13 Creepy Museums Guaranteed to Give You the Heebie-Jeebies

Love Halloween? If you are fascinated by the macabre and esoteric, then this list of creepy museums will be in your haunted wheelhouse.

International Cryptozoology Museum

Cryptozoology studies creatures that are as yet unknown to science, and at this museum in Portland, Maine you can see a myriad of quirky artifacts relating to mysteries such as bigfoot, mermaids, and lake monsters.

British Dental Museum

While we can all agree that the world would be a much creepier place without dentistry, the contents of this London museum, although well-intended, are a bit on the creepy side, such as Dr. Azoux’s anatomical model from the late 19th century.

Paris Egouts Sewer Museum – photo by Vincent DeGroot

Les Egouts Paris Sewer Museum

This Paris attraction offers a behind-the-scenes look at the historic Parisian sewer system and the methods used to maintain it. There’s very little separating you from the, er, subject matter, as it is visible flowing below visitors’ feet while they view the exhibits.

Creepy Clown – photo by Carrie Sloan

Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center

Not only is Wisconsin home to the Mustard Museum, it also boasts the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center. A controversial addition to this list no doubt, but I most definitely side with the creepy camp in the ongoing debate about clowns.

Meguro Parasitological Museum

Everyone has a passion and the people who created the Meguro Parasitological Museum are passionate about parasites. That’s right, at this creepy museum in Japan you can see a nine-metre tapeworm as well as various and sundry other bugs and critters on display preserved in formaldehyde. Remember to allow enough time for a thorough browse in their epic gift shop.

Museum of Death – photo by Laurie Avocado

Museum of Death

There’s no sugarcoating at this museum in Hollywood, whose unflinching collection has a variety of death-related artifacts, some of which are gruesome enough to cause visitors to faint. Definitely intended for mature audiences and those not prone to nightmares. The Museum of Death is also the subject of a forthcoming reality television series.

Siriraj Forensic Museum

The campus of Thailand’s oldest hospital houses several museums, and the most notable among them is Siriraj Forensic Museum. Its exhibits cover pathology, anatomy, toxicology and other aspects of forensic science, as well as the history of medicine in Thailand. The most notorious artifact on display is the mummified corpse of the country’s first modern serial killer.

El Museo de las Momias (Guanajuato Mummy Museum)

Speaking of mummies, this museum in Mexico has over 100 of them. The first of these was discovered in 1865 when the body of Remigio Leroy was exhumed from Santa Paula Pantheon. The remarkable thing about these mummies is that they were mummified naturally, rather than through human intervention as in ancient Egypt.

EneMan, the world’s greatest “pooperhero”! – photo by Cricket King

Enema Exhibit

Medical equipment company C.B. Fleet proudly showcases its history of innovation in enema equipment with an exhibit at its offices in Lynchburg, Virginia. Open by appointment only, the exhibit displays all of the firm’s retired products, which visitors report to be oddly fascinating and worth a visit. And if you play your cards right, they might give you some swag emblazoned with their mascot, Ene-Man.

Mutter Museum

Proclaiming itself to be the finest medical museum in America, the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia is run by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Its collection primarily contains anatomical specimens that have been used to educate people about medical matters since the mid-19th century. Though indisputably edifying, many of the specimens are also on the creepy side as they document examples of physiological anomalies and the physical effects of various medical conditions throughout history.

Skulls at the Mutter Museum – photo by Seven Morris

Vent Haven Museum

Thanks to their portrayal in popular culture as receptacles for demons and another sinister characteristics, ventriloquist’s dummies have gained a decidedly creepy rep. Vent Haven Museum, located in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky (5 miles from Cincinnati), has more than 700 dummies in its collection, plus a hoard of other ventriloquism artifacts. In fact, it’s the world’s foremost ventriloquism museum, which is no laughing matter.

Urologic History Museum

Urologists are dedicated to ensuring the people of the world enjoy healthy bladders, kidneys and several other body parts not suitable for polite conversation, and the folks who run the William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History in Maryland are serious about making sure that important advances in this field are recognized. Exhibits change regularly and the current one is titled Skeletons in the Closet: Indignities and Injustices in Medicine

Fragonard specimen – photo by Marc Kjerland

Musee Fragonard d’Allfort

Another one for those with strong stomachs, the work of French anatomist Honore Fragonard is on display at this museum in the suburbs of Paris. As a scientist with a flair for the dramatic, Fragonard’s anatomical specimens have had the skin removed to demonstrate the skeleton and musculature for educational purposes, but he also had a tendency to preserve them in interesting and memorable poses. For instance his most famous work, The Horseman of the Apocalypse, features a man astride a horse and mimics a painting by Albrecht Durer.