Table of contents for Issue 210 Jan/Feb 2023 in RUE MORGUE

Rue Morgue · Rue Morgue #210 Jan - Feb 2023 Check out our new Audio Digest section! Welcome to RUE MORGUE, the world’s premiere horror in culture and entertainment magazine since 1997. You are listening to the Audio Digest edition of RUE MORGUE issue number 210, for January/February 2023. In this issue, RUE MORGUE interviews Mexican filmmaker Michelle Garza Cervera, who shatters motherhood taboos like so many brittle bones in her terrifying debut feature, Huesera.  Also in this issue: The Black Guy Dies First, a new book from the minds behind Horror Noire, investigates the ways in which the genre’s past informs its present. Then we head over to our CineMacabre section for a spotlight on Perry Blackshear’s When I Consume You, a film that takes the standard horror revenge…

1 TIKI MUG OF THE LICH KING $76 CAD Toronto’s Storm Crow Manor is legendary for its bone-chilling cocktails, and you can bring the horror home with this ceramic Tiki Mug of the Lich King! Boasting a battery-powered light-up crystal orb and a steam chamber for dry ice to release “smoke” from its eyes, this eldritch necromancer is the perfect vessel for your spellbinding potions. Mysteriouspackage.com/collections/storm-crow 2 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE WRITING GLOVES $29 USD Writing stories about strange cases can be a chilly pastime. Warm your wrists in literary inspiration with these Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fingerless gloves, adorned in an excerpt from the classic horror tale. Handmade in soft cotton jersey with partial proceeds going to combat illiteracy worldwide, they’re fashion, function, and fear fuel in…

Rue Morgue · 002 Rue Morgue - #210 Huesera If the human uterus came with an owner’s manual, it would require an entire chapter on expectations – not on managing menstrual cramps and tips for breastfeeding, but the calcified cultural regulations that govern the use and perceived misuse of an organ with the potential to create life. Apart from the ongoing battle for legal reproductive autonomy that rages in the developed world to this day, many women are still expected to be nurturers in one way or another; and while biological motherhood might seem optional, the decision to reject that role comes with its own set of prohibitive consequences. What’s more, the entire subject is fraught with taboo and disdain, particularly in Mexican culture, and Michelle Garza Cervera’s fiery debut…

WHEN THE FIRST ISSUE OF WEIRD TALES APPEARED ON STANDS IN LATE FEBRUARY OF 1923 (DATED MARCH) it was truly, as its subtitle claimed, “The Unique Magazine.” Few other publications at the time would consider more than a hint of the supernatural. Detective stories thrived, as did westerns, adventure yarns, and science fiction, yet horror was the pulp magazines’ red-headed stepchild. Then J.C. Henneberger, the creator of Weird Tales, saw a niche and made it his own. It was not just “The Big Three” – H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert E. Howard – for whom Weird Tales was the major outlet: anyone writing weirdness who mattered, or was about to matter, was published there, from genre stalwarts such as Frank Belknap Long and Henry Kuttner through young Robert…

Rue Morgue · 003 Rue Morgue - #210 TheBlackGuyDiesFirst If you’re reading this, you’ve likely seen a few fright flicks and have had ample time to notice that certain tropes tend to endure, particularly regarding which characters are destined for survival and which ones wind up for the fire. The nature (and indeed, skin colour) of horror movie fodder isn’t hard to recognize, but if the Black guy always dies first, as per the long-running gag, why have Black horror fans specifically been so drawn to the genre? More than that, what are the histories and implications at work in these characterizations? Out February 7 from Saga Press, The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema From Fodder to Oscar from co-authors Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman, PhD and Mark…

A FURTHER DESCENT THE LAIR Starring Charlotte Kirk, Jonathan Howardand Jamie Bamber Directed by Neil Marshall Written by Charlotte Kirk and Neil Marshall RLJE/Shudder After the one-two punch of his earliest films Dog Soldiers and The Descent, it seemed that Neil Marshall was primed to join the pantheon of the modern “masters of horror.” In the decades since, however, a series of misfires culminating in 2019’s big-budget flop Hellboy have left fans wondering what the hell happened. Marshall returned to his low-budget roots for The Reckoning, his first onscreen collaboration with his offscreen partner, actress Charlotte Kirk. It wasn’t a success, but no matter – Marshall and Kirk have teamed up again for The Lair, a small-scale monster flick that seeks to recapture the creatures-vs-ragtag survivors format of his early…

