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Denver Haunted House Safety Checklist

Sep 29, 2009
denver haunted house, denver haunted houses, haunted houses, haunted houses in denver

Source: Larry Kirchner

What should be done before opening your Denver haunted house each night? Here is a list of some things we recommend you check off each and every night before you open your haunted house.

1) Nails and Screws: Before you even open your haunted houses to the public you should check every wall front and back for screws and nails. Many times you screw a spider on the wall and that screw is poking through the other side of the wall. Additionally, that same screw that holds your spider to the wall could be ripped off the wall as a souvenir. What happens if the spider is ripped from the wall? Well, you have a screw head exposed that could rip someone’s eye out! Many times you’re doing repairs to a wall that has become lose. You take a three inch screw and tighten it back up. Did that screw poke out of the other end? Or how about this one…did your repair guy drop any screws or nails during the show while making repairs? Stepping on a nail or screw can lead to a serious issue.

a. Solution: Even in daylight with all overhead lights on inspect your haunted house with a flashlight. The flashing will give your eyes a focus and highlight the area you’re looking at making it easier to find screws and nails. Perform this inspection each day before you open. You just never know when someone put a screw into a wall or dropped one the floor.

2) Deadly Weapons: Yes it is true that you’re actors are more effective smashing bats into the walls or taking sticks and banging a banister of your haunted house. Can you honestly trust your actors to never miss a metal barrel or something with their deadly weapon? Do you have strobe lights? Have you ever run into a wall in your own haunted house? Even though you know your Denver haunted house as well as anyone; in the dark, under the influence of strobe lights or confused by fog, you can and will make a mistake from time to time. You must NOT allow the actors to have any type of bat, stick, long metal chain or whatever in your haunted house. Again we agree they make louder noises and scare people but you can’t take the chance. Sticks break and then fly through the air and could hit someone in the face. A few years ago an actor hit a customer with a baseball bat by accident and gave the customer brain damage.
a. Solution: DO NOT ALLOW any type of sticks, pipes, bats, chains of any kind. Find safer methods to scare your customers.
3) Fire Extinguishers: Make sure your actors know where they are and how to use them. Fire departments will come to your location and train your staff as to how to use a fire extinguisher. Actors should be reminded each not night to panic if they see a fire but to react according to the training they’ve received. Where are those fire extinguishers? Do you know? Did someone move them? Will they work when needed?
a. Solution: Make sure you have your fire extinguishers re-charged by professionals each season. Make sure you have one fire extinguisher per room or per actor. Either check out fire extinguishers to actors each night or mount them in areas where the actors hide from customers.
4) Fire Retardant: Is your haunted house safe from burning down the house? Nothing will ruin your business faster than a fire, especially one that injures or kills patrons. Make sure anything you put into your haunted house doesn’t burn upon contact of a flame. Can you ignite your camo-netting, jute, plastic, latex, cheese cloth, or regular fabric with a lighter? If so, you’ve got problems and need to look into some professional fire retardants to make your attraction safe? Some of you haunters out there give no respect what so ever to this area and that’s dangerous. A five gallon bucket isn’t enough to make your attraction safe.  Have you ever used heavy jute to make your haunt creepy? Have you ever hung cheese cloth to give a scene that extra creep factor? You can’t just spray heavy jute; you need to dunk it in a 55 gallon drum to be safe. If you’re one of those haunts that’s too cheap to buckle up and buy a 55 gallon drum or two to spray your haunt each year GET OUT OF THE BUSINESS! PERIOD!
a. Solution: Purchase NO less than 55 gallons of flame retardant that can be sprayed from a deck sprayers. Take your deck sprayers and spray every inch of your haunted house until things are dripping wet. Pay closer attention to anything cloth, latex, foam, jute, light wood, etc. DO NOT retard your haunt until it’s DONE so that everything that’s going into your haunt is inside. Once you’ve completed the process to retard your haunt, make sure to cut small samples of cloth, jute, etc. and take them outside to a flame test. If the material burns you need to go back and retard the materials again. You may need more than one drum to properly retard your haunted house. Lastly, make sure that if you add any new props and materials to your haunt to retard them prior to placing them in the haunt.
