[Frequent Rue Morgue contributor Peter Gutiérrez checks in with a Q&A with Paul Campion, director of The Devil's Rock.]

Although it just finished winning accolades at the genre-crazy Yubari Film Festival, The Devil’s Rock is also newly released on R1 DVD. That should give North American audiences a welcome opportunity to see writer-director Paul Campion’s long-awaited first feature, which is both ambitious (it’s a World War II-set period film) and small-scale (you can count the cast members on your fingers). I myself first discovered Campion’s work several years ago, through shorts such as the charmingly DIY Night of the Hell Hamster and the striking, unsettling Weta Workshop project Eel Girl. With The Devil’s Rock, Campion demonstrates that the lessons he’s learned in craft and attention to detail on films both modest and huge (The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia) were not lost on him. I was happy to catch up with him and discuss his uncomfortably intimate demons-and-Nazis tale.

If you’re going to be in New York next week, do try to catch the third edition of Daggers, a short film fest curated by film critic and frequent Rue Morgue contributor Peter Gutiérrez. The program, which runs October 20 and 22, features twelve films by both up-and-coming and established filmmakers.

“Horror is a much richer and more diverse genre than it is often given credit for,” says Peter, who founded Daggers in 2008. “With Daggers we get to show off that range of artistry. In this year’s lineup, for example, we have surrealism, gothic mystery, psychological horror, a silent film, a musical, Cronenberg-style body horror, stop-motion animation, an experimental dance piece, and even gore-comedy. The goal is to represent the unsettling, the poetic, the thought-provoking, and yes, the stomaching-turning.”