The Academy Museum Celebrates Horror Films in New Exhibition

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will celebrate the horror genre with the new exhibition, The Horror Show, opening in the fourth-floor Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Gallery on September 26, 2026. 

The Horror Show will take visitors on a journey through conventions, characters, and settings from more than a century of cinematic history. Winding through six thematic “chambers”—Gothic, Psychological, Science, Slasher, Religion and Ghosts—the exhibition is filled with rare, original props, costumes, production materials, and interactive displays, and explores why people love to be scared at the movies and how filmmakers satisfy that desire.

Among the movies represented are several adaptations of Dracula, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, The Shining, The Silence of the Lambs, Alien, Halloween, Ari Aster's Midsommar, The Blair Witch Project, and the 2025 hit, Sinners.

The exhibition will be accompanied by public programs and film screenings that begin September 26 with the retrospective film series, John Carpenter: Prince of Darkness; the 2026 Monster Mash on October 24 featuring the US premiere of the 4K restoration of Horror of Dracula (1958); Museum After Dark on October 31 featuring a screening of The Craft (1996); and a 50th anniversary screening of Carrie (1976) with Oscar-winning actress Sissy Spacek on November 19. More screening information is available on the website.

In addition to actor Willem Dafoe and filmmaker Osgood Perkins, the advisory team includes documentary filmmaker Ariel Baska, Oscar-winning prosthetic makeup artist and Academy member Howard Berger, author and filmmaker Tananarive Due, and film scholar Angela Marie Smith. 

The Horror Show will be on view through July 25, 2027. While parental guidance is advised, the Academy Museum will also present a small -scale, family-friendly exhibition, Zombies!, in the adjacent Warner Bros. Gallery, on view September 26, 2026–July 25, 2027.  

Zombies! explores how movie zombies are created and where their stories come from. Set in an interactive educational space, Zombies! showcases how filmmakers and artists create the unforgettable images of the undead we see on screen. Visitors can also discover the origins of zombies and how they have been adapted to become the classic horror monsters we know today. 

A publication by the Academy Museum and DelMonico—richly illustrated with concept art, film stills, and behind-the-scenes production photos—will be available in September. The Academy Museum store will also offer exclusive The Horror Show merchandise, including apparel, toys, collectibles, and books.

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