Table of contents for Issue 213 Jul/Aug 2023 in RUE MORGUE

    Rue Morgue · 001 Rue Morgue #213 Intro   Okay, let’s address that blood-spattered elephant in the room right off the bat: Rodrigo’s new movie is the cover story of this issue. Yes, the same Rodrigo you’ve seen on the masthead as publisher, the same Rodrigo who started this very mag in his dorm room 26 years ago. But you know, to me, he’s also the Rodrigo who makes the best soft shell tofu tacos, the Rodrigo who never balks at my wildest ideas for the mag, and the Rodrigo who encouraged a clueless twentysomething to pursue a career in the incredibly niche world of horror journalism. If it strikes you as odd or inappropriate that we’re running coverage of his new movie, The Breach, on our cover,…

WICKED THINGS BY VON DESOLATE “Wicked things for wicked creatures”? Sounds right up our alley! An online boutique of handmade, one-of-a-kind spooky jewellery, Von Desolate is essentially Halloween made wearable. As described by sole artisan and proprietor Christina Doukas, “Von Desolate is dark and moody, spooky but very elegant, bewitching. I’d put skulls, spiders, coffins, snakes, bats, on everything – and usually do!” Indeed, a cursory perusal of her wares reveals a gallery of ghoulish gems and coffin-shaped cabochons, gripped by skeletal hands or bat-winged bezels. Her most popular items are dagger rings, worn like claws or finger armour, and her Kreepsakes (creepy keepsakes) that include a removable vial for wearers to carry something special with them: perhaps ashes or other genetic material. A one-woman operation from start to finish,…

Rue Morgue · 002 Rue Morgue #213 Slash Back in 2015, word got out that guitar icon Slash, of Guns N’ Roses fame (along with side projects with the likes of Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Michael Jackson, to name a few), had joined our own president, Rodrigo Gudiño, to make a horror western. Alas, while that project has yet to see the light of day, the duo stayed in contact behind the scenes, largely due to Slash’s love of the magazine you are currently holding in your hands. So it wasn’t entirely a surprise when word came down the pipe that Gudiño’s newest horror movie, The Breach, would include original music from the rock star, who also served as executive producer. “It was a really interesting project,” Slash tells Rue…

SUMMER’S CHILL TALK TO ME Starring Sophie Wilde, Joe Bird and Alexandra Jensen Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou Written by Bill Hinzman, Daley Pearson and Danny Philippou VVS Films Back in my day, a slumber party might include some Ouija board antics or perhaps a Craft-inspired round of “light as a feather, stiff as a board.” In Talk to Me, the dazzling feature debut from Australian brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, a new generation of teens do more than dabble in the occult when they come into possession of a mummified hand that has the power to not only reach into the other side, but invite the dead into our reality. Teen girl Mia (Sophie Wilde) is having a rough go of it, having recently lost her mother under…

Rue Morgue · 006 Rue Morgue #213 Mad Heidi Hitting like a blast of cold Alpine air perfumed with the funk of mountain goats and gooey raclette, or a bracing chop to the gut from a mystical halberd (that most Helvetian of polearms), co-directors Johannes Hartmann and Sandro Klopfstein’s Mad Heidi is the Swissest Swissploitation joint you’ll find on either side of The Rhine. Not that there’s much competition, mind you. “The depressing thing about Switzerland is that there’s no genre films [here],” says Hartmann. “[Everyone] does these boring social dramas, so we thought we should change that.” Burnt out on working as hired guns for commercials and music videos, the collaborators decided that their first true artistic endeavour should combine their love of exploitation movies with every cliché ever…

In horror stories, people tend to be frightened of hauntings, oftentimes tormented by them. Ai Jiang’s Linghun (out now from Dark Matter Ink, with two bonus short stories in the back) flips that trope on its head, daring to envision a wholly different situation: a world in which the grieving run towards haunted houses for a chance to spend more time with their lost loved ones. https://aijiang.ca/ In the story, the town of HOME, which contains the haunted dwellings, comprises some of the most sought-after real estate out there – so lucrative that people literally camp out on neighbourhood lawns for years, just to get an opportunity to buy in. If you’ve ever lost someone, the idea of procuring such a residence could be tempting. When letting go is so…

https://lightintheattic.net/releases/9576-the-alien-factor-1978-motion-picture-soundtrack THE ALIEN FACTOR SOUNDTRACK Kenneth Walker MYSTIC VAULT In the annals of genre cinema, Don Dohler’s The Alien Factor is far from a classic, but it does come with a droning, experimental synth-based soundtrack that is perhaps the most memorable aspect of the sci-fi/horror comedy. Composer Kenneth Walker’s score functions as an exercise by first year film students, but in a good way. He assembled this thing from a mail-order synth kit one note at a time, and his love for the craft shows. Listening to the music severed from the visuals gives the score room to breathe and pulse in unusual timbres and unexpected directions. Miami-based newcomer Mystic Vault has done the grubby little ’70s film proud with this slick release, complete with eye-popping cover art and green…

