Rue Morgue

Issue #33 May/June 2003 $6.95
by John Bikowski

Looking for a good horror or exploitation fix? Back in the day, your best bet was Fangoria. Not so anymore. One of the main reasons I’ve grown disenchanted with the whole Fangoria thing is that they stick to covering mainstream, popcorn-slurpin’ teeny-bopper cinema (which often blows). Seriously, any mag that sells words about Ghoulies Go to College should be recycled before reading. I’ve been waiting for a mag like Rue Morgue. I got ahold of the May/June 2003 edition, and yes, it’s a keeper. These 80 pages of glossy mayhem span DVD reviews of classic gore titles, reviews of books that I’d actually read, and interesting articles on independent film makers like Eli Roth and Takashi Miike. You have to admire a ‘zine that has the balls to include the following line in their review of the Bigfoot shocker, Night of the Demon: “including a biker who has his penis ripped off while relieving himself at the side of the road. Check out the close-up of the spurting stump!” Pure poetry, I must say.

More of my favorite pages include “The Films Behind the Fever” in which the director of Cabin Fever, Eli Roth, describes the films that influenced his gore-drenched road to independent cinema. He includes many of my faves, like Mother’s Day, Cannibal Holocaust, and Dawn of the Dead. Another plus is the piece called “The Sadistic Cinema of Takashi Miike.” If you get a chance to see this insane director’s stuff, do it. You’ll catch some of the craziest and sickest action ever committed to film. Throw in a bit on the origins of The Ring and reviews of DVDs like Zombie 4: After Death, Day of the Animals, and Fist of the North Star and you have a magazine you can read from cover to cover. To top things off, they even include some music reviews. It’s always good to see Necrophagia getting the good word. I used to trade crazy flicks with Killjoy and I imagine he’d love Rue Morgue.
(700 Queens St. East Toronto, Ontario M4M 1G9 Canada)