Table of contents for Issue 169 August 2016 in RUE MORGUE

Fucking faggots,” yelled the guy from the window of the pick-up as he roared past us. This was about a dozen years ago, back on the prairies, and I don’t know if the slur was because he simply disapproved of two guys in punk band hoodies, assumed that two men walking together must be in a homosexual relationship that required shaming (apparently two men driving around together was infinitely straighter), or some combination of the two. The two of us snickered that we’d just experienced the ultimate cliché of redneck angst. It’s easier to laugh off something like that when you grow up surrounded by it, I guess. I was born and raised in a conservative part of the country, with religious grandparents on both sides of the family, during…

Long before there was virtual reality or immersive projection, there were dark rides – amusement park attractions such as ghost trains and haunted house rides that sent patrons into carefully controlled worlds where some combination of animation, sound design, twoor three-dimensional sets, special effects and sometimes even costumed actors created the kind of experience William Castle could only dream of. Hundreds of dark rides were built throughout the 20th century, but only a handful are still in operation – an unfortunate decline that has led Joel Zika, a lecturer in screen design at Australia’s Deakin University and an artist in his own right, to take action. Zika has launched the Dark Ride Project, an endeavour that’s using high-tech equipment to virtually preserve the spooky attractions that haven’t already been lost.…

1.CURSE 2: THE BITE FANG-FISTED CLARK SPEWS SNAKES, BECOMES ONE 2.HISSS MALIKA MAKES A MEAL OF HER ATTACKERS 3.LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM LADY SYLVIA PUNCTURES A PENIS 4.SSSSSSS DAVID ENDURES A MONSTROUS MUTATION 5.THE REPTILE ANNA SINKS HER TEETH IN 6.DREAMSCAPE R.E.M.-TIME REPTILE SHEDS ITS HUMAN SKIN TORTURED TAGLINE THE ALCHEMIST (1984) “CREATING MONSTERS WAS EASY. THE PROBLEM IS GETTING RID OF THEM.” FINAL WORDS “FOR EXTRA SURVEILLANCE I USE A WEB-CAM.” THIS MONTH’S CAPTION CONTEST WINNER IS DEFORMER Drop by our Facebook page every month for a chance to have your Final Words!…

BEFORE MICHAEL KICKED OFF THE SLASHER CRAZE IN 1978, THERE WAS ALICE. Released two years before Halloween, Alice, Sweet Alice was the second film by New Jersey filmmaker Alfred Sole, whose first feature was the 1972 porno Deep Sleep. And if that wasn’t enough to get him in trouble with the Catholic Church, Alice certainly was. The film, which was co-written with Rosemary Ritvo, begins with Catherine Spages (Linda Miller) and her daughters, nine-year-old Karen (Brooke Shields) and twelve-year-old Alice (Paula Sheppard), at church for Karen’s first communion. When Karen is found brutally strangled to death in the church, all signs point to the mentally disturbed Alice, but – in true giallo fashion – everyone becomes a suspect: friends, family, the landlord, even members of the church. With suspicions running…

THIS ISSUE: LANCE IS LEFT WITH SKIN’N’ BONES BIRTHDAY SUIT BLUES SKINLESS MVD Visual Did you know your skin is actually an organ, like your liver or pancreas? Just imagine what it’d be like to lose it – how difficult walking would be and how all your clothes would stick to you… gross! That’s the problem facing Pete, a brilliant young doctor who cured his cancer by injecting himself with a genetically modified parasite that ate his tumour, but also ate all of his skin. Now the only way he can survive is by eating other people’s skin, just like in The Incredible Melting Man. Shot mainly within the confines of a basement laboratory with minimal cast, this is a cool flick with gobs of great gore, good acting and…

AS THE LURE OF THE PARANORMAL CONTINUES TO DRAW IN BELIEVERS AND SKEPTICS ALIKE, MYRIAD TV shows and books purport to take audiences deeper into the lore, locales and sometimes even the science behind ghosts and ghost-hunting. With Halloween drawing ever closer, Llewellyn Publications – a frequent purveyor of titles concerning real-life alleged supernatural occurrences – releases a fall lineup thick with ghosts, hauntings and travel guides for the spectral-minded. We train our EMF meters on three. A STRANGE LITTLE PLACE: THE HAUNTINGS AND UNEXPLAINED EVENTS OF ONE SMALL TOWN BRENNAN STORR Brennan Storr didn’t plan to write a book about the ghosts in his family’s hometown of Revelstoke, British Columbia. He was working on a family history, but while documenting the ghost stories his mother used to tell about…

