Black: Australian Dark Culture issue 2 by Shane Jiraiya Cummings

AND RUB SHOULDERS WITH !USTRALIAgS BEST HORROR WRITERS

Black

c O N T E N T S

Features

Jared & Jensen: Supernatural’s brothers in arms

Flash mobs and the Undead revolution

24 10 14

George A. Romero: Master of the Living Dead

Australian Dark Culture Magazine Issue #2—September 2008 ISSN: 1835-9248 A Brimstone Press publication

www.brimstonepress.com.au

Staff Editor-in-chief Angela Challis Managing Editor Graphic design Shane Jiraiya Cummings

Supanova

Gencon

Staff Writer

Guillermo Del Toro: From Hell, with love

Gary Kemble Advertising 0407 405 345 mail@brimstonepress.com.au Subscriptions & General info

38 44

Jon Hewitt

Wendy Rule

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Steven Kastrissios

Neo Goth Art Show

Fiction

Regulars

16 The casting out

2 Black mail

3 Black roads, dark highways

Miranda Siemienowicz

60 Her collection of intimacy Paul Haines

9 Black Slash 13 Page thirteen 15 Four Colour Black 22 AHWA: raising hell 29 King of Horror 30 Horrors in Store 31 HorrorScope reviews 37 Dark Flix 39 Criminal Noir

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mail@brimstonepress.com.au PO Box 4, Woodvale WA 6026

Fiona Horne

www.blackmag.com.au Catch BLACK magazine news at the ‘Fans of Black Magazine’ Facebook group!

Contributors

Paul Haines

41 Waltzing Macabre 46 Black Cauldron 46 Monster of the Month 47 Dark Deeviations 50 Competitions 51 Shades of grey 52 Morbid medicine 52 Travelogue 53 through a lens darkly 56 Undead backbrain 63 Australia’s Dark Past 64 Black Market

Leigh Blackmore & Margi Curtis, Craig Bezant, Dr Carissa Borlase, David Carroll, Luke Challis, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Bella Dee, James Doig, Stephanie Gunn, Talie Helene, Robert Hood, AD John, Gary Kemble, Troy King, Andrew McKiernan, Chuck McKenzie, Chris Murray, Tony Owens, Josephine Pennicott, John Raptis, Vivienne Read, Mark SmithBriggs, Matthew Tait, Brenton Tomlinson, Kyla Ward, Rocky Wood, and Marty Young. Disclaimer The statements and opinions expressed in Black Australian Dark Culture magazine reflect the views of the individual authors. The publisher and its servants will not be held liable for these opinions. Publication of advertisements does not necessarily imply the endorsement by the publisher for the advertised product or service. Copyright and images All material printed herein remains the copyright of Brimstone Press or the attributed author. Unless stated, images are supplied by Morguefile, Dreamstime, and Stock Xchng agencies, or the relevant studio/publisher/ creator. Images are used with permission and remain the copyright of the image provider.

Black

Mail

Delayed reaction, immediate response

More please!

Dear Black Magazine,

Just finished the first issue of Black: Australian Dark Culture, and my reaction is “More Please”. It was very good, and if I may, I would like to offer some opinion of what I read.

As I flicked through your debut issue, my eyes were drawn to the article “Delayed Reaction” by Mark Smith-Briggs. I immediately felt a kinship with my namesake and it filled me with joy to realize that perhaps I’m not the only one continually disappointed by the treatment horror films receive in Australia.

Dear Eds,

Having recently been informed that The Ruins will now not be receiving a cinematic release (despite the details being on the Village website for months and having posters in the cinema foyer), I felt compelled to add my voice to the dissatisfied masses. The film grossed triple its budget in the U.S. alone!

The Batman vs Ironman piece was the only thing I disliked. It seemed out of place, a waste of two pages which could have been better used. I hope to see more of the ‘Black Cauldron’ column, I found myself wishing it was longer, but a full half page is probably the right size for an ongoing column. The Travelogue, however, was far too short. The text was overpowered by the illustrations. Future installments of this column (assuming there are enough locations in Australia with the appropriate resonance) might benefit from a little more detail.

As someone prepared to travel to get my horror fix—including an hour to catch a screening of Captivity (bad idea) and an hour and a half to see Grindhouse as it was actually intended to be seen (good idea)—I continue to be fascinated that a movie like Meet the Spartans can get a general release, but Hatchet cannot!

I found myself wishing that the Aussie Horror Timeline was larger and more detailed—this was compensated by James Doig’s ‘Australia’s Dark Past’ column, which I look forward to seeing more of. I particularly liked that a couple of non-fiction titles were included in the reviews section, a reminder if it were needed that horror is not confined to the imagination.

I encourage all readers to do at least one of the following two things:

As I said, it was all good. Your main problem, as I see it, is that you have set the bar high, and now have to equal this in future issues.

1. Get out to the cinema and support the films you love. Box office results will shape future releases. It’s simple: the more dollars a film makes, the more likely it becomes that a cinema will choose to show another genre picture. 2. Be prepared to contact your local cinema to ask them why they are not showing a particular film. If they don’t know we want them, why would they show them? Rant over—bring on Issue #2! Mark S. Hi Mark, Yep. We sure do get the short end of the stick when it comes to horror releases. You make a good point to in that horror fans are some of the rare genre fans prepared to travel to catch a film on the big screen. Only sci-fi and fantasy fans show similar dedication—and they’re practically our cousins anyway. It’s great to see there are others out there prepared to fight to see horror on the big screen. So keep on making lots of noise and maybe together with all the others we’ll finally make some kind of difference. Mark Smith-Briggs (Dark Flix)

Stephen H. Hi Stephen, Thanks for your candor—that’s what I love most about horror denizens ... their brutal honesty. My eyes have really been opened by the feedback we’ve received here at ground zero. Some of my favourite segments in Black have been jeered, whilst others that I considered *meh* have been praised. The bottom line ... there’s a whole lotta different tastes out there, and my aim is to provide a range of entrees, with the occassional meaty feast. You’re not the first to ask for more from the ‘Black Cauldron’, but as you’ve noted, the regular columns are intended to be teasers—anything ‘fleshier’ will be covered by the more encompassing articles. Leigh has whispered that he and Margi are giving thought to possible article subjects, so stay tuned, a more indepth look into the world of Witchcraft is on its way. In the meantime, I hope the interviews with Fiona Horne and Wendy Rule will satisfy? James is our resident re-animator— breathing life back into authors and text long forgotten. Fortunately for Black, his knowledge is near on inexhaustable. Australia has a colourful history of authors who

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

pushed the boundaries of their eras and shaped the attitudes of our country—stick with us, and James will introduce you to all the darkly eccentric characters from our past, and their fiction, in coming issues. You’ve set a clear challenge for us, Stephen; one I trust we’ve met within this issue. Be sure to let us know how it shapes up for you—your opinion is valued, and I look forward to hearing more from you.

days to fall from Heaven to Earth, another nine to fall to Tartarus (the Hell of Hades). The River Styx (also in Dante’s poem) circles Hades nine times, and those who drank from it lost their voice for nine years. Quite a Hellish coincidence. Craig Bezant (Reviewer)

Home grown horror Hi,

Angela Challis (Editor)

A tour through Hell Hello there Black, Nice to see there is finally a magazine that caters for the darker side of Australia. I’ve seen many references to ‘the circles of hell’ in various fiction, and I was wondering where the term originated? Sincerely,

It’s so good to finally see a magazine like Black: Australian Dark Culture being produced in Australia. As it is, I haven’t seen all that many mags from overseas that cover my favourite horror- related subjects—It’s certainly a welcome sight. I hope you have a long run, and I look forward to each issue. Bill W. Hi Bill, Your letter reflects many that we’ve received in the mailbag ... that is, it’s about time Australian horror rightfully claimed its inheritance.

Charlie O. Hi Charlie, Thanks for your question. Alex Bell’s ‘The Ninth Circle’ is the latest text referencing the circles of Hell. This largely relates to Inferno (Hell) from ‘The Divine Comedy’ by Dante Alighieri (written 1308 - 1321). The poet’s work is an imaginative vision of the afterlife with brilliantly-dark lines like “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”. The circles represent sins with poetic justice. They’re concentric, increasing wickedness culminating in the earth’s centre where Satan is held in ice. “The Divine Comedy” also mentions seven terraces of Purgatory (Purgatories), and nine spheres of Heaven (Paradiso). Some scholars believe the Islamic text ‘Kitab al Miraj’ (Book of Ascension) influenced Dante’s work, a debated mystery. There is no mystery—many sources refer to Heaven and Hell in similar ways. Just pick an era or religion. In Egyptian mythology, souls journeyed through gates to reach heavenly fields of Aaru. In Greek mythology, a bronze anvil took nine

Australia is an isolated land, with a brutal and bewitching history, filled with stories of dreamtime, bunyips, min min lights, massacres, convicts, and canabalism—add to this, the eeriness of the outback, the spine chilling sounds of the noctural bushlands, and the animals forgotten by time—then mix it all together with the sardonic, dry Australian humour, and you have yourself a recipe for darkness that can only be truely appreciated by an Aussie. Possibly also the reason O/S publications have never managed to catch the dark eye of the average Aussie. Not surprisingly, I too, hope Black has a long run ... but that of course will depend on the number of Australian readers who acknowledge and revel in their dark and alternative sides. Time will tell, but I sense there are a lot more of us out there than we ever realised. It’s simply a matter of spreading the message that dark Australia now has voice ... and together we can rasie it to an earsplitting scream! Angela Challis (Editor)

Have a comment on something you read in Black? Maybe a suggestion for articles you’d like to see in the magazine? Have a problem that only we can help with (we have friends in low places)? Then Black Mail us! Tell us all about it! We may even publish it! Share what’s on your mind at: blackmail@blackmag.com.au

C u lt u r e

Andrew McKiernan

Black roads, Dark Highways

SNake tales and outback hoopla!

f all the Earth’s inhabited continents, Australia is the flattest and the driest. Its weathered and arid geology is also the oldest and least fertile, and it’s home to seven, eight, or nine of the “World’s 10 Deadliest Snakes”—depending on which list you read. Even in this age of sprawling coastal cities and soaring economic growth, after Antartica, Australia is the least populated continent on the planet! That’s one harsh and unforgiving place to call home. Western civilisation can only claim a 400 year relationship with this vast landscape, but human habitation goes back some 48,000 years. That’s a lot of time for its people to develop a diverse range of myths and legends to explain the land in which they lived. Add to that just over two hundred years of white habitation, and an influx of global cultures, and you end up with a country full of people who just love a tale. They love telling them. They love listening to them. They love being creeped out by them. And, all too often, they love to believe them. Sightings of Bunyips and Min-min lights have persisted since the Dreamtime, and colonial tales of Hoop Snakes and Dropbears are still frightening tourists and city dwellers on their first visit to the outback. Sleek black panthers stalk bushlands west of Penrith. Thylacines, officially extinct since 1933, are sighted in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, and even as far away as Papua New Guinea. UFOs buzz truckies on the Nullarbor, and serial killers stalk the empty highways between Perth, Adelaide, and Darwin. But, how often does a grain of truth rest at the centre of these myths? Take, for instance, the aforementioned lists of the “World’s 10 Deadliest Snakes”. Not one of those lists mentioned the Hoop Snake. Yet it is cited as one of the leading proponents of serpent induced death in Australia.

Where is this elusive Hoop Snake? Is it a native animal or an import? Has the encroaching urban landscape driven it to extinction? Or is it a load of cobblers? The fabled Hoop Snake (Oxyuranus hulahoopis) is a reptile with an unusual yet effective method of attack. It lies on the shoulders of outback roads and tracks: quiet, motionless, curled with its tail resting in its mouth. You could mistake it for a harmless piece of shredded road-train tyre, but—unless you’re travelling at speeds equal to that of a battered Ute on its way to a B&S Ball—you’re in danger. When suitable prey wanders by, the Hoop Snake flexes its sinuous muscles and flings itself along the road or track. Tail held firmly in its mouth, it retains its circular shape and rolls—like a runaway tyre on a sprint-car track—after its next chosen meal. The top speed of a Hoop Snake has never been reliably recorded, but tales are told of cyclists losing the race against this dreaded reptile. It’s fast, and if you’re not in a motor vehicle, it will catch you.

Snake makes its final lunge, dive behind the tree! The Hoop Snake will impale its fangs in the tree and trap itself. The tree, of course, will die instantly from the intense toxicity of the venom. Hence, why there are so many ‘black stumps’ in the Australian outback. This might all seem like a bit of a lark to tell the pasty-faced tourists, but what about that ‘grain of truth’ mentioned earlier? Tales of ‘Hoop Snake-like creatures’ are found all over the world. There is Ouroboros in Greek mythology, which while never being known to roll, was frequently portrayed as having its tail in its mouth. The Japanese have Tsuchinoko, a mythical slug-like serpent that can roll like a wheel. Sweden has the Hjulorm, in its folklore. All these myths must be based on something? Tales of the Hoop Snake are most common in Australia and the USA. The first recorded sighting was by one J.F.D. Smyth, in his book Tour in the USA, in 1784, and sightings in Australia quickly followed its colonisation in 1788. Regular sightings in both countries continued until the late 1930s but have dropped off significantly since. Numerous scientific surveys have failed to discover any sign of this elusive creature ... which suggests the Hoop Snake might be just another sad victim of extinction via human interference. Maybe, the Hoop Snake is real? Maybe, the idea of a ‘wheel-powered’ creature isn’t that crazy? Or maybe, it’s all just tales for grandad to frighten the kids?

When it does, the Hoop Snake uncoils like a spring releasing its energy, and taut as a spear, it launches at its victim within the final few metres. Mouth wide, fangs at full extension, it is said to hit with the force of a doublepronged javelin. Its venom will kill you in a few short instants of very agonising pain.

If you’re unsure, check out this link—www. videosift.com/video/Nature-invented-thewheel—it’ll change your mind about the strange wonders of nature, and it just may convince you that the Hoop Snake really is out there truckin’ Australia’s dark and dusty highways.

They say there is only one way of escaping a Hoop Snake ... if you’re lucky. You just might have a chance if you happen to be near a tree. At the last possible moment, as the Hoop

Andrew McKiernan is a Sydney based author and illustrator. His work appears here and there—like a slow sprouting fungus.

Television

s r e h t Bro s m r a n i BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

ared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles play Sam and Dean Winchester—named for the Winchester rifle, presumably, because they’re tough as nails and have a 67 Chevy Impala full of guns—on the wildly successful TV series Supernatural. Jensen and Jared were in Australia earlier this year (at different times) and we caught up with them individually to get the lowdown on what it’s like to hunt demons for a living.

Jensen Ackles

(aka Dean Winchester, the Hard-arse demon hunting mofo)

ensen Ackles is blessed with good bone structure. An edgy, blokey, down-to-earth nice guy whom it’s easy to envy as women (and men, for that matter) regularly stop in silence and simply stare. From a similar suburb to Johnny Depps-ville, neighbouring onto the outer reaches of Flannelette-Farm—Jensen’s instantly likable. With a slight drawl from his Texan roots and a light-hearted approach to a job involving killing demons—he deserves the attention, which he’s wonderfully oblivious to. BLACK: From your past of dealing with the melodramatic demons of the mind within a daytime soap (Days of Our Lives) to now actually killing demons with weaponry after selling your soul to the Devil, just how much fun are you having these days? Jensen Ackles: “It’s much easier this way. I’m having tonnes of fun—in fact, someone was asking whether it was more difficult doing this type of stuff. I’m totally like ‘sign me up’ for a show that’s action-packed with this type of stuff as opposed to Days of Our Lives where you sit there rattling-off mindless dialogue. It’s bizarrely harder to remember all that dialogue and act.” BLACK: Aren’t the lines stuck all around the set on the walls and stuff? JA: “Well, if you need them to be, but I never did. But I was staring at other people’s lines all day. That became quite confusing!. But seriously, that’s much harder to do just ‘cos it’s more taxing and you’ve got to find a way to make that droll realistic and try to engage with an actor who may or may not even be looking at you when you speak the lines! So now Supernatural is just a great kick in the ass! Growing up as a boy in Texas—I’m having the time of my life on this show… it’s like being an action hero.”

By Chris Murray

Television BLACK: Now you’re an internet chick magnet, has shopping become awkward? JA: “You know, oddly enough, I’ve been talking to people about how the diversity of the fan base on this show is mind-boggling. I’ve had 50-year-old men at airport security look at my ID and say ‘I love the show’. I’ve had 12-year-old girls come up screaming “Oh my God can I have a picture…”, and then again I’ve had 30 and 40-year-old women come up and say they watch the show with their mothers! Old, young, black, white: it doesn’t matter. I’ve never been involved in a show with such a diverse fan base. And they come out of nowhere, which is really nice as it transcends a lot of barriers that most people think television shows have a hard time doing. I just don’t think that the networks or studios really understand the diversity of our fan following. They look at stuff like ‘males 18-49 aren’t watching as much as women aged 18-49, we’d better move the time slot.’ But what about mom and dad and grandpa and grandma who adore the show?”

“

BLACK: Internet probably has a lot to blame for that stuff.

How can I not be loving this show when I’m driving around in a ’67 Chevy Impala that’s all juiced-up, wailing some Zeppelin, and chasing demons with some shotguns in the trunk!” BLACK: Indeed—like a grungy Buffy for boys who like to rock. How would you describe Supernatural to the uninitiated? JA: “I’d say what separates us from the pack is that this is a horror show. Every week, there’s scary demons or spirits or whatever it may be… and most of the shows out there that deal with supernatural kind of stuff—Lost, Ghost Whisperer, Medium etc.—all that stuff is very ethereal and creepy but you’re not entirely sure what’s going on. But with us, we show you every week what we’re dealing with—and we hunt ‘em down, kill ‘em, and save lives. I would say that The X-Files would be the closest thing to our show in that it’s two people going after something that no one else believes… but Jared would definitely be the girl!”

JA: “Yep—it’s around the world in an instant, all the comments and feedback. I do try and stay away from a lot of that stuff merely for sanity reasons, but occasionally, it’s very interesting to see the response from around the world. We air the show in the US and there’s a guy from India online going ‘what happened?’. The foreign interest has really been a great push for the show, particularly when we’re up against the big guns like CSI and Grey’s Anatomy.” BLACK: Pfft! CSI, Grey’s Anatomy ... what’s wrong with people these days? Where are the talking cars, the private investigators in Hawaii driving Ferraris, The Fall Guy …or even Daisy Duke? Now those things were fun—what did you watch on TV as a kid? JA: “Absolutely! Knight Rider are you kidding me—Hasselhoff with a talking car, that was just fantastic! The A-Team, Mr T… c’mon, all the guy action shoot-em-up shows. How can I not be loving this show when I’m driving around in a ’67 Chevy Impala that’s all juiced-up, wailing some Zeppelin, and chasing demons with some shotguns in the trunk!” n

BLACK: What are your personal feelings towards the esoteric world—and more importantly, have they changed since being on this show? JA: “Not, basically. I’d say from the beginning and still to this day that I’m a bit of a realist. I reckon that if something’s knocking on the other side of the door, there’s a logical explanation for it, or a spooky sound from the attic is certainly just the pipes or the wind. I will tell you that before this show, I was a bit hesitant in wanting to investigate, whereas now, knowing what I know, *claps* … I’m straight up there! I might be getting myself in trouble, but in all seriousness, it’s given me this false sense of security and confidence. If I’m lying in bed and I hear something rustling around in the living room—I’m there in a shot holding a flashlight saying ‘I’m coming and I’m not afraid.’” 6

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n Supernatural has more fang for yur buck than Buffy.

Jared Padalecki

(aka sam Winchester, the Demon-tainted psychic with a target on his back)

ared Padalecki’s whirlwind visit to Sydney’s Supanova convention in June was a huge hit with the fans, and as fate would have it (well, with plenty of pushing and cajoling), Black’s roving reporter Gary Kemble was on hand for the Supernatural star’s Q&A session.

By Gary Kemble & Shane Jiraiya Cummings

Which show did you like doing better: Supernatural or Gilmore Girls? Jared Padalecki: “I’d have to say Supernatural. I mean Gilmore Girls was a great show to shoot, a lot of fun, and I got along really well with the cast, but with Supernatural, I get to do so much more and my character is much more fleshed out, and I get to fight and run and kiss girls and stuff like that so, very exciting.” Were you disappointed about how your character was written out of Gilmore Girls? JP: “Yes I was. But one thing I learned early on and had to accept is that a lot of politics, a lot of what you see on television, has nothing to do with whether they wanted to write you off. I was doing movies and so they couldn’t really devote the time they needed to. So it wasn’t really their fault, it wasn’t bad writing or anything. They didn’t have a whole lot of time to write me off properly or to figure out what was going on. And then I had a deal with Warner Brothers where I was starting Supernatural but they didn’t know if Supernatural was going to go, and if it didn’t go, then I was coming back to Gilmore Girls, and if it did go, which thank God it did, then I wasn’t going back. So things are just left up in the air. Which is unfortunate, but I had a great experience in my five years on Gilmore Girls.”

making pacts with Crossroad demons is surprisingly distracting when they wear low-cut evening dresses. n Straight out of Charmed demon school: concentrating while

Television

What has been the scariest Supernatural episode? JP: “You know what, one of the scariest episodes I can think of right now, the episode from season three called “The Kids Are Alright”, where Dean might have a kid and you find out it’s not; the second episode of season three with the changling kids where they stare at you, then you look in the mirror and their faces are all grey and dead, that was scary to watch.” n I’ve shown you mine, now

The episode where people were getting phone calls from the dead, encouraging them to commit suicide, really put the wind up us. Are there any episodes that have really freaked you out? JP: “Yeah, that one actually was one of them. There are certain things that when you deal with phenomena that exist all over the place like strange phone calls and static and televisions turning to static all of a sudden—and now doing a show about it, whenever that happens I’m like, ‘Ah, creepy. I should go somewhere else. Like go outside and listen to something goofy.’ But for the most part, because I’m involved in the shooting of the show and reading the scenes and stuff like that, it doesn’t freak me out too much. But that one—“Long Distance Caller”—was pretty scary. It was kinda creepy.” What were the most emotionally and physically tiring episodes to film? JP: “Emotionally tiring—“Mystery Spot”. In real life, I’ve got an older brother and also I’m very close to Jensen and so when you’re shooting an episode where you have to basically watch your brother die over and over again, the only way to do it if you’re a committed actor is to try and put yourself in that position. So we had to do it so many times, and it was a funny episode, but it couldn’t ever be funny to me. “Physically, in the second season there was an episode called “Heart”, and so that episode, every day, I was waking up three hours before I got picked up for work, to workout, because I was like, ‘Gotta get naked, gotta get naked’. So push-ups and sit-ups and going back to my trailer to do curls, so that even though the episode wasn’t actually physically demanding, I was trying to look all suave, so I tired myself out.” Some of the episodes of Supernatural are morally ambiguous. What do you think of the show’s underlying moral compass? JP: “Dean is very black or white: if you’re a demon, you’re bad. And Sam, the voice of reason, the voice of social conscience is, gives it some thought. So it’s a nice way to play out some of the problems in today’s society. On the whole, while there have been morally ambiguous episodes, the show tries to open people’s eyes to other possibilities.” Considering Sam’s already died and been given a second chance, I’m interested in what path you’d like him to take—good or evil. And how would you like to see his demise? JP: “My gosh! I try not to think about Sam’s demise a lot—I like my job. But I personally would love to see Sam go dark side. I’ve had a lot of fun playing good Sam for so long but I had such a great time shooting “Born Under a Bad Sign” where I get possessed, it’s so fun. I think the only way for Sam to properly die would be for his brother to kill him. I don’t think he would.” Have you ever experienced anything supernatural or do you believe in the supernatural? JP: “I have not personally experienced anything supernatural, where I’ve been like, ‘Oh that was supernatural’ but I’m not closed off the possibility. If something happens to me I’m not going to go, ‘Nah, that was just this or that was just that’ but I

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

you show me yours.

haven’t had any specific experiences. But definitely now, because of the show, whenever I’m somewhere hot and lights flicker I’m like, ‘It’s the yellow-eyed demon’ so I’m definitely more aware of the signs but I haven’t had any personal experiences.” If you had to be a demon or a witch or a vampire, which would you be in the show, if you weren’t Sam? JP: “A demon would be pretty cool, but I’d go with vampire. Cool teeth and stuff like that. Actually, I’d love to fly, so I’d have to do the vampire.” Does it bother you that Jensen always gets the hot babes? JP: “I sort of am jealous and relieved at the same time. It’s sorta like, ‘Damn. He gets to kiss them’ or whatever. But it’s also really weird. When we shot the “Heart” scene, which is morally ambiguous, you know, you’re running around in underwear and the crew members that you’ve known for two and a half years are like, ‘How you doin’, ‘I’m alright’, ‘How’s the football game?’, ‘How’s the wife and kids’, it’s kind of weird—and the poor girl, she’s wearing less than I am. I felt bad

