Witch's Dungeon Classic Movie Museum


The Witch's Dungeon Classic Movie Museum in Bristol, Connecticut is a collection of figures of classic movie monsters.
The museum is owned by Bristol-native Cortlandt Hull. Cortlandt is the great nephew of film actor Henry Hull. Josephine Hull, well known for her role in the classic film and stage play Arsenic and Old Lace, is also a relative. In 1966, Cortlandt's father helped him build the Swiss chalet-style building to house the museum. Cortlandt built life-size figures of classic movie monsters that were made of wax, fine wire mesh, papier-mache and polymers. The figures were later replaced with more accurate ones. The website onlyinyourstate.com has named The Witch’s Dungeon Classic Movie Museum number four on its list of "The 10 Weirdest Places You Can Possibly Go In Connecticut." The article, written March 22 by Taylor Ellis, begins as follows: "Some of the weirdest places are in Connecticut."
The museum is only open on weekend evenings during the month of October. The new location for "The Witch's Dungeon Classic Movie Museum" is in the 1890 building of "The Bristol Historical Society" on 98 Summer Street in Bristol, CT. The greatly expanded format allows for each figure to have its own backdrop and props. Additionally the museum features professional level lighting by Emmy award winning Bill Diamond. Pictures at left are the newly added Dungeon hosts, Carmilla and her loyal butler Farnsworth. This adds to the tour having a more traditional wax museum feel.
The heads of many of the figurines have been based on life-casts of the actual actors who portrayed them. Background sets and clothing are authentic to the era, with some costumes or props actually used in the original films. Characters represented in the museum are: