Table of contents for Issue 170 September 2016 in RUE MORGUE

In July, a CNN news story revealed that the last company in the world still manufacturing VCRs, Japan’s Funai Electric, was halting production of the machines that month. My first thought was, “Holy shit! They’re still making VCRs?!” I’d assumed the analog behemoths were already extinct. Then again, VHS tapes are far from gone, especially in the horror genre. Such is the nostalgia for an era that so profoundly affected the viewing habits of a generation that in 2016 we have the popular anthology series V/H/S, magazines and websites dedicated to VHS horror and even new tapes being manufactured. I’ve got fresh VHS copies of The Nail Gun Massacre and The House of the Devil, along with books featuring VHS tape art, a tiny VHS tape-shaped USB drive, a notebook…

American cable and satellite network IFC, best known for its comedy programming, is tossing its hat into the horror ring. The network has ordered eight episodes of Stan Against Evil, a scripted horror-comedy series from comedian/writer Dana Gould. Gould will serve as a producer and writer for the show, which began filming in Atlanta in June and will debut IFC on November 2. “People know me as a comedian or comedy writer, but I’m as big a horror junkie as they come,” says Gould, who enjoyed an Emmy-winning stint as a writer and co-executive producer on The Simpsons. “I was thinking about a horror thing to do, just for fun, and came up with the idea of creating a straight-out horror show – something I would want to watch, like…

IN RAINY PORTLAND, OREGON, THE SKY IS DARK AND CLOUDY MUCH OF THE YEAR. The city has become a haven for artists and eccentrics from around the country, magnetized by word of mouth, alternative culture and the popular spoof comedy series Portlandia. Five years ago, an unassuming corner bar opened on Grand Avenue in the industrial southeast, taking its name from weird horror’s greatest author of short fiction: H.P. Lovecraft. The Lovecraft Bar has since become a favourite local haunt and tourist destination for denizens of the dark side. “It’s funny I opened it up in Portland,” says creator Jon Horrid (pictured) of locating in the City of Roses, “because [H.P. Lovecraft] is from Providence and the architecture is so completely different – and everyone here is so fucking chipper…

THIS PAST JULY AT THE SAN DIEGO COMIC CON, LIONSGATE DROPPED A BOMB when the trailer it premiered for what was supposed to be a film called The Woods was actually Blair Witch, a sequel to The Blair Witch Project. Seventeen years ago the original film, by Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick, masterfully manipulated audiences into thinking that its “found footage” of three student filmmakers getting lost in the woods and disappearing while investigating a horrifying urban legend was authentic. Lionsgate’s bait and switch was thrilling in an era where it’s nearly impossible to keep a secret about anything. Not only did the trailer for Blair Witch – about the brother of lost filmmaker Heather Donahue, and his companions, heading back into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland to investigate…

Jaws is fucking awesome. The sequels aren’t, but they make for a pretty compelling case study in diminishing cinematic returns. In Jaws 2 we have a film as tacky and charmless as one would expect any Hollywood boardroom product to be, and it packs none of the unintentional giggles and groans of its successor, the inept Jaws 3-D. But of the bunch, only Jaws: The Revenge (out now on Blu-ray from Universal, along with the other sequels) can plumb the heady depths of such spectacularly shitty nature-run-amok anti-classics as The Swarm and Orca. Dateline, Amity Island, night-before-the-night-before-Christmas, 1987: after some good-natured brotherly ball-busting over the phone with his older sibling Mike (Lance Guest), Deputy Sean Brody (Mitchell Anderson) – son of Police Chief Martin Brody, who’s now very conveniently dead…

DEATH BY UMBRELLA! THE 100 WEIRDEST HORROR MOVIE WEAPONS Christopher Lombardo and Jeff Kirschner BearManor Media There’s something about the horror genre that just begs to be itemized, sorted and listed. Perhaps it’s because many hardcore fans, such as Death by Umbrella! authors Christopher Lombardo and Jeff Kirschner, have a knack for retaining a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the movies they love, as well as a compulsion to organize that knowledge into a handy-dandy reference book. But what separates Death by Umbrella! from your run-of-the-mill glossary is the amount of heart and appreciation within in its pages. Following the book’s foreword by Troma’s iconoclast founder Lloyd Kaufman are a series of detailed descriptions of unforgettable moments in horror movies, articulated with as much sincerity and affection as if the authors were…

