Chris Stafford was 15 when a buddy invited him to help scare people at his haunted home for Halloween. “I was bit by the bug,” Stafford tells People.
Years later, while working in banking in Colorado, he reconnected with fellow haunted home alum Warren Conard. In 2002, the pair opened a haunted home in a Denver strip mall, funding it themselves and charging about $15 a ticket. “It was terrifying,” Stafford recollects. “People were running out the exit.”
That business began as a aspect hustle, but the 2008 financial disaster satisfied Stafford to finally go away his job in banking and make it a full-time creep fest. Today, Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group is a multimillion-dollar company with 18 seasonal Halloween properties, including the LA Haunted Hayride, plus axe-throwing venues, escape rooms, and an immersive artwork set up in Philadelphia. It has about 80 full-time workers and paid roughly 4,500 people last Halloween season. This yr, it’s increasing into less scary Christmas sights.
Stafford says the experiences his company delivers let people step outside their day-to-day realities and bond with one another. “It’s not just about how you screamed in the haunted house,” he advised People. “It’s about remembering how your friends screamed in the haunted house.”
Chris Stafford was 15 when a buddy invited him to help scare people at his haunted home for Halloween. “I was bit by the bug,” Stafford tells People.
Years later, while working in banking in Colorado, he reconnected with fellow haunted home alum Warren Conard. In 2002, the pair opened a haunted home in a Denver strip mall, funding it themselves and charging about $15 a ticket. “It was terrifying,” Stafford recollects. “People were running out the exit.”
That business began as a aspect hustle, but the 2008 financial disaster satisfied Stafford to finally go away his job in banking and make it a full-time creep fest. Today, Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group is a multimillion-dollar company with 18 seasonal Halloween properties, including the LA Haunted Hayride, plus axe-throwing venues, escape rooms, and an immersive artwork set up in Philadelphia. It has about 80 full-time workers and paid roughly 4,500 people last Halloween season. This yr, it’s increasing into less scary Christmas sights.
Stafford says the experiences his company delivers let people step outside their day-to-day realities and bond with one another. “It’s not just about how you screamed in the haunted house,” he advised People. “It’s about remembering how your friends screamed in the haunted house.”