Oct 31

Halloween Day

Tuesday, October 31st

Here we are... the final day of scares and the last chance for you to visit our haunted houses before they close for the year. We've had a lot of "events" this year and some real scares too. This year, at Buckingham (Alien Terror and The 25th Hour) we had our longest pass-out on record. A young woman fainted mid-way through The 25th Hour and didn't revive for almost 15 minutes. Four people were carrying her to safety when she finally awoke and promptly started screaming and wailing her fists at anyone within her reach. We observed her for several minutes before allowing her to leave with her friends.

This will, in all likelyhood be our last year at Buckingham Shopping Center. Several news stories are reporting that the Mall will be torn down and turned into an upscale retail and residentual neighborhood. We've been exploring our options and you can expect that we'll be returning next year with two haunts - even scarier and elaborate than this year's. We won't be abandoning the Southeast area of town.

If you can, try to make it to one or more of our haunted houses tonight. We'll be there and ready to scare you. You probably won't pass-out like that other lady did, but we'll do our best to give you the scare of your life!

Visit our haunted house sites: The 13th Door, The 25th Hour, Alien Terror, Curse of Slaughterhouse Gulch and CarnEvil.

Santa Claus 3 Screening

Thursday, November 2nd @ 7pm, Colorado Center Theater

Holiday magic mixes with comical chaos at the North Pole in THE SANTA CLAUSE 3. Tim Allen reprises his role of Scott Calvin – AKA Santa – as he juggles a full house of family and the mischievous Jack Frost (MARTIN SHORT), who is trying to take over the “big guy's” holiday.  

At the risk of giving away the secret location of the North Pole, Scott invites his in-laws (ANN-MARGRET & ALAN ARKIN) to share in the holiday festivities, and upcoming birth of baby Claus with expectant wife, Carol, - AKA Mrs. Claus - (ELIZABETH MITCHELL).

Along for the adventure are Scott's extended family, son Charlie (ERIC LLOYD), ex-wife Laura Miller (WENDY CREWSON), her husband, Neil Miller (JUDGE REINHOLD) and their daughter, Lucy (LILIANA MUMY) who together with head elf Curtis (SPENCER BRESLIN), foil Jack Frost's crafty scheme to control the North Pole.

We have very few tickets available to this screening. To reserve tickets, you must attend with a young person (under 16 years of age) and call us at 303.777.6800. You can reserve admission for 2 or 4 people. You have to speak with a live person to reserve these tickets - phone messages will not be accepted.

Oct 25

Carnival of Lost Souls

Tuesday, October 31st at FoxAtomic.com

This Halloween, foxatomic.com opens up the crypt to release The Carnival of Lost Souls! Experience an all-day deluge of horror, with contests, prizes, special interviews, and exclusive clips! Get the first looks EVER at Fox Atomic's highly anticipated sequels to 28 Days Later and The Hills Have Eyes, as well as exclusive interviews and pages from Fox Atomic Comic's graphic novels 28 Days Later: The Aftermath and The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning!

Oct 24

Mile High Con

Hyatt Regency - Tech Center

We highly recommend you visit MileHiCon 38, the Largest Science-Fiction Literary Convention in the Rocky Mountain Region. They have over 80 authors and speakers coming to MileHiCon this year. You'll be able to attend panel discussions on numerous topics related to Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. The convention takes place October 27-29, 2006. For more details, visit them at http://www.milehicon.org

Oct 23

Catch A Fire

Wednesday, October 25th @ 7pm
Colorado Center Theater, I-25 & Colorado Blvd

Powerfully telling the story of a South African hero's journey to freedom, CATCH A FIRE is the new film from director Phillip Noyce (The Quiet American, Rabbit-Proof Fence). The political thriller takes place during the country's turbulent and divided times in the early 1980s, and in the new South Africa of today.

Derek Luke portrays real-life hero Patrick Chamusso. Patrick is a charming and loving husband to his wife Precious (Bonnie Henna), and a caring father to his two young daughters.  He works as a foreman at the centrally located Secunda oil refinery, which is a symbol of South Africa's self-sufficiency at a time when the world was protesting the country's oppressive apartheid system.  In his spare time, Patrick coaches a local boys' soccer team. Carefully toeing the hard line imposed on blacks by apartheid. Patrick is completely apolitical.. Get tickets .

Tim Burton, besides being a past Starfest guest, is one heck of a director. Here's a great chance to see one of his great films on the big screen at The Continental Theater. Like all the films in the Continental Series it's priced at just $5 per person. The Continental Theater is at I-25 & Hampden.

Oct 20

Haunted House Diary

Sleep. I'll bet that's something zombies really crave - I sure do.

