Count Orlok's Nightmare Gallery is a

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem was one ...

. The collection is owned by James Lurgio and includes life-sized sculptures of several horror movie monsters, as well as movie props and life masks of various horror actors and directors.

History

The museum opened in September 2007, with the collection previously being displayed at the

Bayside Expo Center Bayside Expo Center (also known as the Bayside Expo and Conference Center) was a convention center located in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Originally opened as a shopping mall called Bayside Mall in the 1960s, the mall later failed and the conven ...

in 2005. In 2015, two thefts occurred at the museum. An unidentified woman and man stole a metal hat and the hand of a mummy figurine, respectively, on two separate occasions. Though initially hosted on Derby Street, the collection was moved to a new location on Essex Street in 2021.

Collection

The gallery begins with a display themed around the titular

Count Orlok Count Orlok (; ; ) is a fictional character who first appeared in the silent film ''Nosferatu'' (1922) directed by F. W. Murnau. Based on Bram Stoker's Count Dracula, he is played by German actor Max Schreck, and is depicted as a repulsive va ...

of ''

Nosferatu ''Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'' () is a 1922 silent film, silent German Expressionism (cinema), German Expressionist vampire film directed by F. W. Murnau from a screenplay by Henrik Galeen. It stars Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who ...

'', before following the films featured in a rough chronological order. Character figurines range from

Universal monsters The Universal Monsters (also known as Universal Classic Monsters and Universal Studios Monsters) is a media franchise comprising various horror film series distributed by Universal Pictures. It consists of different horror creature characters o ...

slasher movie A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic ...

villains. Life masks of actors such as

Bela Lugosi Blaskó Béla Ferenc Dezső (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), better known by the stage name Bela Lugosi ( ; ), was a Hungarian–American actor. He was best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the horror film classic Dracula (19 ...

and directors such as

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

are also displayed.

References

{{Nosferatu Cinema museums in the United States Museums in Salem, Massachusetts Museums established in 2007