Black \ Slash

for her because she was around a bunch of people she don’t know, and at least I know everybody, and they’re all guys and are like, ‘I don’t care about seeing you with your shirt off’. So it’s pretty awkward. I’m glad Jensen got stuck with it.” If Sam didn’t have to shut his cakehole, what would be play in the Impala? JP: “I think Sam’s a bit of a wiener with music. Jared loves what he loves: Led Zeppelin and Beatles and the Stones and classic rock. But I think Sam might be more into singer-songwriters, maybe like Jack Johnson, which is cool. Sam listens to Dave Matthews. I like that.” Are there any gifts you’ve received from fans that have stood out? JP: “I got an Aussie slang book that I’m excited to learn, so I can pull off the Aussie accent. I’ve already been saying, ‘No’, and then ‘Howyagoin’, ‘Fair dinkum’, I’m excited about that.” What’s the weirdest or creepiest thing a fan has ever said or done to you? JP: “Butt grabs are funny … or creepy or weird. I’ve been very lucky because people usually know who I am, know my work, so it’s not like, ‘Hey, he’s famous, grab his butt’ or something. It’s like, ‘Hey, I like the show’, or ‘I have the show’, or ‘I like this better’, or ‘Weren’t you in that?’, so it hasn’t been anything too creepy or weird yet. The odd goose here and there is awakening but nothing too bad just yet.” n

The future imperfect

Technology

Luke Challis

h! The Dark Knight! What a fantastic movie! Heath Ledger was the slime and flotsam from the filthiest city personified, and an absolute pleasure to watch. But the part of the evening that really sent a shiver down my spine: Terminator 4. Coming 2009, the 25th anniversary of The Terminator, Christian Bale will be playing the role of the legendary John Conner. This will be a moment akin to Jedi Master Yoda’s battle with Count Doku. But ignoring the wet dreams of ageing geeks worldwide, robots scare the shit out of me! We all know that most fears are irrational. Fear of the dark, fear of germs, fear of little grey men. But the beauty of The Terminator is that the fear is completely rational. It’s the fear of cold logic, cold steel and cold, emotionless, precision, death. One of the best movie lines of all time says it best: “Listen. And understand. That terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.” Robots are the new Undead. The gut wrenching knowledge of the flesh that we are going to die, limp, lifeless, forever, is forged in bone and steel, and rages against the living. Something deep in these golems comes from the other side. Their very existence bridges the divide between the Garden of Eden and 7th Level of Hell, a Pandora’s Box that can never be closed. Ever. Until you are dead. But these are mere fantasies! There are no such things as skeletal warriors. No such thing as Androids! Magic is for children’s stories, and science will never unlock the secret of consciousness! Unless of course … it already has? I invite you to look out for the BBC documentary Human v2.0. To summarize, there is a corner of the scientific community that is chafing at the bit for the moment in time when hardware matches the processing capacity of the human brain. This documentary demonstrates the various methods in which these pockets of scientists are reaching for this moment. Some are cute, conventional, and fun, such as the insect-like robots that seek out the lightest part of a room, or the machines designed to read the emotions that play on a person’s face. Then there’s the rat that has a circuit board wired into its brain. Via remote control, scientists can stimulate the part of the brain that responds to something touching its whiskers. If the rat turns in the direction of the stimulus, its reward is a shock to its pleasure centers. Or the one about the monkey that played a simple game with a simple joystick. Scientists wired the monkey’s brain up to the computer, and learnt the noises the brain made as its arm moved. They then unplugged the joystick from the game, and controlled it using the monkey’s thoughts instead. Cool huh? Until the moment that the monkey realized it didn’t need to move its arm anymore to play the game. It could control it with its mind. Doesn’t seem so cool all of a sudden. Is it just a co-incidence that the predicted moment for circuitry usurping biology is sometime in 2029?

n Staring down those personal demons.

Luke Challis is an Australian über-geek residing in Canada. He has a fascination with all things games related and has been known to wax philosophical.

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Harnessing their inner geek: DragonBall Z contestants on stage in front of hundreds of people. Ha-do-ken!

Gavin Lamb (Ichigo from Bleach) and Troy Smith (Cloud from Final Fantasy 7). We’re adamant they’re not compensating for anything by carrying those humongous swords.

V for verisimilitude: Hayden Koorey as V

, s e

Double the Fett: Boba Fett (left) and Jango Fett, two of the more popular Star Wars characters, despite the fact that one was swallowed by the Sarlacc and the other decapitated by a lightsabre. Go figure.

No, not a sausage sizzle gone wrong, it’s Michael Koorey as Cthulhu (left) and Scott Tyler as Altair from Assassin’s Creed

o r P e , h n a u a! p Su paf ov Su pan SU

op culture fans have swarmed on Sydney and Perth for the latest Supanova Expos.

A total of 10,600 packed the Dome in Sydney over two days in late June, drawn by big names including Jared Padalecki (Supernatural), Jewel Staite (Firefly, Stargate Atlantis) and Kandyse McClure (Battlestar Galactica). A week later, 7,800 checked out the action at Perth’s Claremont Showgrounds. According to event director Daniel Zachariou, that’s a record debut turnout. “I thought the enthusiasm Perth embraced us with was phenomenal particularly as we went through a really tough patch with guests cancelling and postponing left, right, and centre,” he said, referring to the last-minute withdrawal of Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) and Morena Baccarin (Firefly, Stargate). “Thanks to that support, Supanova now has a new home annually.” Sydney Fans lapped up Staite’s question and answer sessions, packing the room to the rafters on both Saturday and Sunday, and McClure was also warmly welcomed. Padalecki had the punters eating out of his hand, with some queuing

Story & Photos: Gary Kemble

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Anita Lun (Evangelion Unit 1) and Ailee Webb (Angel 14 Zeruel). Costume budget: astronomical.

Battlestar Galactica’s Kandyse McClure laughs off the Cylon threat.

Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki wows the Supanova crowd. The girls in the audience thought he was the best guest, like, EVA!

Comic artist Ben Templesmith busy at the Dead Space exhibit.

up for two hours to have their photo taken with the amiable Texan heart-throb. Supa Pass holders were also treated to a special chat, via internet, with the always entertaining Guillermo del Toro and the lovely Selma Blair about Hellboy II. There were also big names from the world of anime and comics. Quinton Flynn and Jeff Nimoy (Adventures in Anime) were popular, as was voice actor Sean Schemmel, although not everyone queuing up for his autograph actually knew who he was. “I’m the guy who does the voice for this guy,” he told one perplexed fan, pointing out Goku on a Dragon Ball Z poster.

Curt Ubank’s Joker maniacally wonders why everyone is so serious? It might have something to do with the shotgun.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Ben Reynolds as Superman.

The cosplayers put in a good showing. Curt Ubank adopted not only The Joker’s freakish make-up, but also his accent and chilling mannerisms. Ben Reynolds cut a dashing figure as Superman. And the Imperial Stormtroopers from the Terror Australis Garrison were out in force to make sure things didn’t get out of hand. If you’re kicking yourself for missing out, fear not. Next year, Supanova is back in Melbourne on March 27-29 and Brisbane April 3-5.

A threat to the spandex brigade: Chantelle Colburn and Ross Manuel from Setharum Legalis and Anthony Mahony as a character from Metal Gear Solid.

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Fancy an arm wrestle? Tsubakichan (Akuma from D.Gray-man) and Cattypatra (as Allen Walker)

Sonia Tabe (as the cheerleader from Heroes), Corinna Lowe (blue fairy), and Verity Lawrence (Ariel).

Awwww ... Emma Clay, robio co-owner, with Knuckle Bear.

In 1995, she appeared in The X-Files episode “Oubilette” as a young girl who is abducted from her bedroom and imprisoned by a psychopath who takes pictures of her and eventually tries to drown her in a river. Staite describes the experience as “intense”. “I was 13 at the time and it was a lot of screaming and crying and being upset, so that probably wasn’t the best environment,” she said. “And my Mom was freaking, she was sobbing offcamera—I felt really bad for her.” And yet, it was her mother who pushed her to audition for the role in the first place. “I remember not really wanting to do the audition because I was really tired. I’d just got back from Montreal, I’d just finished shooting

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Now this is more like it! Heather and Jack Frampton, from the Frampton Institute, share the gore.

Jewel Staite’s dark side

upanova guest Jewel Staite may be best known for her roles in Firefly and Stargate Atlantis, but it was a small role in a hit TV show many years earlier that set her on the road to stardom.

Chris (Kimba the White Lion), Corinna (blue fairy), and Sonia Tabe (not sure what the maid costume is meant to be, but we like it!).

(Space Cases) for six months, I wanted to go back to school and see my friends,” she said. “And my mother said, no no no, you’re going to this audition. And thank God she did.” Because despite all the screaming and crying, Staite eventually got to film a scene where she was rescucitated by the world’s sexiest FBI agent, Fox Mulder. “Mouth-to-mouth by David Duchovny,” she said, smiling. “I think that’s why my Mom wanted me to do the audition, because she wanted to meet David Duchovny.” She admits she was too young to appreciate the significance of the event. “I was a kid. And all these women were hating me for it, glaring at me on set, and I didn’t really know what it meant until later.” Even without the Duchovny factor, Staite says the role was really good for her. “It was intense but at the same time, after that I felt really fearless, that I could do anything, and that was a good acting lesson for me,” she said. n

Page Thirteen Pinup

Can you outscream our queen? Columnist and lady about town Ms Bella Dee is the perfect combination of sensuality and savagery. She will always be our reigning queen, but do you think you have what it takes to dethrone her? Are you a beauty with a penchant for the shadows? Do you dabble with the dark side and are happy to share your allure with the world? Can you outdo Ms Dee herself? If so, then send us a photo and you may find yourself gracing Page Thirteen! Send a high resolution photo of yourself marked â&#x20AC;&#x153;Page Thirteen Scream Queenâ&#x20AC;?, to Black magazine via mail@brimstonepress.com.au, or post a hardcopy photo to PO Box 4, Woodvale WA 6026. Please, no nudity (although coquettish glimpses of flesh welcome!). Competition for the first Scream Queen will be fierce, so get your photos to us before October 1 (for issue #3).

Gencon: Game on!

n July, gamers converged on Brisbane for the inaugural gamers convention Gencon Australia. The event attracted over 10,000 fans, and hosted more than 500 events, including board and card games, LAN competitions, miniature gaming, role-playing games, and a whole lot of cosplay (costume play). Guests included Firefly’s Alan Tudyk, comic artists such as Queenie Chan, and local authors Stephen Dedman, Kyla Ward, and Black columnist David Carroll. Next year’s con promises to be even more spectacular! Samurai and steampunk cosplay. Ready to rumble!

Have shurikens, will travel!

Ball of Dreams: Desire on the prowl.

Freeform role playing, Scarlet Pimpernel style.

Kyla Ward as Lady Hellner in the Scarlet Pimpernel freeform game.

Comics

With jenga blocks this big, the stakes are extreme. Jenga! Jenga! Jenga!

Colour lack

Dreaming and oddness David Carroll

ueenie Chan apparently has a thing for ghosts. In the last few years, she has put out a series of large and ambitious manga books (Japanesestyle comics) focusing on the restless dead, in one way or the other. The first three of these make up one big story: The Dreaming. A pair of sisters arrive at the exclusive Greenwich Private College, deep in the Australian bush. As inevitably happens in all such cases, they are soon involved in mysterious disappearances, seances, and a multi-generational secret that may tear them apart. The Dreaming was published by Tokyopop, a US company specialising in manga. Even with a total page count of roughly 550 pages, it’s a richly detailed and beautifully rendered work that maintains a quiet feeling of dread, with a few effective shocks for good measure. The story owes an obvious, and acknowledged, debt to Picnic at Hanging Rock, as a lyrical look at vanishing girls in Victorian gowns, but there’s a lot more going on than that, and is inspired 14

more by some personal history of the author. There’s also a cameo by the Necronomicon for those interested in such things (trivia buffs will note there is a local 80s horror movie, also called The Dreaming, complete with Aboriginal mythos and Lovecraft references, but that’s where the similarities end). In deference to the American audience, the first volume has an ‘Introduction to Australia’ with some amusing touches. Obviously someone was paying attention because Queenie has recently released another graphic novel, this time in conjunction with the famed writer Dean Koontz. In Odd We Trust is a prequel to a recent series of books by Koontz, featuring the

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adventures of Odd Thomas, a young man who sees dead people and tries to help them out. Comic adaptations of horror writers have been around for a long time (there were a lot of interesting Clive Barker and Anne Rice examples in the 90s, for example), but are now becoming more mainstream. Even so, teaming up an Australian manga artist with such an archetypal American writer seems an odd choice (so to speak), and reading some of the reviews, you can see the culture shock. Nonetheless, the results show it was an experiment that paid off. Odd Thomas is a charming young man, more at home cooking pancakes than tracking down psychos, though he does what he needs to do. His girlfriend, Stormy Llewellyn, is a sweetheart—and quick to reach for her pistol. Together, they make a perfect centre to this strange fusion. The ghosts—including a murdered boy seeking justice, and a rather smug Elvis Presley—and the psycho in question are a suitably unsettling presence. It has a strangely-shaped tale, but everything seems to hang together. On her website, Queenie says one of her best qualities is that she manages to finish her stories (and she has more online examples to check out). That is probably selling her art and writing short, but I think it is a good attitude, and I hope she finishes many more. David is a Sydney based writer, collector, and committee member of the AHWA.

Queenie Chain, creator of The Dreaming comic.

Sorrow. ‘Nuff said?

A random samurai warns people not to touch his blades. Suss? Not at Gencon!

Wayne Nichols ... Hulk ... smash!

Kyla dressed for ‘Wit and Wedlock’, the (cancelled) Jane Austen freeform.

Authors Kyla Ward and David Carroll about to convert more young minds to the dark side. t

Memory and Caution at the Ball of Dreams freeform.

When in doubt, throw on some elf ears, hold a giant blade, and you’ll fit right in with the other cosplayers.

The Prince Regent, Robespierre, and Chauvel, looking regal at the Scarlet Pimpernel freeform.

What is it with the giant swords at SF conventions?

Film In the next 18 months, 80s titles including The Stepfather, Scanners, It’s Alive, Motel Hell, My Bloody Valentine, and Piranha will all be redone.

Dark Flix

A way of life Mark Smith-Briggs

rowing up, I never understood the resentment so many horror fans held towards remakes. I figured if a major studio was going to throw a pile of cash into getting something on the big screen, why bitch and complain? Sure the original was popular in its day, but I didn’t get to see it when it was first released. What harm could be done by introducing it a new generation? But in the past six months, as studios plunder from the 1980s archives—the films I grew up on—I find myself joining the chorus. But why is it so? What makes me turn so readily on one generation of remakes and not the other? I think I have the answer. Growing up, I was introduced to host of horror films made before I was born; classic titles such as the Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Deliverance. I loved many of these films, and even today, still regard some as favourites, but try as I might, I could never harness the same

I can understand the studios ploy to resurrect a few of these titles, but Motel Hell, My Bloody Valentine and Piranha? These were tacky, Bgrade affairs the first time around. Can’t they just leave us with our late night memories of movie nights trying to encourage girls to snuggle up to us when they were scared?

“

level of excitement as the people who showed them to me. These films touched them in a way that went beyond the screen, a way that I couldn’t comprehend.

I used to think people whinged because they just didn’t want studios to “stuff up” one of

When studios rehash beloved horror films, they are tampering with more than just celluloid.”

Like my auntie, who lovingly recalls her first viewing of Psycho (remade in 1998) like the birth of her children, even though it terrified her to the point that she made my mother stand in the bathroom while she showered for months afterward. Or my dad, who sheepishly admits to deadlocking the doors and windows after watching Evil Dead (rumoured for remake) when he was home alone. But now as studios set their sights on the films of my childhood, I’m beginning to understand how they feel. How dare they touch Freddy, Jason or Pinhead (all set for remakes)? Freddy was the guy that made me go crying to my parents in the middle of the night as an eight-year-old. Why should anyone else share that pleasure?

their beloved movies, but I now understand it’s about much more than just the film. When studios rehash these titles, they are tampering with more than just celluloid. They are messing with the memories and experiences that go along with those films. These are the things that we hold onto so dearly. This is what we don’t want to share. We fear that by giving them over to a new generation, it will somehow cheapen it for the rest of us. Mark Smith-Briggs is a Melbourne based journalist with a background in screenwriting and cinema studies.

Fiction

The Casting Out

By Miranda Siemienowicz

hattering glass splintered the silence of the bathroom. Cary slid to her knees as the air thickened with sweetness and musk. The plastic wand of the pregnancy test clattered to the tiles. Twin linesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;positiveâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;burned on its display, and a groan choked from her lips.

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Glass lay glinting in the bath. As Cary bent to sweep the largest shards together, pain speared through her hand. She pulled back; a slender gash split the edge of her palm. She clutched at the wound and fumbled to turn on the tap as her towel fell to her lap.

“f

Water gushed from the faucet, flushing oily streaks of perfume from the broken bottle. She held her hands under the sputtering flow and dropped her head onto her outstretched arms. Rivulets of ice water snaked along her arms and pooled against her neck.

When the cold had numbed her hands, she knelt up. No blood, but the wound ... It had drawn itself down the side of her forearm as far as her elbow. She gasped and staggered upright, pushing off the edge of the tub.

The delicate edges of the cut pursed out to reveal a scarlet streak of muscle. Cary turned her hand over, breath ragged. Her skin felt taut, as if pulling away from the line of the wound. She flexed her fingers and the skin split on either side of each joint, gaping in a series of red diamonds. The front door slammed, followed by a voice. “Cary? The girls want to take you out tonight—remind you who your real friends are. You up for that?” “Can you wait, Shelley?” she called, backing against the bath. Its rim was cool against her thighs. “Wait ‘til I get out.”

The discarded bulk of muscle and bone lay vibrant against the white floor, scarlet limbs framing an elegant torso. Fluorescent light glistened on the ivory pelvis and the glossy fan of muscles that splayed from where the neck would have held a skull. The metallic scent of meat tainted the sweet musk still saturating the air. Bracing herself, Cary gripped the slick, red tissue. Her feet threatened to slip as she hefted the dead weight of sculptured muscle onto its side. Finally, her shoulder pushing against a hard jut of hip, it rolled and settled wetly on the tiles. Bowels lay coiled, a faintly golden, glistening quilt, below the slim tusks of ribcage. Cary swore under her breath. She laid a hand on the abdomen, flinching as the tacky viscera yielded. She hooked her fingers under the lowest coils and pushed them back from the brim of the pelvis. Nestled within the bowl of tissue was the swollen globe of the uterus, the size of a schoolchild’s fist.

She took a slow breath and dragged at the skin of her arm. It slid away to lie white and clean in her lap beside a berry-stained lacing of muscles and tendons.”

Eyes on the locked door, Cary fingered the wound, tracing it from her shoulder to the base of her thumb, up and down the side of each finger, along her forearm to her armpit. She kicked the towel out from around her feet and glanced down. The scarlet streak ran down her hip and leg, hooking around her toes and sweeping back up the inner aspect of her calf and thigh. She held her hands out, fingers splayed. The full outline of her body was marked, like a grim rite of passage.

Her legs shook as she struggled to crouch. Carefully, she prised her pale, trembling fingers from the bath and turned.

Cary sank to the floor. Pain and alarm needled her flesh, washing over her trembling body. She rubbed her arm, and the pressure split her skin from elbow to wrist in a broad, vivid swathe of colour. Her voice was a distant whimper, rising faintly to her ears over the gush of the water, but her body was flooded with a beautifully gratifying sensation—a prickling as if she were peeling off a wetsuit. She took a slow breath and dragged at the skin of her arm. It slid away to lie white and clean in her lap beside a berry-stained lacing of muscles and tendons.

She slid a finger over its rubbery surface, sticky like canned fruit. Shutting her eyes and pushing deeper, Cary closed her hand around the wet bulb. It felt full and firm in her grip. She clenched her fingers hard. When she opened her hand, the muscular tissue was marbled purple, darkness seeping across its surface. It shuddered, spasms flicking across the bruising mass, then stilled like a dying heart. “I’m leaving,” Shelley called from the living room. “Look after yourself, won’t you?”

Cary straightened. “Wait.” She wrapped the towel around herself and glanced to the floor, where the flaxen folds had settled back into place against their rim of bone. Unlocking the door, she stepped out. “Can you wait? I’m coming.” Her flatmate appeared in the corridor. “Hey.” She stopped short. “You look wretched. Will you be all right?” Cary shrugged, her smile grim. “Yes, I think I will be ... now.”

“How long are you going to be?” her flatmate called. She jerked her head up. “I—I don’t know. You go ahead. I’m not sure I’ll come.” “Are you all right?” Shelley was standing just outside the bathroom, her voice filled with concern. “He won’t be there, you know. It’ll just be us.” “I’m fine, really. I just need time alone.” Footsteps faded along the corridor. Cary held her breath and looked down. The sheath of her empty skin had remoulded itself, plump and firm against the limp weight of gore beside it. The graceful contours of the incision were fading rapidly. When she lifted her hand, the pale fingers curled, light and free. She winced and sagged against the bath. The roar of water surged in her ears as her skin clamoured for release. Cary clawed with her hollow hand at its partner until the second arm had expelled its burden. She stretched herself out on the floor, rolling onto her belly to grip the rim of the bath. The tiles were a cold shock against her skin. She pulled herself forward, like she was pulling herself up and out of a pool, and moaned—a low sigh—as she dragged her silken hide from between the gleaming, red limbs.

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Flash Mobs & The undead revolution By Gary Kemble

pontaneous pillow fights break out on the streets of New York, Paris, and Shanghai. Thousands of silent disco dancers strut their stuff on London’s mean streets. Zombies lurch through Australia’s capital cities.

Mass hysteria? No, flash mobbing! … using technology such as the internet and mobile phones to gather a large group of people together in one place to do something goofy. Are flash mobs just harmless fun? Or could they, as some suggest, become tools for civil disobedience, organised crime, even terrorism? Howard Rheingold laid the groundwork for flash mobs in 2002, when he introduced the concept of ‘smart mobs’. According to his website: “Smart mobs emerge when communication and computing technologies amplify human talents for cooperation.” The first documented flash mob took place in 2003, when Harper’s Magazine senior editor Bill 18

Wasik organised a hundred or so people to gather in the rug department of Macy’s department store in Manhattan. Whenever a sales person approached, the flash mobbers told them the shoppers lived together in a warehouse on the outskirts of New York—and were searching for a ‘love rug’. The flash mob concept stretches back much further than 2002. In the 1973 short story ‘Flash Crowd’, Larry Niven foresees a time when the popular use of teleportation turns an argument at a shopping centre into a full-blown riot. More recently, characters in Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother use a flash mob as a tactic in their war against the mighty Department of Homeland Security.

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Lurch for victory The zombie lurch—where participants dress up as the undead and lurch from point A to point B—has been one of the most enduring flash mob variants. In fact, the first recorded zombie walk pre-dates flash mobbing. It was held in Sacramento, California, in 2001 to help promote the Trash Film Orgy. The undead have been lurching, walking, and shuffling around the globe ever since. A few dozen zombies took part in the 2001 Sacramento event. A couple of hundred gathered in San Francisco in 2005. In 2006, more than 890 stormed the Monroeville Mall in Pittsburgh (the setting for George Romero’s 1978 film Dawn of the Dead), setting a Guinness World Record. A year later they returned, with 1,000 walking corpses breaking the record.

Melbourne Zombie Shuffle organiser Clem Bastow said it was a chance to practice her SFX makeup skills. “Outside of costume parties, there really aren’t that many opportunities for the enthusiasts among us to really get stuck into it. I can’t think of another occasion where I could’ve made up a whole lot of pitchfork wounds from latex and tissues!” Bastow was rewarded for her enthusiam at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, where she led a delegation of undead at the premiere of George Romero’s Diary of the Dead and got to meet the man himself.

n The many faces of (non-zombie) flash mobs (from

top): a frenzied lightsabre battle (2006); Madrid’s laid-back bubble mob (2007); the silent iPod disco (2008); a ‘spontaneous’ pie fight (2007); and the great London pillow fight (2006).

