The 13th Floor Denver: 2022 Review
The 13th Floor, Denver, CO
Hello, thar! After a few days’ break, we get back to our exhaustive haunt season coverage, and today, we’re breaking ground with a Westcoaster first in the form of our first-ever haunted attraction review from outside California!
Over the weekend, thanks to a fortuitously-timed personal vacation to Denver, Colorado, Westcoaster had the opportunity to attend the media night at The 13th Floor haunted house in the Mile High City. 13th Floor Entertainment Group has become quite a prominent Halloween force in Southern California, having acquired the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride and Delusion over the past few years and adding the new, family-oriented Shaqtoberfest coming up at the end of this month. But the company traces its roots back to Denver, a decade and a half ago, and its flagship haunt is its eponymous attraction that has grown into the largest in the city!
Welcome to this little hotel of horrors.
The 13th Floor haunted house is a multi-feature haunted attraction headlined by a multi-part walkthrough maze that takes guests seamlessly from one theme into another, similar to Reign of Terror in Thousand Oaks. Guests wait in line once and then walk through the entirety of the maze all at once, rather than three separate lines for three separate mazes. Instead of ten themes, The 13th Floor has three, but each theme is longer than any individual theme at Reign of Terror, and combined, the entire walkthrough lasts 20 to 30 minutes (depending on the level of paralysis induced by one’s fear)!
Guests first check into what looks like an old, classic Hollywood hotel—the type that surely must be haunted—before taking an elevator down to the 13th floor. Down? Yes. It’s like descending into the depths of hell, where fresh horrors await. It’s a bumpy ride, but it will be far from the only harrowing experience at this attraction!
Going down into the depths of fear.
Thanks in part to its year-round occupancy of their haunted house site (another similarity to RoT), The 13th Floor churns out new themes every year, giving repeat annual visitors a fresh, new experience each season. This year, The 13th Floor takes guests into Primal Fear, Midnight Mania, and All Hallows Eve. The first takes guests into the legendary folklore of Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch, aka the Yeti, aka many other names. This ferocious beast makes numerous appearances throughout the first third of the walkthrough, wrecking brutal, gory carnage! This first act transitions into Midnight Madness, where it’s the 1980s, and a fraternity is holding one last party in a condemned frat house. The problem is that a serial killer slasher has decided to join the festivities, and he picks off the party-goers one by one in graphic fashion! Last but not least, All Hallows Eve dives into a bit of vintage Halloween, with shadowy witch or supernatural force conjuring up undead trick-or-treaters to amass an army ready to spill a lot of blood!
Going through the haunted house was an unsettling and action-packed experience, with some fun surprises that I hadn’t seen in any haunted house I had visited in all my years of being a haunt enthusiast.
Some behind the scenes before the event began, touring the make-up and wardrobe areas.
Before the haunted house opened, we learned in a behind-the-scenes tour of make-up and costuming that The 13th Floor employs 35 to 40 scareactors for the entire event, with more added later in the season as the haunt attracts larger crowds. Though this is a pretty good amount for a maze, the length of The 13th Floor’s course still requires additional sources of scares, so the haunt also does a great job of incorporating animatronic and motion-triggered scares sprinkled throughout the maze. The animatronics in particular are very impressive, with a fair amount showing up in very large size, towering well over guests and roaring with ferocious monstrosity! The epic scale of these creations is amazing, even if they don’t scare more experienced or braver guests, and are on par with the best seen at, say, Knott’s Scary Farm.
There is no shortage of towering and large scale animatronics inside The 13th Floor!
They’re quite fearsome!
And spectacular!
In addition, The 13th Floor makes use of floor elevation changes and material variation to create discomforting moments that surprise and discombobulate. Raised slats arching above the regular walking surface create a texture that’s unexpected and heightens a tactile awareness of the surroundings. They’re also a distraction too. In other moments, the floor angle itself changes, causing a shift in balance that is punctuated by jump scares that can further throw guests off the typical expectation of what to anticipate. In some scenes, the material of the floor changes to something that feels appropriate to the setting.
The 13th Floor is a great study in disorientation through a variety of means.
The execution of the scares inside The 13th Floor is also diverse and combines a certain psychology mixed in with the traditional hard scare. Though the majority of scares come from ahead of guests, at eye level, as is the case in the vast majority of haunted houses, there are also scares that sometimes come from behind or above or to the side, amplifying the jumpiness of guests already on edge. There are jump scares, statue scares, and misdirection scares, plus a few more theatrical acting moments that vary up the pacing. The way these are mixed together yields a welcome unpredictability that bolsters the quality of the haunted house.
