Ominous smoke weaves its way through a field of orange pumpkins as visitors to Hudson Gardens in Littleton are embraced by the cold of an October night. The sound of dirt crunching under shoes can be heard as the visitors make their way down twisting paths and past illuminated pirate ships, dinosaurs and dragons. Trees arch and extend their limbs on either side of the trails, serving as guides to a joyous, family-friendly Halloween stroll.
This is the time of year that the night becomes a familiar friend and the Magic of the Jack O'Lanterns attraction returns to Colorado.
"We like to offer things for everyone," said Chris Stafford, CEO and founding partner of Thirteenth Floor Entertainment. "Having offerings for folks that are all about the season but don't particularly like being startled, that's what Magic of the Jack O'Lanterns is. It's for everyone to celebrate Halloween."
The third-annual glowing trail of pumpkins is presented by Thirteenth Floor Entertainment, the nation's largest independent haunted house operator, which is based in Denver.
To date, the Thirteenth Floor Entertainment team operates 36 attractions across the country featuring a diverse portfolio of Halloween-themed activities such as hayrides, festivals and of course, haunted houses.
"It was how we celebrated Halloween," Stafford said. "It was fun to scare people."
Stafford has now spent two decades building a Halloween-themed entertainment empire, introducing haunted attractions to fans across the country looking to be scared.
That empire began here in Denver.
"It's where we are from, it's where I live, it's the city I love. It's kind of like where we cut our teeth," Stafford said. "From 2002 through 2010, we learned what worked, what didn't work, what people like. We learned a lot of that in Denver."
Stafford and Warren Conrad operated their first temporary haunted house in 2002 called "The Asylum" out of the Thornton Town Center. The following year they'd take their seasonal setup to Northglenn's Boondocks Fun Center for a couple of years before officially launching Thirteenth Floor together in 2008. Born in upstate New York, Stafford moved to Colorado when he was 8 years old.
"There was a haunted house in Denver called Brutal Planet," Stafford said. "When I was a teenager, seeing their approach to how they did a haunted house was inspirational to me."
Years later, Brutal Planet's home on 4120 Brighton Boulevard would become Thirteenth Floor's second location.
"It was surreal walking through that [building] and having everything come full circle," Stafford said.
The building has since been torn down and is now home to the Mission Ballroom music venue.
A lot has changed since Stafford first got into the haunted house business.
Most notably, Stafford has seen a growing interest in immersive entertainment over the years. Attractions now pay more attention to scenic elements: props, costumes and makeup. Everything has become more theatrical, Stafford said.
"I joke with people and say, 'We've been doing live immersive entertainment since before it was cool,'" Stafford said.
Lots of year-round planning goes into the curation of scary spaces run by Thirteenth Floor Entertainment. According to Stafford, their full-time staff spend several weeks on each attraction to ensure the best Halloween experience. It also means learning lessons each year that can be carried over to the next year.
"As we started to grow the business, one of my biggest surprises was remarkably how similar people are all over the United States in what they like and what they don't like," Stafford said. "For the most part, if it worked in Denver it works in San Antonio. If it works in San Antonio, it works in Phoenix."
They've also learned that seemingly "easy" haunted house clichés like scary clowns and chainsaws aren't always a bad thing.
"I learned very early that you have to give the customer what they want to see so that you can then in turn design things the way you want them to be," Stafford said. "If you don't have those basic, visceral items that haunted house goers expect then you're doing it wrong."
Over the years, Thirteenth Floors haunted houses have attracted a core audience of teenagers and 20-somethings, but Stafford has also seen older generations come back with their own kiddos to experience the joy of jump scares. Stafford's teenagers even work at Denver's 13th Floor Haunted House.
"I think the employee part of the business has always provided a really cool, fun experience for young people to come together and make friends," Stafford said. "That's really my goal: to create those types of experiences so that people can get together. I think haunted houses are one of the best and economical ways to do that."
Few things scare Stafford anymore (except for the dark). But this time of year, while he's touring Thirteenth Floor attractions across the country dishing out the scariest scenes Halloween has to offer, he is often reminded why he got into the business of scary entertainment.
"I may not get scared now but it's certainly rewarding to see people reacting to what we put together," Stafford said. "We need reasons to come together and share experiences in person. That's the beauty of live entertainment."
?Magic of the Jack O'Lanterns is on display at The Hudson Gardens in Littleton until Oct. 31. Tickets start at $15 for kids and $20 for adults on select nights through Halloween night. Children 2 and under will not require a ticket to enter. Click here to purchase tickets.
?The 13th Floor Haunted House will run select nights through Saturday, Nov. 11. 13th Floor Denver will also debut all-new Behind The Screams tours, where guests can get a backstage view of the haunt and learn all about how the horrors come to life each night. Tickets start at $20. Click here for more information.