Technology is often blamed for isolating people, yet in the case of zombie lurches and flash mobs, it provides the means to bring them together—in the flesh. Bastow confirmed that personal contact was an important part of the success of the zombie events. “What we really noticed at the shuffle was that there was such a wide range of demographics all interacting with each other in a way that they might not necessarily do otherwise. Tipping a bucket of fake blood on your head is a great leveller! A lot of the feedback we got afterwards was that people had a great time and really enjoyed getting to meet like-minded souls.”

Fresh from the grave

Australia has proved a fruitful ground for lurchers, with around a 1,000 people taking part in the Brisbane Zombie Walk earlier this year. Regular events are also held in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide—with Perth joining the fun this year. And things are going to get a whole lot zombier in a matter of weeks with World Zombie Day marked down for October 26.

Pitchfork wounds So, what’s the attraction? Cara Westworth organised this year’s Brisbane Zombie Walk after participating for the first time last year—she loves zombie films and having an excuse to dress in costume. “The fact [that] there are hundreds of other people in the same city with the same mind-set, all willing to walk together once a year, dressed as zombies, is just awesome.”

Pittsburgh resident and World Zombie Day coorganiser ‘Miss Dee’ has lurched four times— including both the Guinness World Record walks at Monroeville Mall—and says people simply like to dress up as anything but themselves. “Lots of people pick real or fictional characters and zombie them up. It’s a creative expression. Myself, I usually go for the fresh-from-the-grave zombie with minimal blood.” As a newcomer to the scene, when Graham Vanderplank heard the zombie lurch craze had spread to Perth, via local flash mobbers Do or Diy, he wanted in. “I read a lot of stories about flash mobbers around the world doing some crazy and fun stuff, and I wanted to get on board. When I heard we’d be having something local, I was there. It’s a lot of fun to mess with people’s minds, be irresponsible a little and just do something you wouldn’t see yourself doing.” Fellow Perth lurcher Sean MacDonnell said he enjoyed the opportunity to slap on some blood and act like a zombie. “Because zombies are cool—and they’re cool because they can be terrifying. I’m sure we all have a deep-set fear of being eaten alive, and there is something inevitable and unstoppable about a slow moving army of cannibalistic decaying diseased walking corpses.” The pastime appeals to people from all walks of life, although as Westworth noted, the heavy metal and psychobilly fans are easier to spot because they dress to suit their taste in music. Miss Dee said while she has seen zombies of all ages and different styles, in her experience, the biggest demographic is younger males (18-25) who are into punk or metal. 19

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Zombie photo credits: Clem Bastow, Richard Giles, Gwyn Hannay, & Cara Westworth.

Dead popular

think it’ll be fun and a good chance to ‘go off’— which, of course, it is.”

While the zombie lurch craze rode high on the popularity of survival horror games such as Resident Evil and movies such as the Dawn of the Dead remake and 28 Days Later [Ed. yes, we ‘know’ they’re not zombies], they have survived—and even thrived—as the zombie flick returned to the video store.

Miss Dee is amazed at the level of interest. “We’re coordinating World Zombie Day this year and have 45 cities signed up in the US, Canada, Central America, Europe, and Asia!

Why? According to Westworth, zombie lurchers aren’t necessarily hard-core zombie film fans. “I think that most of the people who go on the zombie walks are lovers of all horror movies, not just the zombie ones. “People, like me, enjoy horror movies and love an excuse to dress up and do something a bit wild. I even know people terrified of all horror movies who came on the walk—just to do something completely different and a little bit crazy.” Bastow agreed. “It’s appealing on many levels and for many different reasons; I think this is why there was such a broad spectrum of participants. You have diehard horror and zombie fans, metal aficionados, goths, political zombies (e.g. postnuclear holocaust zombies carrying ‘No Nukes!’ placards), right down to younger kids who just 20

“While zombie walks have been around for a while, we in Pittsburgh are the only ones so far to establish a documented record attendance, and we are proud of it. We take every opportunity to publicise our events and have received national and international media coverage, which I like to think has encouraged other folks to do zombie walks. “And a lot of them aren’t just walks—there are concerts and film festivals that have sprung up around a zombie walk. Zombie walks provide a sense of community. Just a bunch of goofballs covered in blood having a good time.”

“Shut up, you’re a zombie!” Vanderplank agreed that the focus was definitely on fun. “The only real message I think we conveyed was to take life a little less seriously and disrupt the status quo wherever possible—just enough to remind people that life is only a ride, and they need to enjoy it once in a while.

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“At one point, I did start chasing people and yelling, ‘Look what the media has done to us!’ but the only responses I got were ‘Shut up, you’re a zombie’.” MacDonnell said there can be a serious side to zombie fun, citing the Zombie Squad, a group that combines the living dead with a message of the importance of disaster preparation. The Zombie Squad website declares: “Our goal is to educate the public about the importance of personal preparedness and self reliance, to increase its readiness to respond to disasters such as Earthquakes, Floods, Terrorism, or Zombie Outbreaks.” “Zombie Squad tries to raise money for various community service events, such as blood drives, with zombies—but for the moment, [they] are entirely based inside America,” MacDonnell said. “It would be exciting if we could start a local chapter here in Australia.” Bastow said that despite the gaping wounds and buckets of blood, zombie walks were a positive manifestation of using technology to organise—as opposed to the infamous 2005 Cronulla (Sydney) riots—and that despite the spontaneous nature of the Shuffle, participants were willing to stick to a few rules.

Zo m b i e S p ec i a l Feature

“Grum”, Perth zombie lurch fla Clandestine ga g bearer. therings “Technically I’m no t an organiser; dirty work for the brains of the opI’m just the guy that does all the eration. “The organisers mobs throughou are a small group who have be en orchestrating t Pe rth over the pa much contact wi flash st 2 years. before the even th the organisers—I get instru I don’t actually have t. I often don’t cti on s a mo nth or know the entire plan until the da so “The powers-tha y. disturbances thr t-be don’t like the concept of ou lar anonymous to les ghout the city, so the organ ge mobs creating ise sen rs the prefe chance of anyo law.” ne getting span r to stay ked by the [on being a leade r] “I did n’t kn ow followed me for over a kilometre, 95% of the zombies there—the I’m sure the Perth y jus dri City Council’s clepping blood and guts everywheret aning staff loved . us.”

“No scaring kids, no wrecking public property, etc—particularly since as the ‘organiser’ this time around, my name would be on it if anything went wrong. You do run the risk of people showing up just to create havoc, but thankfully, everyone sort of keeps an eye on everyone else.

planning it takes to organise something like a zombie walk, and as the organiser, you’re responsible for whatever happens—good or bad— so it’s in your best interests to plan meticulously and keep tabs on everything before, during, and after the walk so there’s a positive result.”

“I think we were really successful in creating an environment that was harmonious and made it an enjoyable event for all zombies from age two to 62—the irony of a march of undead people in various states of decay being ‘harmonious’ and ‘enjoyable’ is not lost on me, though!”

Apocalyptic visions

Westworth said there are always going to be people who take things too far. “There were a few (in Brisbane) this year who seemed to think it was okay to act up because the police did not make themselves present. However most participants were sensible and behaved appropriately, and many of them would help out by pulling up the trouble makers before things got too crazy.” She said with large groups of participants, it can be a short journey from harmless fun to anarchy. “However, it all comes down to good planning and making the intentions clear from the beginning. I think people would be surprised at how much

Zombie lurchers emphasise the fun and camaraderie of the day, but is it possible that zombie walks appeal to the same part of our psyche that has led to the rise of apocalyptic visions such as The Happening, Cloverfield, I Am Legend, and of course, Romero’s Diary of the Dead. “The world sucks right now,” Miss Dee said. “It’s easier to deal with an apocalypse on film than in real life because you know it’s going to end in 90 minutes as opposed to the 24 hour news coverage of global atrocities like war, genocide, hunger, famine, and natural disasters. I guess it’s an escape of sorts.” Westworth likes to revel in the apocalyptic scenarios thrown up on the big screen. “I get a thrill out of seeing what could potentially happen to the world if something devastating wiped out all human life. It also helps me appreciate life as

I currently have it. After seeing Cloverfield and I Am Legend, I thought to myself, ‘What would I do if that happened to me?’ and then I remind myself that it probably won’t ever happen and feel very relieved. “There’s something exciting about watching the plight of people in terrifying situations, while sitting safely in a cinema,” she added. According to Bastow, some film theory suggests that the darker fringes of horror, such as ‘torture core’, are a result of the ‘post-Abu Ghraib’ world in which we live. “What I find interesting is the rise of ‘no happy ending’—or at least, possibly unhappy/’open for interpretation’ ending—movies like Cloverfield, I Am Legend (to a lesser degree), and Children Of Men. Perhaps the apocalyptic bent is a way to get our heads around the fact that if we don’t slow down our emissions and population explosion, we could be headed for a pretty dire future?”

Military target While the zombie lurchers and flash mobbers of this world consider their activities to be an escape from that dark future, some factions of government think they could be a part of it. In the UK, a Ministry of Defence report has 21

C u lt u r e included flash mobs as a phenomenon that could threaten Britain’s armed forces by 2035. Rear Admiral Chris Parry, head of the MoD’s Development, Concepts, and Doctrine Centre— that drew up the report, told The Guardian that the risk assessments were “probability-based, rather than predictive”. The report says: “A growing pervasiveness of information communications technology will enable states, terrorists, or criminals to mobilise ‘flash mobs’, challenging security forces to match this potential agility coupled with an ability to concentrate forces quickly in a small area.” But science fiction writer and futurist Bruce Sterling (whose 1998 novel Distraction features a riot by a flash mob) doesn’t buy it. “Well, this is not a new issue. The cops are pretty much on top of this flash activity because the organisers are easy to spot, at least, after the first arrests and grillings.” He said the long war between illegal rave events and British police is a case in point. “Police can get temporarily overwhelmed by huge civilian crowds, but it’s pretty easy to infiltrate the crowd-builders, send out false flash alerts, destroy the organisers’ credibility, and just plain find the ringleaders and arrest them for various

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easily prosecuted crimes such as disturbing the peace and racketeering.” Earlier this year, British police shut down two planned flash mob events—a pillow fight in Leeds and a pie fight in Brighton—due to public health and safety concerns. In 1989, protesters used the internet, mobile phones, and ‘swarming tactics’ to disrupt the World Trade Organisation talks in Seattle.

ou’re back! Wonderful! I can see your antennae just twitching with curiosity.

The AHWA is fast approaching two-hundred members, and that’s some achievement when you consider the doors only opened for membership back on World Horror Day (13th of October, 2006). Whoever would’ve thought that there were so many Australian horror writers out there? But where have they been all this time? No doubt living in seclusion with their eyes atwitter, worried their dirty little secret will come out. That’s what horror writers are like after all, right? Unbalanced. Have to be to write that kind of stuff. Or maybe these sane people—husbands and wives, mothers, fathers, friends and lovers— had nowhere else to go before now. The AHWA is the only horror-specific writing group in Australia; it’s been the only one since the 22

He said while it is possible to undermine flash mob organisers, it is hard to do without stifling the free flow of ordinary people. “It may become the case that political flashmobs are generally designed to provoke and document such reactions and to lead to arrests.”

“Seattle was almost 10 years ago. If this kind n of flash activity was going to have legs, I think it would be all over the place by now,” Sterling ice said. “Organised crime and isco, mass h, silent d ly a rc e re lu ti Id ie en b terror has much crueller ng that’s rue: zom ith somethi tried-and-t w e b up ld e u m ideas these days—you It co u can co ng—but yo don’t haul in huge masses of cream eati innocent civilians, unless you your own. s, Yahoo , chatroom plan to put an IED in their sage boards Organise es thering m ga et t rn ar midst and blow them up.” friend: Inte places to st ur od yo go ions l is al gy pace are for instruct Technolo ok, and MyS messaging bo xt ce te Fa se , U groups together. d people will like-minde time, you . at the one ce ific la p ec on the day e sp on ibute the ob in the or, to distr ling your m b at m in d se or as co After as the But Clay Shirky, author of ne to act need someo h mob. as Here Comes Everybody: The fl e th ctions for ru st in Power of Organising Without you’re and when Organisations (2008) and ant to do, e Act m mbling e ra ’r sc u t t you’re no ow what yo en kn adjunct professor at New York u om yo m l ia Make sure at the cruc University, disagrees and suggests o it, so that meant to d n. that just like the Ministry of e note agai to read th e! Defence, police in New York City outta ther face. Get ur ’t yo on d on Disperse have realised the potential of the u a silly grin retend yo e ne asks, p ound with ng ar yo ra an flash mob for civil unrest. ng ar If ha s, s. nd Don’t to stranger e with frie m lk ca ta u to yo t. If Don’t stop “The NYC police are subpoenaing lking abou cation. t they’re ta ispersal lo d tos know wha p a at t ee m d to beforehan

ash mob

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Here comes everybody

1 2

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Raising Hell

Laying the foundations Dr Marty Young

flash mobbers for phone numbers contacted during protests last year. As the idea of ‘protest with a permit’ takes off, flash mobs offer a way around it, and so the arms race continues.”

1990’s. It’s now the biggest one there has ever been, and it has a lot of growing left to do. Our members include writers trying to get their first story published, right through to people like Robert Hood, Stephen Dedman, and Kim Wilkins, luminaries of the field—you must’ve heard of these talented writers, right? I’ve a list here; I could keep going. How about David Conyers? David’s story “Homo Canis” (winner of the flash fiction category of the 2007 AHWA Flash and Short Story competition) has just been accepted for publication in Award Winning Australian Writing, to be published nationally by Melbourne Books later this year. Simply put, there’s no shortage of talent in Australia. And the AHWA intends to showcase that talent. We’re here to develop and promote the genre, and those writing within it. Oh sure, there’s the odd bit of misconception and some baggage that goes along with the word HORROR, but one of our aims is to change that thinking.

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These writers are too good to remain in the, er, dark, so-to-speak. Doc, you’re dreaming, that’s what you’re saying, right? Well, wrong. It’s about building a solid foundation first. And that’s why we set up the mentor program; what better way to develop Australian horror than to get new writers working with published professionals? The program began in 2007 and already has its first success story. Sonia Helbig’s dark science fiction story “Crown of Thorns” won 2nd place in the prestigious Writers of the Future 2007 4th Quarter competition. Sonia was mentored by Stephen Dedman, and her story will be published next year. She’s off to the US now to attend workshops. The program couldn’t have started any better. And this year we’ve had twice as many applicants. The Mentor Program will run again early in 2009, and we plan for it to remain a permanent fixture of the AHWA calendar year. We hope there’ll be many more success stories—in fact, we know there will be. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; we’re here to take over the world. Don’t laugh. I’m serious. Your homework: take half an hour out of your week, put your feet up, and read a short story. It’s simple. Dr Marty Young is the president of the AHWA.

Ice cream rebels Shirky cites a case in Belarus, 2006, when some young people organised a flash mob via LiveJournal. The plan was for thousands to turn up in October Square in Minsk and eat ice cream. The hardline government sent in secret police to arrest the ice cream eaters—who were breaking the law by gathering in a group. Other mobbers took photos of the arrests, uploaded them to the net, and shared with the world the restrictive conditions of life in Belarus.

Australian Shadows

ounded in 2005 by the Australian Horror Writers Association, the Australian Shadows Award is a literary prize devoted to dark fiction Down Under. What makes the award so special? It is judged by experts who know the dark stuff inside out. The award is unique in that it compares short stories against novels and anthologies, with the ability to scare or creep the reader out seen as the deciding factor. The trophies, by dark fantasy artist Brom, are also pretty damn cool.

Shirky believes flash mobs could be utilised by terrorist groups. “There are lots of ways in which large crowds can act as cover—analogous to the Red Brigades burying radio-controlled bombs at roadworks in Germany—and distract or obstruct law enforcement. Charlie Stross has a zombie flash mob used in this way in Halting State.” Westworth agrees, that if used by terrorists at all, flash mobs would most likely be used as cover. “I don’t see it happening any time soon, and I guess it’s something we’ll have to deal with if it ever does happen. Personally, I hope it doesn’t, so that we can continue to enjoy the spontaneous fun of zombie walks and other flash mobs for years to come.”

’A’ for ‘Anonymous’ British science fiction writer Charles Stross can see plenty of these situations happening in the future. He points to Project Chanology, an ongoing protest by the leaderless, internet-based group Anonymous against the practices of the Church of Scientology. While not a zombie lurch or flash mob, it is an example of the use of technology to gather an anonymous group of people together to achieve a goal. Using internet message boards and chat rooms, the group augments its online presence (e.g. videos on YouTube) with ‘real-world’ action. Shirky foresees flash mobs heading in a totally different direction. “My guess is that the next trend will not be flash mobs for social movements but flash mobs for pairing off—flashdating, by analogy with speed dating, where groups of the young and single create insta-singles scenes.” n

WA author Lee Battersby won the inaugural award for his short story n Brom’s Angel of Darkness “Father Muerte and the Flesh”. Other was awarded to the 2006 Australian Shadows winner. winners were Will Elliott for his demonic clown novel The Pilo Family Circus and Terry Dowling for the short story “Toother”, about a serial killer with a flair for dentistry. There is a distinct shade of Black over this year’s awards. The judges are Black’s managing editor Shane Jiraiya Cummings; Black columnist, bookstore manager and author Chuck McKenzie; and Brett McBean, author of the horror novel The Mother. Aussies who have had a dark fiction short story or novel published in 2008 are eligible to enter their work for consideration (entry is free). If this sounds like you—or you have read something dark and delicious published by an Australian this year—visit www.australianhorror. com.au (click on the Australian Shadows link) or contact the Awards Director Kirstyn McDermott. Entries close December 31. n

Lunamorph alternative fashion extravaganza By Kyla Ward

Photo credit: Koukei Photography

ore than just a fashion show, Sydney’s Under the Blue Moon festival offers a transformation of the flesh. Last year’s event included live piercing and bodily suspension by performance artists Modified Souls. This year, over thirteen local designers and shops combine forces with actors and a talented production team to create an equally memorable but perhaps less traumatizing experience.

Will the highlight be the classic corsetry from Gallery Serpentine? Or the new range by Matt Bylett (whose latex designs have appeared in Farscape and Xena)? The Friday night show requires ticketed entry—to exclude the idly curious, such voyeurs will have to be content with Saturday on Enmore Road when the outfits come out to play. n

Film

Melbourne International Film Festival highlights

George A. Romero Master of the living Dead By Robert Hood

ew would be likely to question the fact that George A. Romero revolutionised the horror film universe when he made Night of the Living Dead in 1968 as a student filmmaker in Pittsburgh. What he achieved in that moment of cinematic epiphany was three-fold.

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Zo m b i e S p ec i a l Feature

Most obviously, he created a scary and confronting horror film, one that continues to work on a visceral level today. But more to the point, he pushed the envelope so hard that expectations regarding what horror cinema could achieve were changed radically—and the horror film was dragged kicking and moaning into the modern world. Last but hardly least, Romero created a new horror icon—one that is even more virulent today than ever before: the apocalyptic, cannibalistically inclined zombie. Though he has made many films that don’t feature zombies—all displaying his mastery of the genre—it is the cannibal living dead that

define him in the horror film connoisseur’s mind. I met the Grand Master of the Living Dead in Melbourne, where he was attending the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) to introduce Australia to his latest Dead opus, Diary of the Dead. We met in a small lounge bar just before he was due at a scheduled MIFF event, In Conversation, with Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, guest curator and programmer of the Venice Film Festival. The polished-wood, earth-coloured environment had something of the ambiance of “an opium den”, as Romero wryly noted. With his easy, unpretentious manner, familiar greying beard,

white shirt, and military-style sleeveless jacket, he seemed more like a long-term acquaintance than a legendary figure I’d just met for the first time. I comment on the current proliferation of cannibal zombie films (at least 50 in 2007 alone). He laughs easily. “I have one in my pocket and two more back in my room. Every student filmmaker that I meet, every time I go to a horror convention—when someone says ‘I’ve made a movie’—it’s always a zombie movie. I know there are a lot of them in general release, but in North America, at least, only the remake of my own film Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead were particularly successful at 25

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the box-office—and of course, 28 Days Later did okay. They were the only films that made money. Usually it’s the films that make money that spawn the sequels and set trends. The phenomenon isn’t really in the mainstream.” “What is out there and more of an influence, particularly on young people, are video games, and there are dozens of video games with zombies. I think it’s the games that have made these creatures idiomatic.” I remark that he was the one who created the modern form of the walking dead, turning something relatively harmless in an insatiable terror. “Well, see I didn’t even call them zombies in Night of the Living Dead. To me, zombies were those boys in the Caribbean that were doing Lugosi’s wetwork for him.” He chuckles. “It was only when people started to write about the film and called them zombies that in the second film I used The Word. They’re the neighbours, you know … dead neighbours.” In the more recent Land of the Dead, he refers to them as “stenches”. He laughs. “Each film, I have to come up with a different term.” “What are they in Diary of the Dead?” “It’s a different group of people on that first night, and they haven’t gotten around to having a nickname for the zombies yet.” The new film is a masterful addition to Romero’s self-created mythos—taut, breathless, and typically smart—although much smaller in scope. It falls outside the sequence that begins with Night of the Living Dead (1968), to Dawn of the

Dead (1978), then Day of the Dead (1985), and finally, Land of the Dead (2005). These films follow human society as it attempts to cope with first an apocalypse and then the development of a nascent Dead society. The last ends with the destruction of Fiddler’s Green, an unethical and selfserving enclave of privileged Western society—and its end is brought about through human aggression via zombies acting together for the first time. The surviving human protagonists depart northward in an armoured vehicle named Dead Reckoning, hoping to find yetanother oasis in an isolated spot far from both ravenous zombies and—even more ravenous—humanity.

“

A sequel could have easily followed on from Land of the Dead—and I admit, I had been expecting it. But Diary of the Dead, which appeared a mere 2 years later—not the usual decade from the previous film—does not represent such a continuation. “God, where do you go after that [Land of the Dead]?” Romero asks in a thoughtful tone. “Universal [Pictures] was great. They let me make the film I wanted to make, but I just thought that it had gotten so big and smelled of Hollywood a little bit. Not that it was a bad experience in that way. It’s just that there are constraints when you work in the mainstream. You have to meet a certain standard, you have to be competitive, visually, have enough action, answer to others.”

God, where do you go after Land of the Dead?”

I comment on how remarkable it is that despite the mainstream environment in which Land of the Dead was made, he’d still managed to critically evaluate the establishment and big business in a way that mainstream films usually aren’t allowed to. “For some reason, I get away with it,” he says. I suspect it is because the studio execs knew that the sort of satirical commentary Romero puts in his films was in part what would sell Land of the Dead to its core audience. If so, it was admirably astute of them. “Well, in this case it was Universal that let me get away with it,” he adds. “They were in the right frame of mind. I think I owe Land of the Dead to the Bush administration—and possibly Bin Laden.”

n George parodies the parody and does a

‘Shaun of the Dead’ by blending in with the hordes. Love your work, G!

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Zo m b i e S p ec i a l Feature

Surviving the zombie apocalypse

densely populated areas but with ample food supplies (or the means to grow your own food without being attacked by zombies. Shopping malls on the fringe of town, underground military complexes, or in a pinch, high-rises are all good places to hide out.

ould you be prepared if George Romero’s vision of a zombie-filled apocalyptic future came to pass? Never ones to let our readers stay misinformed, the Black team listed these sure-fire tips to keep you alive long enough to consider leaving the mall.

1: Do not co-operate with the authorities. Think about what

happens to those poor souls who get herded into military convoys and ‘safehouses’ only to have zombie infection sweep through like a fox in a henhouse. The armed forces, police, hospitals (and especially the media) do not know how to deal with the big Z threat, so get the hell out of populated areas before you become zombie chow.

2: Arm thyself, citizen. Guns are hard to come by, so raid your kitchen

cutlery draw for the biggest, sharpest knives you can find. Chainsaws and other power tools are great – just don’t run out of petrol! ‘Armour’ such as padded long-sleeve clothes or even jeans will offer some protection from those nasty, infectious zombie bites. Protection sturdier than this (like police riot gear) is a huge bonus.

3: Aim for the head! Bullets, high velocity projectiles (arrows, throwing knives, old LPs), and any form of excessive blunt force trauma to the zombie’s head are effective. Decapitation with swords, axes, or chainsaws is particularly effective!

