[RM contributor Alexandra West checks in with a shiny new Sinister Seven.]

Horror is often relegated to the cobwebbed corners of popular culture. It’s dismissed, misunderstood or deemed a guilty pleasure. But the EMP Museum in Seattle, Washington has given the genre its due. With their exhibit Can’t Look Away: The Lure of Horror Film, senior curator Jacob McMurray, along with guest curators Roger Corman, John Landis and Eli Roth, has created an interactive and sensory experience that illuminates the history of horror cinema for gore-hounds and the casually curious alike.

The exhibit incorporates props such as the axe from The Shining, the Xenomorph creature suit from Alien and the Creature From the Black Lagoon’s mask as well interactive elements including The Scream Booth, where photos of shrieking visitors become part of the exhibit, and artist Philip Worthington’s Shadow Monster installation, which invites visitors to turn their own shadows into projected monsters…

If you’re a Hammer Horror fan, you’ll definitely want to take a look at a new series of custom-made collectible figures that are just being made available for sale. The figures – which are produced by an independent company named Distinctive Dummies – are part of a line dubbed “Mego Style,” and are made in the vein of 8-inch tall figures released by iconic toymaker Mego during the 1970s and early ’80s.

[Since today is Bram Stoker's 165th birthday, it seems fitting to commemorate the occasion with Richard Gladman's post-mortem of this year's Bram Stoker International Film Festival. Richard is the driving force behind the Classic Horror Campaign, and the voice of Rue Morgue UK. Rick also lurks about the web as his alter ego, Cyberschizoid.]

In the weeks leading up to Halloween in the UK, there are a plethora of horror film events, festivals and screenings vying for horror fans’ attention. One that has been building its reputation over the last four years is the Bram Stoker International Film Festival based in the North Yorkshire town of Whitby. Whitby is known as “the home of Dracula” because of its prominence in Stoker’s legendary vampire novel and the Bram Stoker International Film Festival capitalises on this with an abundance of vampire films in its programming, along with an extremely popular annual Vampire Ball where dressing up is not only welcomed but compulsory!

Our 15th anniversary Halloween issue drops in eleven days, but instant gratification rocks, so we’re giving you a sneak peek behind the creepy curtain. This one’s a monster; besides our massive tribute to an entire century of Universal horror, the issue features an A-to-Z guide to apocalyptic cinema,  a look at the under-appreciated Halloween III with director Tommy Lee Wallace, Disney’s Haunted Mansion, Eli Roth’s Goretorium, and much more. ON STANDS OCTOBER 1! Also available for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, PC and Mac for only $4.99 an issue.

Few things are better for the soul than an old-fashioned monster rally. Universal monster mash-ups such as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and House of Dracula have gotten many a horror fan through tough times; I’ve yet to be in a funk that an episode of Drak Pack couldn’t lift me out of.

It’s too bad Hammer never got around to a monster mash-up of their own. If they had, though, it would have looked a lot like Flesh and Blood, a graphic novel series from Monsterverse (the company behind Bela Lugosi’s Tales from the Grave, which I wrote about in RM #105). Scripted by Robert Tinnell, drawn by Neil Vokes, colored by Matt Webb and featuring covers by Dan Brereton, Flesh and Blood is a sexy, gory and incredibly fun throwback to Hammer horror films of the 1960s and ’70s. I can’t imagine the monster fan who wouldn’t love it.

As I reported here back in May, the good people at Titan Merchandise in England were getting ready to release a set of collectible busts this fall based on classic Hammer Horror characters. The set is comprised of three offerings: Christopher Lee in his signature role as the bloodthirsty Count Dracula (as seen in 1958′s Horror of Dracula), Peter Cushing as his adversary, the heroic Professor Van Helsing (from the same movie) and horror goddess Ingrid Pitt as the lovely, lethal Countess Elisabeth Nádasdy from the 1971 film, Countess Dracula.

Well, I’ve since been provided with some updated images of these fantastic collectibles and I thought I’d post them here for you to have a look.

For most of us, our love of horror begins with one word: monsters. From Universal’s classic pantheon to the rubber-suited mayhem of Godzilla and company, the creature feature was our gateway drug. It was no different for Emma, when she first fell in love with Hellboy and his monstrous universe. Till now, we’ve been looking at films to determine if they’re suitable viewing for your monster kid in training. This time, though, there’s no grey area – this is mandatory viewing for the young horror-junkie, if they haven’t seen it already. Of course, we’re talking about Fred Dekker’s cult classic, The Monster Squad, the first in our series of no-brainer recommendations.

This week marks the birthdays of three men who made a profound impact on my life growing up: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price. What’s remarkable about this is that there is just one day difference between the birthdays of these three masters of the macabre: Cushing’s birthday was yesterday, May 26; while Lee and Price’s are today, May 27. And while it’s been nearly 20 years since Vincent Price and Peter Cushing have left us, Sir Christopher Lee is – at 89 years of age – still going strong and seemingly more in demand than ever for film roles.

So, to pay tribute to these legendary titans of terror, I thought I would showcase some pieces here of my collection of Lee, Cushing and Price and memorabilia.

Anyone who knows me knows just how much of a Hammer Horror fanatic I am.  I’ve spent most of my life watching the colourful cinematic exploits of Christopher Lee’s Dracula and Mummy, Peter Cushing’s Baron Frankenstein and Professor Van Helsing, Oliver Reed’s Werewolf and so on. So you can imagine how I felt when Rue Morgue editor Dave Alexander passed me on some pics yesterday of some fangtastic upcoming new Hammer Horror collectibles, courtesy of Titan Merchandise of England.

Recently, while doing research for an article, I pulled out a few volumes from my collection of vintage children’s horror books and glanced through them. Dating back to the 1970s and early ’80s, many of these books helped fuel my fascination in movie monsters and horror films – an interest which has of course, survived to this day. Some of them I’ve owned since childhood; others I later picked up at book fairs, library sales and used book stores. Not having seen some of them in years, I was surprised at the flood of memories that came rushing back to me when I opened up the (in many cases) well-worn covers. With that, I thought it’d be nice to showcase a few favourites from my collection. And if you’re of a certain age, you might even remember reading or owning one or two of these yourself. Enjoy!