Rue Morgue (Issue 53: January 2006) Review Score: 9/10 | Date Posted: January 13th 2006 In: Media Reviews Rue Morgue Issue 53: January 2006 Review by Vince D’Amato | HNR Special Contributor This week I’m at home, sick in bed with some crazy flu that’s been going on for four days. I’d just started reading Stephen King’s new book The Colorado Kid when the guys at HNR call me up for this week’s reviews – which my wife had to go and pick up as I’m going nowhere right now. And lo and behold, the new copy of Rue Morgue hits my lap. I was actually surprised, since I obviously misunderstood something from the last issue and was not expecting another copy for a couple of months. For the first time since reviewing this magazine, I read the whole thing front to back right away (usually I read the articles during work breaks). I started with Jovanka Vuckovic’s first contribution to the "Note from the Underground" column as Rue Morgue’s new Editor-In-Chief, where she gives us her personal backstory on becoming involved with the magazine, first as a fan, and then as a contributing writer. Near the end of the article, she states “As for the future of the magazine, you need not worry, it’s in good hands”. I for one wasn’t worried, and I don’t think anyone having read her amusing anecdotes would have been, either. Turning the page, "Fantasia’s" Mitch Davis contributes an account of last November’s American Film Market to bring us a preview of what new in horror was signed to distribution for 2006 – this is the first time I’ve seen an article on the AFM in Rue Morgue (though I have NOT read every single published issue) – but I hope this will be an annual trend, if it isn’t already. Tom Murray spills the beans on more pointless Romero re-makes before we get into the main course this month, a huge retrospective on movie legend Roger Corman by Paul Corupe and Brad Abraham, which includes a very impressive interview in which they question Corman not only on his past works, but on his current remakes, his thoughts on schlock auteur Lloyd Kaufman and on the horror genre in general (both past and contemporary). Being a fairly big fan of Corman and his films, I’ve read two of his published biographies and have listened to at least two of his audio commentaries (which are included on MGM’s DVD releases of his Poe films), and I can say that this retrospective article is completely fresh and filled with new (and at times surprising) insight from the master film producer. Following this, Rue Morgue decides to switch gears a little and compile a few short back-to-back articles on children’s horror literature. While Monika S. Kuebler contributes the bulk of these articles, I was surprised to see that new Editor-In-Chief Jovanka Vuckovic had time to not only write one of the articles and a by-line mini-interview, but to interview author Clive Barker, too! While children’s horror is really something more suited to the likes of my younger sisters, all the articles were pretty entertaining – it was worth it just for “Bunnicula” – I had no idea! Also this month, Rue Morgue gives a two-page listing of all the horror conventions and horror film festivals thus far scheduled for the entire upcoming year (indie filmmakers with something new to show might want to take note), and a best of/worst of 2005 review. Rue Morgue publisher Rod Gudino contributes his review of Eli Roth’s Hostel in "Cinemacabre", which I felt was a pretty bang-on evaluation of Roth’s sophomore effort. I personally though Dave Alexander’s review of the unfortunately under-hyped Cookers could have been a little more comprehensive, but maybe it was just the fever getting to my brain at this point. He does give the film a much-deserved recommendation in the end. The "Reissues" section covers a lot of DVDs that were released a few months ago now, but for the apprehensive horror consumer, there’s lots of great info to be found here on films like Your Vice is a Locked Room and only I have the Key, two of Sean (Friday the 13th) Cunningham’s films, the Kolchak TV box set, and 1982’s Alone in the Dark (And as for myself, I’ll now be picking up my own copy of The Freakmaker, thank you very much). A new "Mad Musings of a Schizoid Cinefile" shows that writer Chris Alexander has more of a sense of humour about himself than I’ve given credit for in the past, while he not only looks at the cult film Horror of the Blood Monsters, but also conducts the first interview I’ve seen in this column with the film’s producer Sam Sherman – who has an ironically precise view of current exploitation films as revealed in his last interview answer… Chris Alexander also gives a favourable review to the Book of the Dead, which is a new book on zombie-horror cinema (not the zombie anthology released to paperback years ago by authors John Skipp and Creaig Spector) before Gary Pullin’s one-page review of The Complete History of Friday the 13th – which, upon reading, I wondered if this review was purposely timed to be published in the first month of the year with Friday the 13th. I’m sure there’s a conspiracy afoot somewhere… Okay, I’m getting delirious from the fever now, so I’ll quit the ramblings, but not before mentioning The Gore-Met’s column in which he serves up a double-helping of Plaga Zombie, the new Argentinean indie zombie gore-fest from Shriek Show. He’s got some good things to say, and I’m definitely ready to check out some of this craziness now. Till next time! PS: This was my favourite Rue Morgue cover so far. Okay, that’s it, I’m done.

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