Table of contents for Issue 171 October 2016 in RUE MORGUE

WOLF CREEK TV SERIES PREMIERES IN NORTH AMERICA THIS MONTH Outback serial killer Mick Taylor will stalk American cable when Pop TV premieres the new six-episode Wolf Creek TV series on October 14. Taylor, played by veteran Australian actor John Jarratt, was introduced in Greg McLean’s debut feature film Wolf Creek (2005). Its commercial and critical success led to Wolf Creek 2 (2013). The films were inspired by McLean’s love of horror movies, however, for the series, he took inspiration elsewhere. “I think each iteration has a different specific influence,” McLean says. “I think the first film was much more influenced by the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as Picnic at Hanging Rock, and certainly the first Mad Max in terms of the theatre of the urban landscape. The…

1 DECAPITATED DOLL HEADS UMBRELLA $45 The weirdos at the RawBoneStudio have come up with possibly the most unnerving way ever to stay dry: a Decapitated Doll Heads Umbrella! Along with wonderfully grotesque artwork, you’ll get a printed bag for your telescoping rain shield, which collapses down to 9” so you can easily store this uncanny fright! 2 SKULL SHOWER CURTAIN $39 Whether you’re a filthy pirate or just appreciate being surrounded by reminders of death, this Skull Shower curtain will help keep your bathroom clean’ n’ creepy. Measuring 72 by 72 inches, they’re 100% cotton, machine washable and a real b’arrrgain! 3 HALLOWEEN THROW PILLOWS $16 each If you love old-school plastic Halloween masks, but cringe at memories of their sharp plastic edges, snapping elastic bands and barely being…

“TO CREATE A GHOST STORY IS NOTHING,” SAYS LORD BYRON (GABRIEL BYRNE) IN GOTHIC. “A quickening of the heart, a brief half-image of terror… in the end, nothing. But to create a ghost…” he trails off, before turning to Mary and Percy Shelley: “Isn’t your theory that lightning can endow a lifeless being with life? Perhaps that same lightning, in our minds, can take lifeless thoughts…” – and out of those create a ghost, a creature to haunt centuries to come. In 1986 iconoclastic film director Ken Russell took it upon himself to portray the very act of creating a “ghost” at Villa Diodati, and his version of the events, precisely because they’re stylized and overblown, manages to be the most truthful. “Ken had a special fondness for horror movies,”…

IN THE LATE 1980S, A VIDEO-STORE OWNER IN THE SUBURBS OF MONTREAL HAD A DREAM: TO OPEN A SHOP THAT WOULD SPECIALIZE IN HORROR, fantasy and action fare. The market wouldn’t support it at the time, but over the next three decades, Pierre Corbeil, with the help of a devoted staff, would establish the Fantasia International Film Festival as a major force in showcasing, promoting and sponsoring genre films and filmmakers from across the world. The inspiration to present these movies on the big screen first struck after Corbeil and like-minded friends attended the Montreal Festival International Cinéma Fantastique, which ran in 1992 and 1994. “We loved it, but it only lasted two years,” Corbeil says, “so we thought that maybe we could organize a similar event.” Two years later,…

WHILE ONCE VERY POPULAR, THE NUMBER OF WAX MUSEUMS HAS DECLINED OVER THE YEARS – falling victim to dwindling visitor attendance, local real estate development and a proliferation of high-tech interactive exhibits and theme park haunted houses, where guests are startled by costumed employees and pyrotechnics. One attraction that’s bucking that trend is the Witch’s Dungeon Classic Movie Museum. The longest-running wax museum in the United States, the Bristol, Connecticut, attraction celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this month. The brainchild of a then-thirteen-year-old monster fan named Cortlandt Hull, the museum – which is open during the Halloween season and houses life-sized wax versions of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein Monster, Lon Chaney Sr.’s Phantom of the Opera and Lon Chaney Jr.’s Wolf Man – first opened in October 1966 in…

DEAD IN YOUR TRACKS TRAIN TO BUSAN Starring Yoo Gong, Dong-seok Ma and Woo-sik Choi Written and directed by Sang-ho Yeon Well Go USA The famous story goes that Alien was successfully pitched as “Jaws in space,” and it’s easy to imagine Train to Busan arrived on the strength of its conceit: “zombies on a train.” But at this point, when the undead have overtaken a plane (Flight of the Living Dead), become butlers (Fido) and even fallen in love (Warm Bodies), you need more than a gimmick to win over horror fans. This Korean film has enough action, thrills and original tweaks on the zombie formula that it not only perks up the sluggish subgenre, it survives its own lame melodrama. It all begins with a bad dad named…

