Enter If You Dare...Count Orlok's Nightmare Gallery

October 28, 2014

By:  Lauren Vinciguerra

Dying to get scared this Halloween season? Then go visit Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery. Count Orlok’s, located on 285 Derby Street, is known for its realistic wax statues and tributes to horror movie characters. But what many people do not know is that on the weekends in October, the museum is transformed into a haunted house.

When you first walk into the museum, you are taken to a dimly-lit room where a young woman lies lifeless in a casket. As the door shuts behind you, a gramophone begins to play the dead woman’s last will and testament.

“That was my favorite part—the beginning,” Kaile Mellor, a senior at Salem State, says. “I loved how you learned about the woman’s history and the creepy music made it even better!”

The scratchy voice on the record player eventually cuts out as all the lights turn off.

“I kept thinking ‘don’t open your eyes, don’t open your eyes,’” Ryan Quigley, a Salem tourist, says.

When the lights turn back on, there are two clowns, both with bloodstained, decayed faces, in front of you screaming and laughing maniacally.

When the killer clowns disappear, along with your tour guide, you walk through the curtained-off museum. With barely any light, you are forced to creep through a maze of bloody cadavers wrapped in stark white sheets. The swinging bodies hide the psychos and zombies snarling in the corners waiting for victims. At certain points, they even come close enough to breathe on your neck. But don’t worry; none of the actors can touch you!

Near the end of the tour, a bloody man with a chainsaw jumps out at you and chases you until you reach the exit. “All my friends cried like babies at that part,” John Minichiello, a music major at Salem State, says. “It was hilarious!”

The haunted house is open on weekends from three to five and tickets are eight dollars with a Salem State ID. Go experience this frightening event…if you dare.

Lauren Vinciguerra is a senior English major and her favorite horror movie is "Halloween."