Larry Kirchner has built a haunted empire from St. Louis, but the way he describes it, he couldn’t help himself. His passion for all things weird and creepy is almost a disease.
Kirchner is the creator of The Darkness, the legendary Soulard haunted house. Originally opened in 1994, it has been recognized among the country’s top haunted attractions, including back-to-back seasons ranked No. 1 and 2 by HauntWorld. Kirchner also owns St. Louis Escape and Blacklight Productions, as well as Creepyworld in Fenton. His companies have designed and built haunted attractions and other immersive entertainment in places including China, Japan, England, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile, as well as throughout the U.S.
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Kirchner’s obsession with the dark side began as early as fourth grade, when he would scour the library for the books with the creepiest monsters in them. Born in St. Louis, he moved to Texas with his family at age 8, and then back to St. Louis at 15, where he graduated from Fox High School in Arnold. He helped with the haunted houses for his subdivision and trick-or-treated until he was 16.
“I was a big fan of Wolfman, Frankenstein, Black Lagoon, Godzilla, and all that. And I just really liked sci-fi stuff, horror stuff,” Kirchner says.
When he was 19, he worked at a haunted house for about five years. He says he designed and built the scenes, marketed, and grew the attendance from 8,000 visitors a year to over 38,000.
Following that experience, he opened The Darkness. It has since become a destination where locals and visitors alike flock to have their fears tested. “It’s a haunted house that people come from all over the world to see because they can’t believe it’s real. That’s how crazy it is,” Kirchner says.
It’s become one of the most popular haunted houses on social media, with more than 135,000 followers on Instagram and 1.3 million followers on TikTok. Kirchner’s behind-the-scenes look at The Darkness gives a graphic glimpse into the terrifying animatronic, scare actors, and new features that the haunt visitors each year. A new aspect of The Darkness is the horror bar, where attendees can have a beer or cocktail amidst their haunted house experience.
“If you love candy, and you said, ‘I want to have the ultimate candy experience,’ what would it be? You would want to go to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, right? That’s what The Darkness is. It’s Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory just for Halloween,” Kirchner says.
Kirchner boasts that his work has inspired haunted vendors from around the country to visit. “The haunted house trade show is here in St. Louis, and it’s only existed in St. Louis, and I’m the one who brought it here,” Kirchner says. “It’s St. Louis’ biggest trade show that generates almost $10 million in revenue for the city.”
His haunted exploits weren’t limited to St. Louis. Kirchner’s Halloween Productions began designing haunted attractions all across the country, turning amusement parks or other venues into haunted houses. Halloween Productions even designed the Madison Scare Garden event at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
But designing and building haunted houses was expensive. By 1999, Kirchner was essentially bankrupt, and he knew something needed to change.
He started taking on fewer projects for others and increased prices in order to keep his haunted child, The Darkness, alive.
“Haunting is a disease because it’s such a passion type of industry that you can’t help yourself, but keep spending, and that’s what The Darkness is all about. It’s about a $10 million haunted house,” Kirchner says.
His saving grace was his newest escapade: escape rooms. In 2019, he opened St. Louis Escape, a series of eight immersive escape rooms attached to The Darkness’ building. Designed by Kirchner and his team, the escape rooms draw people of all ages—and, critically, give Kirchner year-round revenue that helps fund his renovations to The Darkness each year.
“Every time the haunted house would open, I’d have to borrow money. But then when I had the escape rooms, I no longer had to do that. I would open broke, but I didn’t borrow any,” he explains.
St. Louis Escape now also features blacklight mini golf and pinball machines, as well as rooms that run the gamut from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to Jurassic Island to Tomb of Dracula.
“When I’m building stuff for myself, like when I’m doing a new escape room, I just do it one board at a time, and it’s just like whatever comes to my mind. That’s what we’ll do. And I never have a budget,” Kirchner says.
In that way, perhaps, he suggests, he’s like City Museum creator Bob Cassilly, driven less by profit sheets and more by ideas that he just can’t stop generating. While he loves designing haunted houses, he is looking forward to his next venture, potentially getting into writing and producing movies.
“When you ask about creativity, I was just born with it,” Kirchner says. “I’m just a very creative person, my mind races a million miles an hour.”
