It Came From The Archives 32!

When I was at that VHS meet recently, I also picked up a video retailer trailer reel from 1992 that I have now digitized for your enjoyment. It's a whopper with over fourty trailers, including Waxwork II, Fear, Seed People and Moon 44. Check it out.

June 28th Horror Trivia Screening List

To all those who came here from the event or Storm Crow's FB page, welcome! I am Jay, one half of the horror trivia quizmasters and this is my humble blog.

If you heard a title while at the last event and thought “oh that movie sounds cool, I should check that out”, here's a comprehensive list of all the films that were mentioned. Click on the titles to be redirected to their Imdb listing.

For everyone else, maybe there's one or two here you have yet to catch. Horror Trivia Night happens at Storm Crow Manor in Toronto. If you're in the area, come on down! Register here. If you're not local, we do often stream the event on @ruemorguemag Instagram.

The Exorcist (1973)

Don't Torture A Ducking (1972)

The Thing (1982)

Let The Right One In (2008)

Let Me In (2010)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Zombie (1979)

Shock Waves (1977)

Up From the Depths (1979)

Zombie Lake (1981)

Nightmare on Elm Street 2 (1985)

Friday the 13th Part VII (1988)

The Haunting (1963)

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Prom Night II  (1987)

Prom Night III (1990)

The Babadook (2014)

Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Dead Alive (1992)

The Video Dead (1987)

Jacob's Ladder (1990)

Bloody Birthday (1980)

Nightmares (1983)

Madman (1981)

Alone in the Dark (1982)

Sweet Sixteen (1983)

Creepozoids (1987)

Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except (1985)

The Mask (1961)

Prom Night (1980)

Terror Train (1980)

Black Christmas (1974)

The Changeling (1980)

Ginger Snaps (2000)

Deathdream (1974)

The Editor (2014)

Happy Birthday To Me (1981)

My Bloody Valentine (1981)

Cube (1997)

Storm Crow June Trivia, VHS Round

VHS Village

Last Saturday, before fulfilling my duties at this year's Toronto Smartphone Film Festival, I shot over to Waterloo to rifle through some VHS.

Put together by video tape champions Dan Ny and Zack Wilson (of The Vault), this was a come-one, come-all VHS swap meet. I missed Shock Stock this year and with the future of Horror-Rama unknown, I felt this may be one of my only opportunities this year to stock up. It was well worth it.

A Bill Fruet movie I haven't seen!

Finding a copy of The Kiss in the wild. Pure joy!

Also scored the Canadian flick Deadline.

Dirty Harriet FTW!

I think I should be good for a while now...

VHS 4EVA!

June 14th Horror Trivia Screening List.

To all those who came here from the Storm Crow FB page, welcome! I am Jay, one half of the horror trivia quizmasters and this is my humble blog.

If you heard a title while at the last event and thought “oh that movie sounds cool, I should check that out”, here's a comprehensive list of all the films that were mentioned. Click on the titles to be redirected to their Imdb listing.

For everyone else, maybe there's one or two here you have yet to catch. Horror Trivia Night happens at Storm Crow Manor in Toronto. If you're in the area, come on down! Register here. If you're not local, we do often stream the event on @ruemorguemag Instagram.

Cujo (1983)

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

Martyrs (2008)

Frontiers (2007)

Inside (2007)

High Tension (2003).

Cabin In The Woods (2011)

Intruder (1989)

Body Bags (1993)

Grizzly (1976)

Cocaine Bear (2023)

The Shining (1980)

Backcountry (2014)

Day of the Animals (1977)

Grizzly 2: Revenge (1983)

Prophecy (1979)

Winnie The Pooh: Blood & Honey (2023)

Berserker (1987)

The Edge (1997)

Man's Best Friend (1993)

Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (1988)

Blind Alley (2011)

Lake Mungo (2008)

X (2022)

The Uninvited (2009)

A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

The Witch (2015)

Army of the Dead (2021)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Day of the Dead (1985)

Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Zombie (1979)

Creepshow (1982)

The Sadness (2021)

Madman (1981)

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

City of the Living Dead (1980)

Night of the Creeps (1986)

In My Element.

Photo courtesy Nathan Boone

Horror Movie Guide: Bloodsucking Freaks

The next title in the Guide was the infamous 1976 movie Bloodsucking Freaks aka The Incredible Torture Show. Despite its colorful title, I’d never seen this one until now and strangely knew what to expect, and yet also didn’t expect what I saw if that makes any sense.

A sadistic showman named Sardu (Seamus O’Brien) disguises his white slavery operation as an off-Broadway production that performs shocking theatre shows in the vein of the old Grand Guignol, except unbeknownst to his audience; his public torture displays are real.

A thing I kept coming back to while watching this was, “this came out in 1976"? People actually went to a theatre and sat through the whole thing? I mean, I don't want to act like I was pearl clutching throughout this movie, but I certainly wasn’t prepared for the quantity of depravity. It just. Never. Lets. Up.

Sure, it’s over the top and clearly not supposed to be taken seriously, but how many times can you see a naked woman tortured before it becomes legitimately macabre? Reading that sentence back is so odd, but then again - so is this movie.

On the surface, it feels like a natural successor to H.G. Lewis’ Blood Trilogy, but I feel Bloodsucking Freaks would have made even him blush. Lewis’ oeuvre felt like a logical extension of his earlier “nudie-cuties", but adding gore as a gimmick. He was a businessman. Director Joel M. Reed seems to be getting off on all this. Either that or he just white-boarded every terrible thing he could think of to do the female body and put it onscreen.

And speaking of which, where did he find all these actresses? I can understand finding a handful of game ladies to be in your Z-grade torture film, but there's like two-dozen who show up over its eighty-plus minute run time. It’s a literal parade of full frontal trauma. I don’t know, maybe they all wear that Imdb credit like a badge of honour now.

I can see the influence of Bloodsucking Freaks though. I recalled Eli Roth’s Hostel in the reverie of the torture scenes, and headless blowjobs and teeth extractions for said sex act were shocking when they appeared in High Tension and A Serbian Film decades later so I can't imagine the reaction they got in the late seventies. Again, this played in public in ’76?

Based on its subject matter alone, a cult following seemed inevitable and would have definitely peaked the interest of Lloyd Kaufman at Troma - who ended up releasing it on home video, even without the blessing of the MPAA, which is such a Lloyd thing to do.

Luis De Jesus & Seamus O'Brien as Ralphus and Sardu in Bloodsucking Freaks.

Bloodsucking Freaks was the first film in the Guide that they saw fit to award No Stars. Objectively, I can’t disagree. It has very little merit, and though there are scenes that you can’t help but chuckle at their absurdity – like the lobotomy sundae for instance – it’s the sheer collective despair that broke the sex slave's back. Wikipedia lists all of its grievous acts and it literally takes up an entire paragraph.

On the other hand, if you’re going to be labeled "one of the most controversial pictures of all time” and actually own it, that’s gotta mean something too, right?