Table of contents for RM#188 in RUE MORGUE

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with superheroes. Growing up, I was obsessed with Batman from the Tim Burton movies, and there was certainly a period where I wanted to be Catwoman when I grew up (in an alternate reality, I stalk the streets of Toronto in black vinyl at night). Then there was the X-Men cartoon show that really grabbed my attention with its pantheon of mutants, each with unique superpowers, aligning themselves with either an academy of inclusive learning or a badass terrorist squad. It’s tough to say which camp I would have wound up in as a mutant and, to me, that was the best part. Spider-man’s uncle Ben is often credited for stating that great power comes with great responsibility, but Voltaire said it…

1 TRICK ‘R TREATING FOR CHILDREN USB CASSETTE $15 USD Travel back to the age of reel to reel, when a boom box of spooky sounds kept trick-or-treaters second guessing their approach. This newfangled “cassette” contains a fold-out USB port with everything you need to creepify any locale with sound, music, and spoken word spookiness! jcgreening.bandcamp.com 2 SKULL ICE BUCKET $29.50 USD Few will argue your party can get any cooler after you bust out this crystal glass ice holder in the shape of a human skull! Holds 54oz of ice or anything else you might need to keep your guests chilled. gentsupplyco.com 3 GHOSTBUSTERS MINI MASKS $20 USD Classic Ben Cooper-inspired Ghostbusters mini masks? We’re ready to believe you, Fright Rags! Arriving this summer, these Slimer and Stay Puft…

IN 2013, AUTHOR JOE HILL INTRODUCED US TO ONE OF 21ST-CENTURY HORROR’S MOST RESILIENT, TROUBLED AND COMPLEX HEROINES, VICTORIA “VIC” MCQUEEN, IN NOS4A2. By far his longest and most expansive novel to that point, it follows Vic from early youth to adulthood – an existence rife with common trauma ranging from a troubled home life, working-class struggles, and addiction, to supernatural events she can’t begin to comprehend, including encounters with a vampiric child abductor named Charlie Manx. Driving a vintage Rolls-Royce Wraith whose vanity plate gives the book its title, Manx is over a century old, and preys on the souls of the kids he snatches to rejuvenate himself. Vic and Manx have one thing in common: they are “strong creatives” with the ability to bend reality. In Vic’s case,…

WE’VE ALL SEEN HORROR MOVIES ABOUT BEINGS WITH SUPERPOWERS AND SUPERHERO MOVIES THAT ARE OCCASIONALLY SCARY. But co-writers Brian and Mark Gunn (brother and cousin of filmmaker James Gunn, respectively) are poised to marry the two with Brightburn, a genre hybrid where cape and mask meets blood and gore. Out May 24 from Sony, the movie’s storyline contains elements that are familiar enough to horror and comic book aficionados alike; a couple find an asteroid that has landed in their backyard miraculously holds a baby inside. They decide to raise the child as their own, but soon come to realize the boy harbours supernatural powers – ones he intends to wield against anyone who gets in his way. It’s a horrifying twist on one of the most cherished and timeless…

THIS ISSUE: LANCE HEADS TO PRISON SAVED BEHIND BARS WRATH OF THE CROWS MTI Home Video Sure, there are many innocent people who’ve had their lives ruined by wrongful conviction, but today’s prisons are mostly filled with the worst of the worst. And that’s exactly how the squalid, filthy prison in this movie is: baby killers, rapists and unrepentant murderers await their fate amongst the rats, shit and tedium of each other’s company. But when a sexy new prisoner arrives, the rest of her cellmates aren’t sure whether to worship her as their saviour or crucify her as a demon. Italian director Ivan Zuccon deftly crafts the first half of his film within the confines of the prison, but then takes sharp turn to the far right with a…

THE DEVIL’S IN THE EMAIL DEMONLOVER (2002) Blu-ray Starring Connie Nielsen, Chloë Sevigny and Charles Berling Written and directed by Olivier Assayas Arrow Academy Olivier Assayas’ chilly tech-noir piece makes its Blu-ray debut at a funny time: its occasional computer graphics are admittedly dated while its concerns – corporate psychopathy, desensitization, sexual violence, and the discomfiting influence of technology – have never been more relevant. The film busies itself with the chrome-and-glass world of industrial espionage and megabucks deals, where morals are traded and warring factions try to wrest control of the latest advances in tentacle porn. Enter Diane (Connie Nielsen: The Following), an impervious double-dealer and remorseless go-getter who chain-smokes her way to oblivion while making life miserable for assistant Elise (Chloë Sevigny: American Horror Story). The sleazy action…