Sometimes living in Canada means living with a certain level of envy. For example, every bibliophile knows books are expensive to ship internationally, so cool genre offerings like mystery book boxes often remain out of reach. Like me, Eerie River Publishing’s Michelle McLachlin discovered this first-hand. “I was looking for a gift for a friend and they had [a book box] on their list,” she says. “I have bought book boxes before but hated the idea of buying yet another big business book box from the States, paying extra shipping and duties, only to receive a mediocre young adult book and a bunch of worthless mass-produced junk. I looked around the Canadian market and was sad to see there weren’t many to choose from that offered dark fiction with gifts…

https://open.spotify.com/album/1rNzQmIHjZCVQEfdOxEItQ SOUNDTRACK THE MENU Colin Stetson MILAN Some meals deserve to be savoured, and for The Menu, The Arcade Fire’s Colin Stetson (Hereditary, Color out of Space) delivers another dish worthy of your appetite. Stetson’s approach here deviates from the low and sinister sonorities he brought to Ari Aster’s film, employing ornate strings and a choir to class things up, but with playful string melodies that meander into spacey dissonance – the opening cue “All Aboard” channels the film’s impending menace without devolving into musical clichés. In the early tracks, Stetson toys with ostinatos that emulate the protagonists’ arrival to a dinner party with eager appetites, while beautiful string arpeggios take on an impressionistic quality. But lurking in the mix are unusual effects, such as pans, Tibetan bowls, and glasses…

Rue Morgue · 001 Rue Morgue - #210 Intro Mexico is a magical place. For the horror fan who sees beauty in all things macabre, there’s truly no better locale to see that perspective in action: from the colourful and elaborately decorated cemeteries to the veneration of Santa Muerte and Dia de los Muertos, Mexican culture is clearly unafraid to embrace death as a part of life – and even as something to be celebrated. It should come as no surprise, then, that a horror scene thrives there unlike any other on Earth, and it’s high time the rest of the world took notice. Fortunately for me (for us all, really), the wealth of Mexican horror that has hitherto been limited to its borders is poised to break open like…

MIKE MENDEZ Satanic Hispanics’ Mike Mendez is no stranger to these pages, having helmed 2006’s The Gravedancers, a standout short on 2015’s Tales of Halloween, not to mention his 2013 breakout Big Ass Spider!. Mendez helms the wraparound segment that courses through Satanic Hispanics; it concerns an extensive interrogation of the sole survivor of a botched shootout, a man known cryptically as The Traveler (Efren Ramirez of Napoleon Dynamite). The segment deftly stitches together the different offerings that follow and manages to balance sinister and comic elements while building character and adding tension – no small feat! DEMIÁN RUGNA More seasoned viewers will instantly recognise Argentinian director Demián Rugna from his standout 2017 feature Aterrados (Terrified), which inspired none other than Guillermo del Toro to option an (as yet unmade)…

The Keeper Tananarive Due, Steve Barnes and Marco Finnegan Abrams ComicArts/Megascope Originally scripted for the screen by writer duo Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, The Keeper translates its world to the domain of the graphic novel with ease and dark gravity. Illustrated by storyboard artist and educator Marco Finnegan, it’s a tragic and terrifying story of loss, repair, and memory work. The Keeper centres around Aisha, a young Black girl who has lost her parents in a devastating car crash and must move to Detroit to live with her only family, an ailing grandmother who has lived in her now worn-down apartment for generations. When her grandmother passes, Aisha uses her dying breath to summon The Keeper, a dark spirit, to watch over her but soon learns that protection comes…

NOTHING TO SOLVE MYSTERY SPOT Terror Films Are ghosts real? Are there such things as Bigfoot and UFOs? And who stops at those crazy roadside attractions spread out across America? Are there really that many people who want to see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the Earth? I love mysteries! That’s why I was all about the mysterious happenings at the rundown motel in this movie, located next to an old, burned-out roadside attraction called The Mystery Spot. We follow the meanderings of some of its guests as they struggle with the bad decisions they made in their lives and the ghosts that haunt them both literally and figuratively. The resulting slow burn, however, never ignites, sputtering instead to an unfulfilling end, much like that…