4: Hole up. Find a sanctuary that is fortified, with multiple (but secure!)

exits in case the blighters find a way in. The best spots are away from

“Were you happy with it?” “Yes, I was happy with the way it turned out. I mean, it was ambitious—and we weren’t really wealthy when we made that film. But the thing is, I’m more of an outsider, and I prefer to work small. I was happy with Land [of the Dead], but I just didn’t know where to go next. “There is a kind of progression to the first four films as zombie society is developing. I wouldn’t want to say that the zombies are getting smarter, but they’re remembering more and organising a little bit, learning to use weapons, or at least following the example of Big Daddy. Really, I didn’t know where to go from there. It was already a bit Beyond Thunderdome—the postapocalyptic look and all that. It had become too big.” I ask if it was the size of Land of the Dead that inspired him to do the smaller-scale Diary of the Dead. He nods. “I decided I wanted to go back to the roots. In all of the zombie films since the second— not so much the first—I’ve had the idea that I’ll take something from real life and try to do a snapshot of what’s happening in North America right now. So in this film, I wanted to do something about emerging media, about the internet, and the blogsphere. You know, everyone’s a journalist

5: Hunt and gather. Explore your territory in short reconnaissance

raids, preferably without the local zombie population noticing! Suss out all the good sources of long-life food and water: supermarkets, corner stores, food wholesalers warehouses, whatever. You’ll also need reserves of clothes and other necessities. Bonus points to you if all this is planned before the zombies rise from the grave! Imagine how stupid your friends will feel for all the ribbing they gave you about your ‘silly zombie project’.

6: Prepare for the second wave. Once the initial shockwave of

zombies eats all your unprepared neighbours (but not you, of course, because you read Black magazine) and everyone settles into a routine of eking out an existence, something will always come along to upset the balance: foolish or hostile survivors (often military), an influx of zombie from other areas looking for a snack of brains, or a wise-arse zombie who remembers more than his or her basic motor skills. Always have a fallback plan, including a new shelter or ‘perfect retreat’ (often an uninhabited island, like the one you remember your uncle Barry telling you about from his last fishing trip). n

these days. Particularly young people. So the impetus came from that. The characters are film students, they have the equipment, and they’re there on that first night when the dead start waking up. That’s why it had to go back to the beginning. They wouldn’t have been in a position to document the event in this way years down the track.” Has he always worked like this— from an idea? “I’ve always had the idea first and then it’s pretty easy to glue zombies on it. It’s a lot easier to glue zombies on it than to write a serious treatise about it.” I comment on the impact the Living Dead films have had in terms of their success in encapsulating the socio-political mood of the time. “That became the thing that I wanted to do in these films. I missed the 90s, but that was the intent. I found a place where I could at least show my feelings about society, 27

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Evolution of the Zombie By Robert Hood

he zombie wasn’t always a cannibalistic monster, bringing apocalypse and viral destruction upon the world. Originally, it was a docile critter that did what it was told and demanded nothing.

So what then is a base-level zombie? First and foremost, the living dead are corpses that continue to move. If they’re not that (at the very least), they’re not zombies. Unlike ghosts, zombies are generally required to be flesh and blood. They weren’t always called zombies either. The walking dead appear in stories going back to the earliest literature, usually offering some advice to the protagonist or seeking retribution. In this regard, they were more like ghosts. In early ballads, ghosts weren’t described as the ethereal phantoms with which we’re familiar, but as the actual corpses of the dead—maggots and all. The term ‘zombie’, however, comes from voodoo practices most often associated with Haiti (deriving from the West African ‘zumbi’ meaning ‘fetish’), and it only came into general use in 1929—after the publication of William B. Seabrook’s Haitian travel book, The Magic Island. Like all magic, voodoo is about control, and the essence of the voodoo-created zombie is that he/she is a slave. Soul captured by the bokor (voodoo sorcerer), the victim ‘dies’ and becomes a mindless automaton, incapable of remembering the past, unable to recognise loved ones, and doomed to a life of miserable toil under the will of the zombie master. This is a fair description of the zombies that appear in the very first zombie movie, Victor Halperin’s White Zombie, made in 1932, and starring Bela Lugosi as the zombie master who raises a horde of the dead to work in his factory.

For several decades, this type of zombie was the only kind to appear in cinema. Sometimes they were under the control of a sorcerer, sometimes a mad scientist, sometimes alien invaders—in whatever form, they were not self-motivated. A huge evolutionary step was taken in 1968 when George A. Romero expanded on the idea of the walking dead, upping the ante by making it rapaciously vicious and controlled only by its appetite for flesh. His ‘ghouls’ (they’re not referred to as zombies in Night of the Living Dead) are shambling corpses, but they have a compulsion to eat the living. They are also rampantly viral. Implied in Night of the Living Dead, and expanded upon in 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, is the idea that everyone who dies comes back—and anyone bitten by zombies dies and then comes back. It spreads exponentially. The phenomenon has all the characteristics of a plague. It is this version of the zombie that still dominates zombie cinema today. The older idea of the physical return from death grafted with Romero’s films—the zombies’ cannibalism; the fact that you can only kill them by destroying their brain; and the associated apocalyptic elements. Individual changes to the zombie have been relatively minor, tweaking the exact nature of the cause (supernatural forces, disease, alien infestation, cell phones) and the speed of the zombies. Fast or slow? Certain contemporary films are cited as ringing in changes to the zombie by making it fast and furious—though the idea of fast zombies goes back as far as the 1980s.

Another recent development has seen zombies that are violently enraged rather than dead— which means they’re not really the ‘living dead’ at all. What such films as 28 Days Later have done is use some of Romero’s zombie apocalypse tropes so that the film looks like a zombie film, while ignoring other more central features of the zombie. Does this represent another evolutionary step? Only if we’re willing to remove the idea of ‘living dead’ from the mix. Can a zombie be alive? Amidst all this, we’ve had such undead sidelines as zombie sheep, seagulls, blind knights, Nazis, politicians, lovers, dorks … you name it. There are some zombies that die more easily than others and zombies whose body parts lead an independent existence no matter how much dismemberment takes place! But none of these represent a significant long-term change to the living dead—they are all just logical extensions to the base idea. However, Romero himself instigated a genuine evolutionary change to his own creation—in Land of the Dead, he followed through an idea that goes back to his 1985 film Day of the Dead—that the zombies regain a kind of intellectual self-awareness and begin to form a nascent alternative society. Although an interesting concept, it probably won’t become the norm. The living dead are also unlikely to become lucid and urbane. Among the ranks of the undead, urbanity is the province of vampires! From mindless slave to vengeful revenant to cannibalistic plague to alternative species, the zombie has come a long way. Not bad for a bunch of dead guys! n

express my opinion, [and] have a little fun with social and political satire.”

way the zombies carry the social commentary. The metaphor is integrated, not incidental.

It is this aspect that makes his films more “serious” than the inclusion of zombies might otherwise suggest. Romero’s films have done much to ‘acclimatise’ genre commentary to the idea that horror can (and perhaps should) resonate beyond surface narrative. It’s the way he informs his films with metaphysical and social meaning that drives them—whether or not the audience consciously thinks about it. The zombies never appear “glued on” as a result. In part, the power of the films comes from the

“I mean that the films are always about the people,” he explains. “All of them, even the first one before I really knew what I was doing. To me, the zombies could be Hurricane Katrina, you know. They’re just something that changes everything for the people concerned.”

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

Yet, they’re clearly a very special “something”. Overcome with fannish enthusiasm, I interject to tell him that my favourite of his zombie films—in contradiction to most critics—is Day of the Dead, and precisely by reason

Zo m b i e S p ec i a l F eat u re

King of Horror

of its complex combination of “serious” commentary and out-and-out gore.

Lost crossover

He grins. “Great. I’m glad you like it. It happens to be my favourite of the bunch so far. I like the new one, I think, though I haven’t seen it yet. I need to be a few years away from a new film to take a really good look at it.” I tell him that I like Day of the Dead for its claustrophobic darkness, too. “It’s so unremitting, so bleak. You get to the end and, well, it’s all over really. Its music makes it a bit easier to take,” he laughs. “But seriously, I didn’t know at the time whether it would be over or not. I thought, in fact, it might be the end.” It was interesting that Romero took the Bub character and developed the implications a little further in Land of the Dead. Taking this approach, might not have worked, but Romero’s mastery lies in the fact that he made it work in a convincing way. Under someone else’s guidance, it could have gone too far toward making the zombies the heroes—but Big Daddy is never the hero, he’s more sympathetic. “Bub in Day [of the Dead] is still my favourite guy,” Romero admits. “It’s mostly performance. [Sherman] Howard’s performance is wonderful. He really pulled that off. Anyway, I’m glad you feel that way. So many people fall into the trap—you know, make them fast, make them more threatening somehow. But they’re threatening enough. They don’t need to be any more threatening.” Indeed, a large part of the power of the zombie as an iconic figure lies in their unnatural nature—dead, yet still moving and voracious—not in the mere physical threat that the Dawn of the Dead remake (for example) emphasises. “In Diary [of the Dead], I take a few zings at the fast zombie idea,” Romero confesses. “I couldn’t resist. There’s a sort of running gag—no pun intended!” Romero laughs. “Also, it just doesn’t frighten me. It’s like the Pittsburgh Steelers running at you. It’s just danger, not something unnatural. You could do it with rats; you could do it with snakes. “Well, they did do it with snakes in Snakes on a Plane. Did you see the zombie version, Flight of the Living Dead? Zombies on a plane? “They sent me the script, of course, to see if I wanted to do it. I said no, man!” I ask what zombie films by other people have impressed him. “I love Shaun [of the Dead],” he says. “I just love it. A bunch of my old buddies from Shaun came out to do voiceovers in Diary. It was very flattering that they were willing to.” I ask him about the possibility of Diary 2.

n Diary of the Dead: a delightful

reinterpretation of hospital drama Grey’s Anatomy. Come get some, McDreamy!

“There is a definite possibility … unfortunately,” he shrugs. “It’s one of those situations where they have the right to do it, and if I don’t want to be involved, they can do it anyway. So I’ve written a script, though I don’t know if it’s actually going to happen. I like the script a lot, but it would be the first time that I’ve done what’s really an extension of a particular film and not a new idea that grows out of the concept.” I remark that the others do have some

continuity. He laughs. “If you don’t look too closely. This one is an actual extension— same characters, that sort of thing. Literally, it’s part 2. I said it has to be like that if I have to do it quickly—unless they nuke DC or something … and I have something else to draw on.”

Books

Rocky Wood

f you haven’t seen the hit TV series Lost, start now with Season One on DVD—a few episodes will hook you, and by the time Season Five screens early 2009, you should be fully up-to-date and drooling for more! Lost is a cross-genre suspense show, at least until the ‘secret’ is revealed—it could be science fiction, and it has elements of horror and fantasy. Meanwhile, think The X Files and The Twilight Zone crossed with Survivor and the production standards of 24! What does Stephen King have to do with all this? King began his relationship with the show and its producers like most—as a fan—praising it regularly in his Entertainment Weekly column. Clearly the writers of Lost were also King fans. Subtle allusions became obvious as early as the second season when an imprisoned Ben asked Locke for a Stephen King book to read, and continued as clues thereafter (a technique King himself often uses in his tales). Even The Others book-club read Carrie! Carlton Cuse, Lost writer and executive producer says, “Stephen King is so artful at blending science fiction or horror concepts with really compelling character stories, and that is so much a model for what we are doing on the show. I mean those books of his sustain for 800/1000 pages. Not because of the mythology but because the characters are so damn cool!” In September 2005, King publicly demanded that the Lost writers finish the series properly and not allow it to die the meandering death of so many TV dramas. The US ABC network has recently confirmed that Lost is funded to the completion of the series, and the writers have confirmed proper ‘closure’. Rumours began to abound that King was behind the series, or the linked book, Bad Twin. They were rapidly quashed by his office. The inevitable happened when King and Lost’s creative talent (J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Cuse) met in Los Angeles in October 2006. Both sides praised each other publicly—King was particularly impressed by Lost’s unplotted writing style, which mirrors his own and allows viewers, readers, and writers alike to be shocked by sudden turns of events—including the unexpected death of major characters. The relationship deepened when King apparently offered an option to Abrams and Lindelof to film his magnum opus, The Dark Tower, for nineteen dollars (nineteen is a crucial number in The Dark Tower). However, it seems now that perhaps the option is more of a dare than a deal. The crossovers came full circle when a King character cited Lost in his recent novel Duma Key as the reason someone might be inclined to accept unexplained events! The author’s last word on Lost (and your cue to fire up the DVD player): “Still the best. I rewatched the entire third season to make sure, and—yes—still the best. People are reaching for the stars here. And maybe beyond. Really, there’s never been anything like it!” Rocky Wood is a Melbourne-based freelance writer. He is the author of Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished.

Film

Zo m b i e S p ec i a l F e ature

He considers for a moment. “But there is an aspect to the media theme that I didn’t go into in Diary. One of my biggest fears about the blogsphere is that I don’t think it works to widen people’s understanding or bring people together. People only seek out the opinions of those they already agree with. It creates tribes. There’s no discourse.” This scepticism about contemporary media appears in the earlier films, too—particularly Dawn of the Dead, which begins as the news service becomes increasingly meaningless and chaotic, existing not to help but simply to find some continuity for itself. It turns into talking heads opinionating, cannibalising itself, until finally, it falls silent. In Diary of the Dead, too, the media serves to confuse and isolate. Even worse, its command over ‘spin’ allows it to reinterpret what has happened and confuse the truth. By the same token, it is only the main character’s desire to upload what he records more or less as it happens that offers some sense of hope and purpose. Yet in the end, this hope may be as false and as destructively pointless as the violence of the redneck hunters … Romero downs a quick gin-and-tonic, having received the signal that he has to go to his next appointment. Outside, it is cold and drizzly—an appropriate atmosphere in which to await the apocalypse.

Books

n Two of the world’s leading zombie

brrrraaaaainnnnzzz: Black’s Robert Hood (left) and filmmaker George A. Romero.

I take this opportunity to ask which of his nonzombie films he’d like people to be more familiar with? “My favourite is a film called Martin,” he says with enthusiasm. “It’s a take on vampirism, about a youth who probably isn’t a vampire. And Knightriders. Those are my two favs. In many ways, they’re the most personal.” He is about to say more when our attention is drawn toward the doorway where some sort of kafuffle is taking place. Someone screams. A spray of blood decorates the wall. The milling

HorrorsStore in

The fright stuff Chuck McKenzie

he other day, I was berated by a customer regarding my obvious enthusiasm for horror fiction. “Puerile nastiness,” she opined, “with no redeeming value.” “No redeeming value?” I echoed, incredulously. “Listen, lady, let me tell you a story …” A few weeks ago, with The Wife out for the evening, I was sitting at home perusing a rather fine hardback collection of Marvel Zombies, when a small, quavering voice from behind me asked, “Daddy, why is Spider-Man eating Galactus?” So I explained to my five-year-old son that sometimes when people—and yes,

“

even superheroes—die, they come back as zombies and are compelled to seek out and devour the living. He took it reasonably well and immediately went back to bed, where he fell asleep in the foetal position. See, the world is a terrifying place and the earlier our children learn to cope with that, the better they’ll be equipped to deal with life. It’s all very well to describe the consequences of talking to strangers, or running with scissors, or listening to Alan Jones, but without introducing a real sense of terror into the mix, it’s difficult to get such warnings to stick. F’rinstance, when I was a child, my parents rigorously shielded me from frightening fare of any type (apart from Doctor Who, of course, which—

I explained to my five-year-old son that sometimes when people die, they come back as zombies and are compelled to seek out and devour the living.”

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

crowd parts, and the first in a group of shuffling figures pushes through, hands clutching for any exposed flesh. Half his face is hanging off, cheekbone glittering under a veneer of gore. Behind him, more ghouls force their way in through the doorway, moaning and growling. They move with arthritic awkwardness. “Oh, good,” Romero says, “They’re here!’ He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a gun. “Let’s go!” he yells and aims for the head … Okay, I made that last bit up. But hey! It was that kind of night and a screening of Dawn of the Dead was a mere hour or so away.. n being shown on ABC TV—was above reproach). Then at age six, while spending a night in hospital (gout or alcohol poisoning, I can’t remember which), some bright spark left the ward TV on during a screening of The Omen. I was perpetually soiling myself for weeks afterwards. Ultimately though, that experience changed me for the better, because—as I grew older—my fear of the Coming of the Antichrist evolved into a far more realistic fear of such things as Catholic priests and religious doorknockers. Similarly, I’m confident that my son’s fear of zombies will transmute into a more functional horror of politicians, bank tellers, and pensioners. Every time I read my son a scary story, I’m re-emphasising a vital life-lesson: there are terrifying things out there, and you need to be able to recognise them so you can avoid them. Or shoot them. He’s already learning to factor fear into his everyday existence, you know. The other day, as we drove home from the funeral of an in-law (all in all, a rather pleasant family outing), my son asked matter-of-factly: “Daddy, when people get old, they die, don’t they? And then they bury them in the graveyard, don’t they? And then they come back as zombies, don’t they?” I was so proud. The Wife, not so much. And no, the lady didn’t buy any horror fiction from me. Chuck McKenzie is a Melbourne-based author, editor, and bookshop manager.

B o o k , F i l m , G am e , C o m i c , & M u s i c R e v i e w s

Diary of the Dead (2008) Directed by George A. Romero. [Horror] As the zombie apocalypse subgenre continues to ravage the cinematic countryside, it’s a pleasure to see a new addition to the scene by the genre’s creator, George A. Romero. In Diary of the Dead, he pulls back from the end-of-world spectacle of his previous zombie film Land of the Dead and returns the mythology to the beginning. Not the beginning as it exists in the original continuity, however. The new film doesn’t take place in 1968 but in 2007. It depicts the beginning of the plague transposed to the present, here captured on the new digital media and filtered through the sensibilities of the current generation.

A group of film students—not unlike Romero and his accomplices as they were in 1968 while making Night of the Living Dead, one suspects —are filming a schlocky mummy movie when the zombies start walking the Earth. The student director, Jason Creed, copes with his own existential fear by determining to document the whole thing on film, to the amazement, and often annoyance, of his friends. As they travel across an increasingly ravaged countryside, Jason’s documentary becomes a way of spreading the truth about what is happening, though in the end, like all knowledge, the living dead and the survivors of a crumbling society may render such truth meaningless. To me, after watching many zombie films inspired by Romero, Diary feels like the real thing. It is involving, stark and typically intelligent—a potent mix of gory action, believable characters, socio-political satire, and undead metaphysics. Once again, Romero cannily prods his self-created clichés into new life. Robert Hood disturbed by loud nosies and suspicious masked people staring at them. Here we are introduced to three future horror icons: Man in the Mask, Pin-up Girl, and Doll-face. They spend the night terrorising the couple as they fight for survial.

The Strangers (2008) Directed by Bryan Bertino. Stars Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward. [Thriller] A simple story. The Strangers is the latest home invasion themed film popular in horror of late. It’s all about survival when that crazy person comes knocking at your door … Set away from the city lights, a young couple head to a house in the woods. Their relationship is on the rocks, but we are not bored with finer details. After settling in, they are

Zombie Strippers (2008) Directed by Jay Lee. Stars Jenna Jameson, Robert England, Roxy Saint. [Horror] From the title, you know not to expect the next Dawn of the Dead, right? The government’s experiment to reanimate the dead for use as soldiers leads to test subjects getting out of hand at a military facility. An elite (and comical) team are called in to destroy the zombies before they break free. One member is bitten in the process and when he learns the fate of the infected, he escapes.

With minimal dialogue to enhance the tense pacing, writer/director Bryan Bertino uses music to create an ominous and uncomfortable mood that blends in the madness of the night. The chilliness of masked stalkers creeping up behind unaware victims is matched with shocks that will make you jump out of your seat. The downside is the unoriginal story line. If it’s not a remake of the French film Ils (‘Them’), then surely it’s a rip off. Despite this, you’ll be in for a scare. And isn’t that what we all came for? Simply, a scary movie. Troy King Lucky for him, there is a strip club next door where he can hide. Unlucky for the club, he is carrying more germs than any of the strippers, and spread them he does. Nightclub owner Robert England sees the benefit. It turns out the undead pole dancers are more popular than the live ones, but the problem is they keep eating the customers. Some of the comedy could be considered funny, but with the majority of the cast’s limited acting abilities, they just don’t have the skills to pull off a genuine comedy film. Robert England tries his best with what he is given, while Jenna Jameson looks understandably most comfortable actually stripping on stage. If you like your zombies naked and your strip club bloody, then this is for you. For all others, you’d probably get more substance out of watching some of Jenna’s other films. Troy King

Snapshot DVD reviews Teeth (2007) A high school virgin discovers she has a set of teeth between her legs in this brilliant coming-of-age story of sexual discovery. Seamlessly blending jet-black humour with gross-out gore, this sets the bar for femme fatales of the 21st century.

The Cottage (2008) Three dim-witted crims get more than they bargained for when they hole up in a secluded farmhouse following a bungled kidnapping. This UK gem trades biting farcical humour with a traditional slasher premise to create one of the sharpest satires of the year.

The Last Winter (2007) An oil exploration team at an isolated base on the polar cap contend with an unseen presence in this exceptional slow-burning thriller. Themes of paranoia and despair fuel the atmosphere in a film that proves the human mind can be more frightening than any supernatural beast.

Death Sentence (2007) Saw co-creator James Wan’s latest effort is a delightfully violent revenge flick based on a novel by Brian Garfield. This moving and bloody suspense actioner has similarities to The Crow and is a top notch direct-to-DVD film. Kevin Bacon’s lead performance is powerful and convincing.

Otis (2008) Director Tony Krantz delivers a cracking tale about a love-struck loser who kidnaps teens and makes them act out his high school prom fantasies. Otis mixes deadpan humour, gory violence, and a surprisingly sympathetic love story in what is sure to be a cult favourite.

Untraceable (2008) Silence of the Lambs meets Hackers in this techno-age thriller about a killer who streams his victim’s deaths live on the internet. A sluggish pace hinders an otherwise effective film that questions the impact of the public’s obsession with death.

Starship Troopers: Marauder (2008) Even the reuniting of the original star and screenwriter can’t return this politically savvy sci-fi franchise to its glorious roots. An anti-war message and parables to a communist society are drummed out adnausea but there are some fun action sequences for those prepared to sit through the lecture.

Dragon Wars (2007) Dino-riders meets Mortal Kombat in this average giant monster movie about an ancient Japanese dragon that is unleashed in modern day America. Apart from some flashy CGI, there is not much here to recommend.

Movies

Books

Black Box, edited by Shane Jiraiya Cummings

The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett

Horror CD-ROM anthology: Brimstone Press

Dark fantasy: HarperCollins Voyager

Black Box, the sequel to Shadow Box, edited—or should that be created, as it’s more a meeting of different artistic talents than a simple compilation of authors works—by Shane Jiraiya Cummings.

Three centuries ago, the demons appeared, and now the surviving humans exist in remote hamlets and cities, keeping in touch via messengers who brave the wastes between. Only the wards—ancient symbols of power—keep the demons at bay as they rise each night, seeking prey. Young Arlen lives with his parents near the hamlet of Tibbet’s Brook, hiding behind the wards as he has done his whole life. However, when Arlen’s world suddenly falls to a demon attack, he realises it is fear rather than the demons themselves which cripples humanity…

Black magazine is the perfect vehicle for the initial review of this very different type of anthology because it is aimed very much at the alternative dark culture swirling beneath Australia’s apathetic, middle-class exterior. With input from 95 authors, musicians, and graphic artists, the editor has managed to produce an amazing product. Included is a bonus audio CD containing the music in the anthology, so you can take the lingering seeds of fear you’ve just read with you. Personal favourites include stories by Kurt Newton, David Conyers, and Lyn Battersby’s brilliantly funny “The Wedding Dress”. The music is very alternative but even an old mainstreamer like me found pieces to enjoy. The only downside was the inserted sound effects for the stories. Perhaps Talie Helene’s incredibly moving Gothic Electronica piece titled “The Black Queen” looped in the background may have been better than the chosen short sound effects. But because it’s liberally sprinkled with darkly written gems, and some amazing audio content, it easily overcomes this minor shortfall. Brenton Tomlinson

Hell’s Fire by Chris Simms Crime/Thriller: Hachette Livre Chris Simms proves once again he deserves to be one of Waterstones’ ‘Authors of the Future’ with his fourth Gothic-laced DI Jon Spicer crime novel. Four churches have been burnt in Manchester, a charred body found at the latest below pagan symbols. Jon searches for a missing teen who holds the vital link, stumbling into an oft-shaded world where a metal band is God and witches and spiritualists thrive in a psychic academy. The killer may be obvious, but there are so many red herrings, Jon can’t help but find out at the last minute. Great (though convenient) subtexts, fantastic flow, and pace, and an emotionally likeable character. Craig Bezant

The Low Road by Chris Womersley General fiction: Scribe Lee is a young ex-con on the run with a suitcase full of money (not his) and a bullet lodged in his abdomen. Wild is a disgraced junkie doctor facing a manslaughter charge and has become Lee’s unwilling accomplice. Josef is an ageing gangster sent to track down Lee, kill him, and get the money back. On the surface, it is not a very promising premise for a novel. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to join the dots and work out where the story is headed. Thankfully, though, the plot is not the main attraction here. It’s the author’s attention to detail, fleshing out his three main characters and filling us in on their back stories, that pulls this novel out of cliché territory. This is a story of the past and how it dooms some people to make unwise but inevitable choices. The writing is quite beautiful in contrast to the gritty situations being described, but pleasingly, the effect isn’t jarring.

