ScarefestWeekend, Lexington 2025

Scarefest Weekend in Lexington, Kentucky, was a weekend full of amazing celebrity guests, photo-ops to die for, and tons of wonderful vendors to shop from! Scarefest Weekend celebrated its 17th year this year, and as always, the whole weekend was a totally killer time.

To start, the guest lineup was absolutely incredible. It featured many reunions, including the A Nightmare on Elm Street movie franchise, The Monster Squad, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and The Return of the Living Dead.

It was definitely the year for A Nightmare on Elm Street fans, as they had many celebrities from not just the original movie but the entire movie franchise. Robert Englund, Heather Lagenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Kim Myers, Robert Rusler, Bradley Gregg, Ira Heiden, Ken Sagoes, Jennifer Rubin, William R. Perry, Lisa Wilcox, Danny Hassel, Tuesday Knight, Brooke Theiss, Toy Newkirk, Beatrice Boepple, Michael Bailey Smith, and Lisa Zane all made an appearance at the con for the big movie franchise reunion.

There were also several guests from various Halloween and Friday the 13th movies who made an appearance at the con. Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Tommy Lee Wallace, Don Shanks, Scout Taylor-Compton, Danielle Harris, and Ken Foree were all there for the Halloween franchise.

Then, for Friday the 13th, Dana Kimmell, Paul Kratka, Mike DeLuna, Thom Mathews, Miguel A. Nunez Jr., Scott Reeves, Barbara Bingham, Jensen Daggett, V.C. DuPree, and Kane Hodder were there.

The Return of the Living Dead reunion was also not one to miss at this con, as Thom Mathews, Linnea Quigley, Beverly Randolph, Miguel A. Nunez Jr., and John Philbin were there signing autographs and taking pictures with fans of the film.

Fans of the movie The Monster Squad were not disappointed, either, as the con featured Andre Gower, Ryan Lambert, Ashley Bank, Lisa Fuller, Michael Reid MacKay, and Duncan Regehr.

There were tons of other celebs at the con, including David Arquette, Felissa Rose, Juliette Lewis, Peter Cowper, Zach Galligan, and so many more. Scarefest Weekend 17 also had a very special object or two in the building, as some items from The Warrens’ Occult Museum were on display to look at, including the real Annabelle doll!

For those who wanted an extra spooky experience with the objects, a late-night 90-minute small group tour was offered, which included a paranormal investigation using the Estes Method with a special celebrity guide and a Q&A session with NESPR team members. While we did not participate in this spine-chilling paranormal investigation, it was a really cool experience for Scarefest to offer to fans of the Warren’s family work and cases.

We love The Conjuring movies, as well as the movies that are part of the franchise (Annabelle, The Nun, etc.), but unfortunately, we had to skip out on this touropportunity.

The vendors at Scarefest Weekend 17 did not disappoint this year. There was a wide variety of products to choose from, and so many different “designs” too. From t-shirts to posters, artwork, keychains, pins, magnets, and more, the vendors at Scarefest Weekend 17 had it all! We made purchases from these spooktacular vendors: Art of Barcode, Mel’s Crazy Creations, Adulting Axolotl, Graveyard Offerings, The Halloween Shirt Company, Horror Show Jack, Kiki’s Magical Crafts, Mystic Zebra Crafts, and Tee No Evil.