Table of contents for Issue 88 April 2009 in RUE MORGUE

When a young couple in India eloped this past February due to familial disapproval, the bride’s relatives retaliated by beheading eight members of the groom’s family and tossing their bodies into a river. John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States, kept an alligator as a pet. According to 1001 Random Kinds of Factness, he was quoted as saying that he kept the reptile because he enjoyed “the spectacle of seeing guests fleeing from the room in terror.” Paraskavedekatriaphobia is defined as “a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th.” Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel) began his screenwriting career on the sitcom Roseanne. One of Henry the VII’s most valued possessions was the left leg of Saint George. The working title for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was…

1979 GRAVEST HITS The Cramps’ auspicious debut of instrumental rock, ’60s punk and psychedelia only hints at the signature psychobillly they later came to be known for. The liner notes, however, capture the vibe pretty nicely: “ …the sound of Southern culture falling apart in a blaze of shudders and hiccups.” It’s “Human Fly” and four revamped oldies – including a delirious take on the demented Trashmen tune “Surfin’ Bird” – cobbled into a five-track EP, which was produced by Big Star frontman Alex Chilton. TD 1980 SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US This debut LP features an intense minimalist approach with two guitars, no bass, caveman-style drumming and Lux Interior’s monotonous vocals drooling over horrorama lyrics. Songs the Lord Taught Us is an art/trashabilly seance set to the sick sound…

THE REIGNING OVERLORDS OF DEATH METAL. THEY ARE An unwavering dedication to musical brutality has earned them critical condemnation, political hue and cry, and legions of loyal fans across the globe who have made them one of the most successful bands in extreme metal. Their oft-imitated combination of blistering technique, unbridled aggression and gore-soaked imagery has eschewed all trends. With their eleventh slab of metal currently in stores and a slot on a major summer tour, Cannibal Corpse are coming… and they bring death! The band members came together in Buffalo, New York in 1988 with the intention of making the most brutal death metal possible. The original lineup included vocalist Chris Barnes, guitarists Bob Rusay and Jack Owen, bassist Alex Webster and drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz. Within a year they…

FANGS, FANGS AND MORE FANGS UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS Starring Rhona Mitra, Bill Nighy and Michael Sheen Directed by Patrick Tatopoulos Written by Danny McBride, Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain Sony After Underworld: Evolution (RM#54) earned more than $100 million worldwide, a third installment in the series was as inevitable as a full moon in any given calendar month. Presented as a prequel, this installment’s sole purpose is to flesh out the central conflict that the entire franchise revolves around – the bitter war between the vampires and the werewolves. Prequels can be pretty risky affairs though, as the audience generally knows the final outcome, but visual effects guru Patrick Tatopoulos (in his directorial debut) competently steers this in a different direction by presenting it as a tragedy told…

JOHN W. BOWEN FIVE (1951) Starring William Phipps, Susan Douglas Rubes snd James Anderson Written and directed by Arch Oboler Sony Fear over atomic war manifested itself in different ways throughout genre cinema in the 1950s. From Godzilla’s nuclear reawakening and the mutated ants of Them! to the radioactive supermen of Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster, these films dealt with anxiety about the emerging Cold War and new, powerful weapons that could put an end to civilization. Written and directed by former radio horror dramatist Arch Oboler, Five was a different beast altogether – a speculative cautionary tale that dispensed with the bug-eyed metaphoric monsters and explored post-apocalyptic themes directly. Produced on a low budget out of Oboler’s backyard (literally), Five is set on a devastated Earth where a…

CAT IN THE BRAIN (1990) Starring Lucio Fulci, David L. Thompson and Jeoffrey Kennedy Written and directed by Lucio Fulci Grindhouse I’ve been a slavering Fulci fanboy ever since a chance rental of The House by the Cemetery back in 1983. This was my introduction to Fulci and the greater joys of spaghetti splatter. In hindsight, it was something of a life-altering event, the first tentative steps down a path that led me to this place. Prior to this, I had never really considered the person beneath the “directed by” credit before, nor actively sought out other films by that person. It took more than decade of dogged legwork to see an appreciable body of Fulci’s work – video releases were spotty and hard to come by. But I persevered.…