The Painted Man was literally ‘unputdownable’, and certainly deserves to be the next Big Thing in dark fantasy. The author kicks off the action from the first page, leaving the reader to catch up. The plot is rich, detailed, and action-packed, the various themes, while familiar, are largely approached from fresh perspectives, the characters are well developed and intriguingly flawed, the world-building is fresh and exciting, and the conclusion guarantees to draw the reader into the second book of the trilogy. If ever there was a ‘must-read’ book, this is it. Chuck McKenzie

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris Paranormal fiction: Hachette Livre From Dead to Worse is the latest in Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries series. Telepath and waitress Sookie Stackhouse finds herself involved in a Were-creature power struggle as well as the attempt of Vegas vampires to take over Louisiana, as well as dealing with problems of her own on a more personal level. Fans of the series won’t be disappointed, though others might find it difficult to enjoy this book due to a lack of stand-alone or central plot. Stephanie Gunn

Neuropath by Scott Bakker Crime/Thriller: Hachette Livre Professor Thomas Bible’s world has upturned. With a visit from the FBI, he learns his best friend, Neil, has been testing what he and Neil dubbed ‘The Argument’, which proposes, amongst other things, that free will does not exist. Neil has apparently taken to demonstrating the illusionary construct of our mind, making people kill themselves via suggestion, and sees nothing wrong with this. Thomas is forced to work closely with Agent Sam Logan, piecing together Neil’s true intentions and whereabouts as more bodies turn up. The scientific theme and dialogue can be heavy at times, suiting the Professor, but multiple tense scenes and a killer finale make reparations. Craig Bezant The House of Lost Souls by FG Cottam Horror: Hachette Livre

If it’s a standard thriller with convoluted twists that you’re after, it might be better to look elsewhere. On the other hand, if you enjoy deft characterisation and well executed imagery, give this self-assured debut novel a go.

FG Cottam’s debut novel grips the reader from page one with its relentlessly eerie and striking prose. Fischer House is one of the most malevolent and bone-chilling structures since the Overlook Hotel, psychologically tormenting those who enter and driving them to extreme measures of escape from the evil force that haunts them. Cottam’s protagonist, Paul Seaton, is both tragic and identifiable. He remains the only hope for a group of girls who have recently entered Fischer House. One has already committed suicide. Can Paul save the others from a terrifying fate? Highly recommended.

Tony Owens

AD John

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

r e v i e w s a v a i l ab l e a t

HorrorScope

online: http://ozhorrorscope.blogspot.com

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz

The Opposite of Life by Narelle M. Harris

Supernatural thriller: HarperCollins

Paranormal fiction: Pulp Fiction Press

Writer guarantor Dean Koontz returns with the fourth thriller in his fabled Odd Thomas novels—a saga that has proved to be charged with an unrivalled mystique buoyed by the strength of the title character. This time, the fog shrouded streets of Magic Beach serve as centrestage for Odd and his unusual brand of heroics.

Narrelle M. Harris manages to dodge the clichés of the chick-lit vampire genre with The Opposite of Life. What makes this offering so diverse and involving are the characters and their uniquely Australian setting. Lissa Wilson is a librarian, a job she utterly adores. Her work seems to be Lissa’s only solid rock, that and her delightfully dutiful sister Kate. The rest of her life seems plagued by death and tragedy, which follows Lissa wherever she goes. One night, she finds two girls in a local nightclub’s bathroom with their throats torn out. Soon, more people are brutally murdered around her. This instigates a detective-like plot where Lissa feels compelled to discover who is committing these murders and stop them before they can kill again.

A different task has beset Odd: to help the living and not the dead. For his apocalyptic dreams have led him to enigmatic Annamaria, a pregnant lady who’s mystery almost outweighs Odd’s own exploits. Hunted by a cabal of thugs who work for the Harbor Department and use the city’s streets as their playground, Odd is tested to the limits as supernatural revelations take on new meaning and depth. In this volume, Koontz’s prose is as succinct as ever, and although the action is somewhat sluggish compared to previous adventures, the author makes up for it with brutish violence and tasty irony. Joining him on his journey is the peeved ghost of Frank Sinatra and a spirit dog named Boo. At times, the reader can get lost in the guessing game and metaphor, but ultimately Koontz’s knight delivers sufficient entertainment.

Harris’s novel is completely removed from your standard carbon-copy Buffy book, offering characters that seem almost real and ready to leap from the page. The study of Melbourne street culture is also an interesting drawcard. For those of you who are tired of rereading your dog eared copies of Twilight or New Moon, pick up a copy of this novel. You won’t be disappointed. AD John

Matthew Tait Song for Night by Chris Abani

Beneath the Bloodwood Tree by Julienne van Loon

General fiction: Scribe

General fiction: Allen & Unwin

Forget the terrors of the fantastic. Nigerian born Chris Abani’s second novella captures the graphic realities of war-torn Africa with a detached and lyrical eye more effective than any imagined horror. The first-person narrator, known only as My Luck, has been a soldier since the age of 12. He’s part of a landmine-clearing crew, their vocal chords cut to prevent their screams. Detached from the unit that he leads, My Luck silently wanders his ravaged land, with Abani’s sparse and haunting prose leading us slowly and carefully towards the final haunting realisation of My Luck’s journey.

Beneath the Bloodwood Tree is Australian author van Loon’s second novel. Set in Port Hedland, it follows dentist Pia Ricci as she discovers a forgotten bundle of clothing and money buried on the outskirts of town and deals with the changes this discovery makes in her own life. At times dream-like, the prose is always firmly grounded in the Australian countryside. Van Loon weaves a deft net with her words, drawing the reader deep into intertwining mysteries. A very worthwhile read.

Andrew McKiernan Sex and the Single Vampire by Katie MacAlister Paranormal fiction: Hachette Livre This paranormal romance, the second in MacAlister’s “Dark Ones” series, introduces Allegra Telford, a summoner of spirits who finds herself entangled with a Dark One (MacAlister’s take on modern vampires), Christian Dante. This book is very reminscent of Buffy in tone but doesn’t quite make it to the same level of entertainment. Good for a light read, but many will find some of the writing to be stilted and the plot clichéd. Stephanie Gunn

Voodoo Doll by Leah Giarratano Crime/Thriller: Bantam Author Dr Leah Giarratano uses her vast experience as a psychologist to full effect in the fleshing out of believably flawed characters in this easy-to-read Australian crime novel. Although predictable in places and the characters have some overly convenient abilities or job descriptions, the book is well-paced and refreshingly familiar in its Australian content—a nice change to the American cop shows that saturate our television screens. This is the second book in the series with Jill Jackson of the NSW Police as its main character but this novel easily stands on its own. Brenton Tomlinson

Stephanie Gunn

The Daughters of Moab by Kim Westwood Fantasy: HarperCollins Voyager Once you get past the peculiarity of this novel being written in present tense, you start to get a real feel for the urgency inherent in its character’s lives. They’re all racing against something—against oppression, time, their genes, the landscape, and most importantly, against the past. A distinctly Australian past. Aurealis Award- and Varuna Fellowship-recipient Kim Westwood’s post-apocalyptic first novel is redolent with echoes of Australia’s long history of cultural wrongs. The ghosts of the ‘Stolen Generation’ and immigrant detention feature prominently, but the novel’s sense of immediacy also confronts us with a future we should be addressing now—climate change, fundamentalist politics, genetic modification, and human fertility. The way in which Westwood weaves all this into an entertaining mix of Mad Max meets Children of Men with a dash of Canticle for Leibowitz prevents it from ever becoming preachy. There is too much going on, too much action, for the message to obscure the story. Yet, this is no popcorn-action novel either. The writing is just too good for that. This is an intelligent, fast-paced, and haunting look at one possible future for Australia. That future may be bleak, but I see only bright things for Kim Westwood. Andrew McKiernan

Books 33

The List: Commandments I & II Dog with a Bone Studios (2007). [Horror comic] The Horseman (2008)

Written by Paul Bedford, illustrated by Henry Popiena, cover by Tom Bonin.

Directed by Steven Kastrissios. [Revenge Thriller] The title of this independent revenge thriller is a reference to Revelations 6:8 and its horseman of the Apocalypse: “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death …” It encapsulates much about the nature, tone, and themes of director Kastrissios’ powerful movie. The Horseman veers toward drama rather than the more gaudy generic qualities that its genesis as a “revenge” flick might suggest. Though violent and unflinching, with excellent fight sequences choreographed by King Kong alumni Chris Anderson, it is powerfully emotional as it attempts to depict not just gruesome retribution but also what would drive an ordinary man to throw his life away by becoming an avenging killer. Christian is a father whose daughter has been found dead in an alley, having choked on her own vomit. At the same time, he receives a porn video in the mail—a video in which his daughter ‘stars’—and it sends him on a quest to find out what really happened. Torturing information from each culprit as he follows the links from one to the next, he leaves an escalating body count in his wake. Only a young woman he picks up along the way, who reminds him of his lost daughter, offers him any salvation—but it already may be too late. The film starts mid-action and relies on the story itself to fill in necessary background through the narrative’s imagery and dramatically tight dialogue rather than lengthy flashbacks. It becomes part of the film’s driving force. Lead Peter Marshall’s performance is stunning, both hard-hitting and subtle, combining anger, despair, and utter fragility in every action, every word. The Horseman is an impressive work. Acknowledging its small budget is in this case not necessary in order to justify any technical or conceptual flaws, but does emphasise what a remarkable achievement it really is. Highly recommended.

Siberian Productions (2005-2008). [Horror comic] By Hayden Fryer.

As you might expect from the title, this is a bit like Buffy. We have a high school setting, smart dialogue (or smartarse, anyway), and much monstrous carnage. But Billy is the Anti-Christ, and can swap his hands for chainsaws or a sword, which must come in useful at parties. The comic has been around since 2002, and we’re currently deep into the second volume, which should be finished by the end of the year. It is a convoluted story of the invasion of Walksville (somewhere in Sydney) by the hordes of Hell. With various factions vying for control, it’s a bit hard to work out what is going on. The art is fairly rough too, but the whole achieves a sort of cheerful chaos that is worth a look. David Carroll

Batman’s mythology is explored in this impressive collection of six animated shorts that bridge events between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

Directed by Jon Hewitt. [Thriller] Acolytes is a teen-oriented dark thriller, in which a pair of high school students, who have been brutalised by a local thug and are still being terrorised by him, stumble upon a serial killer and decide to blackmail him into ridding them of their nemesis. Along with a female friend, they find that messing with serial killers may not be the brightest thing they’ve ever done. With a background in exploitation cinema (Bloodlust, Redball), director Hewitt brings a hard energy to the story, dragging you over occasional lapses in conviction with the sheer force of his hard-arse filmmaking skills. The Queensland-shot thriller pushes all the right buttons and has a knowledgeable professionalism and a stylishness that, at times, gives it an arthouse ambiance. Not that this diminishes its genre credentials. Its often brutal approach and youthful cast are strong enough to make you care about what is going on, despite the dubious nature of the action the boys have taken. Holly Baldwin’s performance as Tanya Lee is particularly convincing and provides a central focus for audience sympathy. My only reservation lies in the characterisation of the boys. It is clear how Hewitt wants to rationalise their actions, but as the film proceeded, I too often felt that they just weren’t outriders enough—or stupid enough—to adopt the dangerous course of action they grasp onto so readily. The twists that occur toward the climax, however, do much to justify the narrative’s hidden logic. Acolytes’ target audience will love the film for its harsh energy and respect for their intelligence, while its cinematic qualities should open it up to a wider genre audience. Acolytes has been received well on the international festival circuit and looks set for a 2009 theatrical release in Australia. Robert Hood

HorrorScope

o n l i n e : h t t p :// o z h o r r o r s c o p e . b l o g s p o t . c o m

Billy: Demon Slayer, vol 2, #1-6

[Animated action/superhero]

Acolytes (2008)

r e v i e w s ava i l ab l e at

Comics

David Carroll

Batman: Gotham Knight (2008)

Robert Hood

This is the first volume of a stark new horror comic about religion, madness, and violence: all that good stuff. The List of the title is a series of commandments, and we follow a young man as he sets out on his divinely inspired task. We’re not really sure what that entails just yet, but given the number of blades involved, and the fate of his mother (“the sacrifice”), it’s going to be messy. The dark mood is well supported by the art, which is sometimes sketchy but often beautiful, and the comic nicely contrasts its shocks with a more normal life. It’s a handsome package, and shows a lot of potential for future instalments.

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

Written by screenwriters including David Goyer (Batman Begins), Josh Olson (A History of Violence) and Alan Burnett (Batman: the Animated Series)and animated in a range of traditional anime styles—this dark, adult collection beautifully chronicles the caped crusader’s rise from novice crime fighter to revered superhero. Like The Animatrix, the filmmakers make the most of the freedom that comes with animation—using the art form to explore storylines and visual angles that could not be captured on film. Gotham Knight is marketed as a movie tie-in, but it’s really a themed collection of stand-alone short stories. Treat it as such and you’ll love every minute, but try too hard to make a narrative connection and you’ll miss the point. Mark Smith-Briggs Superman: Doomsday (2008) [Animated action/superhero] With the rampant success of The Dark Knight and the animated tie-in Batman: Gotham Knight, it was easy to overlook the release of Superman: Doomsday. Retelling the ‘Death of Superman’ comic story that rocked the world back in the 90s, this movie chronicles the Man of Steel’s fateful confrontation with the seemingly unstoppable monster Doomsday. How Lois, Jimmy, Perry White, and even Lex Luthor deal with the ensuing tragedy is the real crux of this movie, elevating Superman: Doomsday to an emotional complexity far beyond the average animated adventure. The return of Superman (or is it?) serves to muddy the emotionally conflicted lives of the main characters. This is Superman for adults and it is refreshingly brilliant! Superman: Doomsday is one of the best movies released in 2008, animated or otherwise. And for the Supergeeks, look out for the Kevin Smith-esque nod to the giant spider.

Movies

Shane Jiraiya Cummings

Guillermo del Toro:

From Hell, W

hen asked about influences, the man behind dark cinematic visions such as Pan’s Labyrinth, Blade II, and of course, the Hellboy movies does not cite the rich tapestry of Latin American mythology—he alludes to his childhood in Mexico ...

Film

with love By Gary Kemble

n So let me get this straight ... in this movie, I’m fighting

albino elves and that eyeless fairy from Pan’s Labyrinth? Isn’t this more a Viggo Mortenson thing?

Film

“When I was a kid I had nannies, and the nannies would tell me bedtime stories, and all the bedtime stories involved dismemberment, and Devil worship, and monsters—they were pretty sick individuals, I think,” he chuckled. “And then after that, I had the Catholic religion in Mexico, which is particularly gruesome. “You know the saints and the sculptures in Mexico, other than the Philippines, I believe they’re the bloodiest sculptures you can get. “In America, you have this white, blue-eyed Jesus having sort of a quiet moment on the cross impeccably. In Mexico, you have a guy who is purple and green with a huge bruise and is bleeding everywhere.” He says he was also influenced by Mexican comic books and Mexican authors such as Juan Rulfo. “They didn’t have the moral code of America, so in the comics in Mexico, you had murder, incest, dismemberment, eye-gouging, disembowelling—all the things that are great for a growing child. “I had a steady diet of that, plus … before the age of 11, I had seen more corpses [in Mexico] than an ambulance driver. Just because we’d be driving around or walking around and somebody would be shot or be run over. “I don’t know why, but I had the misfortune to be exposed to a lot of violence as a kid.” Having grown up on Mexican comic books as well as a steady diet of Len Wein and Berni Wrightson’s Swamp Thing, Jack Kirby’s The Demon, and Stan Lee’s Dr Strange, Hellboy was the project that convinced del Toro to give Hollywood one more shot after the Mimic debacle. “I had done Mimic, and it was the equivalent of going through the experience of picking up the soap in prison,” he said. “After that, I swore I was going to do small movies, but Hellboy was powerful enough to make me go back, risking that it could have

n Don’t bring a diving suit to a gunfight. Abe,

Hellboy, and Liz remembered this golden rule.

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

been the same experience all over again. It wasn’t, but it could’ve been.” Del Toro says that while making Hellboy, he thought he was being completely faithful to Mignola’s comic. “I now see the first movie and I see the differences, massive differences in some cases, between the comic and the movie. “So this second time, Mike [Mignola] and I co-plotted the story, but I also felt more free to create a world that eventually felt right and felt faithful to the universe of the first movie, but we were very much involved together. “He was there in pre-production, like the first time. He was there in [the] design stages. He was there in the beginning of pre-production in Hungary, in Budapest. Both times, he got very, very sick. The only difference is in the second movie he did not drop his cell phone into the toilet, which in the first movie he did. “Then he was here when we were recording the music with Danny Elfman in Abbey Road studios here in London, and he was here for about a week. He was with me watching the editing, and we spent the night with Danny Elfman in a haunted room in a hotel.” He says that it comes down to finding the right balance between reverence to the source material and being faithful to his own interpretation of it. “I think you can be too slavish and end up being sort of castrated or limited, but if you take those limitations as an impulse to remember your original love for the material, you can enjoy it. “Chances are, no matter what you do, you’re going to piss off some people. It’s impossible to adapt the material without making some people angry. “So I think you have to always be faithful to the source but also faithful to your own instincts to a point.

Selma Blair: Stand by your demon Selma Blair returns in Hellboy II as Liz Sherman, a pyrokinetic who fell in love with Hellboy in the first film and worked for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD).

Madness Scaling the Mountains of o hear that Guillerm ft will be happy to c ssi cla e th g Fans of H P Lovecra tin ap his dream of ad ing rsu pu ll sti is ro del To ess. Mountains of Madn horror tale At The was continuing to nova-goers that he Del Toro told Supa st out on the street financing. “I was ju move forward with y well. But I am at didn’t work reall with a hat, but th erica on Sunday, Am to people; I go back re mo th wi ing et me a financier—and on Monday is with and my first meeting I’m still struggling.” o; I think that lay several years ag np ee scr at th e ot “We wr I know. it online from what you can even read nt to take it down?’ saying, ‘Do you wa “I got a few emails to make it, at least we’re never going and I said, ‘Why? If we were trying.’ they will know what ise you, within ke it. If not, I prom ma to t ge I pe ho I “So e a damn, and I’ll half, I just won’t giv the next year and a the maquettes and the photographs of post on our website people see what we created and let models and images we couldn’t do.”

“And I think that’s the challenge—to make it a movie. You’re not making a comic; you’re making a movie based on the comic. “And as a fan, you’re the first censor. If you don’t allow yourself to enjoy it because it’s completely different then you’re not trusting your instincts. It’s dangerous. It’s something you have to do very carefully.” Hellboy was favourably received and came in at number 13 on Rotten Tomatoes’ ‘Comix Worst to Best’ countdown (where 1 is best and 94 is worst). Similarly, Hellboy II has been largely welcomed by film critics, although del Toro says some people will never accept love between woman and demon. “When we were doing the first Hellboy, there were certain countries in the world that … rejected the idea of a romance between a guy that was red and a human girl.

While it took Liz a while to warm up (so to speak) in the first film, Blair says her character has become a more integral part of the BPRD. “Liz has really matured, and she’s in a relationship with Hellboy; time has passed, and she really has taken more control of her power—she’s a different woman now. She’s really evolved and she kicks more ass.” Director Guillermo del Toro takes it one step further: “She kicks major ass.” “She uses the gun for precision work, but if there’s a big area to sweep, that’s the fire—and she uses both. “Also, there’s a little bit of a change because in the first movie you saw what Hellboy would do for her, but what I like about the second movie is that you get to see the reciprocity of what she is capable of doing for him—which is great.” But Blair, who until Hellboy, was better known for roles in comedies Legally Blonde and The Sweetest Thing, says becoming an action star was not easy for her. “Guillermo had so much patience to put up with me because everyone else could do all these things with prosthetics, and I’m the fool that [when] I had to shoot a gun, he had to come and tell me, ‘That’s great, but next time could you not say bang bang when the camera’s rolling’.” While laughing, she explained, “Because it’s so weird for me to shoot a gun without going bang bang, and I forget that I’m on film, and I’m supposed to be playing a very capable woman who doesn’t say bang bang when her gun is firing.” Blair says she has cherished every moment and doesn’t have a bad word to say about del Toro, despite him light-heartedly dubbing her ‘Monkeybrains’, due to her self-confessed inability to walk and talk at the same time. “Working with Guillermo, having the ability to walk into his imagination on set everyday is the greatest gift. I love him, I love his films. “It feels real, he creates these monsters—it doesn’t feel like science fiction, that’s what’s amazing. “I didn’t grow up with an imagination like that, so it’s just remarkable and wonderful, and I feel blessed.” n

“When the movie got rejected on that basis, that’s when I said, well we’ve got to continue that—if it’s rubbing people the wrong way, we have to rub them even harder. “What I think is the beauty of the story between the two is that they represent the ultimate outcasts in a way—it’s not beauty and the beast … it’s beast and the beast. “And in this second movie, when we were testing some of the posters, the same countries … were outraged that a human girl would be having contact with a non-human creature, so I’m happy to say that whatever happens between Liz and Hellboy will anger some people that I’m very happy to make angry.” n

n Girl meets (Hell) Boy. A classic romance.

Melbourne International Film Festival highlights

Film

Jon Hewitt: Bloodlust for Acolytes By Robert Hood

on Hewitt is a man with a passion for exploitation cinema. His first film was Bloodlust—a 1992 vampire gangster flick that was funded by the Melbourne criminal underworld. You have to admire such crosspollinisation between life and art. His latest film is Acolytes—a dark teen thriller.

BLACK: When did it all start for you? Jon Hewitt: Sometime in 1975. I was fifteen and I saw Stone at the Regent Cinema in Albury, even though it was R-rated. It was the very first film I’d ever seen in my life that had characters in it that were familiar to me. I always loved going to the pictures but it was all Stork, Alvin Purple and Barry McKenzie—even though they were Aussie films, those characters might as well have come from Mars as far as I was concerned. So seeing Stone, that’s when I first had this idea that films could be about real life and tell stories about the people around you. BLACK: How did your first film come about? JH: Through some pretty nefarious connections in the burgeoning video trade. A lot of cowboys and sharks and shysters and dangerous people were involved in the early days of video in Australia. Not even borderline gangsters, I mean real gangster types, laundering money, god knows what. These dudes had just paid like $100,000 US for the Australian video rights of a third-rate kickboxer dude and they reckoned they were going to make a bundle. This is 1986. When they told me, I said, off the cuff, “Give me fifty grand and I’ll

make you a movie with everything in it—sex, violence, whatever you want … it’ll be great.” And they called my bluff. So that led to myself and a friend [Richard Wolstencroft] writing a script called Bloodlust—a vampire/gangster heist film—and they eventually came up with the money. But it was one of those situations where it was “Here’s the dough and if you don’t deliver we’re going to kill you.” Okay, I don’t think they’d literally kill me, but they’d sure fuck me up. BLACK: So how did Bloodlust go? JH: It’s a terrible film but you’ve got to learn somewhere, right? Yet, in the end it, was one of the most successful Australian-made video releases ever, especially for the guys who funded it—thank the Lord! It sold very well internationally, too—and was the only Australian film ever banned in the UK: I’m very proud of that. It’s a shit film, but it’s got a life of its own and I love it. BLACK: Did it lead to anything? JH: After that, all the traditional funding in Australia closed—well, never really open, but thanks to they were hermetically sealed.

