RUE MORGUE Issue 204 Jan/Feb 2022

Living at the Rue Morgue manor, surrounded by horror posters, collectibles, and fellow fanatics, it’s easy for me to forget that, at one point, my love of the genre was a solitary sport. My friends just weren’t into it – guys or girls. Neither were my sisters (although they had left the nest by the time I was old enough to really bond with them) nor my folks – although my mom and I enjoyed spooky Sunday evenings with new episodes of The X-Files, before we decided it got too conspiracy-y. In the early days of the internet, back when you needed to convince your parents not to use the phone lest they bump you offline, word-of-mouth was the most reliable disseminator of horror gems, and I didn’t have that…

JACK FROST – I love that movie and thought I was alone in the world until I saw your beautiful cover for RM#203. Your interview with Michael Cooney was pure gold. It only took 24 years but Christmas has finally been saved! Thank you for being who you are and doing what you do. ROB WATKINS – HOUSTON, TEXAS LONG-TIME-READER, first-time writer. The first issue I have is the Jan/Feb 2000 issue [RM#192]. I am writing to thank you for the side article of horror shorts. I opened up YouTube to David F. Sandberg’s videos and was completely wowed! Keep up the great work, love this magazine. From a 60-year-old horror fan. KAREN ZWOLINKIEWICZ – BUFFALO, NEW YORK FIRST, LET ME SAY Rue Morgue has the best customer service ever! I saw the Halloween…

WEIRD STATS & MORBID FACTS ISSUE #204 Eileen Dietz, most famously known for portraying the Demon in The Exorcist, has an identical twin sister, Marianne Dietz, with whom she appeared in a TV commercial for a soap detergent when the girls were six years old. The parasitic fungus Entomophthora muscae infects houseflies by eating their flesh from within and concocting a powerful aphrodisiac that attracts male flies to copulate with the dead host, even if it’s a bloated female carcass literally bursting with spores. Christopher Allport, who played Sheriff Tiler in Jack Frost, was killed in an avalanche in the San Gabriel mountains at the Mountain High ski resort, northeast of Los Angeles. In the late 18th and early 19th century, New Englanders were gripped by a vampire panic that had them unearthing the corpses…

In 2005’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose, director Scott Derrickson considers the grey area between faith and reason, as a priest is put on trial for the death of a college student who died during an attempted exorcism. While the film never confirms whether the events onscreen are real or a hallucination, supernatural forces are heavily implied. But for Emily Rose’s real-life counterpart, Anna Elisabeth “Anneliese” Michel, the horror was less about demonic possession than a tragically avoidable death. Anneliese grew up in the German state of Bavaria, an area that was primarily Catholic, in contrast to the country’s largely secular population. Herself a devout Catholic, she also suffered from mental and physical ailments, including epilepsy and depression. Even with medical treatment, her condition deteriorated over the course of four years…

Child actor Harvey Spencer Stephens secured the role of horror’s most notorious devil child in 1976’s The Omen at the tender age of four, reportedly earning the role by showcasing his own penchant for evil and punching director Richard Donner in the balls. Following his performance as the pint-sized Antichrist, with his blond hair dyed dark, Stephens toured horror conventions with his tricycle. He later played a small role in an unremarkable 1980 made-for-TV film as well as special features and documentaries about The Omen, but his mean streak reappeared in 2017 when he assaulted a pair of cyclists who flipped him off. In a fit of road rage, Stephens pulled over and attacked the men, knocking one unconscious and holding the other on the ground to rain blows on…

1 SOURPUSS CREATURE SHELF $28 USD Hear us out: what if the shelf you used to display your unique collectibles was itself a unique collectible? Sourpuss has you and your precious collection covered, with an easy-to-mount shelving unit measuring 12 x 12.5 inches and featuring original artwork of your favourite Black Lagoon dweller, natch. Sourpussclothing.com 2 NOTE FROM MOTHER PROP REPLICA MAGNET $1.99 USD Send out the right message about your mental health to dates and guests with this 3-inch fridge magnet replica from 1983’s criminally overlooked Psycho II because a close relationship with your mother is always bound to impress! Wig and dress not included. Pixelelixir.com 3 THE COUNT COOKIE JAR $39.99 USD Guard your baked goods from those greedy children of the night with this menacing cookie jar modelled after Bram Stoker’s creation and bedecked with sharp fangs…