Into every generation, a slayer is born. At least, that is, until vampire slayer Buffy Summers decided to share her gift and make slayers out of girls around the world. Now, Denverites have the opportunity to join in the long, proud traditions of vampire slayers with Slayers Vampire Academy, a new experience from Elevate Immersive. In the experience, you get to take on the role of a vampire slayer and get first-hand experience on what it’s like to go head-to-head with a creature of the night.
Is Buffy not your bag? That’s okay. It’s not just a Buffy fan experience. Anneliese Farmer-Smith from Elevate, who created the experience, put references to all of her favorite nerd fandoms into Slayers Vampire Academy. “I would definitely say Buffy (and) True Blood (were influences),” Farmer-Smith explains. “I actually did put some Supernatural stuff in there because I’m a huge Supernatural nerd. I love it. So, I think in general, though, I like to say it’s an amalgamation of the 90s punk-horror-sitcom WB shows. So yeah, a little bit of Sabrina in there. But this takes place at a at a Vampire Academy. So everybody’s in uniforms and stuff, so that was my own. I brought that from the newer Sabrina series on Netflix.”
A ticket to the event includes a complimentary “anti-venom” shot (although mocktail options are available as well), as well as access to their exclusive cocktail menu, two hours in their “Instagramable” space and, of course, most importantly, the chance to become a vampire slayer. What does that entail, exactly? “Just to paint the picture, a guest is now a student at Slayers Vampire Academy,” Farmer-Smith explains. “You’re there for your first day of training to become a slayer. So you arrive. Betty the Vampire Slayer is the new acting dean so it’s her job to get you trained up to become a slayer. The first part is that we sort everybody into their school track or school focus and identify their best way of hunting down vampires. And those all really draw from those fandoms. So we have the slayers; we have the historians—which is more like Giles in Buffy—but we also have the Fae track—which is very True Blood. You’re sorted by completing a series of tasks.”
But then there’s a twist, as it turns out that vampires have infiltrated slayer academy, and the new recruits are put to work faster than they expected! “And so, we know that we’ve only had one session of training, but it’s okay, we’re ready to try and figure out who the vampires are!” Farmer-Smith explains. “So then folks basically have to solve a series of puzzles between riddles, black light flashlights, (and) trying to find written stuff in our crypt area to solve the puzzle as to who the vampires are. Then folks need to basically use some of their brain power. The first task is more physical…and then the second task is much more analytical, finding clues around the space, using black light flashlights. And then from there, whichever team gets the most accurate answers wins tickets to another event.”
Not in Denver? Elevate has another event going on in Downtown Golden for you to check out called The Talking Dead. “The Talking Dead is an immersive scavenger hunt around downtown Golden where you get a map, and your job is to find the ghosts around downtown Golden who give you clues to then figure out the ending point.”
Farmer-Smith says that they like to come up with a different immersive experience each spooky season. Thus, you only have until November 4 to check out Slayers Vampire Academy and The Talking Dead!
