Table of contents for Issue 211 Mar/Apr 2023 in RUE MORGUE

Horror movies get a bad rap for sensationalizing tragic true-life events for the sake of entertainment. While this is sometimes true, there are also times when horror reminds us about the human side of stories that have been emotionally diluted through media coverage; or indeed, moments when they might have the power to influence the legal system in prosecuting those crimes. Such was the case for Greg McLean’s Wolf Creek (2005), a film that pulls from several murders in the Australian outback. Fans of the film likely remember John Jarratt’s chilling performance as Mick Taylor, who abducts and brutally kills British tourists Liz (Cassandra Magrath) and Kristy (Kestie Morassi). The film is primarily based on two real-life incidents of backpackers being murdered in the outback, perpetrated by Ivan Milat and…

Arachnophobic, but seeking to add some spidery spookery to your life? Fear not – artisan Laura Morriseau has been collecting spiderwebs across the world since she was nine years old and showcases her preserved work on all manner of items for sale on her personal shop site, including jewellery, coasters, curtains, bedding, or even a custom tabletop if you’re so inclined. “I had a neighbour that taught me the art of collecting and preserving webs,” she says. “Collecting spiderwebs was just something I have always done because I knew how. I just collected them in drawer or a box under my bed.” Having honed her technique throughout her lifetime, Morriseau assures her customers that all webs are gathered in an environmentally conscious manner, and no eight-legged freaks were harmed in…

With a fully-loaded Blu-ray release, replete with special features and bonus material, Yellow Veil Pictures is poised to reintroduce Fabrice du Welz’s Calvaire to a new generation of fright fans with an appetite for the wild and weird. And while the remaster of the film is a welcome discovery in itself (recoloured and graded by du Welz and director of photography, Benoît Debie), it also serves as an amuse-bouche to his “Ardennes” trilogy, which starts with Calvaire and continues with Alleluia (2014) and Adoration (2019). In fact, the origin of Calvaire’s reissue is directly tied with the late release of Alleluia, far from his native Belgium. “A few years ago, when Alleluia hit Japan, the Japanese wanted to release Alleluia and Calvaire in the cinema,” says du Welz. “So they…

Rue Morgue · 003 Rue Morgue #211 Horror Films of the Soviet Union In 1967’s Russian folk horror classic Viy, a philosophy student named Khoma ends up facing off against a dead witch as she summons up a horde of nightmarish creatures. It’s a strange, haunting scene, as the supernatural assailants scurry up walls, leap from balconies, and charge through doorways in an effort to reach the terrified young man, protected from them by a magic circle as long as he doesn’t make eye contact with the grotesque title demon. Viy was the first official Soviet horror film, and it seemed that the genre was off to a good, monster-laden start. That now classic film, however, would prove more the exception than a new rule; Soviet horror movies remained scarce,…

One of the many reasons for the popularity of Harry Potter and the like is in the way they to tap into people’s desire to believe in magic. Very few of us would turn down the opportunity to study under a powerful wizard and learn the secrets of the occult. Tapping that same vein with a decidedly horror bent is David Hazan – just as his previous book, Nottingham, deconstructed the Robin Hood myth and exposed its inherent horror elements, his new title Monomyth does the same with the sorcery genre. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the inspiration came from Harry Potter – albeit in a roundabout way. “It really just happened to be a coalescence of all of my feelings regarding J.K. Rowling’s betrayal of an entire generation of fans,” says Hazan.…

THIS MONTH: THE DARK IMAGINARIUM OF LORE MARTELL A COLLECTIBLE Lore Martell’s work invites us into a world of surreal nightmares where the grotesque and beautiful are inextricably linked. Using a mixture of photography, practical effects, and digital photo manipulation, Martell’s art explores the furthest reaches of the beauty and pain of horror. Rue Morgue is proud to present a new exclusive piece created by Martell especially for the Fright Gallery, titled “Dead Alive” (opposite). NAME Lore Martell HOMETOWN HAUNT “I’m from an abandoned dark place called San Luis Potosí, México.” WEAPON OF CHOICE “During a live photoshoot, I use all kinds of wardrobe, fake blood, latex, and any ingredients that work, depending on what I want to work with to make a great potion. Then I make some dark…

Born in Houston in 1945, Neal found his love for the performing arts during high school and later attended the University of Texas. A few years after returning from the Vietnam War (where he was awarded a Bronze Star), he auditioned for the part in Tobe Hooper’s film. Neal based his performance on an eccentric relative and won the role. This kicked off decades of work in film, including parts in Future-Kill, Satan’s Playground, and Oliver Stone’s JFK. He is also a prolific voice artist, having worked on dozens of video game (including the upcoming TCM survival horror title from Gun Interactive) and anime projects. In 1993, he was inducted into the Hollywood Horror Hall of Fame. Neal is father to six children (plus two stepchildren) and still appears at…