“

Acolytes has intelligence, obtuse themes, strong subtextual things going on—it’s not some dunderheaded crap.”

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

sources of they were Bloodlust, The film’s

full of tits, arse, drugs, sex, violence, and it offends everyone. But in the late 1990s, I got to make Redball, which was a cop film and rather influential in many ways. We went for the sort of dark, dirty look of Seven—and it definitely influenced subsequent Australian films like Chopper. BLACK: How did Acolytes come about? JH: I was working on a self-financed film called Darklovestory—about lovers who have the night from hell in Kings Cross. I tried to make something buoyant and happy, but it’s just not in me. I couldn’t do it. So I made it darker, which I feel more comfortable with. It’s more interesting anyway. Two independent Queensland producers, Penny Wall and Richard Stewart, came to me with a script in play at FFC [Film Finance Corporation]. For a window of time after Wolf Creek had some success, the bureaucrats were thinking why don’t we make more horror films. The Acolyte script was—well, not a horror film, but a sort of dark thriller with teenagers. So

Books

Criminal Noir

Just the facts

Josephine Pennicott

I n Jon Hewitt (fourth from left) wth his Acolytes.

they came to me on the suggestion of Tate Brady at the FFC—and you know all you’ve got to do is ask, I’ll fuckin’ do anything. So I said yeah I’ll do it. I re-wrote the script dozens of times and jumped through all the usual hoops and we finally got into production, shot the film in Queensland, and posted it through 2007. It’s done well at festivals but the really big score is Midnight Madness in Toronto. Two weeks ago, we were just another movie, internationally, but Toronto is the big one and there’s only ten spots in Midnight Madness. BLACK: Tell us about the film. JH: Acolytes is a thriller about some emotionally damaged teens who stumble upon a serial killer and blackmail him into dealing with a local thug who’s making their lives hell. Naturally all doesn’t go to plan. It’s aimed at a 15 to 18 year-old demographic, which makes it an incredibly rare beast in this country. Most Australian films are arthouse films aimed at an ageing baby-boomer audience—so this is quite different. BLACK: Will we be seeing Acolytes in the cinema? JH: I’d say definitely, in 2009 probably. It’s a slow process. Some distributors are saying it’s an arthouse film made for teenagers— and the two don’t go together. It has intelligence, obtuse themes, strong subtextual things going on—it’s not some dunderheaded crap. It’s dark and disturbing and works with a slow burn … a cool intelligent film. As a filmmaker, the thing I like to do is marry strong generic elements with something a bit more ambitious—like intelligence or art or fuckin’ whatever you want to call it. And that’s what I’ve done here. n

met true-crime writer John Suter Linton at my agent’s annual awards-night dinner, when my partner and I arrived to find our regular table of writerly friends was full. We had the challenge of mixing with … STRANGERS. But the Goddess of Crime Writing must have been high-fiving, smashing skulls together and gyrating in triumph, because we ended up at John Suter Linton’s table. John Suter Linton is like one of those gentlemanly detectives or reporters in a 1940s film noir. I can visualise him in fedora and braces, scotch in hand, with a beautiful blonde in glasses typing dictation as he barks, “Just the facts, Ma’am. Give me the facts.” John’s father introduced him to crime. “He was a printer with the Sydney Morning Herald during the 60s and 70s,” says John. “In place of nursery stories, he’d tell me stories about local crime figures and their exploits. He’d often drink with the likes of Darcy Dugan at the Journalists’ Club. I’d also overhear the more gruesome details as he spoke with my mother. It was a small place and the walls were thin.” As a schoolkid, John read 25-cent true crime magazines about infamous and unsolved crimes dating back to the 40s. “Some of the crime-scene photos would give me nightmares.” Each of John’s books were written for different reasons. His first, The Stranger You Know, examines the convicted perpetrator’s denial of killing and decapitating Kim Barry in 1981, while Bound by Blood (covering the 1998 murder of ex-Lord Mayor of Wollongong Frank Arkell) and An Almost Perfect Murder gave the victims a voice and corrected some rumours. His latest book, Murder at Anna Bay, focuses on one cop’s determination to see justice done. Why do we like reading about crime? “We’re fascinated by how someone can take another’s life,” John says. “We know we can’t do it, so we want to know why someone can—and what circumstances occurred for such a heinous crime to be committed.” The potential for evil, John believes, is an inherent part of our makeup. “A person’s upbringing is extremely important. What separates an organised killer or violent serial offender from mainstream society is their lack of accepting responsibility for their actions. They are motivated by control, and the ultimate demonstration of control is having someone’s life in their hands.” In all the crimes he’s covered, John has no sympathy or empathy for the killers. “All have known the consequences of their actions, but have chosen to ignore it, fulfilling their own selfish bloodlust or greed.” One last, burning question: what does he read to his adorable fouryear-old son? “Unlike my father, I read my son various children’s books. We also make up stories where he’s the central character and sets the scene. Even though he always puts in monsters, I weave the story to make them misunderstood, and everyone ends up as friends. He’ll be exposed to enough gore when he’s older; I want him to be an innocent right now.” Signing off with a bloody quill Josephine Pennicott is a crime writer who has published three dark fantasy novels and won both the Scarlet Stiletto and Kerry Greenwood Prize.

Melbourne International Film Festival highlights

Film

Steven Kastrissios: Riding with The

Horseman By Robert Hood

teven Kastrissios is a young Brisbane filmmaker whose debut thriller, The Horseman, recently premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival. If the result is anything to go by, he is destined for great things. BLACK: What is The Horseman about? Steven Kastrissios: Revenge. In the beginning we don’t even know if there’s been a crime. It’s just that the protagonist’s daughter has died. He gets a porn video sent to him anonymously, showing her in a very questionable situation, and so he follows the links to whoever was involved in it. He wants to find out what happened, who was responsible—and as he does, the body count rises. BLACK: How would you characterise the film in genre terms? SK: It’s a revenge movie so there’s lots of blood and guts, but the whole point was to take that B-grade, very popular, well-trodden concept and treat it really, really seriously. How would the scenario really go down? Yet though revenge-action in concept, The Horseman has the qualities of a drama. I suppose if I had to characterise the film to a general audience, it’s a Hollywood story

made with the sensibilities of a Europeanstyle film. Among Australian genre films, the closest I could compare it to is Wolf Creek. But that’s a slasher film and this is revenge and the way the audience responds is quite different. There’s very high emotional engagement with Christian [the father]. The violence is not silly or over-the-top, it’s not cartoony, it’s not clichéd. I wanted it to be real. The lead actor Peter Marshall delivers a phenomenal performance.

n Steven Kastrissios’ avenging Horseman is

more than a match for Aussie film psychos like Mick Taylor. The Horseman 2: Serial Killer Deathmatch, anyone?

BLACK: How does the Australian setting make a difference?

BLACK: How did you manage the impressive action sequences?

SK: Often in American films, everyone’s running around with guns and Uzis and other hardware. In Australia, with gun-control, it’s obviously a bit more difficult if you’re just an ordinary Aussie dad. So the protagonist uses tools that he’s pulled out of the garage. He doesn’t know what he’s doing; he’s just trying to piece together this crime.

SK: We had the stunt coordinator from Peter Jackson’s King Kong help us out there, Chris Anderson. He was probably the biggest name on our film. We were lucky in that we had two cameras, which allowed us to do very elaborate fight scenes. Having two cameras for the drama as well was amazing—there are so many big confrontational moments and having two cameras means that you don’t have to cut between the actors mid-scene. They can scream over the top of each other without needing to leave gaps in the lines. You can really see the result on film. It’s so dynamic. BLACK: Your role was a varied one.

n I have a claw hammer and an angle grinder out in the shed.

Which one do you want me to use on you first, dirtbag?

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

SK: I’m the writer, producer, director, editor, financier, digital colourist … Myself and my family put the money into the project through 10BA [a government tax incentive scheme, now defunct]. I used my house as collateral. We worked with a very humble budget—but most of the crew came on board for free, the cast worked for minimum wage, and everyone came together because there’s not a lot of projects like this floating around Brisbane, or Australia for that matter. You know, where

it’s a big genre film that goes all the way with action and blood-and-guts but the story takes itself seriously. It’s a good example of how far money can go with the latest technology. Most of the post-production was done on my home Mac. I wasn’t planning to do as much as I did, but the software just got more and more sophisticated as we were making it, and I could do more, so I did. BLACK: The film certainly doesn’t look “homemade”. SK: It was shot in four weeks and we didn’t always have time to get the little scenes I might have wanted, so I just cut them out. It’s better for that tightness, I think. Very lean, and it doesn’t tell you too much.

n Taking care of some pests.

BLACK: What is your own background in film? SK: I don’t have any huge production credits. I’ve really just done my own thing since I was 14. Short films—genre films, horror films, but mainly action. I ran my own business doing wedding videos and home video editing —whatever paid the bills. I learnt as I went along. But the aim to make a feature was always there. BLACK: What sort of response have you had so far? SK: Really strong. The trick is that because we don’t have any big-name cinema actors in the film, distributors want to wait to see what the

Music

broader reaction is going to be at screenings and festivals. Many distributors that I talk to still haven’t learnt the lesson of Wolf Creek. The attitude is still “If it’s Aussie genre, it goes straight to DVD.” But we’re talking to some who are a bit more ballsy and I’m hopeful. BLACK: One criticism you often hear about Australian cinema is that it’s too arthouse for the market, so why release it widely? SK: Well, we won’t get that response for this film. It’s definitely not too arthouse. It might be too violent for a lot of people. As I said earlier, I wanted to treat the concept of revenge as realistically as possible and really explore how someone could delve into that world and throw their life away in

the process. Some people relate to Christian straight away, while others simply see him as a psycho and don’t sympathise with him at all—and it’s funny how women seem to sympathise with him more than men. But everyone I’ve shown the film too has been deeply affected by it. Certainly not everyone can stomach the violence, but that said, it’s not a parade of gore. It’s the old trick that you hear it more than you see it and therefore it’s more effective. People are seeing this film as a horror-action thriller—and that’s fair enough, but it has great acting and strong drama, and there really can’t be too many genre films like this that can affect people so strongly that it brings them to tears. n

Waltzing Macabre

Pod People Talie Helene

‘A

bandon hope all ye who enter here’ reads the inscription over the gates of hell in Dante Alighieri’s allegorical poem La divina commedia. Canberra quintet Pod People are weaving a parallel harmony in their blackly humorous brand of doom metal. Guitarist and songwriter Josh Nixon explains, “Italian poetry from the mid 1300’s is nothing I would ever care to try and butcher with a concept album approach. What it does provide is an awesome way to enable someone to visualizse guilt.” Of a magnitude spanning several albums, the 2002 release Doom Saloon serves as prologue. “The Doom Saloon was the last drinks, a place a ‘shade’ would go before Inferno. We added that part to the beginning of Dante and Virgil’s more chaste journey to hell. It is not a literal telling of that journey—

it’s themes we pick out along the way.” The new album Mons Animae Mortuorum continues the pilgrims’ progress. “The places Dante and Virgil physically visit allow us to go off on tangents. Not a fantasy attempt at conjuring images of the Inferno or Mt Purgatory, it’s about real life actions that could have consequences in Dante’s world. The aesthetic serves the songs, fleshes out lyrical themes.” This responsive approach led to the interesting title. “When you see the artwork, to call the album ‘Mountain of the Souls of the Dead’ is just too obvious. A name that refers to the Purgatorio chapter of The Divine Comedy might make you think we are trying to make The Divine Comedy concept trilogy.” Developing a Latin title proved comedic enough. “I got in touch with a lady who did Latin at Uni. The chain of emails were a bit like Monty Python’s Life of Brian, when Brian gets busted doing graffiti and the Centurion gives him a Latin lesson!”

Pod People provide more than a lyrical exploration of the medieval afterlife, extending atmosphere with costumes. “The robes are black and shapeless to represent the shades in The Divine Comedy. We are not monks or performing rituals—merely shapeless. I suggest going almost nude underneath them, though, as they’re hot as buggery to wear!” Mons Animae Mortuorum features illustration by Glen Smith. “The brief was to look like it was drawn a hundred years ago—Glenno nailed it! The cover is Dante and Virgil en route to Mt Purgatory, freshly escaped from the Inferno. Mt Purgatory, in Dante’s way of thinking, was a landmass on the other side of the world, in the southern ocean—basically Australia. On the other side, there is a ouija board … if you want to find out the lyrics for the record, you’ll need a séance to contact the dead!” Mons Animae Mortuorum is available on CD from August 15. You can catch Pod People live at Megafauna Festival, Canberra, October 11. Talie Helene is a freelance journalist, creative writer and musician, staff writer for Zero Tolerance Magazine, and news editor for the AHWA.

Witchcraft

W h i t e

W i t c h

B l a c k

Fiona Horne

The Aussie witch kicking arse and taking names in LA By Shane Jiraiya Cummings

n Fiona Horne was immortalised in issue #49 of

the sensual comic Tarot Witch of the Black Rose (BroadswordComics/Jim Balent Studios)

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

ention witchcraft in Australia and most people will think: Fiona Horne. Since the 90s heyday of DEF FX, the band that established her music career, Fiona has used her celebrity status to educate and empower Wiccans the world over on the virtues and practises of white witchcraft. Aside from being Australia’s celebrity witch, she’s the bestselling author of a bunch of witchcraft books, had a successful music career, hosted Sci-Fi Channel’s Mad Mad House and had other TV appearances, acted in movies (Cult, First Dark), and even kicked arse as a comic book character. Surely, we thought, this was the extent of Fiona’s talent. But no! This hot witch loves handling snakes, SCUBA diving, and has jumped out of a plane more than 100 times (using a parachute, not levitation as you might expect). BLACK: Which of your many pursuits is your first love? Fiona Horne: “Being a witch is my spiritual path, and its tenets and practises have inspired my creative pursuits: I have written songs with esoteric lyrics, I have produced and presented television shows pertaining to the subject, I have written books about the subject, and I have just played a witch named Maggie Trader in a movie in production here in the USA called First Dark. “Of my work, music would be my first love. I taught myself to play guitar when I was 17 and formed my first band, a goth punk band called Sister Sludge, when I was living in Adelaide. When I was 19, I formed one of the very first all female punk bands in the 80s called The Mothers.” BLACK: What attracted you to witchcraft in the first place? Fiona: The principles of honouring nature as sacred and doing spells and rituals to create powerful change in my life were what first drew me to witchcraft. But as I explored the

subject, more through reading and practising, I realised that I did not feel like I was learning about something new to me, I actually felt like I was remembering it. I am adopted, and in my later years, I found out my biological heritage, and I have the pagan magic of the Nordic tribes and Eastern European mystics in my blood, so it made sense to me that witchcraft would be such a satisfying expression of my spiritual sense of self. BLACK: You have some very intriguing hobbies … Fiona: “I have been SCUBA diving for over 20 years—I have over 1000 hours in the water! I love diving. You don’t have to go to outer space to experience another world, just get in the ocean! I find it profoundly soothing and restorative, like going back to the womb. Even when I’m face-to-face with a big shark, I feel calm and at peace—maybe that’s why they swim so close to me but never bite me, because I am so happy and chilled down there. “I started skydiving a year ago which I also love. It is such a pure expression of freedom to jump out of a plane! I am learning to free fly (acrobatic movements in the sky as you fall) and starting to get okay at it. It’s not the easiest thing to do and I am proud of my fledging achievements up there at 10,000 ft! There is a song about my love of skydiving on Witchweb called “Over the Edge”. “I have always been attracted to snakes. When I grew up in the Sydney bushland, I was always running to them, not away from them. They represent wisdom and regeneration to me magickally, and physically, I just love holding and interacting with them—they are sensuous and exciting creatures.” BLACK: What influence has witchcraft had on your music?

“

Fiona: “I wrote a lot of magickallyinspired lyrics for DEF FX but I hadn’t actually come out of the broomcloset and said I was a witch at that point in the band. But if anyone paid attention to my lyrics, they would have picked it up. I remember Rolling Stone once said I put the audience “in a trance”, which was kind of cool because gigs sometimes did become magickally transformative events as I channelled

energies and went into a trance myself dancing so hard up there on stage!” “My new solo album Witchweb is completely inspired by my Craft—there is the Invocation to Lilith that I use in my Coven rituals called “Dark Goddess” included on it, plus the song I sing when I cast circle, called “Circle”.” BLACK: Have you ever been tempted to explore the darker side of witchcraft? Fiona: “I was a goth in my teens—check out some of the pics of me in my band Sister Sludge on www.fionahorne.com and you will see what I mean! I love the glamour and mystery of the goth movement, but it was never a statement about my witchcraft. Have I used human blood, bones, animal parts, and graveyard dirt in magick and ritual work? Absolutely, yes. For certain spells and rituals, they are essential. The patron Goddess of my Coven is the dark, ancient Sumerian Goddess Lilith (who later was known as the first wife of Adam, but I always relate to her in her Sumerian form: winged and with clawed feet).” BLACK: How do you express your dark side? Fiona: “I jump out of planes, play with snakes and hand feed sharks! I have always actively sought to embrace and explore things that society would have us fear. Being in the darkness of challenging experiences is the key to living a truly free and enlightened life.” Ed. Fiona’s latest album Witchweb is on sale now and her next movie appearance (as a witch) is in the 2009 US movie First Dark. n

Have I used human blood, bones, animal parts, and graveyard dirt in magick and ritual work? Absolutely, yes.” 43

B l a c k

Witchcraft

W i t c h

W h i t e

Wendy Rule

Music and magic under a dark moon By Shane Jiraiya Cummings

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

o the general public, she may be in the shadow of celebrity witches such as Fiona Horne, but Melbourne musician Wendy Rule commands tremendous respect from the Wiccan community both as a performer and a witch. Wendy is working on her sixth solo album and conducts regular tarot readings and witchcraft lessons. We caught her between international tours for a quick chat on all things dark and magickal. BLACK: Which is your first love: music or witchcraft? Wendy Rule: “There is no separation for me between my music and my witchcraft. One informs the other. They both flow from the centre of my soul. I’d always been able to sing, but it wasn’t until I opened up to magic and witchcraft that the songs just began to pour out of me. A celebration!” BLACK: You’ve attended many folk, alternative, and pagan concerts and festivals. What have been the higlights? Wendy: “I’ve performed at some incredible pagan festivals in the States. The settings have been so beautiful, from the bright green forests in Massachusetts to the epic redwoods in California. I recently attended an excellent gathering in Pennsylvania called Fires Rising. Run by a group of incredible magicians, it is a four-day journey of transformation, focused on an Alchemical Fire Ritual. It was three nights of dancing from midnight till dawn, with a focused magical intention. And drug free, mind you! It was a challenge, but incredibly joyous and transformative. In Australia, I’ve been a regular attendant at the great hippy Mecca of Confest for the past 10 years. I love it!”

BLACK: Teens often dabble with witchcraft and the occult. As a seasoned witch, what is your advice to them? Wendy: “The most important thing is to find a way of practicing that feels right to you. There’s no lack of great books available—its matter of following your gut instinct. The central focus of witchcraft is our connection with Nature, so it’s really important to get out there and start observing what is happening around you. Is the moon full or dark? Have the leaves returned to the trees yet? How did that sunset make you feel? Our direct connection with Nature reminds us of our own power and divinity. Remember to play—create simple rituals and altars. Witchcraft is a creative process that involves continual learning. And if you’re working in a group, always feel free to say no to activities that feel wrong to you.” BLACK: Have you ever been tempted to explore the darker side of witchcraft? Wendy: “I’m always exploring the dark side of witchcraft. To me, the word ‘dark’ has no negative connotations. I love the night, the dark moon, the winter. My music has often explored the healing power of the Underworld. Witchcraft is a celebration of the full power of Nature—both dark and light. If by ‘dark’ you mean ‘evil’, I’ve never consciously

“

BLACK: What attracted you to Witchcraft in the first place?

Wendy: “Since I was a kid, I’ve been able to journey easily into other worlds. I could enter trance states quite spontaneously, and have always communicated with fairies. I’ve also always had a deep love of Nature. So witchcraft is very natural to me. For many years, I felt odd and alone with my spiritual needs and desires. I was so excited to discover witchcraft (more than 16 years ago) and many disparate aspects of my self found a unifying centre.”

used my witchcraft to harm anyone else. The most I’ll ever do, even if very angry with someone, is send their energy back to them, amplified threefold.” BLACK: How do you express your dark side? Wendy: “Through solidude. Through ritual. By being willing to write about pain, loss, death.” BLACK: What can we next expect from Wendy Rule? Wendy: “I have loads of exciting projects on the go at the moment. I’m just about to release a dark ambient soundtrack album called Beneath the Below is a River. It’s collaboration with my friend Craig Patterson, who has played music with me for years. I’ve also begun the first stages of recording my next major project—and album called Guided By Venus, which I’ll release next year. I’m also working on a live theatre piece with percussionist Elissa Goodrich, which is a journey through song, based on the ancient Greek myth of Persephone. That will have its first season late next year. And of course, more international touring. It’s a pretty busy time for me, but truly exhilarating.” n

To me, the word ‘dark’ has no negative connotations. I love the night, the dark moon, the winter. My music has often explored the healing power of the Underworld.”

n A photo from Wendy’s fifth album, The Wolf Sky.

Witchcraft

Black

Margi Curtis & Leigh Blackmore

ast issue, we introduced Samhain, an ancient Pagan Festival also known as Hallowe’en. While the south is entering a spring resurgence, celebrated as the Festival of Beltane, the north is moving towards a winter hibernation. These festive periods are called Cross-quarter Days, as they fall between Equinox and Solstice. At these times, we are especially psychically open. On Beltane, we celebrate our sexuality. Lovers meet outdoors, sharing their fertility with the earth. On Hallowe’en, both children and adults indulge in the macabre as they play “trick or treat.” The Mexicans call it ‘Dia de Los Muertos’, the Day of the Dead. To celebrate, they bring flowers, offerings, and

Cauldr

underworld, or the faery realms, and though warned not to eat of their food, succumb to dark seductions.

a greater feast for death! food to cemeteries adorned with hundreds of votive candles. They eat sugar skulls as we eat chocolate eggs at Easter. Food is part of an exchange that maintains good relations between the realms. For Thelemites, (followers of Aleister Crowley’s philosophy) life is a celebration, while death is cause for an even greater feast. It marks the joyful passing from Earthly existence to our home—eternal bliss with the Goddess. In ‘The Law of Liberty’, Crowley writes: “Death itself is an ecstasy like love, but more intense—the reunion of the soul with its true self”. In Liber AL, known as The Book of the Law, he recounts: “… a feast for life, and a greater feast for death! … There is no dread hereafter. There is the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu.” (AL 1: 41 & 44) Other Pagans honour the Goddess of Life and Death, ritualising stories of loss and return, death and rebirth. Ancient Pagan myths tell of times when the living descend into the

In one version, Hades, Greek god of the Underworld, abducted the Maiden Goddess Persephone. The Mother Goddess Demeter pleads for her daughter’s life. Hades releases Persephone, who had been sworn not to eat of his food. Before she leaves, he offers her the seeds of the pomegranate—a symbol of sexual union and marriage, and she partakes of the magickal food. Whether she was tricked or chose freely is unclear, but the gods intervened. She was permitted to live with Demeter upon the earth for six months, but she was forced to return to the Underworld for the other six, to live as Crone and Goddess of Lost Souls. A celestial/seasonal theme emerges: dark moon and winter hold sway while a mother grieves for her lost daughter. In spring Persephone returns, the moon waxes to fullness, fertile life is renewed. So next time you are offered a “treat” on Hallowe’en consider—is this a sugar coated “trick” in disguise? The Queen of the Infinite and the Dark Lord await to offer comfort to your soul. Will you accept their invitation to the greater feast for death? And what are you prepared to offer in return? Leigh Blackmore is a writer, occultist, and O.T.O. initiate who works with the Western ceremonial magic traditions. Margi Curtis is a writer and witch in the Reclaiming Tradition of the Craft.

Monster of the month

Bunyip

Get the Blues By Kyla Ward

nder The Blue Moon illuminates every shadowy corner of the goth music scene with their expanding live program.