5) Trip Hazards: Do you have trip hazards in your Denver haunted houses like extension cords, loose floors, un-even floors, rocks or a prop that has fallen over? Trip and falls are the #1 reason for filed lawsuits in America. Make sure your electric power tool actor doesn’t extend their cords into walk ways used by customer. If your Denver haunted house is outside make sure nothing got into the trail itself of the customers.
a. Solution: Make sure your actors KNOW they’re the eyes and ears of the haunted house. Institute a policy that your actors MUST make sure to pick up any debris, move any cords, or props that might cause a trip and fall. Your actors must notify the person who makes repairs. It’s more important for that actor to make sure that area is safe, and notify you of the problem than it is for them to continue to stay in character and get scares. Make sure you walk the entire haunted house each night, shaking props, looking for things on the floor, or holes, etc. Remind actors each night to look out for things that might cause a trip and fall.
6) Staircases: Do NOT scare anyone within 15 feet of a staircase top or bottom and make sure you have BRIGHT lights in the staircase with secure handrails. You do not want anyone falling down a flight of stairs do you? You may also consider putting a security person at the top of any staircase to make sure NO ONE runs down the staircase.
7) Access Corridors/Pocket Doors: Make sure you’ve added several pocket doors to your maze so actors and security can access different parts of the maze fast and without having to walk all the way through the maze. A pocket door is a door that slides into the wall, which is safer than a door that can swing open and hit someone. Additionally, when laying out your maze try to create a secret corridor that wraps around most of the maze. This corridor would have doors all through the hallway giving you access to literally any scene in the attraction. Lastly it gives the customer quicker access to the exits in case of an emergency.
8) Communication: Communication is king inside your dark, foggy haunted house. Make sure that many of your actors have radios so when they have a problem they can call out to management. Remember, actors are your eyes and ears inside the attraction. If something is going wrong, they’re usually the first to know about it. By not allowing them radios you’re hurting your reaction time to a problem.
a. Solution: Promote actors to be in charge of certain areas of the haunt and give them radios. Make sure you have no less than 8 actors with radios inside the haunted house.
9) Maze Supports: Do not kid yourself; mazes get beat to death every single night. Make sure before you open each night to push on walls and see if they’re stable. When you’re checking on your actors during the night make sure keep an eye on your maze. If a support comes lose do not hesitate to shut down your haunted house until it’s fixed. You can’t afford to have your maze collapse on your customers.
10) Emergency Exit Signs: Be sure your emergency exit signs haven’t been damaged and the light bulbs are still burning bright. If you ever need to use your emergency exits you can’t afford to have customers who can’t find the proper exits. Make sure you check your emergency lights and exit signs each night. Additionally, make sure you have directional arrows in your maze that point to the exit. We know that E-Lights do get broken from time to time during operation so make sure to walk your haunted house each day and check them.
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Bam Margera endorsed The Asylum – Denver Haunted House

Sep 23, 2009
denver haunted house, denver haunted house review, denver haunted houses, haunted house video, haunted houses, haunted houses in denver, the asylum, the asylum video

Bam Margera endoresed The Asylum, one of the top Denver Haunted Houses and advises everyone to go check it out!!!  If you would like more information on this Denver haunted house, check out www.getscared.com!

More on The Asylum in Denver, Colorado: The Asylum

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Create A Haunted House in your Garage this Halloween

Sep 22, 2009
create a haunted house, denver haunted house, denver haunted houses, halloween party idea, haunted houses

With Halloween right around the corner, its time to plan your Halloween party.  We’ve all been to the classic costume party so why not be different this year, think of doing something off the wall.  Why not have a Denver Haunted House in your garage?  It is really easy to do and not that expensive. Oh, I guess you can spend alot of money,there is nothing wrong with that, if you have it to spend, and want to. You could really get elaborate with the robotic, radio controlled and mechanical haunts or you can have just as much fun without the expense by using friends and homemade items for simple haunts that create a big scare in your own haunted house.

