AURORA | His face covered in ashen makeup and his cheeks speckled with fake blood, Dakota Moore looked downright ghoulish as he prepped to frighten the night’s customers.
“The scream is better than any drug,” Moore said with an evil grin. “It has that adrenaline rush that keeps you on your toes and makes you want to be on alert.”
Moore milled in a crowd of zombies, monsters and werewolves in the backstage area of the 13th Floor and Asylum haunted houses in an industrial Denver neighborhood on a recent Sunday night. The 15,000-square-foot attraction off Brighton Boulevard would open its doors in less than an hour, and Moore and his fellow ghouls were taking care of final details. They lined up for last-minute makeup touches, donned gruesome masks and popped in contact lenses designed to recreate the empty gaze of the undead.
“It’s not for most people,” Moore said of his job as a professional spook.
Haunted house season is in full swing, and those looking to get spooked have plenty of options in Aurora, Denver and beyond.
Indoor houses like the 13th Floor and Asylum are the industry standard, but open-air haunted corn mazes pop up every year at sites across the Front Range. In Aurora, Darkrose Manor offers a twist on the haunted house formula for trick-or-treaters. Every year, August and Pandora Rose transform their Carriage Place home into a free Halloween attraction that features elaborate decorations and sculptures.
It all speaks to a shared passion for the season. Those who set up haunted houses year after year aren’t just in it for the money. The lure of the scare keeps the actors and managers coming back despite plenty of competition and plenty of challenges.
“It’s a lot of fun for us. I love scaring people,” said KathE Walker, marketing director for a pair of haunted houses set up in the Regatta Plaza shopping center in Aurora. Walker and her family have managed The 13th Door and the Curse of the Slaughterhouse Gulch haunted houses at different sites around the city for more than 20 years. “Haunted house businesses are not for the faint of heart. It takes a big chunk of money to want to put it on.”
That hasn’t dissuaded Walker and her family. Every year, she joins her husband, sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in managing and operating the two haunts off Parker Road. Along with the crew of local teens and adults who make up the acting crew, the family finds a kind of community appeal in the yearly ritual.
The themes in the haunted houses are just as much sci-fi as horror, Walker said. The attraction includes a large spinning tunnel nicknamed “The Black Hole” set up in a mobile rig outside of the storefronts every year, and it’s more of an amusement park ride than a standard Halloween scare.
“We are not all about blood, gore and guts,” Walker said, adding that the haunts are fitting for kids older than 6 or 7. “There are a lot of families that come. We encourage that.”
Veering from predictable formulas is crucial to a haunted house’s success, according to Tye Olmsted, the general manager of the 13th Floor and Asylum houses in Denver. This year’s attraction includes plenty of zombies jumping out of dark corners, but the haunt also includes plenty of innovative touches.
A swamp made out of canvas bags and lit by lasers; a walkway that has the frightening feel of a sheer cliff face, thanks to strategically placed mirrors; a set of rooms that host large-scale mechanical monsters — all of these touches help the haunted houses feel fresh.
“I take a lot of time during the show and stand around at the exit of the haunted house. I listen to what people are talking about,” Olmsted said. “It’s always looking forward and trying to figure out what we’re going to take out and what we’re going to put in.”
That work starts early. As soon as the haunted house closes for the season after Halloween, Olmsted and his crew will start getting ready for 2014. That work includes repairing the house, making plans for new rooms and buying new equipment.
“I’ll say that all the money that comes in goes back into the house,” Olmsted said. “We take everything we can and put it back into the show for the next year.”
Olmsted shares his dedication to the craft of the haunted house with the cast of more than 60 actors who scare hundreds of visitors on a nightly basis. That much was clear last week, as Geric Brawner got ready to greet the first customers who would make their way through the house’s maze of darkened rooms.
Brawner, a Centennial resident who’s been working at the haunted house for the past five years, had a massive air tank strapped to his back. He spoke of his character for this year’s show, a lost soul named Jimmy who’s spent decades wandering up and down haunted hallways. He recalled the scrapes, cuts and scars he’s suffered since he started his gig as a professional ghoul. These battle wounds came from jumping out of tight corners and chasing down frightened customers.
Brawner didn’t seem to mind the injuries.
“You get bruises everywhere. At some point you lose yourself in it,” Brawner said. “It’s more about the act and it’s less about what it’s going to do to you.”
BEST BETS FOR A HAUNTED HALLOWEEN
The metro area boasts plenty of spooky options for the 2013 Halloween season, attractions that range from indoor haunts to open-air corn mazes. Here are our top picks for a frightening Halloween.
1. Curse of the Slaughterhouse Gulch/The 13th Door, 3186 S. Parker Road, Aurora. Information: 720-261-0570 or 13door.com, slaughterhousegulch.com. Price: $20, $19 with canned food donation. VIP tickets are $24. Admission to both attractions are available for $25.
2. The 13th Floor / The Asylum, 4120 Brighton Blvd., Building C, Denver. Information: 13thfloorhauntedhouse.com. Tickets start at $22.
3. City of the Dead, Mile High Marketplace, 7007 E. 88th Ave., Henderson. Information: cityofthedeadhaunt.com. Price: $16 general admission. Carnival game combos and VIP prices range from $20 to $35.
4. Haunted Field of Screams, 104th Ave. and Riverdale Road, Thornton. Information: hauntedfieldofscreams.com. Price: General admission $20. Tickets to all three attractions on the compound available for $40.
5. Darkrose Manor, 3930 S Yampa St., Aurora. Information: darkrosemanor.com. Price: Admission to the home-based attraction is free.
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at 720-449-9707 or agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com