KUDOS TO Dave Alexander’s Note From Underground in RM#169 bashing homophobia. I knew you were my fave magazine and will always be! SEAN O’NEILL, VIA FACEBOOK MY COPY OF RM#169 came today and my book, Scored to Death, is in it! Thank you Aaron Von Lupton for helping to spread the word! @SCOREDTODEATH, VIA TWITTER LATELY, SOME of Dave’s reviews have had me cracking up: “throw the fucking thing away!” in The Conjuring 2 review from RM#168, for example – ha! Also, I’ve never heard the term “ruin porn” before [Note From Underground, RM #168]. I suspect I’ll start noticing it now that I’m thinking about it. Maybe it’s similar to that feeling I get from the films Basket Case, Maniac, Street Trash, etc. In certain movies it almost doesn’t…

If you’re having trouble finding Bigfoot, then you’ll want to stop by the Expedition: Bigfoot Museum in Cherry Log, Georgia. The museum, which opened earlier this year, is the latest roadside attraction dedicated to the history and growing popularity of the legendary beast. Founded by David and Melinda Bakara, the establishment is a step above your average niche attraction, offering a 4000-square-foot facility full of artifacts, life-size displays, listening stations, sighting maps, and even a “Sasquatch Theater.” The museum combines the nostalgic feel of an old-time attraction with modern technology to deliver a fun and immersive experience suitable for the entire family. Standout items include alleged footprints, eerily detailed face busts, mini recreations of famous Bigfoot encounters and a section dedicated to The Legend of Boggy Creek. For more information,…

1 BIGFOOT/YETI/SASQUATCH PATCH TRINITY $7 each, or 3 for $18 Make your cryptozoo hunter status official by slapping one of these on your khakis. Choose from Bigfoot Patrol, Yeti Squad or Sasquatch Brigade (or get all three) – each measuring 3” by 2.75” wide with a protective plastic backing for extra durability. The world needs to know: you’re here to hunt monsters. 2 EREAL KILLER CEREAL BOWL $22 When you’re ready to murder a box of Corn Pops, reach for a Cereal Killer bowl. Featuring red blood splatters and black lettering, each bowl has a one-of-a-kind, hand-painted splatter pattern and is top-rack dishwasher safe. Sharpen yer spoon… 3 HORROR GREETING CARDS THREE-PACK BY SEAS AND PEAS $12 Roses are dead, violets are too… Send those dear to you lovably caustic…

SHIRLEY JACKSON’S 1959 MASTERPIECE THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE CASTS ONE OF THE MOST FORMIDABLE SHADOWS in all of horror literature; besides cementing its author’s reputation as the grande dame of American dark fiction and providing the source material for one of the greatest ghost movies ever produced (1963’s The Haunting), it all but invented our modern concept of the haunted house narrative. But Jackson’s body of published work, which includes six novels, four children’s books, two memoirs and dozens of short stories, is peppered with macabre standouts. Whether you’re a devoted fan or a Jackson neophyte, here are five volumes that should haunt your bookshelves. THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES (1949) Almost two decades before David Pinner wrote the novel that would eventually be adapted as The Wicker Man,…

The horrors endured by Polish Jews during and after World War II have been dramatized in numerous films, many of them directed by Poles themselves. Roman Polanski’s The Pianist (2002), Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness (2011) and, most recently, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida (2013) have all explored, to one extent or another, the fraught relationships between Catholic and Jewish Poles. These films are almost uniformly earnest, earn high praise from critics, and, in the case of the three movies mentioned, have been honoured with Oscar nominations and wins. Polish filmmaker Marcin Wrona takes a vastly different approach to similar subject matter with Demon (out September 9 from The Orchard). The late writer/director uses horror and the absurd to tell the story of Peter (Itay Tiran) – or Pyton, as his bros call…

PHANTOM LIMBS HOSTBUSTER Starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon Directed by Paul Feig Written by Katie Dippold and Paul Feig Columbia Remaking a worshipped ’80s film that has to please both an unforgiving generation of nostalgia junkies and a new generation of fans with micro attention spans is a dance through a minefield. So it’s no wonder Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters remake doesn’t arrive unscathed. Regular Feig collaborators Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig star as Abby Yates and Erin Gilbert, respectively. Once upon a time they co-wrote a book about the existence of ghosts, but now Erin, an academic trying for tenure, has disavowed it, while Abby has pushed it back into print as she continues her paranormal research alongside the happily weird Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon, who steals…