IN DOG WE DISTRUST THE THING (1983) Blu-ray Starring Kurt Russell, Keith David and Wilford Brimley Directed by John Carpenter Written by Bill Lancaster Scream Factory Much has been written about the poor reception The Thing received upon its release; even more has been written about its ascent to the levels of horror classic. In addition to astounding performances and practical effects that have never become dated, another reason for its longevity is the movie’s uniquely interpretive nature: for different generations, the titular monster and the characters’ reactions to it can be read as commentary on AIDS, communism and even terrorist sleeper cells. For the new millennium, in an age of social justice and rapidly changing gender roles, The Thing offers yet another interpretation: a positive, non-hegemonic view of masculinity.…

I AM PROVIDENCE Nick Mamatas Night Shade Books As denizens of The Ninth Circle know well, there are bad books, there are good books, and then there are books that not only can you not put down, but that leave you scrambling - in the manner of a shaky-fingered stalk-and-slash victim - to find your phone so that you can look up everything else the writer has produced and get your hands on it as soon as possible. This was the case, for me, with I Am Providence, a murder mystery set in the world of Lovecraft fandom. Fan culture may be reasonably devoid of’ orrible murders in real life, but it is the perfect pressure cooker for a whodunnit, and Nick Mamatas deftly captures a world of petty jealousies,…

I have a thing for notorious books, which is why after hearing an author discuss Mendal Johnson’s 1974 novel Let’s Go Play at the Adams’ at a StokerCon 2016 panel, I knew I had to track it down. Out of print since the early’ 80s, that proved to be a quest, but the novel did not disappoint – though, it may have scarred. It’s been a long time since I’ve wanted to put a book down because it filled me with such an overwhelming sense of stomach-churning dread, and Johnson’s sole novel did just that. Like Jack Ketchum’s 1989 book The Girl Next Door, it is believed to be inspired by the Sylvia Marie Likens murder (in 1965, sixteen-year-old Likens was brutally tortured and killed by her guardian Gertrude Baniszewski,…

SOUNDTRACK BLOOD BLOCKADE BATTLEFRONT Taisei Iwasaki MILAN RECORDS It’s tough to get a feel for how this compilation fits the 2015 anime series Blood Blockade Battlefront. The main theme is a cyclical piece with strings and woodwinds that develops into a full orchestral battle theme, whereas “Footloose” is a specific evocation of a’ 70s orchestral jazz band that shifts to an amazing electrified funk variation. “Snap Out” is all keyboards, brass and flanging bass, while “Sidewinder” is late’ 70s jazz-funk with a disco backbeat. Hip-hop and light metal also figure into some of the tracks, and African and Australian elements permeate “Epi Femen Dife A,” but not a single cue conjures overt images of monsters and mayhem, making this a bit of a head-scratcher. A kinetic and contrarian approach to…

CAN’T WAIT for Rue Morgue’s Halloween issue. Always a highlight of the season. @HALLOWEENADDICT, VIA TWITTER NEW ISSUE of Rue Morgue is a Shirley Jackson special. Vinie is thrilled! @SMYTHSEWN, VIA TWITTER JUST WANTED TO stop by and thank you for the RM#169 Note from Underground discussing queer influences in horror. As a massive horror fan and a gay man it’s hard not to feel invisible at best and downright vilified at worst, so it’s good to know those at Rue Morgue have our backs. J P WENDEL, VIA FACEBOOK REMEMBER the old Swamp Thing movies, they were so mediocre. I bet now with our CGI technology, the Swamp Thing movies would be mind-blowing. Loved your Swamp Thing feature in RM#169! I never knew that The Heap was the first…

CASE NO. 171 Doctors in Amritsar, India, surgically removed more than 40 knives – which he had swallowed – from a patient’s stomach in August. The man is now under psychiatric supervision. Henry Rollins came close to landing the role of Negan on TV’s The Walking Dead. In a recent interview with Forbes, the actor/musician noted, “Charlie Adlard, who worked on the comic book, based that guy on me and so I was a shoo-in for an audition.” A seven-year-old girl was killed at a Moroccan zoo this summer when an elephant threw a rock over its enclosure, hitting the child in the head. Myra Davis, Janet Leigh’s stand-in for the shower scene in Psycho, was raped and murdered in her West Los Angeles home by her neighbour, handyman Kenneth…