Start with a clean garage. Make a sketch of what you would like to have in it, like a cemetery, etc. Use this sketch to make a list of things you will need. One of the things you will need is black plastic. This can be purchased at Lowe’s or the Home Depot. It works great to make temporary walls or a maze. Finish making this list, then buy or make what you will need.

You will also need a few friends to volunteer to work/play in your garage to make it look authentic like the other Denver haunted houses. This is usually not a problem, because they will have alot of fun doing this.

Once you have bought or made the haunts, figure out where you are going to place them in the haunted garage. Then tell the friends or let them choose the haunt or scare they will be doing and have them “dress the part” for the haunt or scare. Let them use their imagination on how they will scare the people coming through the garage.

A couple of nights before the “Haunted Garage Party” you will need to put up the walls or maze for the haunted garage. Set up the haunts that need to be constructed. Add lighting such as black lights, and strobe lights. Blue lights work well in cemetery scenes. Scary sound tracks are also good to use.

And that is all there is to making a garage into your very own Denver Haunted House. A great and different Halloween Party that will be talked about for along time. It may even start a tradition. Someone different could do a Haunted Garage the next year. That way everyone can have a turn and see how creative they can be.

By the way, you can still have refreshments after everyone has gone through the Haunted Garage. I have made a Haunted House in my 2 car garage for a Halloween Party and everyone had so much fun.

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How to Create a Denver Haunted house this Halloween

Sep 16, 2009
create a haunted house, denver haunted house, denver haunted houses, haunted houses, haunted houses in denver

Have you ever been to one of those spooktacular Denver haunted houses that people set up in the neighborhoods during Halloween? I’ll bet you have and, if you’re like the rest of us gruesome ghouls, you’ve been chomping at the bit to make one for yourself. We’ll stop chomping and start reading because I’m going to take you through the “basics on a budget” spending as few dollars as possible.

Effect is everything with a Halloween Haunted House in Denver

And that effect should begin before the unlucky visitors to your house of horrors even step foot inside.

Outside Effects

Start by making sure that any windows which face the front of the house have been blacked out from inside. Black plastic garbage bags work fine. You may have to split them or double them up but they’re cheap enough. Black plastic shower curtains can often be found in the dollar stores. Grab a lot if you can find them because we’ll be using them later.

Replace your porch and outside lights with blue, red, or orange bulbs. A black light works great on the porch if you have some glow-in-the-dark critters or effects you can place nearby. If your street is well lit then the black light effect is reduced, so save your money in that case. Portable spot or flood lights with colored bulbs can be aimed at your roof or door to add additional lighting effects. If you have some Tiki Torches left over from the summer then place them strategically up and down the front walk.

Wal-Mart and even better a dollar store has Halloween lights that are a lot like Christmas lights but have little pumpkins or cats on each bulb. They’re cheap and you can string them around railings and lay them in bushes. Of course you’ll need some black cats, jack-o’-lanterns and fake spider webs hanging from the porch.

Decorate your front door to look like a coffin. It’s a great effect. You can also buy the Styrofoam grave stones to put on your lawn or you can make them yourself out of spare lumber and some black or grey paint. Don’t forget the scary music, wolf howls plus some moans and groans

Inside the Front Door

When you guests first step food into your Denver haunted house, set the tone for the remainder of their visit by having a body hanging from the inside light fixture or some other convenient point of death. Stuff a pair of jeans and an old shirt like you’re making a scarecrow. You can use an empty bleach container for the face and cut out or paint on the features. Top it off with an old hat. Or, as an alternative, hang a huge papier-mâché bat instead of the dead guy. Don’t forget plenty of plastic spiders and webs in your haunted house.

If there are rooms or staircases leading from the entryway which are not part of the tour, cover them with those extra shower curtains that we told you to get, or use more garbage bags. If you have a friend who is a cop, see if you can score some crime scene tape to wrap around off-limit areas.