Arrow Films is at the forefront of a campaign to reissue some of the best examples of the lurid Italian suspense thriller known as the giallo on Blu-ray. And the results are stunning! Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace (1964) is the quintessential giallo. The style, elegance, grace and brutality of the best examples of the genre all spring from his baroque, Technicolor fever dream. In the opening, a Christian Haute Couture fashion house model is strangled on the grounds during a violent thunderstorm. The accidental discovery of her diary and the scandalous details it may contain result in a number of murders by a masked, black-gloved killer; a dogged police inspector is determined to apprehend the murderer. Bava is the pioneer of the red herring, a plot device used…

WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED THAT SOUNDTRACKS WOULD BECOME ONE OF HORROR’S MOST POPULAR MEDIUMS? Thanks to labels such as Death Waltz and Waxwork, which have released eye-popping vinyl reissues of iconic scores of everything from Zombi to Re-Animator, as well as the re-emergence of Italian rockers Goblin (Suspiria, Deep Red), and John Carpenter’s new musical career, horror film music has become almost as popular as the movies it’s created for. Yet, despite this growing interest, there remains relatively few written works discussing the composers behind the scores, especially when compared to the number of books available about horror directors. Enter J. Blake Fichera, whose Scored to Death (out now from Silman-James Press) compiles interviews with some of the genre’s most notable composers, including Carpenter, Fabio Frizzi and Claudio Simonetti, as…

I HAVE EVERY issue from the past seventeen years and even after all this time you still surprise me. First a review of a book from Three Hands Press, and now a cover story about Session 9? Talk about your hidden gems! I thought only about five people had ever seen this film, including me and my geeky friends. I’m hoping your feature article helps bring this excellent yet overlooked little film to the wider audience it deserves. My only criticism is that the side articles gave away far too much. This isn’t some simple-minded slasher flick we’re talking about. Keep up the great work and when are you guys going to get around to doing something on folk horror? That seems to be the hot horror trend these days.…

Wave 3 News of Louisville, Kentucky, reported that a woman was killed in April while investigating the legend of the Pope Lick Monster, a half-man, halfgoat creature said to live beneath a Norfolk Southern Railway trestle over Pope Lick Creek outside of Louisville. Roquel Bain and her boyfriend had skirted the protective fence and were walking atop the trestle when they were surprised by an oncoming train. The man managed to escape but Bain was struck by the locomotive and thrown from the bridge. While the Pope Lick creature is more urban legend than cryptid, it still attracts monster hunters and paranormal investigators. The trestle has claimed many lives over the years, and some believe the creature is responsible for luring people up onto it. MORE MONSTRO BIZARRO AT RUE-MORGUE.COM…

1 LIVE EVIL T-SHIRT $25 Swaddle yourself, sinners, in Machete Premium Cuts’ Live Evil T-shirt. They’re 100 percent cotton, preshrunk and feature a set-in rib collar with shoulder-to-shoulder taping, double needle sleeve and bottom hems, plus a sinister print that affirms your unholy devotion. Available in men’s S–2XL. 2 BAT SWEATER CLIPS $23 Make your sweater spooky-better with these bat clips. Made of smooth lasercut wood, each one is 2” long and ⅛” thick. Plus, the chain is removable, so they can be worn as brooches if you prefer. Simply ideal for your next date with Drac. 3 EMBALMING FLASK 6 oz: $20 8 oz: $25 Keep your precious juices close to your heart and ready for your liver with Shayne of the Dead’s Embalming Fluid flask. Made of stainless…

TO CALL JOE BEGOS A DAVID CRONENBERG FAN WOULD BE AN UNDERSTATEMENT. The 28-year-old Rhode Island-raised filmmaker behind the 2013 alien abduction slasher Almost Human sports a Videodrome tattoo on his left arm, right above his Dawn of the Dead ink and to the left of a Lucio Fulci Zombie piece. More importantly, he channels the erstwhile Baron of Blood’s 1981 telekinetic classic Scanners in his sophomore film, The Mind’s Eye (released August 5 by RLJ Entertainment). And, yes, heads explode. During an interview conducted the day after his film’s world premiere during the Midnight Madness portion of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Begos admits, “Basically, Scanners on steroids is what I was going for.” Opening on a snowy New England day in 1990, The Mind’s Eye stars…

IT’S NO SURPRISE THAT A CITY AS OLD AND RICH IN HISTORY AS PARIS WOULD HAVE HUNDREDS OF MUSEUMS, INCLUDING A FEW THAT CATER TO THOSE WITH A TASTE FOR THE MACABRE. Most of the thrill-seekers who visit the City of Light choose to explore the dark maze of the ancient catacombs or the Fragonard Museum, known for its anatomical specimens, medical oddities and artfully displayed corpses. But few know of Dupuytren, which is essentially the first cabinet of curiosities in history. Hidden in the Pierre and Marie Curie University medical school in the 6th district of Paris, it’s difficult to access and rarely open to the public. Well, at least it was; this spring it closed for good after over 180 years in existence. I had the opportunity to…