THE '80s WERE A GOLDEN AGE FOR KIDS' HALLOWEEN PROGRAMMING, WITH GARFIELD'S HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE, the Tom & Jerry Halloween Special, The Worst Witch, themed-episodes of The Real Ghostbusters, Scooby Doo specials, and many more. But the greatest of them all might be Disney’s Mr. Boogedy, which wasn’t even intended as a Halloween special. Debuting on April 20, 1986 on Disney’s ABC network, it was part of the company’s Wonderful World of Color series, which was once hosted by Walt Disney himself. Written by Michael Janover (The Philadelphia Experiment) and directed by Oz Scott (whose lengthy TV credits include everything from The Jeffersons to the new Scream series), the 45-minute movie features Richard Masur (best known for playing Clark in The Thing) as Carleton Davis, a novelty salesman who moves his…

DYSFUNCTION JUNCTION CHERRY TREE LANE Image Entertainment Home invasions are on the rise and having to suffer through one must rank up there with being mugged or having to renew your driver’s license. British outing Cherry Tree Lane features a completely dysfunctional couple on the verge of divorce when their home is invaded by three hooligans who hold them hostage until their son gets home so they can collect on a drug debt. Though it’s a fairly dry affair, the threat of the thugs raping the wife and killing the lot of them looms large. The finale may leave you unfulfilled, but could there ever be a happy ending to surviving such a horrible experience? I’m guessing that a trip to Disney World is out of the question. BODY COUNT:…

I like horror, but I love monsters,” says writer/publisher Kevin Glover. “Watching the classic Universal and Hammer movie monsters on late-night TV was a treasured part of my youth. In some ways, I think they continue to resonate in much the same ways superheroes resonate today. For many monsters, their origins are not that different from that of a superhero, their stories just take a darker, more tragic path.” Glover’s love of classic creatures initially resulted in Fractured Scary Tales, an anthology that takes a tongue-in-cheek approach by throwing various creatures into classic Hollywood films. Titles such as “The African Queen Bee,” “Mutant on the Bounty” and “Valley of the Voodoo Dolls” speak for themselves. Now he’s evolved that idea with Monster Smash-Ups, a horror anthology that pays homage to…

THE GRAVEYARD APARTMENT Mariko Koike Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press One doesn’t expect to feel isolated or alone living in an apartment building. While you can close the doors and dwell in your own private world, there’s comfort in knowing your neighbours are right down the hall, just a knock away. However, in Mariko Koike’s 1993 novel The Graveyard Apartment (translated by Deborah Boliver Boehm), the expectations of communal living are turned on their head in the face of an oppressive, unknowing horror. The Kano family (husband Teppei, wife Misao and young daughter Tamao) have moved into the Central Plaza Mansion, an apartment complex that is spacious, convenient and, unfortunately, surrounded by a graveyard, temple and crematorium, making it little wonder that the family got a deal on the place. However,…

Insects, with their intriguing shapes and variety of gorgeous colours, are often collected and framed as art, but you’ve never seen them the way Tessa Farmer sees them. The British artist creates morbidly imaginative sculptures and animations using real bees, beetles and other bugs, reconfigured and combined with bones, quills and sometimes entire taxidermied squirrels, birds and foxes, which have also been artfully modified. It’s all part of the narratives she makes up in which these grotesquely whimsical things exist in a world where tiny skeletal “fairies” with insect wings are waging covert wars with various bizarre creatures. This dark imagination must run in the family; her great grandfather happens to be horror and science fiction author Arthur Machen, who penned the highly influential novella The Great God Pan (RM#131).…

STRANGER THINGS ARRIVED ON NETFLIX THIS SUMMER SEEMINGLY FROM OUT OF NOWHERE TO CAPTURE THE HEARTS OF’ 80S HORROR DEVOTEES EVERYWHERE. Best described as Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter teaming up to adapt a Stephen King novel, the eight-episode series – about a missing boy in a small town, and his friends, family and the local sheriff searching for him, who come up against a monstrous government conspiracy – oozes nostalgia for latex horror and coming-of-age films from the opening synth strains of the show’s title sequence. While the music sounds like it’s from the mind of Steve Moore/Zombi, the credits reveal relatively unknown names Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein. Both hail from Austin-based synth outfit Survive, which just released its sophomore album, RR7349, on Relapse Records. Thanks to Stranger…

GHOSTBUSTERS PS4, Xbox One Activision Depending on your worldview – and possibly your gender – 2016 has either been an incredible year to be a Ghostbusters fan or a sure sign that the apocalypse is nigh. With the first cinematic installment of the franchise in nearly 30 years finding its way to theatres this past summer, it only made sense that a new game would also hit consoles. Activision’s Ghostbusters is a four-player, overhead, co-op dungeon-crawling adventure that introduces four nameless new characters who answered the call after being inspired by the actions of Abby, Erin, Jillian and Patty (the game exists in the same world as the film). Though the characters of Abby and Erin are mentioned off the top in a nicely voiced and illustrated cut scene, not…

