October 26, 2011

Filthy Review - Diabolique #6


Diabolique #6

Review by Jude Felton

As a reviewer and a fan I have never made any secret to my preference of print magazines over any other format, so it surprised even my good self that I had yet to cast my eyes over an issue of Diabolique. This has been rectified now, quite obviously, and the question I am still asking myself is why did I wait so long? I really do not have a good answer to that.

The first thing I noticed about Diabolique, as I am sure you will, is the quite gorgeous cover. Nothing quite conveys both horror and class quite as well as Vincent Price, and this cover art gets that across perfectly. The second thing I noticed, upon delving inside, is that this is not a magazine of tidbit information and news-bites, instead it is full of rich articles and interviews for you to immerse yourself in. The sort of content that makes, nay demands, you return to it time and time again. 

In this issue, which is the September/October issue, virtually the entire magazine is dedicated to its cover star, the late and very great Vincent Price. There’s a quite extensive review of the classic movie Witchfinder General, which incidentally was filmed not far from where I used born and raised, coverage of the Vincentennial celebrations from St Louis, we have Roger Corman, Ian Ogilvy and Jane Asher interviews as well as a piece on Michael Reeves. On top of that there is still room for more! The only article that strays from being Vincent Price related is an interview with director Matthijs van Heijningen as he talks about the recently released, although at the time of this magazine’s release it had not been, The Thing prequel.

Each article is thorough and quite lengthy, there is no sense that anything had been rushed, instead research and passion fuel each and every one of them.

Diabolique is a full color magazine, although it does contain some black and white photos, and some of the pictures are exclusive to the magazine and have never been seen before. Quite fascinating I tell you.

The fact of the matter is that having Vincent Price on the cover should be more than enough to convince you to shell out a few coins for this issue. If that isn’t enough (why?) then the content should definitely draw you in hook, line and sinker.

Beauty isn’t always a word you associate with horror, and for good reason I might add, yet this truly is a beautiful magazine. The articles are well written and the look and feel of the magazine is one of class. Diabolique is most definite a genre magazine put together by genre fans and comes with a wholehearted recommendation from this writer.

Diabolique is available in both print and digital download formats and can be purchased at Horror Unlimited's website.



No comments: