[Fabien Delage, the voice of Rue Morgue France, has some news and a special giveaway for any readers lucky enough to be heading to Nice next weekend for La Samain du Cinéma Fantastique.]

For a French horror fan like me, the same question comes up every October: What am I going to do for Halloween? France is a very traditional and conservative country when it comes to horror entertainment and foreign celebrations. Year after year, there is less and less “trick or treat” in the streets of Paris, and the spirit of Halloween is dying. I used to leave France every Halloween to escape the boredom; Anglo-Saxon countries are dream destinations for those who love Halloween parties. But this year, I don’t need to fly to Transylvania or to Scotland to enjoy the Samhain festival. The hottest French destination for the Halloween period is in the city of Nice in the South of France – the site of La Samain du Cinéma Fantastique.

[Fabien Delage, the voice of Rue Morgue France, checks in with a report on Paris' L’Étrange Festival.]

The eighteenth edition of L’Étrange Festival, a unique event bringing filmgoers a fascinating roster of provocative films, will wind down Sunday in Paris.

The 2012 line-up continues the tradition of highlighting emerging talent and paying homage to independent filmmakers. The event features a diverse program that includes cutting-edge work, outlandish genre movies, lost masterpieces and innovative shorts. L’Étrange Festival has been called the “most exciting cultural event of the Fall season in France” and is attended by more than 17,000 rabid moviegoers each year.

This year’s Festival of Fear came and with it brought the petrifying presences of John Carpenter (check out his Q & A with Dave Alexander), Tony Todd, James Marsters, Juliet Landau, Rose McGowan, Chris Sarandon, and the list goes on and on, but there is so much more to a convention than just the featured guests. The following photo round-up gives a glimpse into some other great artists, filmmakers, exhibitors and fans who haunted the convention and may have been missed even by some who attended the festival.

[Fabien Delage, our resident expert on all things gruesome and Gallic, was recently lured onto the set of the upcoming horror flick Fever. We're assuming he made it out alive, since he filed this report on his set visit...]

In April I was given the chance to visit the set of Fever (Fièvre), the first feature film from Romain Basset, the new name in French fantastic cinema. After making several short films, including Bloody Current Exchange with Gaspar Noé regular Philippe Nahon, Basset served as first assistant director on “Mother of Toads,” Richard Stanley’s segment for the horror anthology film The Theatre Bizarre. Two years later, Basset tackled a project he’d had in mind for a long time: a horrific film – and definitely a baroque one – in which family plots and horrifying, nightmarish visions intermingle in a dreamlike and disturbing atmosphere. It’s a film that should appeal to fans who are dissatisfied with the current state of “French fantastic”; in Fever, you can expect to see a revival of French cinéma de genre.

[Fabien Delage, the voice of Rue Morgue France, checks in with a new Sinister Seven.]

France recently carved yet another notch into its genre film festival belt with the first edition of the Paris International Fantastic Film Festival (PIFFF), which took place November 23 – 27 in the heart of the City of Light. The festival boasted a number of special guests, two juried competitions, and an impressive line-up of both feature-length and short films, including a number of French premieres. We managed to catch up with PIFFF artistic director and film programmer Fausto Fasulo during the festival and cajoled him into answering seven questions about the inaugural event…

[Fabien Delage, our man on the ground in France, spent the Halloween season visiting some of Europe’s most notorious haunted houses. Though he’s been catching some uneasy sleeps in a few places with genuinely unsettling histories, his ghost tour included a stop at Le Manoir de Paris, France’s first North American-style haunted attraction. Fabien’s Sinister Seven with the house’s founder got a bit buried in the holiday frenzy, but, hey, it’s only 355 days until Halloween – maybe this will help get you in the spirit. With apologies to Fabien and Adil, here's their talk.]

The haunted house is a time-honoured Halloween tradition in North America, but it’s a relatively new concept in France. If you were anywhere near Paris for the Halloween season, though, Le Manoir de Paris was the place to be. During September and October, the country’s premiere haunted attraction brought thirteen macabre French legends to life, offering guests a terrifying look at the dark underbelly of the City of Lights. More than twenty actors went through an intensive training regimen to be able to play their character and chase unsuspecting guests through a nightmarish world of phantoms, hunchbacks, gargoyles, murderers and other legendary French fiends.

[Fabien Delage, Rue Morgue's resident expert on French horror and the voice of Rue Morgue France, checks in with a Sinister Seven with the man behind one of France's largest genre film events.]

The 17th edition of L’Étrange Festival, one of France’s most-anticipated genre events of the year, is currently in full swing in Paris.

This year’s program has much to offer. More than 70 features will be screened throughout the ten-day event, including The Divide, The Woman, The Theatre Bizarre, Kill List and more. French genre fans also enjoyed a special Grindhouse Night that featured screenings of Hobo with a Shotgun, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, Norwegian Ninja and the 1983 sci-fi yarn 2019: After the Fall of New York.

You know how creepy stuff has a way of going global? We’ve seen it time and time again: something scary goes down in a farmhouse in Pennsylvania or an apartment building in Barcelona and before you can say “They’re coming for you, Barbara!” the horror has spread to every corner of the world and you just can’t get away from it.

Well, it’s kind of like that with Rue Morgue. The Rue Crew spends way too much time sequestered in dark corners of the House of Horror in Toronto, but that hasn’t stopped us from stretching our shadowy tendrils across borders – and oceans. It is with great pleasure that we introduce our United Kingdom Facebook page, Rue Morgue UK. If you live in the United Kingdom or even if you’re just a fan of UK horror, head on over there and “like” the new page – you’ll get updates on all manner of creepy UK culture, and you might even win a spiffy digital subscription to Rue Morgue.

And, since horror is a multi-lingual affair, you can keep tabs on us en français on our new French-language Facebook page, Rue Morgue France. L’horreur!