Created in 1911 by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, the French masked villain Fantômas spawned countless books as well as film, radio, television and comic adaptations. With his penchant for clever disguises, master plans and sadistic murders, Fantômas’ influence can be felt across numerous genres including mysteries, action, adventure, superheroes and, of course, horror. Mostly dormant for the last few decades, writer Olivier Bocquet and artist Julie Rocheleau are determined to resurrect The Wrath of Fantômas in an ambitious new graphic novel. “Fantômas remains a major milestone in French popculture,” explains Bocquet. “The original serial novels made a huge impression on everybody back then. People were equally terrified and entertained by this evil figure. But, although the name Fantômas remains synonymous with ‘evil genius’ in modern conversation, there hasn’t been…

RESIDENT EVIL 2 PS4, Xbox One, PC Capcom When it was announced last year at E3 that a remake of one of the most beloved Resident Evil games was poised for release within a matter of months, horror game aficionados very appropriately lost their collective shit. Though some reserved their excitement, history has proven that Capcom is a developer capable of lovingly crafting a complete overhaul of a classic game on a level unsurpassed within the industry, strongly evidenced by their 2002 GameCube release of the first Resident Evil. Thankfully, Capcom manages to once more capture lightning in a bottle with what may be the finest game in the series yet. Choosing either Leon S. Kennedy or Claire Redfield, players will once again return to the notorious Raccoon City,…

A BOOK AS the cover story of Rue Morgue is good for scary books everywhere. Can’t help but feel this is a victory for the genre and what a lot of us are doing. And leave it to Rue Morgue, who has been consistently brilliant for a long, long time, to do it. JOSH MALERMAN, VIA FACEBOOK ANOTHER REASON I love Rue Morgue: a novel makes the cover over a high-profile film remake. @ANDREWKLAUS, VIA TWITTER HOT ISSUE! When the only complaint you have is that you hoped the Invasion of the Blood Farmers piece would be longer, you really don’t have much to gripe about. PJ AMES, VIA FACEBOOK WONDERING IF anyone in California has a bigger Rue Morgue collection than me? I still have to pick up the…

AFTER VIEWERS JOURNEY THROUGH THE MULTIPLE REALMS OF NOS4A2, they’ll be able to experience one of Joe Hill’s more confined scenarios via Netflix. The streaming service’s movie version of In the Tall Grass, based on the 2012 novella co-written by Hill and his father Stephen King, looks likely to premiere this fall, with Vincenzo Natali writing and directing a cast headed by Patrick Wilson (Insidious), Laysla De Oliveira and Harrison Gilbertson (who co-starred with NOS4A2’s Ashleigh Cummings in Hounds of Love). “I’m excited,” Hill says. “The casting is great, and they worked up terrific imagery for it. Vincenzo fell in love with the story, and wrote a wonderful script that captures everything that was good about it and then added to it, in a way where you’re like, ‘Oh, I…

DARK PHOENIX The grandmammy of naughty heroes, the Dark Phoenix saga injected the comic industry with a much-needed shot in the arm back in 1980 with the seduction, corruption, and transformation of Marvel girl-next-door Jean Grey. Artist John Byrne envisioned Jean being possessed by an evil entity akin to The Exorcist, which inspired her shocking physical change from wide-eyed innocent into a sinister, blank-eyed devastator who relished the torture and suffering of her fellow X-Men. KID MARVELMAN Years before he wrote Watchmen, Alan Moore began the deconstruction of the superhero genre with a dark relaunch of the classic Marvelman character (a.k.a. Miracleman in North America) in the pages of Warrior Magazine. The newly revived straight-shooter Marvelman is horrified to learn that his one-time apple-cheeked sidekick Kid Marvelman is now a…