BLACK AND WHITE AND DREAD ALL OVER CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) Blu-ray Starring Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist and Sidney Berger Directed by Herk Harvey Written by John Clifford Criterion Back when you could count Criterion’s horror releases on one hand, the boutique label’s Carnival of Souls DVD proved that low-budget horror flicks could share shelf space with Bergman and Fellini. And while audiences are now more comfortable with the idea of highbrow horror than even a couple decades ago, the film’s long overdue Blu-ray upgrade helps cement Carnival of Souls’ enduring legacy as an indie shocker with rarely matched atmosphere. The only dramatic feature by Kansas-based industrial filmmaker Herk Harvey, Carnival of Souls follows Mary (Candace Hilligoss), a young church organist who barely escapes when her car swerves off a…

I’ve written a lot about how current indie comic creators are benefitting from self-publishing and digital distribution. Despite the many challenges facing the industry, there are now greater opportunities to get your work in front of an audience than ever before. That said, it’s not an easy feat to use those avenues to produce a long-running successful book, much less launch an entire publishing label. However, that’s exactly what Alterna Comics has done. Established in 2006 by creator/self-publisher Peter Simeti, Alterna was created to give talented writers and artists a vehicle to tell tales their way. Simeti never intended it to become a company; it was more a spur-of-the-moment branding decision he made for one of his own comics. However, he soon found himself inundated with submissions from writers and…

IN THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS: THE LIFE AND EXTRAORDINARY AFTERLIFE OF H.P. LOVECRAFT W. Scott Poole Soft Skull Press We know the narrative by heart. Howard Phillips Lovecraft wrote cosmic terror tales inspired by his vivid imagination, solitary walks and occasional nervous breakdowns. He struggled financially and received little credit in his lifetime, but he’s celebrated today through frequent reprints and the sale of Cthulhu bobbleheads. Sure, he was racist, but that was almost a century ago; a “product of his time,” poor defenseless Lovecraft was replaced by Octavia Butler earlier this year as face of the World Fantasy Awards, etc. W. Scott Poole’s In the Mountains of Madness: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of H.P. Lovecraft is a critical overview of Lovecraft’s work and why it endures. It also…

THIS MONTH: THE ART OF GHOST Many artists’ careers have been made by creating artwork for music. For example, UK’s Pushead shaped Metallica’s aesthetic for years and Derek Riggs’ record cover illustrations of Iron Maiden’s mascot Eddie have captivated listeners as much as the band’s music ever did. Thanks to painter Ed Repka, I can’t listen to Megadeth without imagining Vic Rattlehead’s shit-eating grin as he looms over a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and guitarist Adam Jones from Tool, along with artist Chet Zar, has created unforgettable animations, paintings and enough fucked-up imagery for that band to send a kid to the psych ward. Mastadon has also created a world with its brand and the talents of dark artists Paul Romano and the mystical Skinner, who carve out a psychedelic, Lovecraftian image.…

CASE NO.170 British fashion student Tina Gorjanc is working on a project in which she plans on harvesting late designer Alexander McQueen’s DNA from a lock of hair included with his 1992 collection in order to grow skin to make a leather jacket. Laurie Holden, who played Andrea on TV’s The Walking Dead, was signed to an eight-year contract with the show and was originally “supposed to end up with Rick” before the change in showrunners altered narrative plans. The Boston Children’s Hospital displays various objects outside of its Ears, Nose and Throat (ENT) department that kids have swallowed or stuck in facial orifices since 1918, including a chicken claw, a crucifix and a sardine tin key. The “baseball bat” scene in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining required 127 takes, earning…

Possession is an ancient concept, crossing cultures and religions. In movies such as The Exorcist and [REC], its victims are Christians or Catholics. But the dybbuk is a particularly Jewish concept of spiritual possession that has been explored in folklore, theatre, film and fiction. A Yiddish word, “dybbuk” stems from the Hebrew root meaning “adhere.” It describes the spirit of a deceased person which, due to improper burial, has been forced to wander until it finds a host upon which to cling. The dybbuk can be malevolent but, as often as not, is simply confused about its state of existence. Traditionally it is a male spirit inhabiting a female host. Its first occurrence in literature can be traced back to around 1680 in a text originating from the historical area…