IMAGINE REAR WINDOW AS FILMED BY DAVID LYNCH, AND YOU’LL HAVE AN IDEA OF WHAT TO EXPECT FROM AUSTRALIA’S OBSERVANCE. Aussie director Joseph Sims-Dennett’s second feature (on DVD and VOD August 2 from Artsploitation Films), after 2011’s black-comic murder thriller Bad Behaviour, focuses on Parker (Lindsay Farris), a man whose life has bottomed out. Desperate for money, he takes a job from an unseen employer that seems simple: stake out the apartment of a beautiful woman, Tenneal (Stephanie King), from a derelict flat across the street. As he spends day after day watching her, Tenneal’s circumstances become increasingly bizarre, but Parker’s become worse as his surroundings begin to prey on his psyche… Themes of paranoia and surveillance are everywhere in both our entertainment and our real lives these days, and…

Like everyone else in the world, you’ve wanted to do things people say you shouldn’t do. How many times in your life have you wanted to slap someone? Really, literally strike them. You can’t even begin to count the times. Thus begins Nicole Cushing’s extraordinary work of extreme horror Mr. Suicide, which took home Best First Novel at this year’s Bram Stoker Awards. The book is impressive not just for its tale of a young man who hears voices in his head and gradually begins to separate himself from reality, resulting in bloody, eviscerating violence, but because it’s written entirely in the second person. I caught up with Cushing following her win to discuss her unusual novel (out now from Word Horde). WHY WRITE MR. SUICIDE IN THE SECOND PERSON?…

SOUNDTRACK THE NEON DEMON Cliff Martinez MILAN RECORDS The latest collaboration between composer Cliff Martinez and director Nicolas Winding Refn is a hypnotic one, as they tackle the surreal model-eat-model world of the fashion industry. As with Drive, Martinez plays with a range of layered synthesizers, this time fusing new age and electronica into a trance-like mix that recalls the work of Vangelis on Blade Runner. You can pick up that vibe in the title track, which pulses and throbs with cool textures and a menacing gait. Eschewing the traditional rhythms of a horror film, The Neon Demon moves with lulling grace, though Martinez goes into darker territory when needed (“Something’s in My Room,” “Runway”). The dreamy results make for a refreshing listen that holds up well as an album.…

THE WITCHER 3: BLOOD AND WINE DLC PS4, Xbox One, PC CD Projekt RED For fans of The Witcher video game trilogy, the latest DLC is both cause to rejoice and to mourn, as it’s allegedly the final piece of content to be released for the series. But if this is indeed the last installment of the roundly excellent action role-playing game, it’s going out on a high note. Blood and Wine can be played in-line with the core game or separately as a stand-alone campaign; regardless of your progress in The Witcher 3, you have the option to immediately jump into the DLC with an appropriately levelled and outfitted character. The new content sees our monster-hunting hero, the witcher Geralt, whisked away to Toussaint (a part of the world…

What Horror Comic kept you up at night? When I read the first Crossed trade I had the worst nightmare. The world had been over run with the “Crossed” and they were killing everyone around me in the most sadistic ways. I’m a little hesitant to read the rest of the series… but eventually will. NICHOLAS A. SÁNCHEZ The Creepy series. NIKOS MALK Panopticon or The Number, both by Thomas Ott. Black and white, no dialogue, totally creepy. ALLAN CHAMBERS Heavy Metal. Some of the stories in those magazines are horrific and dark. CHRIS LISK Lords of Misrule. Got shivers just now thinking about it MARCUS SIROIS Nightbreed always did it for me. JASON FARWELL The Wake kind of creeped me out. TODD ROBERSON…

When Simon Marsden died in January 2012, at 63, many mourned the loss of both the man and the prospect of no new work from the celebrated British abandoned/haunted places photographer. But since then, The Marsden Archive, which is maintained by his widow, Cassie, has kept his work alive. Now, the Archive, in conjunction with filmmaker Jason Figgis (director of The Twilight Hour, a 2003 film about Marsden) are preparing a new doc about the artist. “I had always planned on producing a film that looked at Simon’s life and career and what inspired him to devote his working days to this singular – and wonderful – occupation of gathering atmospheric photographs of enigmatic ruins that are steeped in historic intrigue,” says Figgis. “Sadly, Simon passed away before we could…

CASH NO.169 Aira City in Japan has held “spider battles” since the 16th century. The annual event sees citizens “buy, capture, or rear female Argiope amoena spiders – called kogane locally,” which they then enter in the tournament. In the late ’90s, Canadian rocker Thor was asked by Jerry Only via a signed letter to join the reforming Misfits as the group’s singer. Thor decided to concentrate on his own comeback instead. In June, a woman in Queensland, Australia, woke up to discover a five-meter-long python making its way from her living room into her master bedroom. Stephen Lawrence, who scored Alice, Sweet Alice, has spent the latter part of his career composing music for children’s shows such as Sesame Street. In May, doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital conducted surgery…