The other night I'd just finally had enough. The entry door to our drop elevator over at The 25th Hour has been giving me fits. Almost every group of people going through where getting so frightened that they were choosing the closed exit door as the most likely route of escape after the drop scare. Because of the thousands of times this has happened, the door (which happens to be a 3/4" thick piece of plywood) is starting to give. There was a bolt welded to the bottom of the door that keep jumping the metal track and made the door get stuck. After taking the sledge hammer to it one too many times, I just pulled out the sawsall and cut the bolt off the door. Now it's not as pretty, but the door seems to be working fine.

Most of our actors have now gotten into their parts and have made them their own. Which is good, because going into the final two weekends of the haunted house we should see about 80% of the people projected for our entire month's run.

I guess that bears mentioning... Did you know that almost everyone that goes to a haunted house does so the last week of the month? Did you know that Mondays and Tuesdays are the two slowest days of the week? Did you know that they are so slow that we can practically offer you a custom experience when you come on those days?

It's true. We did just that last night. A lady had her daughter with her and asked us to tone things down. I explained to her that we'd pass the word along and her daughter made it all the way through the haunted house without freaking out. If you come on a Friday or Saturday we just can't do that kind of special request, but Mondays and Tuesdays we are a lot like Burger King, special orders don't upset us.

Continental Screenings

Batman Oct 21 @ 10am
Sleepy Hallow Oct 25 @ 9pm

Tim Burton, besides being a past Starfest guest, is one heck of a director. Here's a great chance to see two of his films on the big screen at The Continental Theater as they should be seen. Both screenings are just $5 per person and we just happen to know that they will be giving away two pair of haunted house tickets at each of the screenings.

Oct 18

Alien Terror Awaits

Special $2 off coupon for Wednesday and Thursday

Eddie is a guy that gets to die a hundred or more times every night. He's a devoted member of the Scream Team over at Alien Terror. I'm told that every time Eddie dies he gets a little better at it. That axiom goes for all the actors and monsters that die and kill every night at our haunted houses over at Buckingham Square Shopping Center (Mississippi & Havana). Unfortunately, I can't say that for all the equipment that keeps needing maintenance and repair each night.

Why don't you come on down and get your adrenalin rush for the week by encountering your fears face to face? We are standing by ready to scare you! If you pass-out like a young lady did the other night (for 15 minutes) we'll watch over you until you revive so you can live to see another battle - just like our good friend Eddie. Print a $2 off coupon good for a single haunt ticket at Alien Terror or The 25th Hour haunted houses- good for Wednesday or Thursday nights.

Cars On Display

Get'em out of daycare and into some cool cars

There is a cool display planned for this Thursday. Disney created 3 life-sized CARS from the film and they will be at the Children's Museum of Denver October 19th from 11:30AM-4:00PM. View the flyer for the event.

Oct 17

The Prestige

Thursday, October 18th @ 7pm
Colorado Center Theater, I-25 & Colorado, Denver

From acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan (“Memento,” “Batman Begins”), comes a mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences.

From the time that they first met as young magicians on the rise, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) were competitors. However, their friendly competition evolves into a bitter rivalry making them fierce enemies-for-life and consequently jeopardizing the lives of everyone around them.  Full of twists and turns, THE PRESTIGE is set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century London, the exceptional cast includes two-time Oscar® winner Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson and David Bowie.

Get tickets.

Oct 16

Flags of Our Fathers Movie Screening
Pickup tickets tonight for the screening tomorrow (Tuesday)

February 1945. Even as victory in Europe was finally within reach, the war in the Pacific raged on. One of the most crucial and bloodiest battles of the war was the struggle for the island of Iwo Jima, which culminated with what would become one of the most iconic images in history: five Marines and a Navy corpsman raising the American flag on Mount Surbachi.

The inspiring photo capturing that moment became a symbol of victory to a nation that had grown weary of war and made instant heroes of the six American soldiers at the base of the flag, some of whom would die soon after, never knowing that they had been immortalized. But the surviving flag raisers had no interest in being held up as symbols and did not consider themselves heroes; they wanted only to stay on the front with their brothers in arms who were fighting and dying without fanfare or glory.

This film was directed by Clint Eastwood and is rated R. You must be at least 17 years old to pickup tickets for this screening. Additional movie information is available at flagsofourfathers.com

Get tickets.

