Denver Haunted House Ratings and Reviews

As the Halloween and Denver Haunted Houses season begins we will be bringing you reviews of all of the Denver Haunted Houses.  They will be posted on this page as they are completed and become available.  Looking for a specific type of Haunted House, you’ll be able to read these reviews and make the decision of which house is best suited for you!

THE 13TH DOOR - reviewed by Debi Barbich ranebird@aol.com

Last year we missed this Haunt and were determined to get to it this year.  The premise of the 13th Door is a hotel called the Barrington.  The owner's nephew had a huge gambling debt and when he asked his Uncle for help, his Uncle threw him out of the hotel.  Later that evening the nephew came back and destroyed the hotel and killed all those staying in it.  They never found the nephew and the ghosts still haunt the place trying to find the 13th Door and escape.

The first room is a real mind teaser, I don't want to give away what happens, but keep your eye on the mirror.  As we venture down this very creepy hallway there are ghosts coming at us from all different directions.  Each of them is trying to find the 13th Door and everyone in my group was starting to think that we needed to find it quickly as well.

There were lots of Actors here, each stayed in character as we wound our way through the hallways and bedrooms of the Barrington.  I was impressed with the amount of detail in each of the rooms.  You really did feel like you were lost in an old hotel.  The music and costumes just add to the illusion. 
Some of the highlights for me were:  The girl on the bed, the very dark closet, the walls that fall a great scare in a laundry room and finally the payoff at the end. 
Everyone in my group had a great time and we all felt that it was a first class #1 haunted house. 

CURSE OF SLAUGHTERHOUSE GULCH - reviewed by Wayne Barbich ranebird@aol.com

This is the sister haunt of the 13th Door.  Since I am kind of an expert on Horror movie characters, it was decided that I would get to write up this review.  We were sent in by this very intense guy who had blood all over his face and an attitude to go with it.  Got us right in the mood.  A skeleton trapped in a hanging cage told us the rules.  I have never seen a prop work like this guy did.  His eye movements and jaw worked perfectly with what he was saying.  Technology - it's great! 
We were told to 'enter at our own risk' as the door opened up slowing behind us.  Crystal Lake and Jason got us first.   A very angry Jason greeted us and had two of my friends on the floor right away.  Then we were faced with this blow up effect that you have to squeeze through- disturbing, but effective.   Most of the greats from Horror are represented in this Haunted House - Mike Myers, the kid from Saw, Freddy Krueger, the Ring girl, but there are also some movie characters from more recent films.  I was creeped out by the Dead Silence room.  Dolls - I hate them.  Then there was Pyramid Head and Silent Hill.  Hannibal Lector was great, but the clown from IT was absolutely terrifying.  He had the Tim Curry voice down perfect and I didn't think all of us were going to make it through his area.  Leatherface showed us the way out and we all sat down on the sidewalk just trying to catch our breathe from a very intense experience.  This is my kind of Haunted House!!  I can't wait to see who shows up next year.

CARNEVIL - reviewed by Kevin Atkins SpaceMdler@aol.com

It moved to Red and Jerry's on Santa Fe and Oxford making it a much closer drive for me.  I love clowns and Carnevil is full of them!  First off, we were greeted by a bearded lady who must really love her job.  She was just weird enough to let us know that this would not be your traditional haunted house.  What can I say about the train and the conductor?  The train is perfect.  You really do feel like you are on a train and the conductor makes you feel like you are being taken to somewhere you don't necessarily want to go.  The decorations in the house were great.  Bright, colorful, mixed with just the right amount of bizarre.  The effects and actors worked well with each other.  There were times when I couldn't tell if the clown next to me was real or not.  There were lots of clowns coming at us from every direction.  Some of the highlights have to include:  the shrinking hallway and unexpected surprise once you open the door, the train (of course), the crawl through tunnel, the slanted room.  Great effects, used well.

I would definitely recommend this haunted house. 

DEAD BEFORE DAWN - reviewed by Kevin Atkins SpaceMdler@aol.com

After we finished Carnevil, we decided to check out the newest Haunted House there called Dead Before Dawn.  This house is zombie themed with some very interesting ideas.  While we were waiting to go in, we were all given a mask to wear to protect us from the virus that had been released.  Next we were decontaminated and put on a spinning platform.  Our mission:  find the doctor who had the cure for the virus.  Sounds simple, right?  Well, not if you are being chased down by Zombies!!  There were zombies in the walls, zombies we had to crawl over, zombies in the cemetery, zombies on ropes…you get the idea.   After a lot of maneuvering through zombies, we found the Doctors house.  He wasn't in (maybe he was out making a house call), but watch out for his kid in the crib!!  We had great fun in this house.  There were some unexpected scares and great usage of props and actors.  I don't envy any of the actors who have to be zombies all night. Brains…they need brains!!  It was a great evening filled with two scary haunted houses.