The remainder of the house

Close off doors to rooms where you don’t want visitors to go. Decorate the doors to look like coffins, or hang ghoulish effects over them. You can also block them off using black plastic or shower curtains. Most visitors won’t even know that the doors are there. Doors to off-limit rooks are also great places to station your human ghoul helpers who will be jumping out and scaring the dickens out of your guests. Just make sure that they know to never actually touch anyone. That can open you up to a lot of legal problems and it might get them into a fist-fight with a visitor with no sense of humor.

Create you inside effects of your Denver haunted house by using dark and colored lighting in each room. Black light sensitive decorations work great inside but only if you have black light bulbs installed!

Sprinkle gruesome props throughout your rooms to look like the popular Denver haunted houses. You can make great bloody hands by filling surgical gloves up with sand, tying the open end off with a rubber band, and then some “blood” effects with red paint Dry ice creates great fog effects but it will burn the skin if touched so don’t leave it where guests can get at it.

Hang creepy things from the ceilings. Wet (not dripping wet) yarn feels really creepy when it brushes across someone’s face as they are entering a dark room. Spirtz it throughout the night to keep it wet. Remember that most fishing line will react to black lights so use black thread instead.

Walk through each room as if you were a visitor of your haunted house. Fill in empty areas with appropriate props. Re-walk the house several times until you are 100% happy. Remember that you have a lot of flammable things in your haunted house. Candles, smoking and lighted flames of any type are off limits! Keep several a fire extinguishers handy and spread them around the house. Make sure that your helpers know how to use them. Also make sure that each helper has a flashlight and knows where the room’s light switches are in case anyone gets hurt or a young child becomes too frightened to continue the tour.

That’s it. You’re on your way to having the dream Denver haunted houses that you’ve always wanted. Better get busy. It will be Halloween before you know it.

Stop by the Halloween Blog for our great “how to” article section that will help you create your own sound effects cd this halloween, create your own costume or create a homemade costume this Halloween. http://www.halloween-blog.com/articles/
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Denver Haunted Houses

Sep 11, 2009
colorado haunted house, denver haunted house, denver haunted houses, haunted house history, haunted houses

Written by: Holly Matheson

Denver haunted houses refer to locations that are inhabited by the spirits of deceased beings who were familiar with the property, or perhaps even lived there. Supernatural activity within homes is typically associated with tragic or violent events that occurred such as murder, suicide, or another death.

Entities that are said to haunt homes (or any other buildings) are known to make noises, materialize as apparitions, and have the ability to move or hurl tangible objects. Such behavior can be categorized as “poltergeist activity,” poltergeist meaning a spirit that makes its presence known by noise. An exorcism (a religious or solemn ceremony used to expel an evil spirit) has traditionally been the technique used to rid unwelcome and unwanted spirits from a property or even a person’s body.

Denver haunted houses have long been a part of American culture and appear in literature quite often. Haunting is used as a plot device most often in gothic and horror fiction and more recently in the 20th century, fiction based on the paranormal and alien themes. Writing even as early as during the Roman-era, by authors such as Lucian and Plautus, contains stories about haunted houses and buildings.

Today, haunted houses are used as a form of entertainment during the fall around the time of the Halloween holiday. They are popular in older towns and areas that were settled and inhabited in the previous centuries. New England has a number of popular haunted houses popular given its rich history dating back to the 17th century. Western towns are popular as well; there are a number of Denver haunted houses and other mining and ghost towns that attract hundreds of visitors.

A popular ride (and now movie) at the Disney Theme Parks, is the Haunted Mansion, which references much of the iconography of American haunted houses.

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5 Fun things to do on Halloween

Aug 14, 2009
halloween party, halloween party idea, haunted houses

If you are looking for something to do on Halloween there are many cost effective activities that people of all ages can enjoy. Not only is Halloween one of the most fun holidays for children, adults can enjoy it to.

Here are 5 Fun Things to do on Halloween:

1.) Take a child Trick or Treating: I can remember growing up how much fun it was to pick out or make a costume for Halloween to go trick or treating. We would always get a group of neighborhood kids together and take pictures and go door to door throughout our town collecting candy and showing off our costumes. The dads would pull a wagon behind us filled with drinks while our mothers would get together and hand out candy. It was a blast! If you are looking for something to do on Halloween and you don’t have kids, see if your neighbors or relatives would like you to take their kids out. It’s a fun time for everyone!

