To mark Halloween, the National Science and Media Museum has shared a first look at a feature that will be included permanently in its Sound and Vision galleries from 2025.
Set to open next summer, the galleries will feature a section called Behind the Screams, which explores the enduring appeal of horror films.
Original objects from famous films - such as the fangs worn by Christopher Lee's Dracula in the 1958 movie - will be showcased in the section - which, as the punning name suggests, takes visitors 'behind the scenes' of horror films and games.
A key moment in the exhibit will tell the story of Hammer Films, which launched a series of gothic horror films in the 1950s and gave us 'now-classic' representations of characters like Dracula.
The Lee fangs showcased in Behind the Screams feature a blood reservoir that the actor would press with his tongue to cause fake blood to flow through a tube and drip down the pointy dentures.
The fangs will be placed in a pool of fake blood to bring them to life - an idea from the museum’s Youth Forum, a panel of young people from across Bradford district who are being consulted on the new galleries.
Visitors will also be able to get close to the Alien head and torso used in the film franchise.
Behind the Screams will explore how creatives and artists like Roy Ashton and Phil Leakey used special effects make-up and sound technologies to create emotional reactions in their audiences.
Media makeup and special effects students from Bradford College collaborated on the exhibit, recreating famous Hammer Film characters for a new film.
Visitors will also be able to have a go at bringing a film to life just like a Foley artist by using wooden machines to recreate horror film sound effects (like footsteps or a door creaking).
The new Sound and Vision galleries will open in summer 2025.
Meanwhile, the museum’s Pictureville Cinema is screening a special season of women in horror, called Fatal Femmes, this Halloween.
The season includes a special Halloween night double bill of Suspiria on 35mm, and the new 4k restoration of the Stephen King adaptation, Carrie.
More information is available at https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/cinema/fatal-femmes
The museum will reopen to the public in January 2025, after an 18-month temporary closure which will see the addition of two new galleries, the creation of an additional passenger lift, and improvements to the main entrance.
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