AT THE BEGINNING OF ROMERO’S Day of the Dead, a woman awakens in a stark white room; she rises and slowly approaches the wall in front of her, which is barren save for a calendar. As she reaches for it, dozens of undead hands burst from the wall, jolting the audience before it’s all revealed to be a dream. It remains one of the most surreal, memorable and sublimely artistic sequences of the filmmaker’s career, and if it could somehow be translated into a pure audio format, it would probably sound a lot like fellow Pittsburgh natives Zombi. The band’s name is a dead (or perhaps undead) giveaway. Taking their moniker from the European cut of Romero’s epic zombie film Dawn of the Dead, the duo – comprised of Steve…

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AS YOU’VE no doubt heard, Mr. Lux Interior shuffled off this mortal coil last week on Feb. 4. I’m writing to ask if you can find it in your heart to pay tribute to the man, and perhaps to the legacy of The Cramps as a whole, in an upcoming issue. I realize deadlines are tight and that space is limited, but even if it meant waiting an issue or two it would be wonderful to see a mag of Rue Morgue’s calibre and expertise illuminate his lasting contribution to horror culture. ADAM BARRACLOUGH – ADDRESS WITHHELD Done and done. We hope you enjoy the tribute, Adam. – Ed. IN SPITE OF the unflattering review my band received, I still feel honoured to be included in the pages of Rue…

dreadcentral.com/news/30389/exclusivecoffin-joe-animated-short-undertakerhere (or Google “Coffin Joe Dread Central”) This surreal animated short, created by Claudio Ellovich (who also handled the animation segments for the new Coffin Joe film Embodiment of Evil), takes viewers deep inside the sinister undertaker’s psychedelic lair, as one man desperately attempts to find and free his kidnapped lover. Bleak, angular and evil! cinesploitation.com If you can’t live without horror and the sex-and-violence thrills of retro exploitation flicks, you need to bookmark this website immediately. Here you’ll find news and reviews, as well as loads of lurid mages – though be warned: many are not even remotely safe for work. skulladay.blogspot.com Skulls are to horror fans what big belt buckles are to cowboys, thus it shouldn’t come as any surprise that someone’s started a blog specifically for them.…

1 HELLRAISER LIMITED EDITION BOX SET $59.97 Explorers in the further regions of experience rejoice: the twenty-year anniversary releases of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II, plus the new Blu-ray edition of the original Hell raiser, are yours for the taking in one gorgeous Lament Configuration package. Pain and pleasure are indivisible at anchorbay.com. 2 DOCTOR TONGUE FIGURE $17.99 Need more decor for your fourteen mile tombstone? Tom Savini’s notorious zombie physician from Day of the Dead is captured in all his gory glory via this seven-inch figure, complete with lengthy and lecherous rubber tongue. Choke on ’em at amoktime.com. 3 UNIVERSAL MONSTERS BRACELET $49.00 CAD The clank of spectral chains is comforting on a stormy night while prowling the moors. This bracelet features a selection of Universal’s finest, as well…

IF THERE’S ONE THING THAT THE RESIDENT EVIL GAMES HAVE TAUGHT US, IT’S HOW FUN IT IS TO KILL ZOMBIES AND OTHER TWISTED MUTATIONS. IN THE THIRTEEN YEARS SINCE THE original title’s release, the Japanese franchise has erupted into a global phenomenon that has spawned nineteen terrifying video games, three live-action movies, an animated feature, a line of action figures, a series of novels, a monthly comic book and even an energy drink. “Capcom has been creating games with zombies for over fifteen years now,” says Chris Kramer, Senior Director of Communications and Community at Capcom. “But in the last five or six years we’ve seen a huge upswing in the appearance of zombies as protagonists in games, as well as in film, TV, comics and books. The key to…

