As if it needed further validation as the premiere publication on horror, Rue Morgue recently won the Rondo Hatton Award for Best Magazine of 2007. We sat down with its founder, filmmaker Rodrigo Gudiño, to learn why horror fans (surprise, surprise) are among the most creative, introspective fans out there.
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Firefox News: What I admire most about Rue Morgue is the approach implied by the phrase “Horror in Culture & Entertainment.” That “in culture” separates it from the rest of the pack. So what are horror film fans missing if they're not aware of the broader genre's history and impact? Or more positively, what's to be gained by looking at horror through a more inclusive lens that takes in comics, literature, and music rather than just focusing on buzz-worthy new movies?
Rodrigo Gudino: Back in 1998, shortly after starting Rue Morgue, I was approached about launching a similar “culture & entertainment” magazine focusing on science fiction. I was reluctant for a lot of reasons, but nevertheless did a little bit of research on it anyway. What I found, among other things, is that science fiction fans and horror fans seemed to deviate in one important respect: the former were primarily consumers, whereas the latter were more apt to respond to the genre creatively. Horror fans started bands, drew monsters, wrote stories, launched horror film nights, tattooed themselves, etc. I suspect that part of this means that a large [segment] of horror fans are primarily fans of horror imagery, and that they are drawn to film because it is currently the vehicle where that imagery is most powerfully represented. Anyway, looking at the genre in its greater cultural context is a way to appreciate this universal something about horror movies that attracts us to them in the first place. Also, because the horror genre is largely comprised of taboo subject matter, it is necessarily political, especially regarding ideas of morality and censorship. To lose oneself in the imagery of horror films without having a regard for this is to divest the genre of a large part of its power.
Let's stick with culture, in particular the wider artistic context of which horror is inevitably part. When I see your work, I think "Here’s an artist who's deeply interested in the possibilities of narrative film in its short form. Period." I don't think, "Here's a director whose only frame of reference is horror and he just happens to be making short films." So I'm curious about which filmmakers, either of shorts or features, you find inspiring who are either non-horror or tangential to the genre in some way. And under what conditions can someone like you get the cultural respect afforded to mainstream filmmakers?
Unfortunately, many horror filmmakers are either unaware or uninterested in the possibilities of their movies working outside the genre, and so they are content to make movies that are simply referential to other horror movies. Thanks for noticing that I am not one of those filmmakers! Some of the people who have really opened my eyes include Kubrick, Fellini, Jodorowsky, Bergman, Michael Mann, P.T. Anderson, Todd Solondz and Milos Forman. But really all cinema has been inspirational to me in some way or another—soap operas, porn, infomercials, televangelism—I can honestly say I have found them all to be valuable. I work from the philosophy that all cinema operates around certain fixed principles and this has allowed me to find almost every type of film relevant to my creative process. With respect to attention and cultural respect from the mainstream, I really don't think about that right now. Those factions will sit up and take notice in their own time, because I think my films will eventually demand their attention, irrespective of how they are marketed.
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