“I’m surprised you survived” was an unsettlingly common phrase uttered by the monsters, creatures and clowns of the 13th Floor Denver Haunted House to visitors who braved what the company’s advertising calls “the fifth scariest haunted house in the country” this weekend.
Three major attractions are being offered for the 2026 season, which is scheduled to continue through Nov. 14: The Stitchworks House of Reanimation, Cathedral of the Crimson Queen and, for the first time ever, Jason Universe: Survive the Night.
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In Stitchworks, you’ll be taken through the grotesque lab of a scientist who has traded sanity for the pursuit of the perfect specimen. Expect tortured human-animal hybrids stitched together from victims’ carcasses, endless blood and gore and a healthy dose of mechanically enhanced creatures popping up where you least expect them.
Cathedral of the Crimson Queen is the haunting aftermath of a ritual gone wrong. Sister Agony, in an attempt to purge corruption from her cathedral, has accidentally unleashed the Crimson Queen — a monstrous ruler who has taken control of the congregation, leaving blood and torment in her wake.
The Jason Universe: Survive the Night experience is pretty much exactly what you’d expect to encounter in an attraction devoted to the “Friday the 13th” franchise’s star, Jason Voorhees. Jason, in all his masked glory, stalks visitors around a maze, lunges out from behind walls with his signature blade poised above his head and “murders” victims around every corner.
Other attractions in this year’s lineup include mini escape games, axe throwing, a clown maze and a VIP “director’s cut” version of the Jason experience, where visitors can hop into the director’s chair and control Jason’s attacks through a screen with buttons labeled “Panic,” “Slash,” “Strike” and “Stalk.”
Scare actors dressed as Jason from the Friday the 13th franchise scare people as they go through a haunted house during media night at The 13th Floor in Denver on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026
(Stephen Swofford, Denver Gazette)
To 13th Floor Denver General Manager Bryan Kopp, putting on the haunted house is all about giving people a good scare and letting them escape their outside lives for an evening.
“It’s always felt like a blessing to be able to create experiences, let people leave their troubles at the door and just have fun for a little while,” he said.
Kopp, a self-proclaimed “weirdo” who really likes scaring people, said something visitors don’t always realize is how much time, effort, rehearsal and intentionality goes into putting on a successful haunted house.
“I think a lot of people don’t take a minute to really think about what a haunted house is,” he said. “It’s not just like a thrill ride, like a roller coaster — it is immersive, live theater with real people spending so many hours preparing and training.”
Bringing the horrors of 13th Floor Denver to life requires a dedicated team of people willing to bring their all to work, Kopp said.
“You know, the makeup artists, the wardrobe, the actors who throw caution to the wind — they’re exhausted and they’re putting it all out there to entertain people,” he said. “They’re humans, they’re people, and it’s make believe, and they’re trying to entertain you. And I think some people forget that, and kind of think of it like a movie or a video game, but it’s theater. It’s theater that you’re a part of.”
13th Floor Denver employs as many as 200 to 300 scare actors per season, Kopp said, with around 80 to 100 appearing each night.
Ashley Smith, a make up artist, touches up an actor’s makeup during media night at the 13th floor haunted house in Denver on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026
(Stephen Swofford, Denver Gazette)
A scare actor playing featured character Sister Agony puts contacts in backstage while preparing to perform The 13th Floor haunted house in Denver on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (Elizabeth Pond, The Denver Gazette)
13th Floor — especially portions of The Crimson Queen and the Jason experience, and the ending of the Stitchworks House of Reanimation, which involves such rapidly strobing lights that vision becomes minimal and feeling like you might pass out is an expected side effect — is decidedly not the place for people prone to migraines, seizures or other conditions set off by strobing lights, loud noises or sudden movements.
Several signs across the 13th Floor site warn people sensitive to those kinds of sensations against taking part in the attractions.
The sensory attacks and optical illusions featured in some of the attractions — including moving floors, a turbulent elevator ride, a swirling, hypnotic tunnel that does its best to scramble your brain and knock you off your feet and the violent strobing effect at the end of Stitchworks that makes it appear as if monsters are skipping frames and appearing out of thin air right beneath your nose — are just as impressive as they are unnerving.
An actor scares people in a bar at The 13th Floor haunted house in Denver on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026
(Stephen Swofford, Denver Gazette)
“It wasn’t as terrifying as I thought it was going to be, but it was good,” said visitor Bri. “It was more the illusions (that got me). Like, when you think you’re moving but you’re not — you don’t know if you are or not — and then the lights and stuff.”
Bri said her son, 13-year-old horror enthusiast Caleb, convinced her to visit the haunted house.
Caleb rated the night’s events a 7.5 out of 10. He especially enjoyed the tumultuous elevator ride in the Stitchworks attraction, where a wild-eyed monster and a clown temporarily shut visitors in a rusty elevator shaft that could use some serious engineering fixes.
The elevator ride also stood out to me, a reporter sent on an ill-fated mission to have the living daylights scared out of me for the sake of journalism, as I navigated the horrors of 13th Floor Saturday.
“Buckle your seat belts!” one of the two scare actors screeched at me as the elevator lurched into motion. “Oops — we forgot to install them!” he added, cackling evilly as I nearly face planted.
Backstage at The 13th Floor haunted house in Denver on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (Elizabeth Pond, The Denver Gazette)
13th Floor combines everything you need in a haunted house experience: startles, scares, grotesque sets and costumes and plenty of screams.
Kopp said he hopes visitors to 13th Floor are able to immerse themselves in the show he and his team have worked so hard to put on.
“I want people to not think about whatever is going on outside here,” he said. “I want people to get lost in the stories that we’re telling, and the experience.”