in the late ’80s and a brief resurgence in the early ’90s. Only thirteen issues and a handful of specials were produced, but it was enough to secure the title a well-deserved place in horror comics history. The indie series had small print runs with black-and-white interiors and modest production values, but it boasted completely over-the-top gore and turned out to be a proving ground for some noteworthy talent, including Spawn and Batman artist Greg Capullo and creature designer/prosthetic makeup artist Brian Spaulding Fuller. Now, FantaCo is teaming up with Rough House Publishing – the company behind 2015’s The Dead: Omnibus – to resurrect Gore…

1. ALLAN GRAVES STICKER PACK $8/pack or $13 for both Straight from the ol’ crypt comes Allan Graves’ Sticker Pack in full horror! Each one contains three eye-poppin’ stickers with different designs on heavy-duty vinyl. Stick ’em on your coffin and be the coolest ghoul in the cemetery! Choose between series 1 or series 2, or get both. 2. FRIGHT RAGS SOCKS $12 Keep your feet warm in the mausoleum with a pair of these custom knit crew socks designed with horror VHS stickers or plastic fangs. Made of 25 percent cotton, 47 percent nylon, fifteen percent polyester, two percent lycra, eleven percent acrylic… and 100 percent horror love! 3. SKULL SPOON $10 Let that morning cup o’ jaw know you mean business with this metal Skull Spoon! Hand cut…

I’m tempted to invoke John Cleese here – “And now for something completely different” – to set up this column, except that last month’s exhumation of I Bury the Living was a bit of a deviation from the Bowen’s Basement norm as well, if such a thing even exists. Well, whatevs. Two early catalysts for my damaged psyche – the real ghostbusters and the real fab four – have collided in Scooby-Doo! and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery (2015) and I must spring into action, if you’ll be so good as to help me off the couch. KISS was integral to both my adolescence and my continued arrested development in middle age. How integral? Well, does copping my first feel, in a basement no less, during Peter Criss’ drum solo…

CULT CINEMA: THE ARROW VIDEO COMPANION Anthony Nield, ed. Arrow Films Arrow Video is well known to genre film buffs as a DVD and Blu-ray distributor of horror and cult cinema, but now the company has taken that love a step further. Cult Cinema: The Arrow Video Companion is a richly illustrated king-size hardback in which genre experts delve into all things cult, with a strong emphasis on horror: at least eighteen essays out of 30 are horror-related. Ben Wheatley’s lacklustre autobiographical intro is followed by twenty essays previously featured in Arrow’s booklets or discs, while ten have been specially commissioned for this 246-page book. The quality of writing is uniformly high, as is to be expected from such well-established authors. Although brief, the essays are crammed with information and…

BASKIN SOUNDTRACK Ulas Pakkan LAKESHORE RECORDS Ulas Pakkan’s score for the Turkish horror thriller Baskin fuses an unusual mix of styles. Part experiment in unnerving ambient sound, part traditional melodic soundtrack, the score moves in several directions at once and never feels like it’s trying to hit the conventional rhythms of a standard horror film. His composition works best on a disparate group of cuts, such as the title track, which resembles the theme to a badass cop show. Meanwhile, cues such as “Hilasnal” are full of layered digital rumbling that’s improved when wearing headphones. While Pakkan’s material doesn’t break any new ground, it’s at times a refreshing listen, particularly when contrasting a Middle-Eastern influence with standard synth strains. JS 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE SOUNDTRACK Bear McCreary SPARKS AND SHADOWS A…

PARISIAN RETRO-SYNTH FORCE PERTURBATOR IS ON A SONIC MISSION TO EXPLORE VAST, EPIC SOUNDSCAPES INSPIRED BY FILMS like Suspiria, Akira and The Running Man, and artists such as Giorgio Moroder, Vangelis and Tangerine Dream. But more than that, the man behind it all, James Kent, designs it for the dance floor. For five years now he’s been releasing numerous club-friendly EPs and LPs as Perturbator, mining all manner of horror and dystopian sci-fi. We caught up with him to discuss The Uncanny Valley, his new full-length album on Blood Music, out May 5. WHAT ARE THE INSPIRATIONS FOR THE BAND? I used to be a guitar player before Perturbator. I played in a couple of groups, mostly local metal bands. Playing an instrument is fun, but it’s really the writing…

KHOLAT PS4, PS3, PC IMGN.PRO Imagine this: you’re lost in the unforgiving northern reaches of Russia with only a topographical map and a compass to guide you through the snow. Sound like fun? Your answer will largely determine whether or not you’ll enjoy the indie survival horror game Kholat. Developed by Polish company IMGN.PRO, Kholat’s plot is centred around the real-life Dyatlov Pass incident, in which nine hikers died under suspicious circumstances in the Ural Mountains in 1959. You are ostensibly sent up there to investigate, but the game provides little to no direction. As you wander the terrain, trying to match map and compass readings to your locale, you’ll find pieces of paper that offer clues to what happened to the hikers (there’s something about an escaped serial…