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 on September 26, 2026.
The Horror Show will take visitors on a journey through conventions, characters, and settings that have haunted theaters 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); and a 50th anniversary screening of Carrie (1976) with Oscar-winning actress Sissy Spacek on November 19.
Bloody Flicks 