AURORA | A consortium of notorious Hollywood killers, half-dead creatures and downright sinister souls has been hanging out at an abandoned strip mall in South Aurora.
In an old storage closet, tucked away in the nooks and crannies of the many abandoned storefronts in Regatta Plaza, Sarah Smart flashes a smile as dozens of ghastly ghouls giddily darken their eyelids, dawn masks and line the corners of their mouths with just the right touch of faux blood.
“A lot of the more seasoned actors tend to do the same characters year after year because they’re good at it and enjoy it,” she says while gesturing at a teenager pulling on a stone-faced Michael Myers mask – of the Halloween movie series fame – over his head.
This spooky scene is the nightly routine at the Slaughterhouse Gulch and 13th Door haunted houses off of South Parker Road in Aurora. Each year from Oct. 3 through Nov. 1 nearly 100 amateur zombies, goblins and just about every other wretch in the gamut of Halloween personages revel in inducing eye-popping screams and frightened shrieks.
“It’s an absolute blast scaring people,” Smart, sporting white contacts as to hide just about all of her pupils, says. “I hate going through it myself, but I love scaring people.”
For over 20 years, Kathe Walker, her husband, Steve, and members of their extended family have put on the adjacent scare-fests in some form or another. This year, the 13th Door – not to be confused with the also popular 13th Floor haunted house in Denver – is meant to emulate a walk through a haunted hotel from the 1820s, and Slaughterhouse Gulch is intended to be more of a maze through scenes starring various Hollywood monsters such as Freddy Krueger and Jason Vorhees.
Open seven days a week, the two doomed dwellings see thousands of terrified partons during their month of operation, which allows the professional villains to glean some insights as to the tendencies of the terrified.
“I think men are easier to scare,” Smart, who daylights as an auditor for Kaiser Permanente, says. “You get these big brawny guys coming in who don’t expect to be scared, but they sometimes just drop to the floor and even wet their pants.”
As tempting as it may be to sprint through the path of terrors as quickly as possible, the actors implore participants to try their best to relish in the experience.
“Take your time, because it’s things as little as signs on the wall that bring it all together,” Shea Cosselman, a mock serial killer from Slaugtherhouse Gulch, says. “Some people go through so fast and they miss those little things, and that’s kind of shame, because so much goes into it.”
Smart echoed Cosselman’s advice, adding that while the experience can be nerve-racking it’s all about enjoying yourself and getting into the spirit of the season.
“The most important thing is to have fun and expect the unexpected,” she says. “Also, maybe bring an extra pair of underwear, because we have been known to loosen some bladders.”