Kelso, Wash. (Feb. 13–14, 2026) — Cinema of Horrors will once again offer a Valentine’s Day weekend event with Hearts of Horror, a limited-run blackout experience that allows guests to explore the attraction’s four haunted houses in near-total darkness using a single candle for light.
The event will take place Friday, February 13, and Saturday, February 14, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Each ticket includes admission to four blackout haunts, and discounted pricing is available online through Jan 31, 2026.
A Blackout Experience Inside a Working Movie Theater
Cinema of Horrors is housed inside a former movie theater, with each auditorium repurposed as a themed haunted attraction.
“The Cinema of Horrors opened in 2016. We’re located in Kelso, Washington, and we are in an old movie theater building,” said Brandon Treadway, President and Creative Director of Treadway Events and Entertainment LLC. “We use all the actual theaters as those haunt locations. We’ve got four different themes.”
Hearts of Horror alters that environment by removing standard lighting entirely.
“One of the side attractions that we do throughout the year is our Valentine’s event called Hearts of Horror,” Treadway said. “It just gives people another way to experience the haunted house with all the lights off, pitch black, but with the candle to lead the way throughout the attraction.”
“The building is super thematic. It is an old Regal movie theater,” he said. “We’ve got all the sloped floors, which really add to the experience as you walk through the attractions, especially once you combine it with fog and all the lights and all that kind of stuff.”
Pricing and Add-On Options
Discounted admission ($30.97) is available online now through Jan 31, 2026. General admission after January 31st is $36.52 when purchased online.
Guests may also add optional upgrades, including:
- Slash Pass ($21.62), which provides priority entry
- A s’mores experience ($7.40), which includes a take-home kit redeemable at designated fire pits
Off-Season Events as a Year-Round Strategy
Treadway said off-season events like Hearts of Horror serve multiple purposes beyond ticket sales. “We use the off season as a way to also recruit more actors for the main season,” he said. “It keeps our cast involved. So even though the profit may be a little bit lower for those off season events, it helps keep the cast together and keeps our name out there within the community.”
Because Cinema of Horrors operates in a permanent facility, extending the calendar makes operational sense. “We’ve got the building year round anyhow, so it just makes sense to make that happen,” Treadway said.
He also noted strong repeat attendance from existing guests. “We get a lot of recurring people that come during Halloween season. They want to come to all the events throughout the year,” he said. “It just adds another element to it and they actually love it. So it does better than Christmas even.”
Simple Yet Effective (Analysis)
Hearts of Horror represents a different approach to Valentine’s programming than other off-season haunted events announced this year. Unlike experiences that introduce new storylines, characters, or premium narrative layers, Cinema of Horrors relies on a minimal intervention model.
By turning off the lights and recontextualizing an existing attraction through darkness and candlelight, Hearts of Horror emphasizes the building itself. In this case, the former movie theater becomes the feature, with sloped floors, enclosed auditoriums, and limited visibility doing much of the experiential work.
This stands in contrast to more heavily layered Valentine events such as Fright Nights WV’s Final Cut: ’Til Death or Queen Mary’s Dark Masquerade, both of which lean into expanded storytelling, character interaction, and premium upgrades as the primary value proposition.
Cinema of Horrors demonstrates that for some attractions, especially those with a strong physical environment and a repeat local audience, simplicity can still be effective. Rather than introducing new narrative systems, Hearts of Horror reframes the existing product just enough to create a distinct date-night experience without significant additional build or creative overhead.
