Toronto, CANADA – Rue Morgue Cinema and Shade Rupe present Valentine Villainy: An Evening of Short Horror Films About Love and Desire (Monday February 11, 7:00 pm at The Pioneer Theatre, 155 East 3rd Street at Avenue A, 212.591.0434) for a night of award-winning films including Rue Morgue Magazine publisher Rodrigo Gudino’s controversial shocker The Demonology of Desire (“Bizarre, shocking and brilliantly done.” – Raindance Film Festival) and his acclaimed film The Eyes of Edward James (“A stunning psychological thriller.” – Toronto Sun). Also screening will be Phil Mucci’s award-winning film The Listening Dead (voted Best Short Film of 2007 in Rue Morgue Magazine’s Year In Review), and Stuart Andrews’ humorous and insightful Girls, Guns & Goblins: Making The Demonology of Desire. Both Gudino and Mucci will be present to introduce their respective films and answer questions from the audience. A pile of swag bags courtesy of Rue Morgue will also be on hand for lucky attendees.
Shade Rupe proudly returns to the Pioneer for a grand night of filmic debauchery and debasement. Currently handling publicity for Wild Eye Releasing’s upcoming original feature, Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69, the Bravo’s 100 Scariest Movie Moments commentator and author of the upcoming interview anthology Dark Stars Rising is excited to offer the first full presentation of Rodrigo Gudino’s film output to date. Valentine Villainy is the world premiere of this collection, and the combination of Gudiño’s colorful visuals and distinguished storytelling is guaranteed to send every participant home with a wry smile, and a coldly warmed heart.
An Official Selection of over fifteen film festivals worldwide The Demonology of Desire is an unnerving and bizarre experience involving a precocious young girl with a very unusual need. A powerful wish rips the soft fabric of friendship between an unsuspecting boy, the girl’s best friend and a sinister thing they keep locked in a cage in the basement…
This “brave, provocative, blackly comic and deeply perverse film” (FanTasia Film Festival) was awarded Best Short 2007 (Rhode Island Horror Film Festival) and Special Jury Prize for Best Actress and Best Effects (Fantastic Fest, Austin).
The Demonology of Desire features cinematography by Derek Rogers, CSC, (Cube, Resident Evil: Apocalypse) and special make-up effects by Gaslight Studio (300, Land of the Dead, Saw III). “One fucked up number” -Ain’t It Cool News.
An official selection of over twenty festivals worldwide, including the Toronto International Film Festival and the Seattle International Film Festival, The Eyes of Edward James has garnered awards in Korea’s prestigious Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival and Scotland’s Dead By Dawn Horror Film Festival.
The fifteen-minute suspense film’s tale unfurls through a hypnotized patient’s couchbound recant of the evening that his wife is brutally murdered. His eyes become our own as he makes his way through the dark maze of his own twisted memory. The Eyes of Edward James stars Richard Underhill (Blue Murder). “An auspicious debut” – Twitch Film
Director Phil Mucci began his career as a music and advertising photographer in New York City. During his decade long stint as a photographer, he worked with a slew of popular artists, including Christina Aguilera, Jay-Z, Ludacris, Trent Reznor, My Chemical Romance, The Killers, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, to name a few. In his gothic fable The Listening Dead, an obsessed composer and his wife are haunted by the apparition of a young woman. The composer’s wife unknowingly inflicts him with a horrible curse, and the spirit takes matters into her own hands… “Phil Mucci creates melodic little pocket universes… He has profound understanding of the techniques that make up film production from seemingly every era and uses those techniques to evoke the era itself in his work.” – Ain’t It Cool News
Rodrigo Gudino is the president and publisher of Rue Morgue Magazine, one of the leading genre magazines in the world. He is the Senior Coordinator of the Rue Morgue Festival of Fear, Canada’s national horror expo, co-producer of Rue Morgue Radio, a weekly horror music broadcast, and programmer of Rue Morgue Presents CineMacabre, a monthly screening of new, rare, classic and cult horror films in Toronto’s legendary Bloor Cinema.
