AMC has announced that their annual horror-themed festival Fearfest, which runs the last two weeks of October, climaxing on Halloween obviously, will be launched on Sunday, October 16, 2011 with the Season 2 premiere of The Walking Dead and will feature original programming and the network television debuts of several horror films from recent years. AMC will also air a slew of classic horror films during Fearfest, including The Omen, Bride of Frankenstein, Halloween, the 1958 and 1986 versions of The Fly, and the original Night of the Living Dead.

Every weeknight at 8pm and 10pm, AMC will air American Haunters, a 14-part mini-documentary series that takes viewers into the thirteen spooktacular rooms inside Kevin McCurdy’s Haunted Mansion, a commercial haunted house. The series will also explore the design and construction of each room from the initial conception to the final result.

During Fearfest the network will broadcast for the first time the films Survival of the Dead (October 17, 8pm), Diary of the Dead (October 18, 8pm), The Hills Have Eyes (October 18, 10pm), Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane (October 19, 8pm), Slither (October 20, 8pm), From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (October 22, 10:15pm), From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter (October 22, 12:15pm), and Halloween H20 (October 28, 8pm). George Romero, the director of Diary and Survival, will be this year’s Fearfest host.

AMC will be running an interactive online horror movie trivia game and streaming several notable B-fright flicks at their website including Carnival of Souls, White Zombie, Asylum, The Undead, The Last Man on Earth, and Teenage Zombies.

Fearfest 2011 kicks off with the 90-minute season premiere of The Walking Dead, which will air this Sunday, October 16 at 9pm.