2.) Decorate your Lawn: I always enjoyed going up to the houses that were decorated on Halloween. It is really easy to decorate for the holiday and very inexpensive. Fill garbage bags with leaves, hang up spider webs on your house and make a few Styrofoam head stones. It can be really fun to do and easy to clean up!

3.) Host A Halloween Party: If you are anything like me, you love an excuse to throw a party. Halloween is the perfect holiday to dress up silly, make and eat some good food and socialize with your friends. Obviously this party will be themed and if you feel like it you could even have a dress up contest.

4.) Go to a Corn Maze: If you have a family a corn maze might be fun to attend on Halloween. There is so much more to do at a corn maze then the maze itself. Most have costume contests, serve hot apple cider and other treats and some even have a wagon ride which small children enjoy. Remember to keep your kids close, we don’t want them to get lost!

5.) Visit A Haunted House:If you like the whole theme of Halloween you probably like or are into scary things. Visiting a local haunted house is a great way to enjoy the holiday and get scared at the same time. Haunted houses are fun to go with a group of friends or even on a date. I like going to a haunted house or two a year, they are always great at changing the theme or layout.

If you are interested in more Halloween activities, check out Halloween Fun. There are many ways to enjoy this fun holiday, I strongly recommend checking out the many scary Haunted Houses in your area!
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Castle Eyrie

Jul 23, 2009
colorado haunted house, haunted house history, haunted house information, haunted houses, real haunted house

One article dated May 28, 1881, gave an explanation of a lawsuit against Idaho Springs Mayor Thomas B. Bryan.  “Mayor Bryan has laid the foundation of the large bath house, and is tunneling and sinking for the water that is to supply the bath.”  This bathhouse was designed to service his Colorado haunted house.

This area of Idaho Springs is located on a hot springs, which had been run for years by a popular citizen of the town, and purportedly used by such luminaries as Frank and Jesse James, Walt Whitman, Horace Tabor, and Sarah Bernhardt.  By claiming to mine for gold while actually tapping into the sulfur springs, Bryan was essentially stealing another man’s livelihood.  There followed a lawsuit in which Bryan was the loser.

The present owner on this Colorado haunted house has not run across “her,” but a guest at dinner, a prominent and quite well-known painter, did see and hear a figure in the dining room one evening, who told him her name was Mary.  Adjourning to the solarium for coffee, the guest saw her there as well.  Other guests have felt cool breezes in the music room, with no open doors or windows.  Mary is possibly the daughter of Bryan, but that remains an unverified fact, as she was always referred to as Miss Bryan during her life.  Other occurrences in this Colorado haunted house include the sound of “Mary” crying, footsteps during the night, lights turning on and off, and objects being moved without explanation.

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Hovenweep Castle

Jul 21, 2009
colorad haunted house reviews, colorado haunted house, haunted house history, haunted house information, haunted houses, real haunted house

Although there is evidence of human habitation in this area for thousands of years, it was in the mid-1800s that the first Europeans came upon the desert ruins.  The name “Hovenweep,” Paiute/Ute for “deserted valley,” was adapted by pioneer photographer William Henry Jackson in 1874, and quite accurately describes the desolation of these canyons and mesas wherein the ancient farmers cultivated and irrigated their crops.  Though we know the natives in this Four Corners area as Anasazi, they are more accurately called Ancestral Puebloans, and the fascinating thing about them, besides their mysterious exodus, is the variation in the composition of their living areas.  While the better known Mesa Verde tribe built into the cliffs, the Hovenweep people, also members of the Mesa Verde tribe, had a penchant for building towers and massive castle-like buildings with shapes that varied, including square rectangle, round, D-shaped and horseshoe.  The remains of these structures are now Colorado haunted houses.

