We here are Rue Morgue are big fans of Fred Dekker’s Night of the Creeps. We even brought Mr. Dekker up a couple years ago to one of our Cinemacabre screeings here in Toronto to screen the film. It has almost everything you could want in a horror movie: weird aliens, slug creatures, zombies, babes, splatstick gore, and Tom Atkins. If you’re not a fan of the movie it probably means you haven’t seen it yet! This is most likely due to fact that Night of the Creeps has been tragically absent from the DVD shelves, until now that is. Much like Fred Dekker’s other 80s classic The Monster Squad (a personal favourite), Night of the Creeps is finally getting a proper DVD release this October. Plus with all the amazing features that Michael Felsher is puttting together for the dvd, what could possibly go wrong?

A lot, apparently.

This afternoon I discovered that amazon.com is hosting a vote to choose the cover to the NotC DVD, and boy do they ever suck space slugs. Check them out for yourself:

Seriously?! These are our choices!? How about option d: None of the Above.

No wait, how about option e: ORIGINAL POSTER ARTWORK:

I don’t understand why they wouldn’t be falling over themselves to use the original theatrical artwork for the DVD cover, instead of wasting time designing three totally forgettable and ineffective covers.

This raises a growing problem in horror: shitty dvd covers. There have been several hard-to-find or never-before-released movies in recent memory with covers that look completely phoned in, or designed by someone with no clue what they’re doing. The From Beyond DVD cover comes to mind

In the words of Dave Alexander, “Laaaaame!”

It’s been a long time since I’ve mentioned Fallow, the horror short that I wrote, co-directed and edited, but our team (co-director Colin Landry, producer Brenton Bentz, who’s also Monica’s husband, and cinematographer Jason Pichonsky, who did the animated sequences of Demonology of Desire) has been working away, and now the film is set to make its world premiere at the FanTasia film festival next month.

It’ll be playing on Tuesday, July 21st, at 5pm, and we’re very excited to be attending the premiere. As of Friday, the complete FanTasia schedule will be up at the festival’s website, so you can get more details then. The official Fallow website is nearly ready, so that will be fully functional soon at fallowfilm.com (currently there’s a link to both the regular and HD version of the trailer), you can see an ad for film in the new issue of Rue Morgue, which was designed by Justin (he also did the amazing poster), and below is the trailer for the movie.

Now click below and enjoy some harm on the farm…

David Pajo, ex Slint guitaritst and one time band member of Billy Corgan’s short-lived Zwan, has recently released a Misfit’s cover album titled “Scream With Me”. Many remember Slint as a sludgy rock band from Louisville, Kentucky who are mostly known for appearing on the soundtrack for Larry Clark’s Kids.

Pajo reconstructs classic horror anthems such as “Hybrid Moments”, “Angel Fuck” and “I Turned Into A Martian” into softly sweet, lo-fi lullabies that would make Simon and Garfunkel weep. Other bands have “folked” with Misfit’s tunes before, The Lemonhead’s “Skulls” comes to mind. But I for one think Pajo’s cover of “Where Eagles Dare” completely kicks ass, even though it’s performed with just an acoustic guitar, played at the speed of a glacier. Watch the video and buy the album (only available in a limited edition of 1000 on vinyl) here!

Robert Mitchell, who often records our CineMacabre movie nights Q&As, sent in his footage from the My Bloody Valentine screening. It’s in three parts, and because he incorporated movie footage into the first part, Paramount is “claiming ownership” and YouTube won’t allow the video to be embedded. So, I’ll link to the portions instead.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Paramount, you suck, but Robert rules (along with his lovely wife girlfriend who contributed, as well) — thanks for the great work! Visit his site, You Bring a Horse For Me? Productions, here.

Wanna win some Alice Cooper tickets and a meet the rocker? Well, all you gotta do is return his bag full of obscure horror movies and his laptop, which Heathrow airport lost. More details here.

I think everyone can empathize with that nightmare. But I’m curious to know what all was in the bag in terms of rare genre movies. Or is that a ruse? More realistically, it’s probably packed with his extra golf shirts, but “obscure horror movies” sounds a lot cooler.

In the meantime, here’s a pic of Alice sporting his new handbag.

[Thanks for the link, Claire!]

I got back from vacation last night, and while I’m plowing through 300-some emails today, I’ll take a break to mention the new issue of Esquire. Not my style of magazine, but horror fans may want to pick up the current issue, as it contains a new story by Stephen King.

I read “Morality” during the plane ride back from the prairies, and while it’s not the greatest or most “horror” story he’s ever penned, it’s worth picking up for five or six bucks (depending on what country you live in). The premise has a cash-strapped couple presented with a proposition by a wealthy old man with the desire to “sin by proxy,” in which the wife must do something nasty while the husband videotapes it, in order to get enough money to pursue their dreams.

“Morality” is really about the consequences of the act, rather than the act itself. It’s King’s take on violence, voyeurism and videotape and it’s more subtle (at least in terms of graphic description) than I expected, which is a good thing, as it seems intended to be a meditation on the story’s title, rather than a potboiler or a gore show. That said, it’s got some twisted sequences (including the woman’s rationale behind her decisions) that will appeal to genre fans.

Now if King would only agree to an interview with Rue Morgue…

Happy Birthday Dave! We thought you should know your twin brother dropped in to help out while you’ve been gone. He didn’t really say much when he arrived, just mumbled something about “how long of a walk it is from Tillsonburg” and ‘How expensive the Junction massage parlor is”. Thanks for mentioning you even had a twin, BTW! He’s been putting in some extra hours, so you’ll have to forgive the sunglasses and the horrible complexion. Yup, UnDave has settled in nicely. He’s a pretty quiet guy for the most part, keeps to himself - not really one to “stir the pot”. Except when anyone gets too close. Justin made that mistake and now we’re fearing the worst. I think he likes it here though, but you’ve got to come home soon. The flies are really getting annoying and let’s just say he doesn’t smell like roses! Hope your having a great birthday vacation buddy and have a cold one for us. What’s that UnDave? Uh… what? Alright, alright, I’ll tell him! Dave, he said you still owe him for that “dead hooker back in Vegas?”. Man, you think you know someone!

Why can’t we have commercials this cool in English Canada? And this is just to celebrate the 10th anniversary of a line of slush flavours. Eli Roth, you’d better be taking notes, because I just found your angle for Hostel 3…

Alf Humphreys, who played the fun-lovin’ Howard Landers in the original My Bloody Valentine, sent along this never before published picture from the set of the film, featuring him and other cast members in costume as miners. I love the Superman lunchbox. Nice touch!

Monster-loving Miss Liisa sent this my way: one of the videos for MGMT’s “Kids.” I love this song, and this video makes me love it more. I want to see a making-of; they actually seem to be terrorizing that tot. Lucky little brat…