"When someone dies a bad death, the spirit becomes confused. It becomes angry. It becomes ‘vinyan." AS THE ABOVE QUOTE FROM THE VINYAN TRAILER suggests, there are many angry spirits in Thailand. As viewers of Asian horror cinema can certainly attest, vengeful, restless, black magic-wielding ghosts haunt almost every Thai genre picture that wafts across to our shores. Curious, then, that none have addressed what must be the greatest source of vinyan in recent memory. On December 26, 2004 the world awoke to news of one of the deadliest natural disasters in history: a massive tsunami had washed away more than 225,000 people across South Asia, leaving countless others displaced, entire population centres destroyed. This harrowing event prompted Belgian filmmaker Fabrice du Welz (Calvaire) to go to Thailand and make…

Terror Has Eight Legs ICE SPIDERS Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Yes this is a giant bug/mad scientist/government cover-up/dumb teenagers get killed movie, but c’mon people – it’s called freakin’ Ice Spiders for Christ’s sake! I love this campy, tight little flick, which features giant spiders that escape from a top-secret government research facility and attack a group of kids at a nearby ski resort. It stars Vanessa Williams (Candyman) as a researcher and Patrick Muldoon (Starship Troopers) as a washed-up ski instructor who leads a team of scientists, soldiers and ski-bums on a mission to defeat the abhorrent arachnids before everybody becomes spider chow. The acting leaves much to be desired, and the CGI spiders run the gamut from utterly ridiculous to completely cool, but there’s a load of great…

A GRIM FREEWAY TALE “God never closes a door without opening a window.” So goes the namby-pamby old adage, and sometimes it actually proves true. Most of the time, however, God closes the door, bricks up the windows, sets the joint on fire and blithely fucks off into the ether. That’s the way things seem to be going for Little Red Ri… sorry, I mean trailer-trash teen Vanessa Lutz (Reese Witherspoon), the beleaguered but determined heroine of the ingeniously fractured fairy tale Freeway (1996). When her hooker mother and skeezy stepdaughter-molestin’ stepdad get hauled away to jail, Vanessa decides that taking it on the lam from LA to her grandma’s place in Stockton is a better bet than risking more abuse in yet another foster home. She apologetically swipes her…

HAUNTED HEART: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF STEPHEN KING Lisa Rogak Thomas Dunne Books Writing a biography about a living person is always risky; the fact that the subject is still breathing means the story is incomplete. And while few would disagree that Stephen King is the most notable horror writer of our time, the question must still be asked: what new insight can be gleaned from the well-documented life of the author, who has already penned two outstanding tomes about himself (Danse Macabre and On Writing)? Undeterred, Lisa Rogak (author of funeral-themed cookbook Death Warmed Over, RM#44) has peeled away King’s back story to expose its underbelly; the event, she argues, that defined the author, is his father Donald’s abandonment of his wife and sons in 1949. Therein lies…

DERDLY DANGEROUS DECENT DULL DRIVEL DEAD ON ARRIVAL SOUNDTRACK DEATHSTALKER II/CHOPPING MALL Chuck Cirino BSX The latest in BSX’s limited Chuck Cirino retrospectives pairs scores from two Jim Wynorski films that are deeply saturated in the synth-pop sound of the ’80s. Deathstalker II is the best (and shortest) of the couplet because it shows off Cirino’s tonguein-cheek yet beautifully orchestrated nods to Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti western scores. Besides the obligatory wailing in the funky title track, there’s some really witty use of woodwind emulations, and the strutting title theme is given several colourful variations. Chopping Mall is more rock-synth, and is filled with plenty of vintage shimmering metallic sounds and chiming keyboards. The dominance of percussion tends to subjugate any theme restatements, and the strong reliance on se-quencersmeans the score…

It has been called the world’s greatest collection of memorabilia from horror, science fiction and monster movies. And now, fans will get a chance to share in former Fa mous Monsters editor and writer Forrest J Ackerman’s most impressive treasures when his estate goes up for auction (on April 30 and May 1), as per Ackerman’s last will and testament. “You will really see the legacy of the greatest fan who ever lived,” says Joe Maddalena, President and CEO of auction house Profiles in History. A self-professed fan of Famous Monsters who knew Forry personally, Maddalena specializes in prestigious Hollywood memorabilia, among other collectibles. “We’ve been selling bits and pieces of Forry’s collection for years, which was really his sole source of income,” Maddalena notes. “After he passed away, his…