(Bif Bang Pow!, 2009-2012) For decades, collectibles for The Twilight Zone were limited to a board game, a comic book line, a magazine series, and paperback books. It wasn’t until the 2000s that companies like Sideshow Toys, and later Bif Bang Pow! would manufacture themed dolls, action figures, and bobblehead statues. First hitting store shelves in 2009, the highly detailed bobbleheads stood 6 to 7 inches in height and employed a black-and-white paint scheme to replicate the look of the original television show. (Colour nodders were also produced as San Diego Comic Con exclusives). Packaged in window boxes featuring an image of creator Rod Serling, Bif Bang Pow! would release such characters as the robot-like beings from “The Invaders,” the Gremlin and airplane passenger from “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” the…

Universal’s Renfield explores the master-and-servant dynamic at the heart of Dracula in the form of a modern horror-comedy, with Nicholas Hoult as “the tortured aide” and Nicolas Cage as “history’s most narcissistic boss.” Though terms like “codependency” and “toxic relationship” are modern, the dysfunctional Dracula-Renfield relationship is rooted in Stoker’s 1897 novel. Some historians believe the personality of Count Dracula was drawn, in part, on British stage actor Sir Henry Irving, described by those who knew him as an intense narcissist. The Renfield to Irving’s Dracula, then, was Bram Stoker himself, who spent 27 years devotedly managing the actor’s business affairs. In response to a staged reading of Stoker’s Dracula at the Lyceum, Irving’s cold assessment to the man who had shown him so much devotion was, simply, “Dreadful.” That…

At a secluded rehab centre in the mountains, young Seren is coming to grips with her addiction problems. Whether the treatment will ultimately prove successful becomes a moot point when the patients wake up one morning to find themselves locked in and the entire staff gone. Before they can figure out what led to this situation, they’re attacked by a vicious creature, intent on massacring everyone in sight. The sudden and brutal assault that kicks off Night Walkers takes both the characters and readers by surprise; while the first half of the book casually introduces the players and the mystery, the immediacy of the gore and brutality is shocking and unexpected. Much of the impact is due to Joe Bocardo’s design of the monster, which combines recognizable features with just…

GRINDHOUSE CINEMA IS REVERED FOR FLIPPING AN ADROIT MIDDLE FINGER TO THE WHITE-BREAD, MAINSTREAM MEDIA OF THE ’70S AND ’80S. While the films were often of questionable artistic merit, their influence gave rise to a counterculture of misfits who consecrated 42nd Street in New York City as holy ground. From the pimp and the pusher to the crossdresser and Christian oppressed – “the Deuce” belonged to the fringe riders. Preston Fassel’s Beasts of 42nd Street (out March 17 from Cemetery Dance) is the award-winning author’s latest endeavour to preserve the spirit of the famed avenue. Greenlit after 2018’s Our Lady of the Inferno (Encyclopocalypse Publications), the book delves into a form of horror fiction the author feels is underserved. “After Our Lady was published and took off, my publisher gave…

AS ANYONE WHO HAS EVER KNOWN (OR BEEN) A TEENAGER IS PAINFULLY AWARE, teenagers make terrible decisions. One’s hormones are running high, one’s flair for the theatrical and dramatic runs higher, and the next thing you know, you’re a fifteen-year-old who randomly decides to get a perm. (Haha, teen me would never do such a thing though! Definitely not me.) Horror movie teenagers, as we know, make famously terrible decisions that frequently lead to their own adolescent demises. There they go, heading off for the weekend to a location they’ve been told to stay away from. They walk into darkness chasing after strange noises, they pull awful pranks on their most vulnerable mates, and they have sex in the darndest places. After all, nothing says “romance” to a horror movie…

Rue Morgue · 007 Rue Morgue #211 Angelo Badalamenti ON DECEMBER 11, 2022, MY THOUGHTS WERE TIED UP WITH MY SON’S FOURTH BIRTHDAY, SO I WASN’T IMMEDIATELY AWARE THAT ONE OF THE TRUE GREATS IN DARK FILM MUSIC HAD PASSED ON – Angelo Badalamenti. These days, horror fans of a certain age group are used to hearing news about their early heroes dying, but Badalamenti’s passing struck me as particularly significant. When I think of my own fascination with the genre, the way I tend to experience it through art and music, Badalamenti’s blend of beauty, tragedy, and menace has stayed with me and has come to represent my own musical tastes for much of my adult life. Admittedly, Badalamenti isn’t really a horror film composer (his score for A…