IN [RM#212], YOUR NOTE From Underground mentioned the unique challenges that come with making analog media in the digital age. This came after describing the odd looks thrown around for not only enjoying, but displaying any paraphernalia that skews toward the eerie or the odd. While I loved the whole issue, from Calvaire’s overdue spotlight to the assorted Renfields – fingers crossed for just as much love for the Last Voyage of the Demeter this summer – I admit that snippet from the intro sticks with me the most. Scary things are happening right now. The steady devouring of all physical media by a nightmare horde of virtual-only experiences paid for by subscriptions that can snatch away the very thing you bought when you stop feeding it an endless fee.…

LUMINATORS NEON MONSTERS MODEL KITS (Monogram Models, Inc., 1991-92) When iconic hobby company Aurora Plastics Corporation ceased operations in the late 1970s, many of the moulds for its classic model kits were acquired by competitor Monogram Models, Inc. Among these were moulds for Aurora’s beloved line of Universal Monsters figural kits from the 1960s, and Monogram re-released the models several times throughout the 1980s and ’90s. In 1991, Monogram tried something different by issuing five of the Universal characters – Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, and the Phantom of the Opera, along with King Kong – in a line dubbed the Luminators Neon Monsters. Cast in brightly coloured, see-through styrene plastic, the figures (which stood between eight to nine ¼ inches in height) would glow in…

Rue Morgue · 003 Rue Morgue #213 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Game A dusty gas station; a sun-scorched porch; a ghastly mobile of hanging human bones. Suddenly, a grinding, mechanical screech pierces the air and a chainsaw revs ominously in the distance. Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chain Saw Massacre brought horror fans into an environment so immersive, you could smell the stench of death. This August, Gun Interactive invites fans to become family with a brand-new asymmetrical nightmare based on a film that changed the game; The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, ‘A Mutliplayer Horror Game Based on True Events.’ “Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a very visual film,” affirms Ronnie Hobbs, Gun’s creative director. “At its time, it was doing camerawork and up-close shots and things that you typically saw overseas…

CHRISTMAS WITH THE VAMPIRES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoXzOYGq7ag RED SNOW 4Digital Media Seeing as climate change is setting the world on fire, I thought I’d cool things off this summer by offering up some reviews set in the deep winter! And what better place to start than Lake Tahoe, where a struggling vampire romance novelist comes across a wounded bat in her backyard one cold, December night, and nurses it back to health. That bat is actually a vampire, natch, on the run from a vampire hunter on the prowl to end his afterlife for good! With a setup like that, you’d guess that Red Snow is a dark comedy romp, and if you guessed it’s a good one, you’re right twice. Props go to this movie for sticking to practical effects over…

SWAMP THING ARISES UNCUT, AT LAST, ON 4K UHD In April 2002, a Dallas mother named Mary Dorflinger rented a copy of MGM’s DVD release of Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing from her local Blockbuster Video, figuring the PG-rated adventure/monster movie would be suitable for her nine-year-old son and his friend. Once the boys viewed it, however, she was shocked to discover that it contained nudity (including a topless bathing scene with star Adrienne Barbeau) not present in the U.S. theatrical or VHS editions of the film. Dorflinger complained to Blockbuster, and the chain soon pulled the disc from their shelves, followed by MGM removing it from distribution altogether. “I was working at MGM when that happened, if memory serves me correctly,” says Eric D. Wilkinson, now director of acquisitions at…

Co-written by filmmaker Russell Goldman and Jamie Lee Curtis (who will be directing and starring in the upcoming movie version from Comet Pictures/Blumhouse), Mother Nature is an eco-horror graphic novel based on the duo’s screenplay. In it, the town of Catch Creek, New Mexico, owes its survival to the Cobalt Corporation and its mysterious, experimental oil extraction projects. When young Nova Terrell witnesses her father’s death in a company accident, she spends what remains of her youth waging a war of sabotage and vandalism against the corporation. But Nova soon realizes that her personal tragedy pales in comparison to the long-dormant and vengeful forces about to be unleashed by Cobalt’s ‘Mother Nature’ project. Originally conceived when she was only nineteen, Curtis long wanted to explore the strained relationship between humanity…

