The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will celebrate one of global cinema’s most enduring, popular, and influential forms of filmmaking with the new exhibition, The Horror Show, opening in the fourth-floor Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Gallery in Los Angeles on September 26, 2026.
Supported by John Gore Studios and Hammer Films, The Horror Show will take visitors on a journey through conventions, characters, and settings that have haunted theatres and audiences for more than a century. Winding through six thematic “chambers” filled with rare, original props, costumes, production materials, and interactive displays, the exhibition explores why people love to be scared at the movies and how filmmakers satisfy that desire.
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); a 50th anniversary screening of Carrie (1976) with Oscar-winning actress Sissy Spacek on November 19; and a celebratory retrospective of Hammer Films in January 2027.
“Our teams have done a phenomenal job creating an immersive and thrilling journey through the history of horror films, making an exhibition that is both emotional and experiential.” says Director and President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Academy Collection, Amy Homma. “Along with our amazing programming teams, we have selected a variety of film and educational programming to accompany the exhibition that is sure to excite all types of horror fans.”
“The Horror Show is an exploration of horror’s emotional, cultural, and symbolic power and examines why horror matters so deeply to many different types of communities,” said Senior Exhibitions Curator Jessica Niebel. “We are excited to celebrate the daring creativity of horror cinema with devoted fans and curious newcomers alike, inviting audiences to confront what frightens us—and discover why we keep coming back for more.”
Four-time Oscar-nominated actor Willem Dafoe, who serves on the advisory team for The Horror Show, said: “Cinema in general engages your sense of wonder, but horror can explode it. It is a popular form, born of modest financial resources and with a strong, lasting independent streak. And it has all the same possibilities for originality, inventiveness, and freedom that it did in its infancy.”
“Horror is crucial to culture and cinema, and to our evolving understanding of what it means to be alive on earth,” said filmmaker and exhibition advisor Osgood Perkins. “I couldn’t think of a bigger or better celebration of the films and stories that have impacted audiences so profoundly and for so long. There is something for every horror fan to appreciate and enjoy in this exhibition, a hallway of limitless doors to be opened and explored.”
In addition to Dafoe and 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.
Exhibition Overview
Visitors enter The Horror Show through a darkened, introductory gallery featuring a “soundscape” of music, voices, and sound effects, and then emerge into a long hallway lined with classic horror film posters from the Academy Collection and other lenders. On either side of this central space, six galleries, or “chambers,” are devoted to major strains of horror cinema.
- Gothic: Gothic horror explores the darker edges of the human experience, often through the character of a vampire, one of horror’s most enduring figures. This chamber, which resembles a shadowed crypt, is adorned with original concept artwork and in-character portrait photos of classic horror stars and serves as the setting for an array of original objects, including the Academy Collection’s recently restored cape worn by Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931). The gallery also features objects from films, including Blade (1998), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Horror of Dracula (1958), The Hunger (1983), and Sinners (2025).
- Psychological: Blurring the boundaries between reality and delusion, psychological horror explores the mind in all its complexity, often leaving audiences questioning their own perceptions. A chamber resembling a stark white clinical space serves as the setting for objects and production materials that trace a history of psychological horror on film. Visitors will see historical posters and concept art for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), original storyboards for Psycho (1960), and key props and costumes from films, including The Babadook (2014), Get Out (2017), Misery (1990), The Shining (1980), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
- Science: Born in a laboratory, science horror confronts the dangers of ambition, hubris, and humanity’s unsettling urge to engineer and manipulate life. This chamber replicates a laboratory setting, showcasing special effects prosthetics, creature designs, makeup concept artwork, and artifacts from historical to contemporary science horror films. Displayed as curious specimens and instruments of experimentation are production elements from films, including a special focus on Frankenstein and its various film adaptations, Alien (1979), The Fly (1986), The Substance (2024), The Thing (1982), and an original mask from Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).
- Slasher: Slasher films are notorious for their blood and gore, making audiences face fear dead on—an unsettling reminder that anyone could be next. Trespass into this chamber, the killer’s home, where fully costumed figures include Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Ghostface, and Art the Clown. As visitors explore the house, they will encounter a cabinet filled with masks and weapons, as well as rare objects from films including The Black Phone (2021), Halloween (1978), It (2017), M3GAN (2022), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Peeping Tom (1960), Saw (2004), and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974).
- Religion: Religious horror films offer narratives of meaning, mystery, and morality, shaping how power, belief, and the body—both pure and possessed—are understood. From this space emerges the witch, a symbol of collective female strength and a figure through whom fascination and fear continue to be explored. Visitors will walk into a witches’ circle, with key costumes from Hellraiser (2022), Midsommar (2019), Sinners (2025), Suspiria (2018), and Weapons (2025), as well as objects from films including Eve’s Bayou (1997), The Exorcist (1973), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Tales from the Hood (1995), and historical documents from the Salem witch trials.
- Ghosts: This chamber spotlights the prevalence and power of the spectral and supernatural in film, with ghosts serving as inspiration for special and visual effects innovation. Visitors will walk into a haunted living room and are invited to surf through the original marketing website for The Blair Witch Project (1999), and view an array of haunted objects from films, including The Conjuring (2013), The Monkey (2025), Poltergeist (1982), The Ring (2002), Talk to Me (2022), and more. This chamber also explores historic Japanese woodblock prints and 1960s and ’70s theatrical release posters, testifying to the resonance and prevalence of ghost stories in Japanese culture.
The only pathway out of the exhibition lies through The Blood Room, an immersion in the many textures and shades of cinematic blood. Spilling out from the hallway of horrors, visitors are engulfed in a final sensorial macabre: gallery walls layered with gore, pushing the knowledge gleaned from the exhibition through one last, gooey visual of horror.
January 2027 | A celebration of Hammer Films
In Winter 2027, the museum will celebrate the history of iconic British production company, Hammer Films, with a 10-film retrospective featuring rare and newly restored horror titles. Hammer Films has played a defining role in shaping horror cinema, producing some of the genre’s most iconic films. Under the ownership of John Gore Studios, the studio is now undertaking a program of 4K restorations to celebrate this legacy and bring its classic films to contemporary audiences.
