Monday, October 24, 2016
The Future of Fear: I was eaten alive by an escape room cannibal
The Verge: They led us into the basement like lambs to slaughter, hoods pulled over our heads so we couldn’t see the chain link cage we were being stuffed into. We knew we didn’t have much time until our captor would return, ready to rip the flesh from our bones in cannibalistic glee, so we hurriedly unlocked the cage and tore the room apart, solving riddle after riddle in our quest to escape.
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I have been to a few escape rooms in Beijing, and they were extremely fun, challenging, and perfect for team-bonding. As the article points out, "Escape rooms are more than just puzzles -- they are narrative experiences." They allow the audience to fully immerse in this fabricated universe with the intricate design of the space, and by challenging their logic and physical ability. The escape rooms that I have been to are all privately-own, and not professionally designed. They are pretty small and located in malls. But based on this article it seems like huge companies in theme entertainment like Disney and Universal are also becoming interested and incorporating them in their parks. I am excited to see the future development for escape rooms. They could be incorporated with theater elements as well -- having actors playing characters in the rooms to facilitate the narrative.
I read an article very similar to this on the PTM blog a couple of weeks ago. It was a podcast of a man rebelling his experience at an LA horror experience. It seems that the LA scene is really starting to invest in these escape room-horror experiences where people are not only tasked with escaping a room, but have an additional theatrical plot which recreates iconic horror situations. Frankly, I hate being scared so I can't imagine how someone could knowingly sign up for this. What is also alarming to me is that we are no longer scaring people with "boo! I'm a ghost!". Instead people are asking for real-life situation. Clearly there is a market for this if people are paying for this. I feel almost alarmed by this market need. Is this what consumers want? It seems as if we are pushing the extremes further and further of emersive theatre. I think it becomes a bit too far once people are in a situation where no safe words and safe zones are available. It makes me so nervous to think about a situation where people want such high adrenaline rushes that it could trigger very dangerous situations. Although I believe this is a very interesting and up and coming, it raises a lot of concerns for me when it comes to safety. I would love to meet the creators behind these horror experiences and figure out what goes in behind these emersive experiences.
I think escape rooms are really fun and a really cool idea. I have never done one personally, except in the virtual game versions, but I have heard from a lot of people that have done them and loved them. That being said, I think I would hate this horror version of the escape room. I would hate being led down to a basement, having no idea where I was going, who I was going with, or even who was pulling me down. I like scary things, because I am sacred very easily so when something is actually pretty scary I am TERRIFIED, which is exhilirating. However, I need to be able to see what is around me. I can deal with being in the dark, as long as I have the potential to see things, but the idea of having a bag over my head and being led somewhere makes me so uncomfortable I would never be able to deal with this. I also just think, realistically, I would be too terrified to actually search the room, thinking I would accidentally find a disembodied body part or something. I think this is a really awesome idea for people who are just a little bit braver than I am, but I personally would have a horrible time.
I've been to an escape room before, but unlike this one it didn't have the horror element: it was set in a professor's study, and we had to find a missing painting. Even though there was nothing remotely scary about the setting or the scenario, there was something about being put in a locked room that's relatively small and knowing that other people are watching you that put us all a little on edge. I can imagine that when you combine the experience of a haunted house and an escape room, emotions and adrenaline run even higher since there are real (pretend) stakes involved. In a haunted house, there's no goal-- besides making it out alive, but you subconsciously know that you'll always do that. With these combined horror-escape rooms there's both higher stakes and pressure AND a complicated multi-step goal requiring all of your mental facilities (speaking from experience, these puzzles are pretty hard). I think it's interesting that these sorts of horror experiences are on the rise, because I feel like they're not necessarily objectively scarier, but give you more of an adrenaline rush.
I love what these guys are doing with the art of escape rooms. this kind of theater that is truly immersive really brings out the total feeling that this is real. the artists dedication to make a statement or tell a story in these escape rooms is really refreshing. i believe this is really being elevated to a higher form. with more theatrics and experiences building this world for the audience dosent keep the real of terrifying experiences to Halloween. using this kind of audience participation really is innovative. i am very happy its grown in popularity and has even gone on to more professional theatrical spaces suck as sleep no more. i cant wait to see more stuff like this in the world.
Escape rooms are popping up everywhere nowadays and that is actually pretty exciting. I just experienced my first escape room this past weekend. It is amazing how complex these rooms can be. I cannot imagine there being a haunted escape room with live actors. I would only imagine that it could make me more nervous and either prevent me from completing the course or motivate me to complete it quicker. After reading the experience that these folks had in this experience it seems as though it was a fully fleshed out 100 percent immersive escape room. They probably had to sign a ton of waivers prior to entry. It excites me that there are people creating such realistic attractions though. It takes a lot to bring someone into your made up reality and have them forget the real world. This reminds me heavily of the new show West world where guests can experience a new life in a fully immersive environment- tricky to pull of because you can not have any holes or it will take away from such immersion.
I've been to a lot of escape rooms, but none of them were horror themed. Just reading about how players willingly have people put hoods over their heads gives me goosebumps. I definitely think escape rooms are an interesting form of immersive entertainment because it gives the audience significantly more control than watching a show/movie does. This article makes a valid point when it comes to entertainment will always be around because people are always looking for escape. With the time limit and horror elements as well as the final scare of if you don't make it out in time you're "captured, caged, and consumed", I can imagine how that can create a stress that will make players forget about the stress and responsibilities that they are facing in real life.
I know in another article I commented that I like immersive theater and that I would be interested in participating in that creepy haunted ‘house’ attraction, but this event seems either a bit too much or really good for me. I totally see the thrill in this attraction, basically putting you in a ‘SAW’ like situation, where you have a chance of freedom, but you have to do something in order to get, instead of a gruesome deed, you solve puzzles in this case. With the anxiousness of being on a time limit, and having the puzzles growing progressively hard, it is a good practice or test to see how far you can go, how you deal with certain things, where is your breaking point, etc. Which is a fascinating thing to think about. However, I think that this attraction, more so than the other clown one, would be bad for me, as some kind of pressure like that (and the fact that I would totally be the person that, even though I knew that this was just for fun) would annoying wonder to themselves, are they going to really kill us? And that really wouldn’t be so good for me.
The escape room just seems to keep on becoming more and more innovative with their designs, storylines, and ingenuity to create new puzzles. Since it is October, I wonder if this was just a sample escape room just for the month to go with the theme of Halloween, or if it will continue to be a year round opportunity for those thrill seekers who work best under pressure. I know some people, my dad included who would be like hell no. He’d be fine with being in a regular escape room, but the minute you add a little blood, some flickering lights, a psycho killer who wants to do harm, it is a little more understandable. You are essentially turning a horror film into reality that you are trying to escape from. It allows you to be able to get out of your usual self for a while, because you’d be so focused in the room, you can’t have outside thoughts creeping in, hindering you from the task at hand.
Ya these escape rooms seem really cool but they are not for me. Being trapped in a room with possible strangers and forced to solve puzzles or else you will be cannibalistically eaten….ya um no.. Going into one of these rooms sounds awful be designing one of these rooms, that sounds like a thrilling experience. Like the article said, the entertainment industry will near go out of business because people are always looking for an escape. An escape form their mundane lives into the trilling world of their fantasies. And sometimes this is achieved through traditional theater but in this case the audience is acquiring their outlet of escape form the ordinary in engineered rooms that challenge you and make you question everything you know. The design of this would be super fun because you are trying to lead a group of people to an ultimate end goal, muddy the path, while also manipulating their emotions to make them feel the pressure and the storyline that you designed. It’s just so cool!!!
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