Toy Death, who coerce all their music from tortured electronic toys, will launch the festival at Sydney’s Sandringham Hotel on September 27th. ‘LOCAL LEGENDS’ play on Sunday 28th and Monday 29th with acts ranging from dark punk to vampiric rockabilly, including Brigitte Handley and the indefinable Miz Ann Thropik. All those arriving at the Sando on Saturday, October 4th, will be DOOMED by an Australian goth metal line-up including The Eternal, Nevetherym, The Veil, and Requiem of the Damned. To taste the despair, follow the links from the Blue Moon website and turn those speakers up. The Electric Moon program on Sunday 5th closes the festival with a showcase of international acts including darkwave pop kings Covenant (Sweden), Diary of Dreams (Germany), and Voices of Masada (UK), as well as Aussie icons ... ahhh, IKON (Melb) ... Tycho Brahe (Bris), and Vertigo Nation (Syd). The Gaelic Club will never be the same. n 46

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

n The Mulgewanki, the bunyip

of the South Australian Ngarrinderi people.

magine a creature that dwells in lakes and waterholes and has a horse-like tail, flippers, walrus-like tusks or horns, and a bloodcurdling scream. This predator is the Australian bunyip, and as a vicious man-eater, it sits comfortably at the top of the food chain. Accounts from the 19th and early 20th centuries revealed two distinct varieties of Bunyip: the more common of the two has a dog-like face and a long shaggy coat. The rarer type is reported to have a long maned neck. Many believe the bunyip myth originanated from Aboriginal memories of extincy megafauna beasts such as Diprotodon, or even large crocodiles. The bunyip may well be a myth but its existence has not been disproved ... so be on n The Diprotrodon, a bunyip-like beastie that kicked the bucket your guard the next time you hear a around 50,000 years ago scream out by a billabong.

C u lt u r e

Dark

Deeviations Bella Dee

You scream, I scream, We all scream for Halloween!

houlies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties, Halloween is almost upon us! Dust off your spookiest threads, fire up the jack o’lanterns, and ambush any trickor-treaters who dare tread the path to your haunted abode. Find true love in a looking glass, dance the Monster Mash in a cemetery, or simply squeal your way through a late-night, blood-drenched horror movie marathon. Don’t forget the popcorn! Oh yes, my neo-pagan pals, I can hear your wailing and gnashing of teeth. Bethany, the lovely Wicca lass who used to live next door, liked to scold me each October: “Hallowe’en is a harvest festival, Bella. It’s spring in Australia now, so we celebrate Beltane and ... where on earth did you find a pumpkin that size?” But I would merely smile and nod as I continued to carve out an uncanny likeness of David Duchovny, and wonder if I had enough synthetic spiderweb to finish decorating the attic.

draws thin on Halloween. Spirits roam freely in the human realm—as do demons, monsters and other dark-spun creatures in whose clutches you may not wish to find yourself come the witching hour. We aren’t the only ones who know how to don a disguise, after all, or to possess a nefarious need for camouflage. “Trick or Treat!” Anyone with even the most modest exposure to American pop culture will undoubtedly be familiar with this most

“

Because the truth is, I adore Halloween with all of my tawdry, trashy little heart!

For me, it matters not a black cat’s whisker that the day has been co-opted and commercialised and corrupted from its original Celtic roots. Instead, I see Halloween as a wildly over-the-top celebration of all things dark, mysterious, and joyously terrifying. It’s a spooky grab-bag of tradition and invention, of artifice and honesty, of playful travesty and utmost conviction.

Halloween doesn’t just free your inner demon; it hops it up on sugar, raspberry cordial, and red M&Ms—and then sends it shrieking maniacally into the night. As an infamous episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer reminded us, the whole point of Halloween is that “it’s come as you aren’t night”. From fancy dress parties to masquerade balls, we are given the liberty—nay, the obligation!—to devise a suitably scary, sassy, or sexy costume that is as unlike our everyday selves as we can possibly imagine … and then to live it, at least for one night. But do be careful with whom you dance. Tradition warns that the veil between worlds

pistols, along with very clear and enthusiastic instruction on just what to do when the lovely Wicca lass next door begins to lecture rather than dole out the requisite chocolately goodness. Ah, more cockle-warming! Of course, if you have no trick-or-treaters to appease or costume soirees to attend, there are many other ways to get your Halloween groove on. Host a jack o’lantern carving contest, with bonus points for use of the most imaginative vegetable. Before the advent of the now iconic pumpkin, jack o’lanterns were originally carved from turnips, swedes, and even the delightfully named mangelwurzel. (If anyone can actually find a mangelwurzel, their every wish will be Bella’s command. Care of Black magazine. Please, dearies, oh ever-so-pretty please!) Fancy a spot of divination? As legend has it, if you gaze into a dim-lit mirror on Halloween night, the face of your future beloved will mysteriously appear. But beware, should you be doomed to die unloved, the gruesome visage of a skull will greet you from the glassy depths instead. (Note: this game may be confusing for necrophiliacs.)

Halloween doesn’t just free your inner demon; it hops it up on sugar, raspberry cordial, and red M&Ms—and then sends it shrieking maniacally into the night.

famous of Halloween customs. Gangs of becostumed youngsters with a burgeoning talent for extortion roam the streets before dusk, confectionary sacks in hand as they tramp from door to door demanding to be showered with chocolates, lollies, and other cavity-inducing goodies … or else. And I must confess, it does warm the cockles of my heart to be held to ransom by a three-foot tall vampire with a hankering for Caramello Koalas! Alas, although the Treat side of things is becoming more popular among Australian kiddlywinks, their capacity to Trick is often sorely lacking. (Tears and tantrums are not tricks, children!) Bereft of parental guidance, it has been left to Bella to provide fun-size rolls of toilet paper and pre-loaded water

Pile on the scares and silliness with some old fashioned ghost stories told by torchlight, or swap your creepiest urban legends and friend-of-a-friend tales. Hitch-hiking ghosts, terrorised baby-sitters, and hook-handed lunatics, oh my! Thrill to the technicolour slasher stylings of Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees, and Freddy Kreuger, or swoon it old school with the likes of Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee. Mmmmm, Christopher Lee … Glow in the dark skeletons! Swooping animatronic bats! Fake blood and fright wigs! Whatever your taste—or tastelessness— embrace your dark side, dearies, and join in the delicious, freaksome fun that is Bella’s Halloween Trash-tacular! Bella Dee is a Melbourne-based writer and rogue taxidermist with a special interest mythological reconstruction.

‘Bipolar disorder. That’s why you’re

so high, then so low. It’s exhausting.’

Bipolar disorder is the same as manic depression. That’s why sometimes you feel so high, you think you can achieve anything - then other times, you’re so low, you hate the world and yourself. With the right treatment, bipolar disorder can be managed. If you experience these extremes, it’s important to talk to a doctor. To find out more visit our website or call the infoline.

1300 22 4636

The Guide to spotting sub-cultures

Black

Ever saw someone with long spiky hair and wondered if they were an emo or a punk? Do you know the difference between a mall goth and a ‘real’ goth? Well, we probably don’t either, but in the interest of social science, we felt it was our duty to provide an easy identification chart for our readers should they struggle with such quandaries in the future!

Prone to bouts of sensitivity and emotion (hence the “emo” tag) and willing to share it all with the world. Teddy bears and blankies are great soothers when the emo starts to emote, especially when the emo is up well past their bed time.

Hair - long fringe, typically brushed to one side so only one eye is visible. Although androgeny seems desirable, secretly, they want to be scary like that chick from The Ring. People reckon emos have self-inflicted scars (“because the pain makes everything so, like, real”), but that;s wrong - hardcore emos wear their scars on the inside. People also reckon emos have a death wish, but really, why go to the trouble of harming yourself when you can wallow and write poetry about the pain? Bad poetry has saved countless lives (and is less messy)!

Hair is spiky and aggressive. Mohawks, however, appear to be not so cool anymore. Who would have guessed? Punks, like goths and emos, like to express their emotions ... all two of them - rage and indignation. What the f*ck are you lookin’ at, anyway?

The emo listens to a bunch of bands that are trying to distance themselves from the ‘emo movement’ - My Chemical Romance, Dashboard Confessional, Hawthorne Heights, and some other crap groups we can’t remember. Some punks (“Skater punks”) skate. Others use skateboards to smack those moping emos.

Goth fashion in a nutshell - black and oldfashioned. Kudos to goths who find all their best clothes from the op shop. The boots, of course, make up for everything (even the 80s “dark romantic” look).

Part of the emo’s angst comes from their choice of wardrobe. Too-tight jeans and black with a dash of pink are all the rage. If you looked like a cross between a mime and a St Bernard, how would you feel?

The goth gets up in the morning like everyone else, but by the time they apply the white face paint, style their hair, and don their elaborate garments, the sun has set, so they are forced into a nocturnal lifestyle. Like their clothes, goth’s are fond of old, dark things - jewellry, coffins - Christian iconography is a bonus.

“Fashion” for today’s punk is skater shoes (gone are the days of the Doc Martens *sigh*) and Does it matter what whatever was sitting on their bedroom floor punks listen to now? that didn’t stink too much. Those emos stole all their “emotional hardcore”bands The goth’s style is dark, with an element of the from the 90s and they emo’s self-pity. Body art, piercings, poetry, want to punch the snot and the Vampire Lestat are all integral to out of them for it! the goth lifestyle. ‘

Illustrations: Andrew McKiernan (Kephra Design)

Punk

Emo

Goth

The Cure, Siouxsie Sioux, and Nine Inch Nails cover the goth’s musical spectrum. Most of them love Evanescence, too, but they’ ll never admit it, even on pain of death (which, perversely, they might enjoy!)

W i n

C ool

S t u f f !

Competition Prize Pool dvdS: sUPERNATURAL SEASONS 1-3 + CAR

Win the complete Supernatural TV series on DVD and a model ‘Metallicar’!

Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki star as Sam and Dean Winchester, travelling the countryside in a 67 Chevy Impala and killing demons. Need we say more?

Pirzes courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

DVDS: tHE gEORGE rOMERO cOLLECTION

Win George Romero’s best movies: Dawn of the Dead, Martin, & The Crazies!

From the master of zombie terror and post-apocalyptic horror, this never before release collection includes Dawn of the Dead: the zombie classic and among the best-loved horror films of all time; Martin: Romero’s twisted take on the vampire film; and The Crazies: an experimental government germ weapon is accidentally unleashed in a small town, resulting in a plague of unstoppable violence. Prizes courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment.

cINEMA: mAX pAYNE & mIRRORS

Win double passes to see Mirrors and Max Payne!

MIRRORS: A troubled ex-cop must save his family from an unspeakable evil that is using mirrors as a gateway into their home. Stars Keifer Sutherland and Paula Patton. Prizes courtesy of Fox movies.

Max Payne is a maverick cop Hell-bent on revenge. His obsessive investigation takes him on a nightmare journey into a dark underworld, forcing him to battle enemies beyond the natural world and face an unthinkable betrayal. Stars Mark Wahlberg.

Win two hot new Madman anime titles! Karas: Tokyo, a city of humans and ghosts, is thrown into disarray when a former Karas, supernatural, sword-wielding protectors of humanity, attempts to seize power. A new Karas rises up against this deadly threat. Prizes courtesy of Madman Entertainment.

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

DVDS: kARAS & vEXILLE Vexille: Japan 2077: a female agent named Vexille is sent to Tokyo to investigate whether the isolated nation of Japan is developing outlawed robotic technology. She finds a changed society that hides a shocking secret.

Shades of Grey DVDS: iNSOMNIA pACK Win a six movie horror DVD pack!

Sex at the margins

C u lt u r e

Vivienne Read

hese days, sex sells everything from cars to hamburgers. Dating sites boast millions of members seeking casual encounters. Teen mags give our 14 year olds tips to giving great oral. The line between ‘good’ sex and ‘bad’ sex has become decidedly blurry, but it’s still being drawn—with breathtaking hypocrisy.

The Insomnia range includes titles The Descent, Altered, The Hitcher, Severance, Shadow Puppets, and Dark Ride. The Descent: Six women explore a cave hidden deep in the woods in a remote part of the Appalachians to and find more than they bargained for. Altered: Four men are determined to exact revenge against the savage alien life form that held them prisoner and killed their friend. The Hitcher: A young couple pick up a hitchhiker one night and are rewarded with some nasty consequences for their kindness. Severance: A corporate team-building camp in Eastern Europe turns bloody when gun-toting psychos show up. Shadow Puppets: a group of strangers awaken in a locked asylum ward with no idea of who they are or how they got there. Dark Ride: A killer escapes from a mental institution and returns to his familiar killing ground—the theme park attraction ‘Dark Ride’. Prizes courtesy of Icon Films.

Issue #1 winners: Chainsaw Horror: N Daw (WA). Dark Tower books: G Elderwyn (NSW), A Bennett (NSW). Fivefold book: J Harrold (QLD), JA Smith (VIC), S Kwok (NSW). Dreaming Again book: M Stewart (VIC), D Gore (NSW), C Ingram (NSW). Batman/Superman DVDs: L Floyd (WA). P Marshall (VIC). Hal Spacejock books: L Montgomery (SA), H Mutch (VIC). Death Note DVDs: C Johnston (NSW), A Gould (ACT), R Smith (TAS), R Quinlan (SA), D Cunningham (QLD).

To enter: Go to www.blackmag.com.au and fill in the form under the Prize Pool link. Prizes randomly drawn. Entry conditions on the website.

Scantily clad women pout and grind in music videos, yet professional pole-dancers are ‘trashy’. It’s hot to pash your best friend in front of your boyfriend, yet lesbians are manhating freaks. If you buy me $50 worth of drinks and take me to the toilets for a quickie, we’re sexually liberated adults; if you give me that $50 up front, you’re a sexual predator, and I’m a victim of exploitation. Clearly something has the power to turn sex from liberating to dehumanising … but what exactly is it? Why is an A-list actress who simulates sex on screen not looked down on like a peep show performer? Why is it degrading to charge for sex, but empowering to give it away for nothing? How come I can wear jeans and Docs, but a man can’t wear a dress? Maybe I’m just not as clever as the anti-sex wowsers, but I don’t see the difference. What I do see is shame, stigma, and in some cases criminal penalties pushing those who offend society’s delicate sensibilities into the shadows. The inhabitants of these subcultures are defined by their sexual behaviour; their character, their intelligence, their very worth as a person inextricably linked, in the eyes of the outside world, to whom and how they shag. “Bollocks” I hear you say. “I don’t care what people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms”. Really? Would you leave your young son with a gay male babysitter? Hire a pre-op transsexual as your company spokesperson? Leave a stripper alone with your wallet? “The victim claims she was raped, Your Honour, but please bear in mind that she has previously worked as a prostitute”. Why do we accept these stereotypes without question? Is it because we genuinely aren’t aware of the reality, or is it that we don’t really want to know. It’s easier to slaughter a lamb for dinner if we don’t give it a name. Perhaps we’re deliberately sacrificing others to deflect attention from ourselves—so our relationship with our Sugar Daddy isn’t misconstrued as prostitution, or our penchant for anal sex as latent homosexuality. Wearing my wife’s panties doesn’t make me a cross-dresser, does it? Of course not. I’m not ‘that sort’ of person. The funny thing is, if we were all a little more honest about our desires and accepting of sexual diversity, there would be no need for sacrificial lambs; no fear of judgement or condemnation for our own kinks and quirks. It’s interesting that even amongst those of us who value individuality and encourage defiance, there’s still one area of our lives where we are only too willing to conform Vivienne Read has a background in HIV prevention, with a focus on social inclusion, equity and empowerment of communities marginalised by their sexual preference or practises.

Medicine

Morbid

Medicine

Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome Dr Carissa Borlase

magine a boy of four or five, sitting in a wheelchair. He is wearing a helmet and mittens. His arms and legs are tied to the chair. His limbs are withered and contorted into unnatural positions. His arms writhe rhythmically, the movements restricted by his bonds. Small, hard lumps strain to erupt through the skin at the back of his elbows. One of his mittens has fallen off, revealing raw, gnawed stumps where his fingertips should be. His left knee is three times the size of normal, red and swollen. Despite all of this, he is smiling, but there is something wrong with that smile. It’s wide—too wide. The edges of his lips are ragged and scarred, with bite size chunks missing. He begins to speak in a slurred voice but the only clear words are vile and frequent profanities. He begins to scream and thrash wildly around, banging his head against the chair, trying to lash out with his bound

hands. He bites at his lower lip and draws fresh blood. This real life horror scenario is called LeschNyhan syndrome, a rare and hideous genetic disorder. Its victims suffer from cerebral palsy, mental retardation, compulsive violence, and self-mutilation. It is a sex linked disorder, affecting only men (although women can be carriers). The disorder is caused by a single mutation in the victim’s fragile DNA. Just one letter in the genetic code has slipped out of line, with terrible results. The mutation mangles the HPRT gene, which results in the dramatic overproduction of uric acid and the formation of urate crystals that deposit underneath the skin, in the joints and the kidneys, causing painful arthritis and kidney stones, frequent kidney infections and eventually kidney failure. The first symptoms typically occur at 3-6 months of age, when the child does not begin to develop normally. Occasionally, the build

Travelogue: Tennessee Body Farm Travelling to the good old US of A? There is a very exclusive three acre patch of heaven in store for you near the University of Tennessee Medical Centre. So exclusive, it is specialinvite only, with razor wire keeping out unwelcome intruders. Guests are frequently spotted catching some rays or spending time in the water. The only catch? You need to be dead. Known in scientific circles as a ‘Human Anthropological Facility’, the University of Tennessee body farm is a centre for the study of human decomposition. Corpses are left to rot in the sun, half-submerged in water, buried in shallow graves, and other compromising positions, all in the name of science. As many as 40 bodies are strewn about the place at any one time. And talk about dying to get in! Word is, people are lining up to be part of the experience (posthumously, of course!). Enjoy your travels – and if you do visit the body farm (or any other cool places), be sure to drop Black a postcard!

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

up of uric acid in the urine causes orange ‘sand’ to appear in the child’s nappy. Between the ages of 6–18 months, the child develops abnormal involuntary movements, muscle weakness, and spasticity. The child will never learn to walk and will be wheelchair bound. As the child grows, the mental retardation and the aggressive behaviour becomes worse. The urge to hurt himself and others is an irresistible compulsion. He may bite his lips, tongue, and inner mouth, bang his arms, legs or head, gouge his nose or eyes, or rub his skin raw. He may kick, bite, vomit on, or spit at other people. Although he cries out in pain as he self-mutilates, or is immediately sorry for his aggressive behaviour towards his carer, he will repeat the same behaviour over and over again. Sufferers often need to be gently but firmly restrained at all times, and may even need to have their teeth removed. Untreated, life expectancy for these patients is only 5-6 years and death is neither quick nor painless. Nowadays, the life story of the sufferers of Lesch-Nyhan syndrome is far less tragic. With loving personal care and medical attention, patients may live beyond 40 years. Against all odds, both the victims and their families can testify to the joy some of them take out of life—a joy forged in the fires of pain and suffering. Carissa Borlase is a medical doctor with a healthy sense of black humour. She currently resides in Helsinki, Finland.

C u lt u r e

John Raptis

through a lens darkly

This has always ranked as one of my fave photos. It was at a time when I had just quit from a job I was at for a month. I hated every minute of it and should have been in a joyous mood, but I was out of work and depressed by the prospect of facing unemployment. My girlfriend and I decided to take a walk. It was late afternoon and plenty of light in the day. We walked through Centre Place, which is a pretty typical Melbourne laneway adorned with all sorts of wonderful and colourful street art. I looked through the viewfinder of my camera ... and saw the magic before me. Even though dusk was approaching, the alley looked dark and its lights were pointing straight at me, creating an intriguing juxtaposition of silhouette and texture. My girlfriend was walking towards me and I clicked away as hurriedly as I could—I knew I had captured something special.

Art is GAFF

By Kyla Ward

irst and foremost, Under the Blue Moon is a community event. Cafes, salons, and shops of all kinds along Enmore Road and South King Street are involved as sponsors and venues. This year’s art exhibition is spread throughout. Art, in this context, refers to the macabre, subversive, underground, and hopelessly gothic—or “gaff !”

Artists include Will Coles, whose concrete televisions have haunted Sydney for many years. The morbid fairytales of Akina will be available in a multitude of forms—from prints to T-shirts and badges. Groups, such as local gallery The Artery, will be on the streets during the festival creating ‘on the spot’ art. A self-guided walking tour will be available, and all art is for sale. n 53

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Neo Goth Art Show Laughing in the face of

Death A

lison Kubler knows how to look death in the face and laugh. And so she should, after travelling the length and breadth of Australia, curating the Neo Goth: Back in Black exhibition for the University of Queensland. The free exhibition, one of the largest and most ambitious staged at UQ, features 170 Gothic works by 60 artists.

n ABOVE: The emissary (2008)

by Juan Ford

n Not quite animal (transgenic

n Main image: Wormwood I (2006-07) by Jane Burton.

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skull for the young family) (2008) by Patricia Piccinini

n LEFT: Decadent morsels II (2007)

by VR Morrison. n BELOW: Even in Arcadia (2006) by

VR Morrison.

n The reminder (2008) by Heidi Yardley

Kubler believes that in the wake of events such as September 11 and Hurricane Katrina, society has become more acutely aware of death and disaster and the tenuous nature of our existence. [Ed: focusing beyond the almighty USA for a moment: it would be poignant to include recognition of other world catastrophes such as the tsunami of Dec 2004] “Artists have always made work about the tension between life and death, but it is interesting that younger artists are making work that looks so insightfully at the one great inevitability—that we all die,” she said. Kubler suggests that Gothic art has always appealed because it isn’t afraid to look at the dark side in order to find beauty and truth. “For example Nell’s Happy Ending, a gravestone with a smiley face, is very amusing [yet] at the same time it embodies a Buddhist embracing of life and death. “I also love the post punk, metal rock music scene … it’s very ironic and self aware. For me, it helps to laugh at death!” Contributors to Neo Goth include Venice Biennale representative Shaun Gladwell; photo-artist Rosemary Laing; and winner of UQ’s inaugural National Artists Self-Portrait Prize, Ben Quilty, with a number of pieces specially created for the exhibition.

The exhibition also features for the first time in Queensland the work of 2008 Archibald Prize winner, Del Kathryn Barton. Museum director Nick Mitzevich said the timing of the exhibition reflects our growing fascination with the dark and otherworldly. “Mainstream culture has really embraced the motifs of the Goth era recently, particularly images of mortality, and we thought it was an ideal time to curate an exhibition about this phenomenon. “Street culture is such a potent force within our society, and young people are very much involved in music, fashion, film, and literature, and for me, it was a perfect fit.” Mitzevich said Gothic has proven popular throughout the centuries and has enjoyed regular resurrections—as seen in recent emo and punk fashion and music. “The show is fun and engaging, but there’s also an underbelly to it which poses the question: why is mortality and the iconography associated with it so widespread in society today? “We really want people from all walks of life to come along to enjoy the exhibition and take something from it. “There’s a little bit of Goth in us all, and I think everyone at some time thinks about mortality and their place in the world, and this exhibition explores that in many different ways.” Neo Goth: Back in Black runs at the UQ Art Museum, St Lucia, Brisbane until September 21. The exhibition is open 10am – 4pm daily. Weekend parking is free.

n Happy ending (2006) by Nell

An 88-page illustrated catalogue accompanies the show and includes essays by Alison Kubler, Ashley Crawford, Louise Martin-Chew, and Lisa Slade. n

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Undead Backbrain

Rampaging, 2008 AG [After Godzilla] Robert Hood

n the wake of 2005’s frenetic Godzilla Final Wars, Toho Studios announced that the Big G was going on an extended vacation. Daikaiju eiga fans everywhere despaired. Roland Emmerich’s 1998 Godzilla ‘remake’ filled few with the confidence that Hollywood could take over the reins—though at the time, it had at least provoked the Japanese into returning to Godzie with renewed vigour. Now, five years and six pretty good (though under-achieving) films later, the Big Guy was lazing around somewhere in the Bahamas, and chances weren’t great for coaxing him back. Initially, Gamera the child-friendly flying turtle offered a glimmer of hope (Gamera the Brave, 2006). Then Peter Jackson gave us his enthusiastic remake of King Kong (2005), and Steven Spielberg injected the Martian machines of his War of the Worlds with a daikaiju sensibility that went some way toward saving the film from its own conceptual flaws. Transformers, too, hit cinemas with daikaiju-like fury. By dabbling at the edges of the genre, these latter high-profile flicks kept the ground trembling, but the daikaiju world was eager for a new Very Big Something with enough weight to rip the streets apart. All the generic SciFi channel giant whatsit films certainly weren’t in the running.