Oct 13

Friday the 13th - A Perfect Night for a Haunted House
25th Hour - Alien Terror Buckingham Mall, Havana & Mississippi
13th Door - Curse of Slaughterhouse Gulch, I-225 & Tamarac
CarnEvil - Southwest Plaza, Wadsworth & Bowles, next to the SuperTarget

Looking to have some fun tonight? Hop on over to one of our haunted houses tonight between 7pm and Midnight for a scary good time. Regularly priced at $15.95 each, tonight you can print-out a special web coupon for $1 off the single haunt entry or just come on down and get any two haunts for just $24.95. Each haunt lasts between 15-20 minutes (not counting any lines). VIP ticket upgrades are available for just $5 more. Print your discount coupon.

The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D
Thursday, October 19 at 9:00pm
Colorado Mills, W Colfax at Denver W Blvd

When the king of Halloween Town, Jack Skellington, gets bored of his job preparing for Halloween every year, he discovers Christmas Town and is inspired to take control of Christmas season for a change. Unfortunately his ghoulish subjects have difficulty getting the festive holiday quite right.

Meanwhile, Sally, a pretty maid who takes care of her creator, Dr. Finklestein, is trying to escape from her confines. She worries for Jack and foresees his plans will end in ruin.

This is a re-release of the 1993 film -- digitally scanned and converted into 3-D.

The movie is rated PG. Pickup tickets for the screening.

Oct 9

Grudge 2 Screening

Colorado Cinemas Olde Town 5550 Wadsworth Blvd
Thursday, Oct. 12th @ 10pm

The terrifying thriller The Grudge 2 explores the dark secrets of the grudge as the terrifying supernatural curse is unleashed on a group of seemingly unrelated victims. One by one, they are infected by the grudge, which quickly moves from a burned-down house in Tokyo and spreads to everyone who crosses its path.

The Grudge 2 stars Amber Tamblyn under the direction of Takashi Shimizu in this much-anticipated sequel to the 2004 worldwide hit. Visit the official website for additional details. This film is rated PG-13.

Play for tickets.

Oct 7

Haunted House Diary

I just got an email from a woman named Lisa that is probably indicative of the #1 question I hear from parents looking for a haunted house for their young children.

"Are any of the 2006 haunted houses in Denver appropriate for a nine year old or are all they all all targeted to adults?"

As a haunt owner, parent and grandparent, that is a tough question that deserves a much better answer than I can give in a short phone conversation. I've gone over the issues of appropriateness in my mind several times and surprisingly, I've come to the conclusion that the answers have nothing to do with age.

One question is one of personal feelings about gore and blood. Perhaps you and your family are particularly sensitive to scenes of horror. That can certainly be a big turn-off for many people and unfortunately, most haunted house ratings don't include any sort of gore index or consideration.

Another issue for many is one of a religious nature. Scenes depicting satanic or demonic themes can be offensive to many people. In Denver, most of the haunts have steered clear of the pagan influence of Halloween, but there has been at least one haunt that garnered national attention a few years ago for it's simulated scenes of abortion. I'm a member of the Rocky Mountain Haunted House Guild and its members have a specific prohibition from including demonic titles in their haunted house names. One of the stated goals of one of our founding members was to remove any Satanic association with Halloween.

Then there is what I consider the heart of the appropriateness issue. The emotional state of the person in question. I have issues with anyone that forces (physically or emotionally) someone else to go into a scary haunted house. It's cool to push yourself to the edge of your comfort range, but I don't think you have the right to do that for someone else. I've seen what I call "weekend visitation fathers" pushing their visibly paniced children into a haunted house. Note to parents: If your kid has nightmares and is still terribly scared of the dark, they probably aren't ready for any haunted house.

All of the issues I've listed have little or nothing to do with age. Perhaps this note will encourage the haunted house reviewers in Denver to adopt additional warnings and/or ratings in their reviews to help haunted house goers understand just what the individual haunts have to offer. In the meantime, I'll just keep telling people - "Our goal is to scare people, not to gross them out." And I'll probably just leave it at that.

Continue this topic at our message board.

Oct 5

Haunted House Diary

Quite often I get a call or email about a haunted house with 13 or 17 levels. The questions usually starts with "My cousin told me about a haunted house he went to that was so scary, that they advertise that if you make it all the way through, you get your money back.

Being in the haunted house business, I'd love to be able to build a haunt like that and offer a deal like that - if I thought it could make money. Most people love the idea of finding out just where their breaking point is. But the more I think about this concept, the more I think most people haven't really thought this through.

Every year we have a number of people that buy tickets and don't even get into the haunted house because they talk themselves out of it - many of them want their money back (that's why we have a no refunds policy). Most nights we have to escort people out of the haunted house because it's too scary for them - they don't look too happy when they are being taken out. I think the appeal of a too-scary haunt is the belief that it won't be "too scary for me."

