The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park is dead-set on making horror fans’ dreams come true. As one of the spookiest hotels in the world (you know, because of that little-known story, The Shining), it is a major destination for people looking to wander drafty halls in the hope of spotting some creepy twins. It already hosts the annual Stanley Film Festival and now the establishment has announced plans for a $24 million Stanley Film Center, “the world's first horror-themed museum, film archive and film production studio.”
"At 109-years-old, the story of the Stanley Hotel is just beginning," says Stanley Hotel owner, John Cullen. "The Stanley Film Center is my chance to give back to the millions of horror fans around the world who have supported Estes Park and the hotel for so many years."
When finished, the 43,000-square-foot facility will include a 500-seat auditorium and a 30,000-square-foot interactive museum and discovery center that will feature guest exhibits like The Walking Dead. For filmmaking fanatics, there will also be a 3,000-square-foot soundstage, classrooms and workshop spaces, and post-production and editing suites.
The project relies on an application for an $11.5M credit through Colorado’s Regional Tourism Act and considering how many people flock to the state for the hotel alone, we can’t image the state not chipping in. The center also has some seriously famous names on its board, like Elijah Wood, Simon Pegg and George A. Romero.
"I would love to have a home for which we could constantly come year-round and celebrate with other fans from around the world," says Wood. "There's really no better place for there to be a permanent home for the celebration of horror as an art form than the Stanley Hotel. It was practically built for it."
We can’t wait to be some of the first to visit the new Stanley Film Center and we hope room 237 will be ready for us.