Nikola Tesla. Imagine how amazed he would be to know he came back to life with electricity. Just for the reaction, it would be worth it. JULIEN DESROSIERS Stephen King’s so he could keep writing as well as live out his own real-life horror story. JAKE BENEDICT Einstein! So he can work on his unfinished theories. Nobody will give him shit because he’ll break their necks! PINDA VIRGIL You could say Albert Einstein or Isaac Newton, but the brain of a long-dead person is all rotted away so that won’t work. We’re limited to those who are living now – use Donald Trump’s brain, he’s not using it. JEREMY PORTER A dog’s, so hopefully the creature would be friendly and loyal. I just hope it doesn’t try jumping on people.…

1. THE FLY (1986, original cut) TELEPOD PUKES UP A PILE OF BABOON-CAT 2. VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN REANIMATED MONKEY MONSTER RUNS AMOK 3. BLACK SHEEP GENETICALLY ENGINEERED WERE-SHEEP BITE BUSINESSMEN 4. THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE HEITER HITCHES UP HIS HOUNDS 5. THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU BEAST FOLK GO FULL FERAL ON FATHER 6. NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES PRIMATE HEART MUTATES YOUNG MAN TORTURED TAGLINE THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE (1959) “HER HONEYMOON TURNED INTO A NIGHTMARE OF HORRORS.” FINAL WORDS “NO TROUBLE AT ALL, SIR! YOU’RE PUTTING MY KIDS THROUGH COLLEGE.” THIS MONTH’S CAPTION CONTEST WINNER IS VINCE OZGA Drop by our Facebook page every month for a chance to have your Final Words!…

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT THE PARTICULAR CAST OF YOUTHFUL CHARACTERS-Lord Byron, Claire Clairmont, John Polidori, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley – who gathered that night in 1816 when both Frankenstein and the classic version of the vampire were born that makes them very cinematic. Their own lives were a mass of horrors full of complicated relations, unrequited affections, ex-wives, miscarriages, illegitimate children and all-around self-destructive traits. Most of the key players from that famous night – and some of their children, too – died soon afterwards: Polidori committed suicide five years later, Percy Shelley drowned in a sudden storm six years later and Byron succumbed to fever while fighting the Turks for Greek independence eight years later… with only Mary significantly surviving them, together with her timeless creation. It’s no…

Librivox.org Though it may not appear to be a horror fan’s paradise at first blush, Librivox is is a cornucopia of free genre literature. Created by Hugh McGuire in August of 2005, librivox.org is a non-commercial, non-profit, ad-free website that records and publishes works (both written and in audio form) that are no longer copyright protected, and therefore available in the public domain. If a story you love was created before 1923, or if its copyright has expired, chances are you can find it on Librivox and enjoy it for free. In The Horror Writers Association’s book On Writing Horror (2006), author Robert Weinberg states there are several titles one should be acquainted with in order to be a competent author – many of his recommendations can be found on…

YOU MIGHT THINK YOU KNOW BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, BUT THERE’S ANOTHER VERSION OF THE COUNT AND HE’S BEEN HIDING IN ICELAND SINCE 1900. When Dracula was released in 1897, it wasn’t an immediate success, despite favourable reviews; the novel didn’t really take off until cinema popularized the vampire for audiences, after Stoker had died poor in 1912. This might explain Makt Myrkranna (Powers of Darkness), a retitled Icelandic translation with a reworked plot, new characters, a different type of vampire antagonist and a distinctly Scandinavian flavour, which Stoker wrote a preface for and may have had a hand in crafting. It was the work of Valdimar Ásmundsson (1852-1902), a highly respected “man of letters” in Iceland. He was a self-taught go-getter who founded a popular magazine called Fjallkonan. It was…

THERE’S SO MUCH MORE TO HORROR THEN MOVIES. While many of us look forward to fall for Halloween-themed parties and décor, others, such as Kaci Hansen, a.k.a. The Homicidal Homemaker, choose to immerse themselves in horror fandom year-round. Dubbed “the Martha Stewart of the Macabre,” Hansen has carefully poured, measured and mixed her love of horror into a variety impressive projects, including a zombie crawl, a dance troupe, a cook-book and, most recently, a YouTube channel that racked up over 3k subscribers within its first year. Rue Morgue caught up with the gal who puts the “cleaver” in June Cleaver for an interview to sweeten your spooky season. Growing up, Hansen didn’t resonate with horror films right away but felt a strong affinity for horror’s TV families who lived their…