The Hovenweep area began with small, scattered units, pueblos built on the mesa around 1100, and evolved after 1200 into sophisticated masonry-walled pueblos, with large structures interspersed, often at the head of the canyons.  Water was the life-blood of the Ancestral Puebloans, which, in this dry, arid climate, they diverted into the fields to grow food, using innovative farming methods like terrace farming and irrigation.  Modern scientists examined tree rings from the logs used for construction in the area and found that from 1250 to 1300 there was a severe drought, which likely caused a large migration of the Puebloan people.  Additionally, there now are no trees here, although logs were a corporate part of the construction.  This indicates a depletion of a vital building material and fuel.  Not everyone left however, as they are believed to be the ancestors of the modern tribes of the Hopi, Zuni and Pueblo.

It is widely believed that the Hovenweep Castle is an ancient haunted houses, cursed by the spirits of the Ancestral Puebloans who were forced to migrate during the drought of 1250 – 1300.  Modern-day visitors have reported hearing Native American drumming in the distance.  Others have reported smelling the odor of sage smoke, often used in Puebloan ceremonies.  In a sense, the Hovenweep Castle is one of the most interesting and unusual Colorado Haunted Houses.

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Redstone Castle

Jul 19, 2009
colorado haunted house, haunted house history, haunted house information, haunted houses, real haunted house

Rumor has it that Alma Osgood at one time may have had a love affair with one of the Italian artists she had imported to paint inside the mansion, and that and that her husband, John Cleveland Osgood, had him shot for allegedly cheating in a poker game.  No real evidence documents this story, however there is a secret passageway through the castle from the guest quarters, which comes out very near Alma’s private suite in this Colorado haunted house.

The biggest black mark on Osgood’s character was his reaction to the horrific Ludlow Massacre in 1914, where a camp of striking miners and their wives were gunned down and burned out by men in the employ of the mine owners.  As spokesman for the coal operators of Colorado, he loquaciously blamed the victims for the problem, although he was fully aware of, and had participated in, the evil conditions the miners endured.  Later testimony disproved his claims, but perhaps his sympathies had been blunted by the desertion of his adored wife, and later the betrayal of the miners in walking out of his mines.

Most prevalent is the smell of cigar smoke, particularly around the pool room area, when smoking is not allowed, of course, in the Colorado haunted house.  Osgood was a perpetual cigar smoker.  Other guests have reported being touched while sleeping, or of smelling the scent of fresh lilacs in mid-winter.  Housekeepers report seeing people reflected in mirrors in empty rooms and of footprints on clean floors.  With its many unsolved mysteries, the Redstone Castle is among the greatest Colorado haunted houses.

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Miramont Castle

Jul 19, 2009
colorado haunted house, haunted house history, haunted house information, haunted houses, real haunted house

Perusing a book titled “Journeys,” the story of the Sisters of Mercy written by Kathleen O’Brien, one finds an account of the departure of Father Jean Baptiste Francolon in 1900.  The Mother Superior, Mother Baptist, harshly accused the Father of accosting children.  She then threatened to expose him.  In response, the Father cursed her, telling her that she would be dead within a year’s time.

Apparently the accusation reached the public ear and Angus Gillis, driving a wagon in town, came across an angry crowd headed for the Colorado haunted house.  Driving ahead, Angus warned the Father, secreted him under a blanket in his wagon, and drove him to Colorado Springs where Father Francolon left abruptly for Europe.

A sad and creepy postscript to this tale is that in August of 1901, the very next year, Mother Baptist died quite horribly in a train accident while traveling from Durango to Silverton.

A less substantiated incident is that of a nun, Henrietta, who hanged herself, supposedly because she was carrying the child of Father Francolon, who refused to give up his priesthood and marry her.

It seems that Sister Henrietta never left Miramont Castle, a Colorado haunted house, and is still seen occasionally.  There also is a little girl on the fourth floor, but who she is remains a mystery, although one psychic thought she might have been a patient who died there.  A transparent Victorian couple has been seen on the grand staircase, once by the president of the Manitou Historical Society, and a Victorian widow sometimes appears in the mirrors in the mother’s room.  A Native American is another regular visitor.

Phenomena are so common that there are books on the third level for visitors to relate any odd occurrences that they encounter.  And the entries are many.  With its many unsolved mysteries, the Miramont Castle is among the greatest Colorado haunted houses.

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