Creature feature aficionados will have a new way to celebrate this Halloween with MonsterSplash, a classic movie monster-themed boat cruise to Mexico. Spanning four nights aboard a Royal Caribbean Cruise Line ship, the premiere voyage is scheduled to begin in San Diego on October 29, and return to dock on November 2. The trip includes cocktail parties, monster movie marathons and documentary screenings, makeup application demonstrations and an elaborate masquerade on Halloween night. The idea was dreamed up by cruise booking agent Chris Costello, youngest daughter of late comedian Lou Costello. She teamed up with filmmaker Scott Essman, who has produced documentaries on pioneering makeup artists Jack Pierce, John Chambers and Dick Smith, and assisted Universal on various projects, including commentary for last year’s special edition DVD of The Mummy.…

YOUNGSTERS-AS-MONSTERS is nothing new; there’s a rich tradition of characterizing the young as a threat to our way of life. After all, they literally will be watching us die and taking our place, so there’s plenty of anxiety there to capitalize on. This disturbing intersection of children and murder is the subject of three new movies. Dimension Extreme’s Eden Lake is far and away the best of them, turning innocence into malignance so effectively it makes you want to run and hide. Directed by James Watkins, screenwriter behind the upcoming The Descent: Part 2, it starts out like any number of cookie-cutter survival movies. Jenny and Steve, a British couple, go away for a camping weekend, during which Steve plans to propose. They find an isolated, deserted quarry with a…

Anthologies are as much a staple of the horror genre as psycho killers and village mobs wielding pitchforks. The format has proven itself successful in prose, on the big and small screens, and of course on the comic book page. Often these tales of the macabre are linked by the presence of a ghoulish narrator, such as EC’s Crypt Keeper or Cain in DC’s House of Mystery. These characters help give an otherwise generic title its own spin and attract a fan base. The latest to join this notorious roll call is none other than horror icon Vincent Price, by way of Bluewater Productions’ Vincent Price Presents. In 2007, fledgling company Bluewater launched a series of comic sequels based on the works of Ray Harryhausen, among them Sinbad the Sailor.…

Located in one of Toronto’s busiest shopping districts, the Elgin & Winter Garden theatres’ glittering facades have ornamented Yonge St. for nearly a century – ample time to develop a ghostly atmosphere, and harbour a few dark secrets. The distinct double-decker theatre is the only extant example of its kind, with the Winter Garden perched atop the Elgin. Since it’s featured in every tourist brochure offered in the city, it’s easy to dismiss this place as merely the host of the latest Broadway-style production. But what makes the Elgin &Winter Garden a curious attraction is its supernatural reputation. Throughout the years, employees and patrons alike have reported experiencing strange phenomena, curiosity about which led to the booking of a private tour. Ontario Heritage Trust, its owner since 1981, offers weekly…

UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS Various Artists LAKESHORE RECORDS UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS Paul Haslinger LAKESHORE RECORDS Paul Haslinger returns to the Underworld franchise with a broad orchestral-electronic score that tries to give extra credence to the concocted back story for all the conflicts central to the first two films. It’s a solid mix of synthetic shrills, bassy strings and industrial percussion for the action scenes (“Per Aspera Ad Astra” is particularly punchy), and while Haslinger does balance this out with a few sombre cues and an occasional recap of his brief heroic theme, there’s just no edge to the score. Its sonic scope never rises above a familiar melange of orchestral hybrid writing that permeated many ’90s action soundtracks. It’s not a Hans Zimmer knock-off by any…

HIGHEST RATING IS THREE Another House of the Dead game?!? Wait, the good news is that this one actually kicks ass! It’s hard to believe that it was 1996 when the original HotD appeared, spawning three sequels and two abysmal movies. Overkill is a prequel to all of those; set in 1991, it takes place just before the shit hit the fan and the walking dead took over Earth. Fans of the series will be glad to know that hard-boiled, foul-mouthed detective Isaac Washington and the rookie special agent known only as “G” are once again teamed-up to battle the deadites, but this time they’ve also got a wise-cracking stripper named Lola Guns on their side. The game is divided into seven episodes, which are introduced through grainy cut-scenes, that…

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