THE FOLLOW-UP TO ANY ACCLAIMED DIRECTORIAL DEBUT IS ALWAYS GREETED WITH A MIX OF ENTHUSIASM AND TREPIDATION, but in the case of Mark Pavia’s Fender Bender, there’s also an odd element of palpable relief. To understand why, go back to 1997, when audience cynicism about Stephen King adaptations was running high while interest in vampires was hitting an all-time low. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the hitherto unknown Pavia – handpicked by King and producer Richard Rubinstein – scored with The Night Flier, an unorthodox vampire caper fuelled by a fantastically strong performance from lead Miguel Ferrer as a sociopathic tabloid reporter on the trail of a blood-drinking “serial killer” who travels the country via his private twin-engine plane. As an HBO original, the feature lacked the promotional push of…

Everybody craves some alone time now and then to get away from the pressures of family, friends and co-workers. But for horror film protagonists, taking a break from the outside world can sometimes be a permanent proposition. One of a handful of post-apocalyptic thrillers released during the Cold War years, The Earth Dies Screaming (1964) focuses on a small band of survivors united in the wake of a devastating alien attack that has left them very much alone in the world. Though doomsday fears were a regular feature of atomic-age cinema, this and other “empty city” films were less concerned about how the world might end than how we might ultimately cope with it when it does. Now out on Blu-ray from Kino, The Earth Dies Screaming is a taut,…

NEW ENGLAND’S HISTORY IS STEEPED IN HORROR, THE SUPERNATURAL AND THE UNEXPLAINED. From the big cities of Boston and Providence to the small towns that dot the map in between, macabre stories abound throughout the centuries. There have been hundreds of reports, dating as far back as 1690, of a sea monster in Vermont’s Lake Champlain. In 1892, Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother were murdered with an axe in Fall River, Massachusetts. In 1961, Barney and Betty Hill were allegedly abducted by aliens in Exeter, New Hampshire. In the early 1960s, thirteen Boston-area women were murdered by Albert DeSalvo (a.k.a. The Boston Strangler). Numerous paranormal claims have been reported in the Bridgewater Triangle region of Massachusetts, including animal mutilations, Indian curses and appearances of giant pterodactyl-like birds called Thunderbirds. Then…

Montreal artist Rémy M. Larochelle’s sole feature film, 2003’s Mécanix, is an ambitious and unsung underground gem. Drawing inspiration from such outré animators as Jan Švankmajer, the Brothers Quay and Terry Gilliam, Larochelle melded claymation, stop-motion animation, animatronics, puppetry and traditional animation techniques with live action to craft an esoteric and grim fairy tale. Out now from Unearthed, it brings us a sepia-toned, post-industrial nightmare world ruled by strange creatures sifting through the intestines of the few remaining humans for “the embryo of the universe, giver of life.” The last freeborn man has half of the embryo inside him; he finds the missing half in a bizarre bird and hides it in his abdomen. Eventually the creatures find him and remove the two halves of the embryo, which comes to…

We’ve reviewed several horror-themed pop-punk albums from Eccentric Pop Records in these pages, covering bands such as Horror Section and Eaten Back To Life, and the reissues of classic Groovie Ghoulies’ albums. Now, starting this Halloween, the label is releasing a series of Twilight Zone-themed vinyl records, beginning with a split ten-inch between Horror Section and Dan Vapid And The Cheats. Punk fans will know Vapid from his stint in the legendary Screeching Weasel, as well as The River-dales. While Horror Section simply chose its favourite episodes to write about, Vapid followed the lead of the River-dales, whose songs were original stories inspired by the titles and general themes of cult horror movies. I asked Vapid and Teflon Dave of Horror Section to comment on the TZ episodes that inspired…

KENNETH STRICKFADEN USA - 1931 I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.” Mary Shelley’s words, now two centuries old, only hint at some of the technology required to reanimate a corpse. There’s more detail in her manuscript about the creature’s “watery eyes” and “straight black lips” than the apparatus that created it. Mention the name “Frankenstein” to your average Joe and you’re more likely to paint a visual of Boris Karloff with a pair of electrodes jutting from his neck and a vast laboratory of electrical equipment, courtesy of Universal Studios’ 1931 adaptation. It was James Whale’s film that gave us the iconic imagery of Frankenstein’s cavernous workshop full of Tesla coils,…