WE’RE DIEHARD LOVERS OF HORROR MUSIC ON VINYL AROUND THESE PARTS. It’s a tradition many of us grew up with and saw dwindle over the years to the point where it became a lost art form. And though history has seen fit to revisit those bygone days thanks to a host of new companies getting into the game and releasing horror soundtracks on vinyl with collectible art-enhanced packages, we’re still nowhere close to where we once were. Which explains why I am personally very proud of our Music Editor Aaron (Von) Lupton and regular RM contributor Jeff Szpirglas for their work on Blood on Black Wax, a full-colour, 204-page hardbound tome featuring some of the very best art from classic horror movie soundtracks. The release, which comes under the Rue…

To say that Gabe Bartalos’ latest directorial effort – the deranged and unapologetically surreal Saint Bernard – isn’t for everyone is a bit of an understatement, and the filmmaker is the first to agree. In fact, he revels in it. “I went out of my way to make a film that I felt was a bit of an antidote to other cinema,” he tells Rue Morgue, “meaning that when you look at a poster, sometimes it feels like you know the entire film. I wanted to do something that kind of rewarded an audience that was scratching the surface, to give something that I, as a film fan, would be excited to see. The reaction’s been excellent.” Residing somewhere in the no-man’s-land between Terry Gilliam and David Lynch at their…

Revenge of (Yet) Another Nerd Here’s a great idea for a horror movie: a lonely teenage outcast turns the tables on his/her tormentors after he/she discovers that he/she is ________. or after he/she acquires a ________. or when he/she learns how to ________. Okay, so it’s kinda sorta been done – you’ve got your Evilspeak, your Ginger Snaps, your The Initiation of Sarah, your Fear No Evil, your Christine and your, er, something else by that guy who wrote Christine, I guess. But then you’ve got your Horror High (1973), a 16mm revenge-of-thenerd cheapie that’ll make you forget them all. Well, most of them. Kids, meet teen science whiz and high school whipping boy nonpareil Vernon Potts (Pat Cardi, ex-prime-time child star and future creator of MovieFone). Vernon may not…

IN 2013, NATHAN BALLINGRUD’S DEBUT COLLECTION NORTH AMERICAN LAKE MONSTERS, WON THE PRESTIGIOUS SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD for Best Single-Author Short Story Collection and was shortlisted for the Bram Stoker and World Fantasy Awards. Sadly, like most great writers, he’s not very prolific. It’s taken six years for his second collection, Wounds (out now from Gallery/Saga Press), to emerge but, judging by its contents, it’s been well worth the wait. The book solidifies Ballingrud’s position as one of the most consistently unpredictable, exciting and shiver-inducing writers in the field. Originally titled The Atlas of Hell, the collection now bears the subtitle “Six Stories from the Border of Hell,” and is united by the writer’s desire to explore different ground from his first book. “The primary element uniting these stories is that…

My son Cooper was born on December 11, 2018, which meant this past winter was spent watching streaming content until my mind went numb. But when I was tipped off about an upcoming Shudder series called Deadwax, I had a new reason to be excited about staring at a computer screen. Not only was this horror show based around vinyl collecting with a soundtrack that included some of my favourite synth artists (Pentagram Home Video and Wojciech Golczewski, namely), it was helmed by Graham Reznick, a sound designer/composer whose career has fascinated me since his work on movies House of the Devil and The Innkeepers, and, in a truly mind-blowing example, his episode “The Chambers Tape” from the audio drama series Tales From Beyond the Pale (highly recommended!). “Creating a…

CATERPILLAR D9 The most unlikely of mean machines comes in the form of a bulldozer that kills, in 1974’s aptly titled Killdozer! While the cool factor for a rumbling hunk of steel energized to run amok in a murderous rampage by an alien force is admittedly low, no construction worker was safe from its destructive power. Watch as this hulking menace takes out workers one by one, fuel capacity be damned! CHEVROLET CAB OVER ENGINE The image of a deadly jalopy was taken to new heights with the arrival of this unique vehicle in 2001’s Jeepers Creepers. Featuring an old rusted body with dusted-over windows, the appearance of this 1941 Chevrolet Cab Over Engine in said film only brought trepidation, even when seen in broad daylight. And this was before…