To everyone’s surprise, the big break came with Cloverfield (2008). Heralded by a viral advertising campaign, the US film—brainchild of the pop-culture savvy J.J. Abrams—did what few, if any, US films have ever managed; it created a unique daikaiju and put it in a context where it had the sort of metaphorical resonance for its time (post-2000) and place (New York) that the original Gojira had for the Japanese in post-war Tokyo. Where Godzilla encapsulated the spectre of nuclear destruction (and war in general), Cloverfield was driven by fear engendered by the ‘9/11’ attack on New York (and more broadly by modern terrorism itself). Cloverfield is a much simpler work than Gojira; it abandons plot, concentrating on the existential qualities of cinema. This, it says, is what it feels like to be under attack from an inexplicable force you can’t control; it offers an experience, not a story. Produced relatively cheaply, however, Cloverfield did well at the box-office.

Gwoemul)—directed by Joon-ho Bong—only really became known worldwide during 2007. With a unique monster, a strong sociopolitical sensibility and emotionally intelligent characterisation, it felt like more than ‘just another monster flick’. Along with Cloverfield, it stands as one of the decade’s shining daikaiju lights. Since then, a flood of giant monster films—for good or ill—have been produced or announced as ‘in-production’. The ground is positively seismic with news of Big Things on the move. How many of them will prove to be worthy additions to the genre we have yet to discover. Robert Hood is Australia’s foremost expert on giant irradiated fauna.

At about the same time, another significant original giant monster film surfaced. Though made in 2006, the Korean film The Host (aka

Royal Exile Fiona McIntosh weaves a dark and compelling story in the first book of a brand new series. From out of the East came the warlord Loethar and his barbarian horde. Only one land remains to be conquered. The last hope now rests on the shoulders of a young Valisar royal and a single warrior.

The Painted Man Peter V. Brett will pull you into a world of demons, darkness and heroes. Mankind has ceded the night to demons that rise up out of the ground each day at dusk, killing and destroying until dawn. It seems that nothing can stop them …

Available September 2008 For the latest news about authors and books, visit www.voyageronline.com.au or sign up for the Voyager e-newsletter at www.harpercollins.com.au/Members/Newsletters

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Books

Paul Haines By Shane Jiraiya Cummings

Understanding

depravity

ho the hell is Paul Haines and why should you care? For a start, as one of Australia’s foremost dark fiction short story writers, Paul is probably among the greatest authors you’ve never read. He has won a bucket load of awards, including the Ditmar Award (Australian Science Fiction

Award) and New Zealand’s Sir Julius Vogel Award (for his first book, Doorways for the Dispossessed). More significantly, Paul likes to write from the bad guy’s perspective; his stories are gritty, compelling, and disturbing insights into some very depraved minds...

Books

Paul Haines : Understanding depravity

Paul himself describes his stories as, “Nasty. Dark. Sex. Drugs. Mysticism. Paranoia. Perverse. Very Black Humour. A character called Paul Haines. No safe lines to categorise the story as either horror, fantasy, science fiction or autobiography. And, I hope, a certain degree of reality in said story.

and mine has always been on the edge, if not too far over. If it makes me laugh, then I know others will be disgusted and repulsed—or laughing with me. Sometimes that is also seen as pushing buttons, but the subject matter is pushing my buttons too!”

“I’ve tried to write a lot of different flavours as a writer because I love all flavours in the speculative fiction world, though I happen to be best at dark, nasty horror, or crazy paranoid breakdowns of reality.”

Given the torrid subject matter, many may find it strange that Paul likes to insert himself front and centre into his work (ala Stephen King’s appearance in The Dark Tower).

Amongst those nasty stories are portraits of the worst types of people imaginable. For example, Haines’ story “Father Father” is snapshot of a would-be dad cruising outside private girls’ schools looking for inspiration before he goes to the sperm bank. Think about it. Got it? Eww, right? Welcome to the world of Paul Haines.

“I had always wanted to do this in my writing, but it wasn’t until I saw Chuck McKenzie do a reading of “Confessions of a Pod Person”, featuring a main character called Chuck McKenzie, that I realised there was no rule stopping me from doing this (and I loved Chuck’s story, by the way). For me, it added an extra depth or verisimilitude to the story, and the more I worked with it, the more the actual reality and the fantasy began to blur, and often seamlessly. People who know me are going to recognise lots of things in my stories, things they know about me, or even things we may have done together, and then as they read on, it all starts to get just a little too weird and too strange. “The Devil In Mr Pussy” is a great example of this. There are whole slabs of that story that are not fiction. But which parts? Being fucked up the arse by God? Well, if He took offence at that, He’s certainly fucking me up the arse now. And He was back then, too …”

“If I’m writing horror or dark fantasy, then I’m wanting to write what scares me. Paedophilia scares me,” Paul said. “I just cannot understand how someone can do something like that, destroying another life, or damaging another life in such a way that it limps on broken and dragging. A lot of fiction approaches unsafe subjects, but it’s much safer to write from the point of view of the goodie trying to take down the baddie, as there can be no confusion on where sympathies lie. But if you write from the other viewpoint, you run the risk being seen to glorify or condone it. And that’s not the case. I’m trying to create a mindset that I can understand, or perhaps a life that this person is leading that allows the unsafe subject matter to be a normal part of it. So I write as the baddie.

“

“And I also want to write what makes me laugh. Humour is very subjective

If I’m writing horror or dark fantasy, then I’m wanting to write what scares me. Paedophilia scares me.”

The metaphysical anal rape Paul refers to is his current battle with cancer. Late last year, he was diagnosed with bowel cancer, and seemingly beat it after surgery and chemotherapy. However, in recent months, the cancer is suspected to have travelled to his liver, and as this story went to press, Paul is undertaking a new round of

n Paul and his daughter Isla.

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treatment in the lead-up to a second surgery. The cancer and chemotherapy have taken a toll on his personal life and his writing.

Even with his blog as an outlet, Paul and his young family (his daughter Isla recently turned two) are struggling to draw any inspiration from their situation.

“Chemotherapy is a nasty thing. It destroys everything it can in your body, and your body includes your mind. My creative side has been trapped and buried at the bottom of the well in somebody else’s basement. I can feel the ideas bubbling, trying to break to the surface in between chemo treatments, but before they can rise, the next lot of chemo slams them back down. You don’t even get to hear them scream.

“I’m still stuck deep in the well and clinging to the sides, hoping not to go under, not to drown. Having said that, though, the idea of luck, the concept of chance and coincidence and how that can play out your life have definitely been seeded heavily in my mind. The power of love and the strength of family, things I had only just begun to explore in my writing post my daughter’s birth and not yet seen published, my God, clichéd as these things might sound, sometimes it is only love that keeps me breathing and able to keep the fear at bay. Melodramatic? Come, friend, sit with me a moment, here, put on these shoes …”

“And through all this, it has made me want to write something uplifting, something beautiful. Something to break people’s hearts, yet make them smile.” Is this the end of Paul Haines’ writing? According to Paul, the cancer has changed his focus.

So what does the future hold for Paul Haines? n Another award win? Paul celebrates with his wife Julie.

“It’s crashed my fiction writing, but my blog writing has bloomed. I’ve got over 40,000 words of cancer diary up there now. I need it. It has been the coping mechanism, a way of unburdening my mind without it weighing on other people. Cathartic, completely, helping me move through understanding this hell hole I’m going through, in being able to organise my thoughts and banish all those dark niggling death-bound fucking jabs that want to destroy any positivity. “I know the blog is hard to read, though. It

hurts my family and some of my friends can’t bear to read it. You ask someone with cancer how they’re going and they’ll say ‘okay’ and that’s often all you’ll get. No state of mind. No physical examination. No nothing. My blog will disgust you, it will make you laugh and it might make you cry, even if you don’t know me. In some ways, it’s doing what I want my fiction to do, but instead, this is my life. I’d much rather it the other way round.”

“Hopefully life! I’ll finally have a short story collection distributed in Australia (The Last Days of Kali Yuga) after the failings of the Prime Books fiasco [Ed. Prime is a US publisher that published Paul’s first collection but have since gained notoriety for their problems, including lack of bookstore distribution]. I’m also looking to turn my cancer blog into a book, and knock off my Wives novella for the ex-six project. “And, more than anything in this world, I want to see my baby girl grow up and for me to grow old and happy with my wife.” n

These are the last days ... Travel the blood-stained trails of Kathmandu. Explore doorways to other worlds. Fight for humanity’s darkening soul.

...

when the powers of the Gods wane and evil walks the Earth

Pre-order now from www.brimstonepress.com.au. On sale in all good bookstores from December. 59

Her Collection of Intimacy

Fiction

Paul

Haines

arla liked to think of the viewing as a post-coital cigarette that didn’t damage our health. We’d watch ourselves afterwards on the enormous flatscreen television in her bedroom. Then we’d have sex again. Usually with the camera off. It had only been two months, and though I hadn’t said those three words yet, I was falling in love.

I had never been good with intimacy. The word itself conjured up inadequacy and awkwardness. Dare to show my heart? To give it to someone? With Carla, it was different. I felt I could tell her anything. She would listen and accept me and love me regardless. I trusted her completely.

that fuck-me look. Her fingernails traced my stomach as she gently kissed my lips, and again, we lost ourselves in each other.

So one night, as we lay naked in each other’s arms watching a particularly beautiful moment, I decided to tell her. I had never said those words to a woman I cared for. Before I met Carla, I had never cared about a woman. Women were just there to have a good time with for a while.

The late morning sun sparkled on the water. Businessmen and criminals lounged on launches moored at the docks, while brunchers dined at harbour-side cafes. We sat on Carla’s seventh-floor balcony, overlooking the docklands. She sipped coffee, soaking in the view, while I admired the curve of her throat. I wondered how many other lovers had pressed their lips to her soft skin.

“I love you.” I whispered, followed by a kiss on her ear. Her auburn hair smelled of apples.

“Do you ever watch us without me?” I asked.

“Oh, Matt.” She squeezed me and kissed my chest. “You’re so sexy.” She snuggled in closer and rubbed her thigh over mine, but she didn’t return the sentiment. We watched the rest of the recording in silence. I lay there, breathing in the clean sweat of her body, feeling her heart beat against mine, terrified I’d said the words that could end it all. Had I overstepped boundaries that I hadn’t understood? Would we now go through a cooling-off period until there was nothing left between us except the uncomfortable unsaid? When our screen versions climaxed, she killed the television and propped herself up on one elbow. Her breast hung above my chest, and as she moved closer, her nipple brushed my skin. Her green eyes had 60

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“I might.” She smiled and placed her cup on the table. “Why do you ask?” “Does it turn you on?” “What do you think?” “Stupid question. I’ve seen your drawer full of toys.” “Not just seen.” She kicked me under the table. Her bare foot lingered against my shin. “Why did you really ask? You jealous if I watch without you?” “Not at all. I’d get a kick out of watching you watching us. But only if you didn’t know I was there.” “This apartment’s too small. I’d know you were here. It wouldn’t

be the same. You wouldn’t be seeing the real me.” Her toes tickled the soft skin beneath my ankle. “True.” I slid my foot up her calf, then along the warmth of her inner thigh. “Can I have some of the recordings?” She pushed my foot away and laughed. “So you can post it to the web? Show all your friends? You’ve got to be kidding.” Her reaction was honest, but the words stung. “Is that what you think of me? Jesus, didn’t you hear what I said to you last night? I’ve never said that to anyone before.” Her face softened, and she held my hand. “Hey, I didn’t mean it like that. Those recordings are intimate. They’re mine. Ours. I don’t want anyone else to see them. Except you.” I nodded, taking comfort in the warmth of her fingers tracing the veins on my wrist. “Do you keep them all? Of us?” “Of course.” She pressed my hand to her lips. “Do you want to watch one?” “Maybe later.” She kissed my hand again before returning to her coffee. My eyes lingered on her throat, wondering about those countless unknown kisses, my original question unasked.

9 I always knew when Carla was about to orgasm as beads of sweat formed in the small of her back seconds before her eyes fluttered and her thighs squeezed hard against my hips. I told her again that I loved her as the last shudders wracked her body. She lay on her stomach, her eyes closed, smiling, with candlelight flickering over her skin. I kissed the sweat away and lowered myself next to her, wondering if she was ignoring my words or perhaps hadn’t heard me. “Mmmm,” she murmured. “You liked?” “Very.” We lay in a comfortable silence, content with the press of our bodies, her back curved against my belly. “Go on,” she said. “Ask me.” “What? To marry me?” She giggled. “No. About the others. It’s what you wanted to ask me the other day.” I did want to ask. The sudden, nervous unease in the pit of my stomach argued against it. I’d never had a relationship last longer than a month—my choice. I’d slept with maybe forty women, and I was no stud. I wanted her to say she’d had a few long-term boyfriends, a couple of one-night-stands. The fewer lovers the better. I wanted her to make me feel superior in my sexual conquest of the world. I wanted her to say that, but I knew she wouldn’t. She recorded our lovemaking sessions to watch later. I knew what that meant in terms of experience. I wanted to be cool about it. I

wanted to be able to handle it. Whatever went before didn’t matter.

She called for me three hours later, after midnight.

“Do you keep all the recordings?” I asked.

We sat together on her couch. She held a framed photograph of herself with her parents and brother. I’d never seen it before. Although original artwork adorned her apartment walls, photographs were not displayed anywhere.

“Yes.” “Do you watch the other ones? The ones I’m not in?” “Yes.” She wriggled around to face me and wrapped her arms around my waist. “But I haven’t watched them since I’ve been with you.” She was studying my face, looking for something. “There are four separate cameras in the room. I edit the performances afterwards, cutting between shots,” she said. “Each disc holds up to three hours. A separate disc for each lover. Some discs might only have five minutes on them.” She smiled and massaged my penis. “They didn’t last long if you get my meaning.” “How many discs am I on?” She nipped my lower lip. “Ooh, confident. What makes you think I’ve got enough footage for more than one disc?” “Because I’m fucking good, baby!” I rolled her onto her back, parted her thighs, and slid inside her.

“I thought I’d told you already,” she said. “This was the last photo we had taken together. Six years ago.” I sat there, thoughts swirling madly in my head. One of those detached moments as I realised the implications of what I had said at Mancini’s. She traced her finger around her father’s face. “He was killed in a skydiving accident.” “Oh God, I’m so sorry, Carla. I didn’t—” “Mum committed suicide a year later. She couldn’t bear it without him.” Carla’s face was emotionless, her voice calm. “My brother died shortly after that in a car crash.” I didn’t know what to say, so I held her until we were woken by the soft light of dawn through the balcony windows. We made love on the floor, and when I told her I loved her, she cried.

“

“And. I. Love. You.” I punctuated each word with a slow thrust. She laughed. “I’ve started the fourth disc. You’re in the lead.” “And?” I held the thrust, waiting for those three words. “Fuck me hard.”

9 We were sitting at the bar in Mancini’s seeking the comfort of air-conditioning on a suffocating summer evening. She drank chardonnay while I nursed a beer to soothing acid-jazz. “So when do I get to meet the olds?” I had meant it to be a flippant comment. Something that would get a laugh, or maybe, hopefully, what I asked for.

The smile on her lips fled. The temperature of the room dipped. She stared at the condensation on her glass. The background music now seemed loud and vulgar, but the song hadn’t skipped a beat—we had.

She labelled the spine of the disc c ase with my name and th e date with a red pen.

“Not just any one gets this colour,” she said. “You join a very se lect few.”

“That’s not funny.” Her voice sounded strained. “I think I’d like to go home now.”

I knew where she kept the discs. It was no secret. Up until then I had convinced myself I didn’t need to know, and I hadn’t looked or asked again. But temptation can be a parasite that feeds and grows and eventually consumes. Can be. It wasn’t yet, but it was nibbling.

“Are you okay?” I reached over to caress her arm, but she brushed me away.

She labelled the spine of the disc case with my name and the date with a red pen.

“I need to be alone.”

“Not just anyone gets this colour,” she said. “You join a very select few.”

“Hey, just a joke,” I said.

Without looking at me, she got up, kissed me on the cheek, and left. I should have chased her into the street, swept her up in my arms, said I was sorry. Said I loved her. Instead, I sat there and fumed into my beer.

I watched her put it into the wardrobe. Her naked body obscured my view from where I lay on the bed. She turned, winked, and slipped into the bathroom. The shower splattered water onto the tiles. She wanted me to look. I wanted her to say she loved me. I suspected—hoped—that maybe 61

Her Collection of Intimacy

Fiction

this was the first step to those words. To trust and intimacy. That maybe this is how she dealt with the loss of her family. I hadn’t told her I loved her in over two weeks. I didn’t like the misdirecting gestures. The kiss. The hug. The lack of reply. But I needed to say it to her, and I hoped she needed to hear it. The wardrobe took up the entire wall, with multiple sliding doors. The primal brain that spoke from my gut was terrified there might be no clothing hung behind those doors. That the entire wardrobe was crammed with recorded discs, thousands of them, name after name after name. Phonebooks. Names I knew. My rational brain dismissed this thought. It didn’t matter. I was the red pen, and there weren’t many of those. My primal brain whispered, “Not many compared to what? Forty red names? Fifty? Never mind all the black names.” I stood in the bathroom doorway, watching Carla rinse the lather from her hair. My hand rested on the wardrobe door. She smiled and nodded. I opened the wardrobe.

9 I wasn’t sure I could handle watching Carla with someone else. Watching her eyes roll as another man brought her to orgasm; penetration; taking him in her mouth; even the simplest of intimate acts—kissing. Black leather masks, whips, asphyxiation, faeces, rape ... These ideas had already crawled from my primal brain and clouded what I felt and thought about her. I needed to know. And here was my reality. Custom shelving built into the wardrobe housed roughly two hundred discs. I scanned the names, and my interest was piqued. Lisa. Delia. Kelly. More than half the titles were women. Andrea and Sonya. Karyn, Mel, and Toni. Orgy#3. There was only one disc with a red spine. It had my name on it. Carla slipped her arm around my waist and pressed her wet body against my back. “You okay with this?” she asked. “Yeah,” I said. “I thought you said there were other red ones.” She kissed my shoulder blade. “There are.” “And?” “Don’t worry. When I said a select few, it is. You join three others. Two men and a woman. But you’re different.” “You don’t have them here?” “For my eyes only, baby.” She paused, entwined her fingers with mine and squeezed gently. “The ones here on the shelf are fair game though. Are there any you’d like to watch?”

matter. It was where we were now, together, that mattered. She was my future.

screaming, sprinting across the brown, dead grass. The picture goes black.

And in that same moment, you move forward, the test passed.

I sat there, my palms covered in sweat. My stomach churned and blood flushed from my head. I thought I was going to be sick. She had not only witnessed her father’s death, but she had recorded it. How many times had she watched this in those dark moments when the world slept and her mind insisted on screaming? How many times had her mother watched it before committing suicide? I couldn’t handle this, I didn’t know how. My mind crawled with the image of the horizon rushing up to meet the freefalling twisting body.

“Sure.” I handed her the disc labelled Brigette and Sofia. I’d work up to the men later.

9 I moved in two weeks later. She still hadn’t said the words, but I knew it was only a matter of time. We stopped using protection, and when she asked me to pick up a pregnancy test a few months later, I panicked at first but soon felt like a god. I understood that having her say those three words to me didn’t matter at all. I knew how she felt; how we felt. We celebrated with champagne, or at least I did. Carla drank water. Later, we watched the episodes where we might have conceived. Afterwards, we turned the cameras off. One night during her second trimester, Carla seemed different. Nervous. One of the red discs sat on the coffee table. It wasn’t mine. “Why have you never asked me before?” she said. “It doesn’t matter.” “Don’t you want to hear me say it?” “I think I know why you can’t, Carla. Your family.” She picked up the remote. “There’s something you need to know, Matt. Something I need you to understand.” I had been wrong. This was the real test. She pressed play. Sound before the light. “Is it on, Carla?” The picture wobbles. Brown grass dead from the sun. A field. People and hangars. “Yes, Mum. Where is the birthday boy?” The picture jars into blue and steadies. “There. Can you see him?” says Carla’s mother. Wobble. Jerks and tilts. A skydiver freefalls onto the screen, his shape barely discernible. “Got him.”

“Are you okay?” Her voice trembled. “Can you handle that?” “Oh, baby, I don’t know what to say.” I needed to say something, for her sake. For my sake. “Can you handle knowing that?” Her face was expressionless, those green eyes aching for an answer. I reached for her hand and nodded. She smiled; a gentle smile that spoke more of sorrow than joy. “I need you to understand me.” She removed the disc, put it in its case and pulled another red disc from the drawer. They had never been stored in there before. She sat down, squeezed my hand and pressed play. The sound of an engine idling. The inside of a garage. The camera swings around, past shelves crammed with tools and boxes, until it comes to rest on a station wagon. Carla’s mother sits inside the car staring at the camera. She blinks. A hose connects the exhaust pipe and the window. The engine idles. And idles. The camera zooms in on her mother’s face. She stares, vacant, unbelieving ... Carla changed the disc. Her brother appeared on screen about to climb into a car. She sat beside me, kissed my cheek, and placed my hand on the bulge in her belly. “I love you,” she said.

The camera follows him down, his arms spread, flying through the cloudless sky. “Why hasn’t he pulled his chute yet?” says Carla’s mother. “Everyone else has.” He falls and falls. His body starts to tumble through the air. “Oh my God.” Carla’s mother again. Her voice is fainter as she moves away from the camera’s microphone.

This was the real test. Could I handle her past?

Shouting. Screams.

In that moment between breaths, the answer came to me with a sense of relief, and a rush of joy and light-headedness. Her past didn’t

The horizon smashes into the skydiver. The camera jerks up and down as Carla runs towards the body. Her mother is

by Paul Haines

BLACK A u s t r a l i a n D a r k C u l t u r e M a g a z i n e

“Her Collection of Intimacy” is one of the stories available in the short story anthology Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears.

Books

James Doig

A ustralia ’ s Dark

past

Mistress of the macabre

ver the years, horror fiction has been well served by women writers. Right now in Australia, we’ve got some of the best writers of dark fiction working today, anywhere. Margo Lanagan, Lucy Sussex, Kaaron Warren, and Kim Wilkins won’t let you down if you’re looking for that special hit of dread, or awe, or lingering disquiet. One forgotten Australian writer of horror stories who deserves a place amongst these Mistresses of the Macabre is Rosa Praed (1851-1935). Rosa was born in a slab hut on a remote station in south-east Queensland. From the beginning, she was acutely aware of the strangeness and emotional impact of the vast Australian continent, and she turned this to good effect in her writing, especially in her classic story “The Bunyip”, which combines the traditional blood-curdling campfire tale with the all-to-real colonial horror of the death of a child lost in the outback.

In 1872 she married Campbell Praed, the younger son of a notable English family, who had been sent to Australia to make his fortune. The marriage was a disaster—they had no interests in common, and from the start, Rosa found sex repugnant, in stark contrast to her husband (she locked him out of the bedroom when his demands became too much). Rosa spent a miserable couple of years on Curtis Island, where her husband had bought a station, but things looked up when they moved to England in 1876. Rosa had long dreamed of going to England to pursue her literary ambitions, and her dreams were realised when her first novel,

An Australian Heroine, became an overnight sensation when it was published in 1880. A string of best-sellers followed, and Rosa found herself fêted by celebrities of the day like Oscar Wilde and the Prince of Wales. Always interested in spirituality and reincarnation, she become heavily involved in occultism, especially theosophy, and blended these interests into her novels and stories. The Brother of the Shadow (1886) involves the evil spirit of an Egyptian black magician, The Soul of Countess Adrian (1891) concerns possession and an ancient occult sect, and the magical mandrake root in The Insane Root (1902) allows personality transference. Rosa’s life was marred by personal tragedy. Not only was she tied to a loveless marriage, but her daughter, deaf from birth, went insane and was committed to an asylum, and her three sons predeceased her, one by suicide. Her one consolation was her partner of many years, Nancy Harwood, a medium whom Rosa believed to be the reincarnation of a Roman slave girl. Rosa died on 10 April 1935 in Torquay, alone and forgotten, a common fate, as we shall see, of many of Australia’s early writers of dark fiction. James Doig—by day, Dr Jekyll of the National Archives in Canberra; by night, Mr Hyde of Australia’s weird history.

Modern Australia’s darkest fears took root with the yarns of isolation and despair from bush authors like Henry Lawson, Mary Fortune, Marcus Clarke, and Guy Boothby. In today’s age of terror, our fears have become darker than ever, and today’s authors have responded with the most unsettling stories ever produced. MACABRE charts a journey through the heart of Australia’s deepest, darkest fears, from the 18th century until now. It’s one hell of a ride! Pre-order now from Brimstone Press www.brimstonepress.com.au

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