Blumhouse VP Ryan Turek will give the opening night keynote address at the Peabody Essex Museum following the Salem Haunted Happenings Parade. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the cult classic Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Turek will also host a Q&A with Cassandra Peterson live-onstage before a screening of the film!

Horror icon and legend Cassandra Peterson will host a 30th anniversary screening of her film Elvira, Mistress of the Dark at the opening night reception of Salem Horror Fest following the Salem Haunted Happenings Parade. With opening remarks from keynote speaker Ryan Turek (Blumhouse Productions VP), the evening program will also feature a panel discussion diving into the history and legacy of the world's most famous horror host! A pre-screening VIP reception will be offered for a very select few to meet and talk with Cassandra Peterson before the festivities begin.

A group of well-meaning teens comes face to face with a hunger-dumb Tarman and a horde of acid rain zombies after a toxic gas leak reanimates the dead at a medical supply warehouse. This punk rock, horror-comedy spinoff of The Night of the Living Dead features the first instance of brain-eating zombies.

Justice wields a mop in this landmark of DIY punk production from the shameless world of Troma. While fleeing a group of bullies, 98-pound weakling, Melvin Ferd, stumbles into a vat of toxic waste. This transforms him into the Toxic Crusader— a monstrous superhero who is hellbent on vanquishing the feckless and corrupt evildoers of Tromaville. 

Over the course of its three volume run, Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories introduced children to gothic tales of terror with notoriously ghastly illustrations making them the most banned books of our time.

“This valley is just one long smorgasbord.’

“Every February 14th, Harry comes back to town, his pickaxe stained with blood, waiting in the shadows of the Hanniger Mine, just for someone to kill, should they not heed his warning.”

Dark secrets behind the lost 1939 STD propaganda film, Sex Madness, are revealed throughout an audio commentary track from The Film Dick podcast hosted by Jimmy Morris (Patton Oswalt).

“Civility must be rewarded, captain. If it isn't rewarded, there's no use for it. There's just no use for it at all.”

“If you look at the whole life of the planet, we, you know, man has only been around for a few blinks of an eye. So, if the infection wipes us all out... that is a return to normality.”

Fans flock to a festival celebrating the most iconic horror movies, only to discover that the charismatic showman behind the event has a diabolical agenda. As festival attendees start dying off, three teenagers - more schooled in horror-film cliches than practical knowledge about neutralizing psycho killers - must band together and battle through various madmen and monstrosities to survive.

“We've just begun to learn about the water and its secrets, just as we've only touched on outer space.”

“I admire its purity. A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.”

“Bad luck isn't brought by broken mirrors, but by broken minds.”

"During the 1980s, over 70% of American adults believed in the existence of abusive Satanic Cults. Another 30% rationalized the lack of evidence due to government cover ups."

Over the course of its three volume run, Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories introduced children to gothic tales of terror with notoriously ghastly illustrations making them the most banned books of our time. This documentary follows the author’s son, Peter Schwartz, in an exploration of the collection’s legacy, folklore, and many controversies with interviews from iconic children’s authors R.L. Stine, Debbie Dadey, Bruce Coville, and Q.L. Pearce.

The 1990s film industry worked parallel to the mainstream media to perpetuate the archetype of the unhinged killer woman through various genres and to varying degrees of subversion.

“You may continue your career for ten years. Ten years of perfect, unchanged beauty. But at the end of that time, before people start to become suspicious, you have to disappear from public view forever.”

“Call them witches, burn them, torture them, until every woman is afraid. Afraid of herself... afraid of men... and all for what? Fear of losing their hard-on.”

“Poor little hysterical witch! In the middle ages you were in conflict with the church. Now it is with the law.”

This lecture will explore a variety of the genre’s depictions of hell, and how those cinematic depictions correspond with contemporary belief systems of sin, punishment and justice.

“Well, you’re young and healthy. You ought to have lots of children!”

Set in the 1957, an unmarried, pregnant conwoman seeks refuge in a southern convent where she is forced to atone for her sins. Protected within the confines of what first appears to be an ideal environment to raise her child, Mother Superior’s house of God descends into terror as the nuns inflict psychological warfare and brutal violence upon their unholy captives.