| Spooky Empire | |
| Status: | Active |
| Genre: | Horror, multi-genre |
| Frequency: | Bi-annual |
| Location: | Florida |
| Country: | United States |
| Attendance: | Around 33,000 in October 2018[1] |
| Website: | http://spookyempire.com/ |
Spooky Empire is an American multigenre convention focused primarily on horror and science fiction, held bi-annually in Florida. The convention, which is billed as "the dark side of Comic-Con",[2] features vendors, a film and tattoo festival, music, and celebrity guests.
Co-founded by Peter Mongelli, Spooky Empire has been held in Florida since 2003.[3] It is held twice a year, in the spring and in the autumn.[4] The first event, held in 2003, took place at a Holiday Inn in Broward County, Florida.[5] [6] The convention was held in Orlando, Florida from 2006 to 2019, before moving to Tampa, Florida for its autumn 2019 event due to a lack of sufficient available venue space in Orlando.
Celebrity guests at Spooky Empire have included Gillian Anderson,[7] Fairuza Balk, Bruce Campbell,[8] Neve Campbell, Alice Cooper, David Duchovny, Gunnar Hansen, Kane Hodder,[9] Christopher Lloyd, Malcolm McDowell, Bill Moseley, Cassandra Peterson, Sam Raimi, Burt Reynolds, Christina Ricci, George A. Romero, Felissa Rose, Lewis Teague, Henry Thomas, Danny Trejo, Dee Wallace, and Carl Weathers.