FILM + DVD + REISSUES DOUBLE THREAT US Starring Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke and Elisabeth Moss Written and directed by Jordan Peele Monkeypaw Productions Fair or not, it’s hard not to compare Us with Jordan Peele’s smash hit debut Get Out, particularly when the latter hit its mark on so many levels. Here’s the good news that should surprise nobody: Peele’s highly anticipated sophomore effort is both a love letter to horror fans and startlingly unique, with outstanding performances and a haunting, complex story that lingers long after the end credits have rolled. The Wilson family of four are on summer holiday near Santa Cruz but mom Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) is plagued with flashbacks from a terrible fright she endured at a boardwalk attraction as a child (Madison Curry). Shortly…

YOU MIGHT IMAGINE IT WOULDN'T BE EASY GROWING UP AS THE SON OF THE MAN WHO CREATED, if late film critic Roger Ebert is to be believed, the “worst movie ever made.” But Terry Zarchi, son of I Spit On Your Grave filmmaker Meir Zarchi and director of the new documentary Growing Up with I Spit On Your Grave, dispels that notion with some pride. “It wasn’t anything I was ashamed of,” he tells Rue Morgue. “It was more like my father made a very interesting movie that shows the brutality of what it is like to be raped. It’s ugly, it’s hard to watch, and there’s nothing pleasant about it. And growing up knowing that’s the kind of movie it is, there’s also a message behind the film that…

Unlocked Potential “IT’S WORTH REMEMBERING THAT ART CAN LIVE INDEPENDENTLY FROM ITS AUTHOR, AND CAN TAKE ON NEW MEANINGS THAT WEREN’T ORIGINALLY INTENDED.” Acommon complaint about the continued proliferation of reboots, remakes and reimaginings is that, with few exceptions, it’s only possible to create a pale copy of the original. When a film is being remade or an author’s literary work is adapted for the screen, we seem unable to escape from an ingrained cultural tendency to treat the original creator’s intentions as not only definitive, but somehow sacred. Though it’s understandable that the artists themselves are protective of their work, this kind of blind audience devotion can be a prison of sorts, boxing us into the idea that the only way to look at art is through its creator’s…

SKIDDING INTO OBLIVION Brian Hodge ChiZine Publications A new book by Brian Hodge is always a joyous event for every discriminating fan of horror literature. Last year brought his novel The Immaculate Void (RM#182) and now comes his seventh collection, packed with moody atmosphere, body horror, genuine frights and heartfelt emotion. Two ingenious, first-rate stories deserve to be singled out in an otherwise balanced, uniformly great selection. “Scars in Progress” deals with a group of underground searchers after non-human (but humanlike) entities are sighted in the ruins of abandoned factories, warehouses, sport stadiums and the like. The way it merges Ligottian love for (sub)urban decay, modernized demonology, and particle physics is nothing short of genius, and also contains hints of an approaching apocalypse – a motif found in most of…

CASTLEVANIA: RONDO OF BLOOD/CASTLEVANIA: DRACULA X SOUNDTRACK Konami Kukeiha Club MONDO Released on the PC Engine in Japan in 1993 (a.k.a. the TurboGrafx-16 in the US), Rondo of Blood is one of the most passed-over entries in the Castlevania series, though a more popular remake later appeared for the Super NES and PlayStation Portable in 2008 called Dracula X. Not surprisingly, the soundtracks for both games are quite similar, composed by the “Konami Kukeiha Club” (an umbrella name for the company’s credits) and characterized by upbeat electro-pop and swanky guitar solos, like an anime-tinged version of the iconic early NES titles’ music. Though both scores share many of the same tracks, the sound between the two is distinct due to the differing sound chips used in their respective game systems.…

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HISTORY IS RIFE WITH REFERENCES TO SATAN; from Robert Johnson selling his soul at the crossroads and Seattle’s legendary proto-punkers The Sonics jeering that “he’s waiting” to countless heavy metal acts pledging their allegiance to the Dark One. Husband-and-wife duo Twin Temple are yet another act to pick up the demonic mantle but buck the demonic trend with what they call “Satanic doo-wop,” matching finger-snapping catchiness with politically charged conviction as they pen sultry odes to free will, unbridled sexuality and raw, unfiltered individualism. It’s a dark, curious, and thoroughly enthralling mixture: cheerful vintage classic rock (think The Ronettes, The Shangri-Las, Buddy Holly) wedded to the outré theatrics of LaVeyian Satanism (blood, candles, skulls, acres of black lace) with a positive social message. It’s this distillation that…