{"id":840016,"date":"2026-09-20T23:30:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T23:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/840016\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T23:30:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T23:30:25","slug":"13th-floor-denver-brings-horror-back-to-the-city-for-17th-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/840016\/","title":{"rendered":"13th Floor Denver brings horror back to the city for 17th season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m surprised you survived\u201d 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\u2019s advertising calls \u201cthe fifth scariest haunted house in the country\u201d this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three major attractions are being offered for the 2026 season<\/a>, 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Recommended Stories
\n \u25b6\n <\/p>\n

In Stitchworks, you\u2019ll 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\u2019 carcasses, endless blood and gore and a healthy dose of mechanically enhanced creatures popping up where you least expect them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 a monstrous ruler who has taken control of the congregation, leaving blood and torment in her wake.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Jason Universe: Survive the Night experience is pretty much exactly what you\u2019d expect to encounter in an attraction devoted to the \u201cFriday the 13th\u201d franchise\u2019s 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 \u201cmurders\u201d victims around every corner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other attractions in this year\u2019s lineup include mini escape games, axe throwing, a clown maze and a VIP \u201cdirector\u2019s cut\u201d version of the Jason experience, where visitors can hop into the director\u2019s chair and control Jason\u2019s attacks through a screen with buttons labeled \u201cPanic,\u201d \u201cSlash,\u201d \u201cStrike\u201d and \u201cStalk.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ScareScare 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<\/p>\n

(Stephen Swofford, Denver Gazette)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kopp, a self-proclaimed \u201cweirdo\u201d who really likes scaring people, said something visitors don\u2019t always realize is how much time, effort, rehearsal and intentionality goes into putting on a successful haunted house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of people don\u2019t take a minute to really think about what a haunted house is,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just like a thrill ride, like a roller coaster \u2014 it is immersive, live theater with real people spending so many hours preparing and training.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bringing the horrors of 13th Floor Denver to life requires a dedicated team of people willing to bring their all to work, Kopp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, the makeup artists, the wardrobe, the actors who throw caution to the wind \u2014 they\u2019re exhausted and they\u2019re putting it all out there to entertain people,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re humans, they\u2019re people, and it\u2019s make believe, and they\u2019re 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\u2019s theater. It\u2019s theater that you\u2019re a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

13th Floor Denver employs as many as 200 to 300 scare actors per season, Kopp said, with around 80 to 100 appearing each night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AshleyAshley Smith, a make up artist, touches up an actor\u2019s makeup during media night at the 13th floor haunted house in Denver on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026<\/p>\n

(Stephen Swofford, Denver Gazette)<\/p>\n

\"AA 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)<\/p>\n

13th Floor \u2014 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 \u2014 is decidedly not the place for people prone to migraines, seizures or other conditions set off by strobing lights, loud noises or sudden movements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several signs across the 13th Floor site warn people sensitive to those kinds of sensations against taking part in the attractions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The sensory attacks and optical illusions featured in some of the attractions \u2014 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 \u2014 are just as impressive as they are unnerving.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AnAn actor scares people in a bar at The 13th Floor haunted house in Denver on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026<\/p>\n

(Stephen Swofford, Denver Gazette)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t as terrifying as I thought it was going to be, but it was good,\u201d said visitor Bri. \u201cIt was more the illusions (that got me). Like, when you think you\u2019re moving but you\u2019re not \u2014 you don\u2019t know if you are or not \u2014 and then the lights and stuff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bri said her son, 13-year-old horror enthusiast Caleb, convinced her to visit the haunted house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Caleb rated the night\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuckle your seat belts!\u201d one of the two scare actors screeched at me as the elevator lurched into motion. \u201cOops \u2014 we forgot to install them!\u201d he added, cackling evilly as I nearly face planted.<\/p>\n

\"BackstageBackstage at The 13th Floor haunted house in Denver on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (Elizabeth Pond, The Denver Gazette)<\/p>\n

13th Floor combines everything you need in a haunted house experience: startles, scares, grotesque sets and costumes and plenty of screams. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want people to not think about whatever is going on outside here,\u201d he said. \u201cI want people to get lost in the stories that we\u2019re telling, and the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m surprised you survived\u201d was an unsettlingly common phrase uttered by the monsters, creatures and clowns of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[99374,12860,7,301,187,3943,99375,6,302,2746,99376],"class_list":["post-840016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-nuggets","tag-13th-floor-denver","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-basketball","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-denvernuggets","tag-haunted-house","tag-nba","tag-nuggets","tag-performance","tag-scare"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117305975151996037","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}