WHAT HORROR MOVIE HAD THE BEST MARKETING CAMPAIGN? ALIEN JOE O’BRIEN “[Alien’s] biggest selling points were too gruesome for its own trailers, much less television commercials, but an innovative ad campaign would make film (and advertising) history.” MAYBE IT’S MY GEN X BIAS SHOWING BUT SAY “HORROR MOVIE” AND “MARKETING” TO ME, AND ONE TITLE BURSTS FROM MY BRAIN like its namesake exploded from the chest of John Hurt: Alien. Though it’s become an enduring franchise, making Alien was a gamble: the R rating, a lead actress making her first film, a director making his second. The film’s biggest selling points were too gruesome for its own trailers, much less television commercials, but an innovative ad campaign from then-fledgling R/Greenberg Associates would make film (and advertising) history. Like the movie,…

WEIRD STATS & MORBID FACTS ISSUE # 211 Nomophobia is described as the fear of being without your mobile phone. The last words of convicted killer Thomas Grasso, executed in 1995, were: "I did not get my SpaghettiO's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this." Lynne Griffin’s stand-up comedy scene in 1983’s Curtains was performed live at a Yuk Yuk’s comedy bar in Toronto, Ontario. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the developers of the upcoming survival horror video game The Store is Closed were sent a cease and desist by IKEA, stating copyright infringement due to similarities in the game's “STYR” furniture chain. In northern Australia, a species of raptor birds is nicknamed “firehawks” due to their intentional spreading of wildfires in order to flush out potential…

"I WAS TRYING TO FIND A NEW WAY INTO A DRACULA STORY. DRACULA HAS BEEN DONE SO MANY TIMES, IN SO MANY EXCELLENT WAYS, and I was thinking about how to do it differently.” That’s Robert Kirkman, the man who launched a 21st-century zombie renaissance with his The Walking Dead comics, explaining the genesis of the new film Renfield, a novel take on Bram Stoker’s classic creation – two of them, actually. “I’d always loved the Renfield character,” Kirkman continues. “The familiar is a really cool part of Dracula and vampire lore, so I decided it would be fun to do a movie focusing on Renfield as the protagonist, with Dracula as a side character, an element in Renfield’s life. Dracula’s a pretty terrible boss to have, and that was…

Rue Morgue · 005 Rue Morgue #211 Family Dinner When a horror film is called Family Dinner, one can anticipate what will be on the menu. Yet the scenario served up by Austrian first-time feature writer/director Peter Hengl isn’t that simple. The movie, which hits Screambox and digital platforms from Cinedigm on March 28, is more about bizarre behaviour and a developing sense of dread than culinary gross-outs. It focuses on Simi (Nina Katlein), an overweight teen who takes a trip to the remote country home of her aunt Claudia (Pia Hierzegger), a nutritionist and best-selling author. Claudia is willing to help Simi diet, but her regimen proves to be especially harsh, and Simi is also treated with scorn by her cousin Filipp (Alexander Sladek). Only her uncle Stefan (Michael…

Haters Gonna Hate “WHILE IT’S LIKELY THAT LOVECRAFT SYMPATHIZED WITH THE NARROW-MINDED DUNWICH TOWNSFOLK, HALLER’S ADAPTATION MAKES IT CLEAR THAT THE STORY CAN BE INTERPRETED AS A CALL TO PROTECT OURSELVES FROM THOSE ANGRY INDIVIDUALS WHO PREACH INTOLERANCE.” At its best, social media can be an enriching place that connects us to our communities and opens our eyes to new experiences. But these days, the persistent negativity of online discourse seems to have almost completely drowned out the positive – even a carefully manicured feed can’t escape the reach of malicious accounts that sow discontent and anger to boost their profiles and bottom lines. The difficulties we have in drumming out these insidious influencers are neatly echoed in Daniel Haller’s 1970 film The Dunwich Horror, now out in a new…

LITERARY HAUNTINGS: A GAZETTEER OF LITERARY GHOST STORIES FROM BRITAIN AND IRELAND R.B. Russell, Rosalie Parker, and Mark Valentine, eds. Tartarus Press Here’s a novel concept: a guide to the British Isles (some touristy and some rather obscure locations) that also serves as a guide through the known and lesser-known horror stories and novels which took place there. Literary Hauntings is a perfect companion to the previously reviewed Occult Britain [RM#206], but whereas that one put greater stress on archaeological ruins, this one, as its title suggests, is entirely devoted to charting horror-relevant literary locations. The book contains 267 entries on its 310 pages. Each consists of the name of the place, its location and address (say, Kew Gardens, Richmond upon Thames, TW9 3AE), its accessibility (e.g. “Open to the…