Fright Nights WV is opening for Valentine’s weekend with Final Cut: ‘Til Death, a survival-horror experience that places guests directly inside the story while they navigate Valentine’s-themed horror scenarios. Layered inside the attraction is Cupid Crawl, a three-stop bar crawl hidden behind secret doors and available exclusively to upgraded ticket holders.
Creative Director Ashley Long joined The Haunted Attraction Network to explain how the event works and why it represents a more intentional approach to off-season programming.
How Final Cut Works
At the core of the event is Final Cut, a format Fright Nights previously tested last summer for Friday the 13th and again on Halloween night. Instead of a passive walkthrough, guests move through the attraction with a simple objective: survive each scene.
Actors carry “kill stickers,” and if a guest is tagged, they’ve technically died in that scene, but the experience doesn’t stop. Guests continue forward, collecting their outcomes as the night unfolds. It’s not about winning or losing. It’s about engagement.
For Valentine’s weekend, those scenes are reimagined through a twisted romantic lens:
- Voyage of the Damned – Dracula’s brides have crash-landed on an island after being shipped overseas, and now they’re hunting you through the wreckage. Expect vampire brides that are “a little sexy but fierce and scary at the same time,” according to Ashley.
- Killer Cupid – Little cherubs running around trying to tag you.
- Love Shack – A cabin-in-the-woods experience with romance-themed décor and a killer inside.
- My Bloody Valentine – A slasher finale where killers are on the loose.
The mechanic reframes the haunted house experience without adding operational complexity. It gives guests agency, creates replay value, and turns scare timing into something guests actively engage with rather than simply endure.
Ashley notes that this format also broadens the audience beyond core haunt fans, “even if you don’t like haunted houses, this is still fun to come to because of the interactive entertainment element.”
Cupid Crawl: A Bar Crawl Hidden Inside the Attraction
Built directly into the experience is Cupid Crawl, a Valentine’s-themed bar crawl woven into the attraction itself.
Rather than pulling guests into a separate lounge or midway, Fright Nights embedded three themed bars behind secret doors inside the haunt. Only guests wearing Cupid Crawl lanyards are guided inside.
Each stop features a curated drink-and-treat pairing:
- Love Bites – a vampire-themed bar serving a five-ounce specialty drink and dessert
- Café de l’Amour – a Parisian-inspired space offering a French martini
- Cupid’s Cloud – an elevator-turned-cloudscape hosted by a not-so-sweet cupid
Beyond the alcohol, guests are encouraged to interact within each bar. Bartenders are characters, and the bars advance the story rather than interrupt it.
This approach builds on Fright Nights’ previous crawl events, including its sold-out Krampus Crawl.
Designing for Foot Traffic That Already Exists
Fright Nights WV operates inside Glade Springs Resort in Daniels, West Virginia, near a ski destination. Valentine’s weekend is already a major booking period for the resort due to nearby skiing. Guests are staying for 2 nights and looking for activities beyond the slopes and spa.
“Valentine’s Day weekend is already a huge weekend for us because we are right next to a ski resort,” Ashley said. “These people that are coming from the south—maybe they’ve never done Fright Nights before, but now I can market to them.”
From the resort’s perspective, the haunt becomes a clear upsell, a unique experience for guests to do after dinner or skiing. From the haunt’s perspective, it’s an opportunity to introduce first-time guests to the brand without relying solely on October foot traffic.
Ashley also mentioned that Fright Nights offers a two-night stay package specifically for Final Cut, bundling the event with resort amenities like restaurants, the spa, and an indoor pool. “What better for Valentine’s Day weekend? You can buy a Final Cut package and stay here for two nights, do our event and do the Cupid’s crawl, have fun.”
The Weather Problem
Opening a haunt in West Virginia in February isn’t easy.
“Our biggest challenge with producing an event like this is weather. We are in West Virginia. There’s snow on the ground. I think it’s 20 degrees outside right now,” Ashley said.
Despite the weather, Ashley is betting that high-quality off-season events build brand equity and create revenue streams that don’t cannibalize Halloween. But that only works if the experience is differentiated from the Halloween product.
“We don’t just throw Christmas lights up in the scenes. Every character changes. The props change. We will take down all these air props and replace them with Christmas air props,” Ashley said. “A lot of people don’t go through that effort. But we do. And I think that our customers see that, and they return.”
This applies to Final Cut as well. The vampire scene has never appeared at Fright Nights in 16-17 years of operation. It’s a new creative work, not a reskin.
A Broader Pattern Taking Shape
While Final Cut: ’Til Death is firmly positioned as a Valentine’s event, it also reflects a broader shift taking place across attractions, retail, and location-based entertainment.
This same pattern of prioritizing social, immersive, memory-driven experiences over transactions is reshaping physical retail and entertainment spaces alike. We recently explored this trend in more detail in a separate analysis on the return of experience-led environments, which you can read here.
Event Details
Final Cut: ‘Til Death runs Friday, February 13, and Saturday, February 14, from 7-10 PM with timed ticketing every 30 minutes.
General Admission: $30 Cupid Crawl: $60
Tickets are available now at frightnightswv.com.
Ashley expects Cupid Crawl to sell out due to limited capacity.
