Take a Look Inside UVA Employee Matthew Gatto’s ‘Parlor of Horrors’

Monster masks and a model mummy on display in an art gallery

By day, Matthew Gatto keeps classroom technology running smoothly in the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.

By night, he crafts masks and other memorabilia that would look right at home in Hollywood’s most famous horror films.

Gatto, who has worked as a classroom technician at the Commerce School and the Darden School of Business for 10 years, began challenging himself to recreate the costumes in the horror films he loves several years ago. His Charlottesville apartment became something of a museum as he added more and more masks to his collection and began entertaining friends and family with mini-tours.

Now he has opened his first public exhibition at The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative, a community art organization in downtown Charlottesville. The exhibition, “Parlor of Horrors,” will run through Halloween.

Below, take a look at some of Gatto’s creations, which include a life-size mummy inspired by the 1932 horror film “The Mummy” and several pieces recreated from “An American Werewolf in London,” one of Gatto’s all-time favorite films.