Death from Above (not 1979).
Though the themes for this year are new and different from previous runs, The 13th Floor obviously can’t build everything new from scratch each year. As such, there are components and theming elements and sets that are reused and redressed each year. Everything was new for me during this past weekend’s visit, since I had never gone through the maze before, but a sharp observer could see how some components of the maze would be recycled from previous years—be it certain large-scale animatronics or certain scenes. In some ways, this detracted from how immersive the storytelling could be—what is a mad asylum doctor doing as part of this search for Bigfoot; why is there a [really cool and best use of a mirror maze that I’ve seen] gothic crypt as part of a fraternity house; what do giant insect beasts have to do with a vintage Halloween theme—but like horror movies, Halloween mazes require a certain amount of suspension of disbelief. So ultimately, creating unforgettable, visually stunning moments trumps maintaining a completely perfectly cohesive storytelling.
The doctor will see you now.
The coolest use of a mirror maze segment I’ve ever seen.
That said, I really enjoyed the Primal Fear and Midnight Madness sections, with All Hallows Eve turning into more of a “haunted attraction best hits” feature as opposed to maintaining its story resulting in a slight drop compared to its neighbors. Primal Fear had the longest of the three layouts, and the different looks that The 13th Floor showcased their takes on the looks of Bigfoot were impressive and exciting. One particular scene involving the beast tearing a victim clean in half was especially jaw-dropping. The 1980s vibe of Midnight Mania, complete with a bumping electro-synth soundtrack, harkened to the atmosphere established by recent 80s resurgence hits like Stranger Things. The frat house facade at the start of this act was especially spellbinding and beautifully crafted. And the totally tubular undead party interlude before the end of the maze with “Party Kyle” and his very butchered friends was an absolute hoot, bringing some levity into what is mostly a fairly intense and serious haunted house.
Bigfoot? More like big rip!
The facade of the Midnight Mania frat house is spellbinding.
This brings us to the talent at The 13th Floor. The scareactor energy was fantastic throughout the maze. Whether they were monsters, victims, or supporting story characters, each scareactor had great timing, enthusiasm, and conviction behind their role, and they helped enhance the scares coming from the more automated parts of the maze.
Each character guests meet is more demented than the last!
Get out while you still can!
Lastly, further heightening the scare factor was the fact that each group was spaced out a fairly good amount, so that guests would go through the entire maze feeling like they were by themselves. This is also similar to how Reign of Terror (you can see how this has become our recurring analogy as means of comparing to something familiar) and certain other independent haunts operate their mazes, seeking to avoid the haunted conga lines of the big theme park haunt names like Halloween Horror Nights and Knott’s Scary Farm. I’m sure that on busy nights, the gap between groups is reduced, and there may be congestion in the middle of the maze that does result in some build-up. But at least for what The 13th Floor aims for, the pacing and separation in the walkthrough are definitely appreciated and make it more worth the wait.
Party Kyle was the best dead reveler ever!
It’s also worth noting that The 13th Floor features a secret bar hidden somewhere within the layout amidst one of the Primal Fear, Midnight Mania, or All Hallows Eve sections, where guests can enjoy a caramel apple-flavored whiskey shot and a photo op themed to one of the three attractions of the haunted house. Yes, in the tradition of Dark Harbor (again, for the sake of comparing to something familiar to readers of this site), it’s a bar within a maze! But fortunately, there is only one location. We won’t spoil where it is, but the out-and-back layout of getting into this secret bar creates a bottleneck that might end up revealing the location on busier nights where more guests patronizing the bar create a line that can stretch onto the main layout.
In addition to the main haunted house, there is also a secondary side maze called Sensory Overload that is essentially a blackout maze. Guests must navigate extremely tight quarters, relying only on their sense of sound and touch to find their way out. There are a couple of scareactors inside that surprise guests in the rare, illuminated moments, but otherwise, this maze is more of a psychological manipulation built on anticipation and disorientation, with wall and floor surfaces and materials sometimes changing, and soft obstructions to navigate in pitch black darkness. As a haunt veteran, I didn’t find it particularly scary, but some guests definitely came out a little shaken up!