THIS ISSUE: LANCE GETS RIGHT WITH GOD 666: NUMBER OF THE PRIEST FLESH FOR THE INFERNO MVD Visual I’m not religious – I don’t believe in God and I don’t believe in any kind of evil entity either… well, except maybe Donald Trump. But ever since watching The Exorcist as a kid, I’ve liked horror films that pit Christian good against satanic evil. In Flesh for the Inferno, some kids cleaning up an abandoned Catholic school awaken the malevolent spirits of three nuns who were walled-up in the basement by a priest who raped little boys. Director Richard Griffin (Disco Exorcist) makes this low-budget flick funny, creepy and bloody as Hell. And the final confrontation with Lucifer made me want to confess my many, many sins! BODY COUNT: 16…

With legions of monster kids and nostalgic adults tuning in to TV airings of Universal’s classic chillers in the late 1950s, poverty row producers were quick to exploit the craze with a handful of cash-strapped imitations. While films such as The Werewolf (1956), Pharaoh’s Curse (1957), The Return of Dracula (1958) and Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958) tempered their horror content to emphasize more popular sci-fi elements, The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959) closely followed the water logged footsteps of The Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954), even as it helped push onscreen bloodshed in exciting new directions. The film hasn’t been released since the VHS days, and Olive Films’ new Blu-ray promises a second chance to see this once-obscure creature feature in all its gory glory. Largely shot on location in…

FAIRY TALES ARE RIFE WITH HORROR IMAGERY. HUNGRY WOLVES, MURDERERS, CANNIBALS, MONSTERS AND WITCHES SCHEME TO GET THEIR CLAWS ON THE young protagonists. Michael Thomas Ford’s Lily fits this tradition perfectly – except it’s for adults. “When I was a kid, my family had a set of encyclopedias, The Book of Knowledge, and each volume had a section of myths and fairy tales,” Ford says. “I read those over and over and over. When I started reading books, I read every collection of fairy tales I could get my hands on. The initial appeal was reading about other worlds that, unlike mine, were filled with strangeness and magic and adventure. Once I realized that these stories were also ways to talk about things that we were afraid to talk about…

Lucio Fulci, the Italian Godfather of Gore (not to be confused with Herschell Gordon Lewis, the Godfather of Gore), made some 56 films in a career that spanned a little more than three decades. While Fulci enjoyed a good deal of success in Italy in the early ’70s, particularly with his top-drawer gialli Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971) and controversial masterpiece Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972), it was his first bona fide horror film Zombie (1979) that brought him to international prominence. Alas, Fulci’s golden period lasted but three short years. In that time, he produced seven films generally regarded as his best work; they include City of the Living Dead (1980), House by the Cemetery (1981) and The Beyond (1981). The filmmaker first stumbled with the anemic and…

Joel Grind is known in the metal world as the driving force behind iconic punk/thrash outfit Toxic Holocaust, but his creative muscle has led him to release a number of similarly grimy efforts over the years, including his solo album The Yellow-goat Sessions, and side projects Tiger Junkies and War Ripper. Lately, however, he's been exploring more unique dark avenues and sounds through outfits such as the ambient X-77, a split EP with surf-rock pioneer Davie Allan, and an '80s horror music soundtrack 7-inch called Fatal Planet (with a full-length album to follow). In anticipation of this new faux-soundtrack project, here's a rundown-of key Grind projects of interest to genre fans, complete with commentary-from the man himself. TOXIC HOLOCAUST Toxic Holocaust is a hardcore punk and metal mashup that sounds…

ZOMBIE NIGHT TERROR Windows, Mac NoClip Those who cut their gaming teeth back in the early ’90s will find themselves in familiar territory with Zombie Night Terror, a puzzle-platformer that sees players guiding a mindless horde of zombies through a variety of environments and obstacles. French indie developer NoClip trades on the nostalgia factor in more ways than one, however, and Zombie Night Terror combines retro, pixelated graphics with smooth, dynamic movement and sophisticated visual effects. In addition, the game showcases some serious genre love, with nods to zombie cinema and ’80s horror references aplenty. The main menu greets players with a darkened theatre front where they can select their fictional horror movie-themed level. A brief cinematic intro sets the stage (the characters babble in hilarious jibberish while English…