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A visit to the Vegas Goretorium (pictures)

Just in time for Halloween, Crave works up the guts to visit Eli Roth's Goretorium, a new attraction for horror fans that recently opened in Las Vegas.

John Lewinski

Crave freelancer John Scott Lewinski covers tech, cars, and entertainment out of Los Angeles. As a journalist, he's traveled from Daytona Beach to Cape Town, writing for more than 30 national magazines. He's also a very amateur boxer known for his surprising lack of speed and ability to absorb punishment. E-mail John.

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John Lewinski

Oct. 27, 2012 9:29 a.m. PT

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Eli Roth's head

What better way to prepare for Halloween than to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the Las Vegas gore-fest that is the Goretorium? The brainchild of "Hostel" filmmaker Eli Roth, the new $10 million permanent installation across Las Vegas Blvd. from the Cosmopolitan and City Center tells the story of the Delmont hotel, where guests check in to find a hell of abduction, torture, murder, and cannibalism.

Sharp-eyed horror fans visiting the Goretorium will spot Roth's severed head tucked away in a Delmont hotel display case.

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Decor says gore

Like so many other prime Vegas destinations, the walls of the Goretorium's passageways are decorated with countless dead baby heads presented on the saw blades that severed their spinal cords. You see the exact same thing in the bathrooms at the Bellagio.

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Scary shower scene

The plumbing in the Goretorium cast members' dressing room uses water instead of genuine hemoglobin, but a Goretorium set designer had enough sense to decorate the shower appropriately.

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Cameras aplenty

Multiple cameras monitor every room and hallway inside the recently opened Goretorium. While the show is up and running, crew members watch to make sure no cast members are in danger. They also keep tabs on the visitors in case any faint-hearted guests panic and need to be escorted out.

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Nicotine horror

Evidently, cigarettes really are very bad for you. The Goretorium empties out into a '60s-style outdoor lounge called Baby Dolls. Every table there is drenched in the attraction's trademark O-negative.

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Prop room

The last thing you want to see in the Goretorium, of course, is an untidy corpse, so signs encourage the cast to keep the dressing room free of excess theater blood and spirit gum.

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Meat market

Yikes. Murder victims at the Delmont ended up butchered and served from the hotel's kitchen. A selection of fine meat cuts are on display inside the Goretorium.

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Everything under control

All aspects of the Goretorium's operations are routed through central computers in the attraction's backstage control rooms. Lighting effects and animatronic scares can be activated and adjusted from the headquarter's screens.

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Goretorium gift shop

A bloody skeleton decorates the Goretorium's souvenir T-shirt table inside the haunt's gift shop. This unfortunate Delmont hotel guest was clearly boiled and carved up to be served as the day's room service.

The 15,000-square-foot horror attraction is open daily from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. with an entry fee from $25 to $60. It will extend its hours on Halloween from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m.

In case you can't make it to Vegas, the Goretorium's Web site has a Webcam feature that lets you watch guests get scared out of their minds.