Rue Morgue · 005 Rue Morgue - #210 Reissued&Reanimated The history of Korea’s kaiju cinema is a lot shorter than that of Japan’s, but it does have its highlights – from Bong Joon Ho’s modern classic The Host to Shin Sang-ok’s Pulgasari, which is more interesting for the story of its creation than the movie itself (look it up). But before those, and the ’70s TV staple Yongary, Monster From the Deep, there was Gwon Hyeok-jinn’s Space Monster Wangmagwi (1967), a truly bizarre black-and-white entry in the giant-monster canon. The basic premise is familiar: hostile aliens pave the way for their invasion of Earth by sending down Wangmagwi (“Big Devil”), a towering humanoid brute, to smash buildings and otherwise behave badly. The cheap-looking monster costume and destruction set pieces are…

Washed-up hitman Donny Dahlia hopes his latest assignment will help turn his luck around – or at the very least, provide the means to visit his estranged daughter. His assignment: transport a package across the country. Unfortunately, when you live in a world populated by faeries, werewolves and other mythical beasts, even the simplest of tasks can be fraught with unexpected dangers. The opening pages of Dahlia in the Dark set the tone for this strange new world nicely. Through a flashback, we witness one of Donny’s previous hits, a nondescript man named Mr. Cooper who suddenly turns into a werewolf and attacks before being taken down by a hail of the hitman’s bullets. Despite some supernatural denizens, however, writer Joe Corallo insists that Donny’s world is a familiar one.…

THE BLACK MAYBE Attila Veres Valancourt Books The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories (see RM#197) revealed the wealth of horror outside of the English-speaking world. Now some of those authors are getting their English-language debuts. Thus, for a Nordic take on Lovecraftian themes, you can check out Valancourt’s Swedish Cults. Or, if you fell in love with the Hungarian entry in World Horror – “The Time Remaining,” about an epidemic of plush toys’ deaths – you should not dillydally regarding Attila Veres’ The Black Maybe. The first two tales are pure masterpieces of contemporary horror. “To Bite a Dog” is a heartfelt relationship drama with a COVID pandemic background that offers a striking variation of the old newspaper maxim. Here: Woman Bites Dog! It’s a grim and frighteningly recognizable…

https://www.spacemonkeyx.net/series/foods/ FORGOTTEN FOODS: THE STUFF THEME: Faux documentary FORMAT: Investigation FREQUENCY: Limited Series Modern horror fans are notoriously enamoured with the 1980s, and this nostalgia often extends outside the boundaries of film. Pop culture historian Rob Lammle is one of those fans, and takes interest in the fads, foods, and ads of yesteryear. His new podcast Forgotten Foods explores the history behind our favourite discontinued snacks, candies, soft drinks, and fast food items, and the first installment of his series concerns the titular confection of Larry Cohen’s 1985 horror satire, The Stuff. Cohen’s film features some quarry workers who observe a white gooey substance bubbling out of the ground and decide to taste it, for some reason. The goo is delicious, and the substance is easily marketed across the nation…

CAN’T SAY THE HARBINGER was my favourite horror movie but I applaud your decision to, once again, showcase the less obvious choice. I can say the same thing for your decision to feature the original Terror Train rather than that godawful, forgettable, in-name-only remake. By the time I got to your spread on Unsettling Toys I was (once again) a very happy reader. Thanks for making every issue of Rue something new to discover. Rue Morgue forever! ALAN PHILLIPS, VIA EMAIL RE: RM#209 COVER STORY – So glad Yellowbrickroad is having its renaissance. Love it so much! @SLUMBERPARTYMASSACRE666, VIA INSTAGRAM I AM A PROUD NEW SUBSCRIBER. Years ago, I received two of your magazines in a horror box subscription. Said box has since gone out of business. However, I was…

National Screen Service, 1981 Slashing its way onto screens in February of 1981, George Mihalka’s Canuck cult classic, My Bloody Valentine, introduced audiences to the homicidal, pickaxe-wielding Harry Warden. Trapped deep underground during a mining explosion and forced to feed off the corpses of his fellow miners to stay alive, the vengeful miner kills those he deems responsible for the mishap and warns the town never to hold another Valentine’s Day celebration … or else! For decades, the only memorabilia available were original movie posters, stills, and lobby cards. In North America, My Bloody Valentine received a standard set of eight lobby cards from the US-based National Screen Service (NSS), measuring 11 x 14 inches each. Printed on heavy cardstock, the cards depict various (though no gory) scenes and promotional…

THE CELEBRATION OF ALL THINGS MACABRE, OCCULT, AND HORRIFYING WITH A MEXICAN FLAVOUR IS ABOUT TO BEGIN! WHAT MAKES HORROR from Mexico so special is the narrative intertwining with our cultural heritage as a country built from mysticism and violence, and those are vital components of the genre in all of its manifestations through art. Cinema is not an exception, and has been represented very creatively by Mexican filmmakers with wild concepts that often transcend the films themselves by becoming iconography that stands the test of time and continues to blow our minds as years go by. The first things that come to mind about Mexican horror films are curses, witches, gothic scenery with creepy houses, caves, haciendas and cathedrals, weird (but mostly lovable) monsters, ghosts and apparitions, the undead,…