WITH OVER 45 YEARS OF STORIES, MAKING A MARK ON SWAMP THING ISN’T EASY FOR WRITERS. What started off as a fairly simplistic monster-of-the-month book in the 1970s eventually evolved into an ongoing story with its own massive mythology. Much of this was created during the 1980s with Alan Moore’s famous run on the title. Over the course of 44 issues, the British author established a series of esoteric entities for the series, among them the Parliament of Trees, a group of elementals whose job it is to protect all plant life on Earth, and the Green, the mystical realm inhabited by members of the Parliament. Moore pushed things even further when he established that Alec Holland, the human who had been turned into the creature and whose exploits readers…

GRAHAM SKIPPER IS A BIG JOE BEGOS FAN. The everyman star of Begos’s sci-fi slasher Almost Human and now the telekinetic horror show The Mind’s Eye bonded with the writer/director/cinematographer over horror movie trivia (Begos won) while working on Re-Animator: The Musical. Begos directed a stage version of the classic 1985 H.P. Lovecraft-inspired film, and Skipper starred in it as Dr. Herbert West. It was an artistic match made in the heaven of retro gore (and reanimation fluid, of course) that would prepare them for a future in genre film together. Since then, the versatile actor, whose background is as much in comedy as horror, has directed his own micro-budget horror film (Space Clown) and had roles in the horror anthology Tales of Halloween (2015), Mickey Keating’s violent thriller Carnage…

LIVE AND LET LIVELY THE SHALLOWS Starring Blake Lively, Óscar Jaenada and Brett Cullen Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra Written by Anthony Jaswinski Columbia Pictures Two signs that it’s 2016: most big studio horror releases are one-location films with small casts, and, every other indie horror movie has a shark in it. The Shallows is the best of both worlds, a film with a big enough budget to pull off a strong lead, gorgeous cinematography and some wild shark effects, but small enough to appeal directly to horror fans with some outrageous kills, effective gore and a tone that’s just playful and weird enough to make it stand out. In other words, on a scale of Jaws to Sharknado 3, The Shallows swims strongly up the middle. The plot is as…

AMERICAN NOCTURNE Hank Schwaeble Cohesion Press Two shades of darkness are better than one. For example: American Nocturne, a short story collection that successfully fuses the horror and noir genres. That’s not too much of a surprise though, as both genres have more in common than one might initially think. In his book, Hank Schwaeble uses two of the most frequently overlapping traits – darkness and the mystery of the unknown – to his advantage, but he also wisely adopts the noir genre’s trope of characters who are ultimately undone by their flaws, and uses it to chilling effect. Take, for example, one of the book’s highlights, “Bone Daddy.” In it, a stripper is offered tons of cash in exchange for having sex with a mummy. A nasty idea in…

Matty Ryan Tobin has been slashing up the horror art scene with a sinister style that merges dynamic illustration and texturing techniques to make images that seemingly appear from the darkness itself. His talent for clever compositions has earned him gigs designing T-shirts for Fright Rags, pieces for Sideshow Collectibles and gallery work for Hero Complex. Things have really picked up since Mondo spotted his spooky Blair Witch Project print, which led to him creating official prints for Jaws and Black Swan. The Hamilton, Ontario, artist shares what terror makes him tick. What got you into horror? Childhood curiosities. I can say honestly I discovered horror on my own. I didn’t have older siblings or any outside influence. I was always attracted to the horror section at the local Jumbo…

By the time you read this, the world will be on the brink of experiencing the most unlikely of reunions: the original Misfits featuring bassist Jerry Only and vocalist/songwriter Glenn Danzig. I’ll be catching that historic performance next month at Chicago Riot Fest, but in the meantime, I caught up with Michale Graves, vocalist from the Misfits’ other era, on the Toronto stop of his tour for the 2016 album When Worlds Collide and its acoustic counterpart Bedlam, on Vile of Venom Records. IS HORROR JUST AS BIG A PART OF YOUR SOLO CAREER AS WHEN YOU WERE WITH THE MISFITS? Yes, each song on When Worlds Collide is from an old classic sci-fi/shorror movie. I watch the movie, I call up my business partner Mark Allen Stewart, who is…

ALVIN SCHWARTZ AND STEPHEN GAMMELL USA – 1981-1991 For readers of a certain age, no book cleaved as deep an impression in their formative grey matter as Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Today, just mentioning the title is enough to awaken a grinning nostalgia in even the most casual literary plunderer. It seems that anyone who was a student from the year of the first book’s publication onward has at least heard of it. Whether these kids knew it or not, Scary Stories would become part of their canon. A former journalist, Schwartz was no stranger to digging through archives. The author compiled the spooky yarns that comprised his series by delving into historical tomes at universities and interviewing folklorists. (Always the professional, Schwartz provided a…