Sensory Overload is one of several add-on’s for The 13th Floor.
The 13th Floor also offers several other attractions to pad out an evening at the venue.
In the general venue grounds, there are a couple of roaming street monsters that interact and stalk guests. One is a sledgehammer-wielding maniac who wants to build the perfect head and is looking at different guests’ facial features. The other is a roller skating witch with a decidedly gory candy basket and a wicked sense of humor.
A couple of ominous street monsters roam the grounds.
This witch glides across the area on roller skates!
At the back of the property, there is a shipping container with three mini-escape rooms lasting five minutes each. Varying in difficulty level, these offer some interactive fun for guests who choose to participate. I was able to try two of them with some local haunt vloggers that I got to know during my visit called Hauntaholics (they try to visit and review just about every haunted attraction in Colorado). The first, which put us in two different jail cells with very limited clues, was a complete fail for us, as we were unable to decipher the physical actions needed to engage the multiple-level clue solving and were unable to escape. The second, which seemed to be a sort of asylum setting, might be challenging to an escape room beginner, as it also required a chain of steps and clue-solving. But with a much more standard sequence of puzzles, we were able to escape in two minutes.
This is certainly a room guests will want to escape from.
Near the entrance of the venue, The 13th Floor also offers an axe-throwing uncharge attraction with 5 throws for $5. This seems to be a trend in some recent haunted attractions we’ve visited, as Disturbance by the Haunted Hotel in San Diego County also offers an axe-throwing add-on. There are also R.I.P. Cabanas for groups looking to get an upgraded experience that includes a bucket of beer and/or seltzers of choice, a large popcorn, 10 axe throws, guaranteed visits from the haunt’s street monsters, and a discount off of merchandise.
Axe Throwing is another upcharge guests can enjoy in addition to the main haunted house.
Rent an R.I.P. Cabana for group visits with more perks.
Those looking for some liquid courage can enjoy the Shriekeasy Bar adjacent to the main maze. Offering a variety of premixed cocktails, beers and alcoholic seltzers, and non-alcoholic sodas, tea, and water, the Shriekeasy Bar is a nice feature for those who like some booze with their boos (or just general hydration). Outside, Saucy Chops food truck offers barbecue sandwiches and sliders, loaded nachos, or loaded taquitos for guests with an appetite for actual food, not just scares. And Twisted Treats offers sugary affairs.
The Shriekeasy Bar has a variety of beverages for guests of all preferences.
Saucy Chops offers BBQ and Tex Mex fare.
Twisted Treats might be deadly for diabetics. (Hi, Dan!!)
And of course, for those looking to take home more than just traumatic memories from their haunted house experience, there’s a souvenir tent on the side halfway to the back of the property with T-shirts, hats, bags, pins, and other little mementos from The 13th Floor. The variety of offerings is similar to what’s provided at the Midnight Falls souvenir store at the L.A. Haunted Hayride, if any of our SoCal readers are looking for a comparison.
The scary souvenir store.
Overall, The 13th Floor is an elaborate and fantastic haunted attraction that definitely warrants its reputation in Denver and beyond. With a variety of attractions to bolster its main, marquee haunted walkthrough and a diverse, innovative, and well-rounded mix of different scare tactics, this haunt definitely keeps guests on their toes. It was fun to see the similarities and differences in how this Denver Halloween staple works its haunt compared to the nature and layout and pacing of the Southern California haunts that we’re used to. But one thing’s for sure: the passion and sophistication for haunted attraction terror is alive and well throughout the country, and The 13th Floor Denver is a highlight among the countless Halloween attractions out there.
If you’re in Denver and a haunt fan, definitely don’t sleep on The 13th Floor!
The 13th Floor haunted house is located at 3400 E 52nd Ave, Denver, CO 80216 and runs select nights now through Saturday, November 12th—yes, past Halloween! On busier peak nights, especially in October, The 13th Floor is sure to bring in huge crowds (the length of the queue certainly points to that), so bring patience of spring for the front of line pass if you’re looking to mitigate some of that wait. Or hit up less crowded nights. We’d like to thank 13th Floor Entertainment Group for having Westcoaster out at their Denver location, and we congratulate The 13th Floor Denver on their 15th year of frights and fear. We’ll be back with more 13FEG coverage soon with the already-open Delusion: Valley of Hollows and the upcoming runs of the L.A. Haunted Hayride and Shaqtoberfest!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