IN EARLY 2023, CENTIPEDE PRESS, FAMOUS FOR ITS LUXURY SPECIAL EDITIONS OF HORROR CLASSICS, IS releasing a monumental 700-page anthology The Best of Weird Tales, vol. 1. It is edited by Darrell Schweitzer, writer, editor, and critic who co-edited Weird Tales’ new incarnation (1988-2007), which earned him and his editorial colleagues the 1992 World Fantasy Award. Centipede will publish three volumes in total, devoted to 1920s, 1930s, and one for the 1940s and 1950s. Schweitzer is also collaborating with John Betancourt, another ex-WT editor and effectively the founder of the revived Weird Tales, on a series of anthologies by the year: The Best of Weird Tales: 1924 is now in progress at Wildside Press. In his selection of stories, Schweitzer is aiming to strike a balance between the historically essential…

BEST FEATURE FILM THE INNOCENTS Eskil Vogt IFC Midnight BEST FIRST FEATURE WATCHER Chloe Okuno IFC Films BEST TV INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Rolin Jones AMC Networks MOST BINGEWORTHY STRANGER THINGS S4 Matt and Ross Duffer Netflix BEST TV SPECIAL WEREWOLF BY NIGHT Michael Giacchino Disney+ BEST INDIE FEATURE HELLBENDER John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser Shudder GORIEST FILM TERRIFIER 2 Damien Leone Bloody Disgusting STANDOUT PERFORMANCE – FILM MIA GOTH Pearl A24 STANDOUT PERFORMANCE – TV JENNIFER TILLY Chucky S2 NBC Universal BEST HORROR SHORT SHIFTER Matthew Marder MOST ORIGINAL CONCEPT CRIMES OF THE FUTURE David Cronenberg Neon MOST LIKELY TO START A LONG-RUNNING FRANCHISE SMILE Paramount Pictures BEST DOCUMENTARY QUEER FOR FEAR: THE HISTORY OF QUEER HORROR Shudder BEST ANTHOLOGY FILM/TV CABINET OF CURIOSITIES Ana Lily Amirpour,…

ISOLATED 5:34 mins/YouTube via the Alter channel This CGI-based short from Thomas Vergara plays out almost like the introduction to a great zombie-centric video game. When a cab driver wakes up having survived a gnarly wreck in the middle of a big city, he sees his problems quickly go from bad to worse as swarms of the undead start to feast on other drivers. As he desperately tries to find a safe haven, the film cuts back to the moments before the crash, as he’s carjacked at gunpoint by what looks to be a scientist coming down with a pretty bad illness. As the driver recounts those moments, including a rather sudden bite from the sick doctor, he realizes there’s a reason why the hordes of zombies are leaving him…

There’s no disputing that The Night Stalker – both the iconic 1972 made-for-TV classic and the so-so-at-best series that followed it – eerily foretold The X-Files and, to a lesser degree, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But there are some interesting small-screen also-rans from that decade which, if decidedly less influential, are no less worth seeking out. It rates mention that most were actually pilots for proposed series that were never picked up; the what-might-have-been factor is both intriguing and maddening. Genuinely jarring and creepy, The Norliss Tapes (1973) has long since sprouted a significant cult following, which is hardly surprising given the names attached – directed by Dan Curtis, written by William F. Nolan and Fred Mustard Stewart, and starring Roy Thinnes and Angie Dickinson. There are fewer noteworthy names…

https://www.saturnaliagame.com SATURNALIA PS5, PS4, Xbox One/X/S, Nintendo Switch, PC Santa Ragione Saturnalia is the name of an ancient Roman festival honouring the god Saturn, which occurred near the winter solstice. Gift-giving, wreaths, and candles were all part of the celebration, along with myriad other elements that would eventually become absorbed and appropriated by the newer celebration of Christmas. Sharing its namesake with this pagan holiday is a mystery game that revolves around the festivities. Taking place in a small village on the island of Sardinia in the 1980s, players must utilize and combine the talents of four characters to solve a string of mysterious deaths and disturbances that have occurred during the holiday and evade detection while trying to escape the island.” Saturnalia’s user-friendly design gives players access to a…