There are also real-world problems with making a haunted house scary. The biggest is making sure that the people are safe. Responsible haunted house operators want to entertain people by scaring them; irresponsible haunts could cut corners and put people's lives and safety at risk. It would be easy to build a place that most people could or would not complete… unfortunately, I'm beginning to think those people would also be upset, angry, and want me to pay for their hospital bills… if we could even get the city inspectors to let us open.

One of the popular scoring systems for haunted house workers is how many people they can get to lose their bodily functions on a night. We figure it's a good night is when people are wetting themselves. I guess when that happens - the haunted house was scary enough for those people. I think if you asked them though, you'd find that most of those people wouldn't say they had a great time in the haunted house - they'd say it was too scary. So what do people really want? What is it that they are looking for in a haunted house?

Unfortunately, a lot of people react badly when they get scared. Young guys (and girls) like to hit things when they get scared. We've had lots of actors kicked, hit and shoved when they surprise people. There have even been occasions when we've had to get the police involved when people overreact and hurt someone when they get scared. I don't think most rational people want to hurt someone, but that's what fear does, it makes people irrational.

What do you think? I'd love to hear what your "ideal" haunted house would be like. Please write your comments on our message board.

By the way, the whole 13th Floor/17th Level haunted house is just an urban legend. First off, nobody would be able to rent a building that big that was habitable to put a haunted house in. If you think it through, who could ever make a business out of making a entertainment experience that is designed to prevent it's customers from leaving satisfied?

Oct 4

Nan Desu Kan

October 6-8, Marriott Denver Tech Center

Our buddies over at Nan Desu Kan have a great weekend planned for everyone that is into things Japanese. This year's convention is shaping into an incredible party. They've completely sold-out the hotel, but there is lots of space for anyone that would like to come down and enjoy the festivities.

Much, much more information is available at their website - http://www.ndkdenver.org

Just up the highway one exit is Curse at Slaughterhouse Gulch (I-225 & Tamarac). We'll be open on Friday and Saturday until midnight. We've named one of the sections of the haunt the Ringu room - in celebration of the Anime convention. We hope you'll come on over and check it out.

Oct 3

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Beginning
Thursday, October 5th at 7pm
Cherry Creek Theater 3000 E 1st Ave

The origins of the legendary horror character Leatherface will finally be revealed in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. The film, which is set years before the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, stars Jordana Brewster and is being directed by Jonathan Liebesman.

This film is rated R. The website is at http://www.texaschainsawmovie.com

We wanted to keep this promotion simple, yet different. Since the movie is all about wearing a new skin, in our twisted minds we thought, how about opening this one up to anyone with a tattoo? Come on down tomorrow night, October 4th, to our Tamarac Haunted House location 13th Door & Slaughterhouse Gulch (I-225 & Tamarac) and show us your tattoo and we'll give you a pass good for two to see the movie while supplies last. If you decide to buy tickets to see our haunted house, that's cool, but you don't have to do that to get tickets. Obviously, if you tell us your tattoo is in a place that you can't show in public - we'll be very skeptical - and probably won't give you tickets. Kari, at the Pepsi Ticket Booth is the final arbiter of any disputes in this contest.

Even if you don't have a tattoo, come on down and register for some cool Texas Chainsaw stuff we have to give away - Including a couple of DVD copies of the original movie.

Oct 2

Renaissance Screening

Thursday, October 5th at 7pm
CC Olde Town 5550 Wadsworth Blvd., Arvada

In 2054, Paris is a labyrinth where all movement is monitored and recorded. Cut off from the world for its own protection, the city has nonetheless continued to expand. Now, 21st century skyscrapers overlay centuries-old architectural masterpieces. And below street level, a sophisticated network of streamlined plazas push up against the city's ancient, deteriorating tunnel systems. Casting a shadow over everything is the city's largest company, Avalon, which insinuates itself into every aspect of contemporary life to sell its primary export - eternal youth and beauty.

When 22-year-old Nona, one of Avalon's most promising scientists, is abruptly kidnapped, Avalon calls on Barthelemy Karas, a Paris cop with a hard-fought reputation for finding anyone, no matter what sacrifices he has to make along the way. As the trail gets hot, Karas senses he's not the only one looking for the beautiful enigma, and every witness he digs up seems to turn up dead.

For more details about the movie, you can visit the official website (and it's a pretty good one) at http://www.renaissance-movie.com/.

This film is rated R. You'll be able to pickup tickets to this movie at any of our three haunted houses starting tomorrow night (October 3rd). They are open from 7-10pm. You must be at least 17 years of age to pickup tickets to this screening. The three locations are: The 25th Hour/Alien Terror (Havana & Mississippi), 13th Door/Slaughterhouse Gulch (I-225 & Tamarac), and CarnEvil (Wadsworth & Bowles).