BOYS IN THE VALLEY Philip Fracassi Tor Nightfire Opening with a shotgun blast of tragedy, the stage is quickly set as we’re introduced to Peter, our young protagonist, and his subsequent arrival at the St. Vincent's Orphanage for Boys. For most who end up at the orphanage, which is controlled by the heavy hand of Father Poole, the only hope is to age out and be sent to work in some nearby factory for the rest of their lives. But even that shred of hope is dashed when an injured man is brought to their doorstep in search of medical assistance after being shot during the ritual sacrifice of a young girl. Screaming in strange tongues and possessing strength that defies his injured state, the prisoner leaves an insidiously evil…

1 GEEKI TIKIS HORROR MINI MUGLETS $72.99 USD Just in time for tiki season, TOYNK has released a 4-pack of Geeki Tiki ceramic shot glasses, featuring the likenesses of Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Pennywise and Reagan. Stored in a collectible haunted house collector case, the muglets hold about two ounces each and are dishwasher and microwave safe – though we can’t say the same for your liver! Toynk.com 2 CHUCKY MINI BLUETOOTH SPEAKER $19.99 USD What Chucky lacks in height, he more than makes up for in evil – same goes for this Bitty Boomers Bluetooth speaker that delivers maximum sound in a tiny package! Standing at 2-inches in height and powered by voodoo, this mini speaker can play four hours of music on a single charge and also doubles…

Regular readers of Rue Morgue may know that, aside from overseeing all things RM, I also make horror movies. My latest, The Breach, was shot in 2020 during the dark days of the pandemic and is finally seeing wide release this July in North America, English-speaking Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Although I typically write my own scripts, for The Breach I collaborated with author Nick Cutter (The Troop, The Deep) who we’ve covered in these pages before. As with so many people before him, I discovered Nick (real name Craig Davidson) through the pages of Rue Morgue, and I was excited at the possibility of working together. The script that was handed to me on a late summer’s day back in 2020 was different than what ended up on…

Rue Morgue · 004 Rue Morgue #213 The Last Voyage of the Demeter Beware the fog and raging storm blowing across the Black Sea this August! This particular storm veils the passage of The Last Voyage of the Demeter as it sails from Transylvania into Whitby, England, with fifty boxes of dirt and one very famous undead passenger, hellbent on unleashing an insidious evil on the epicenter of the civilized world. They say dead men tell no tales, but when the titular ship runs abroad the beach of Tate Hill Sands with nobody on board but the corpse of its captain, his cold, dead hands tied to the wheel, a journal hidden in an empty whiskey bottle speaks volumes. Despite the grisly details of the captain’s log written under extreme…

ON THE SLAB: A LITTLE BIT OF SUNSHINE GRAVE SIGHT 7:27 mins/YouTube via Angus Swantee’s channel Within the context of a horror movie, it seems especially sacrilegious to rob a grave in broad daylight. But in Grave Sight, Tanya (Holly Stevens) and Preston (Craig Gunn) are making an afternoon of it, complete with folding chairs, sunglasses, and the kind of bickering you’d expect from a longtime couple on an outing. But they’re not just there for R&R, as Tanya is hellbent on finding the rare jewelry that rests with the witch they’re digging up. When they eventually hit paydirt, they also inadvertently conjure a hulking demon (Dale Bellefontaine) that wants to reclaim the ring along with their souls. Directors Walter Forsyth and Angus Swantee have taken the demonic summoning trope…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrL3z4FQOQU THE TIMEKEEPER THEME: Horror Fiction FORMAT: Audio Drama FREQUENCY: Limited Series Horror video games can be terrifying immersive experiences, but what if they could do real harm? The Timekeeper, a short run audio drama by Heart Starts Pounding productions, plays with this very idea; a game that won’t stop until the player beats it… or dies. When seventeen-year-old Charlie witnesses the mysterious death of his co-worker just hours after failing to beat a first-person horror game, he unwittingly becomes the next intended victim by signing on. Called 13 Keys, the game is governed by a menacing Timekeeper who “takes your days, takes your nights, and then he takes your life.” On a 24-hour timer, the play can’t be paused, or even handed off – the controls will only work…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7ZyGWtQrXU BUDDY SIMULATOR 1984 Xbox One/S/X, Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4/5 Not A Sailor Studios Older gamers who cut their teeth on the text-based DOS adventure games of the ’80s will find a lot to love in Buddy Simulator 1984, which lovingly combines the nostalgia of that era with a slash of modern AI. The game, which premiered in early access in 2020 and is now on full release on all consoles as well as PC, claims to simulate the experience of hanging out with a best buddy, only your bestie is an AI intelligence with a strong desire to please the player… and more than a few screws loose. Starting innocently enough with a few rounds of ASCII games, your “buddy” (yours to name) will soon create a more sophisticated…