News

Escape Rooms Offer Horror Fans a Chance to Prove Their Skills

Published

5 years ago

November 7, 2018

The history of Escape Rooms or Escape Games is foggy at best. They seem to have evolved from haunted house attractions most common at Halloween and expanded to year-around activities for horror fans and thrill-seekers alike.

The first escape room with a permanent location, Real Escape Game, created by Takao Kato turned up in Kyoto, Japan in 2007, and it seemed the world was watching. Before long, escape rooms cropped up in Singapore and San Francisco spreading up to Seattle and beyond.

Currently, these attractions are found across Europe, Asia, Australia, and both North and South America, and really it isn’t hard to see why.

For those who consider themselves horror experts, you see, Escape Rooms are the next evolution in genre entertainment pitting player expertise against unknown monsters and killers in carefully curated terrifying scenarios.

In fact, many Escape Room owners not only count on horror audiences participation but they design their rooms around the genre to whet the appetites of those fans.

In his 2016 article on TheVerge.com, Bryan Bishop chronicled his own terrifying experiences in Los Angeles’ The Basement.

“They led us into the basement like lambs to slaughter…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…Then it hit us. We were missing one vital piece of information, which was almost certainly hidden inside a safe on the wall — a safe that our earlier mistakes had rendered completely inoperable.

That’s when I knew we were all going to die.”

It is a highly effective, immersive form of entertainment that goes beyond virtual reality. You cannot take off the goggles to end your terror. The only way out is through.

Take for instance, The Hex Room.

This particular escape game, developed by Cross Roads Escape Games and located in Anaheim, California, first asks participants to take a short personality test to determine which horror archetype they are: The Nerd, The Jock, The Prom Queen, etc.

Once they’ve been sorted, rather than immediately working together, each person is locked in their own separate room based upon their classification. Each player must overcome their own obstacles before they can regroup with their friends for the final escape puzzles.

If it sounds difficult, I assure you that’s correct. The Hex Room boasts that only 20% can escape with a 5% survival rate.

A view from the Hex Room

Or how about Laurel’s House of Horrors in Laurel, Maryland?

Converted from an abandoned movie theater, Laurel’s House of Horrors themes their escapes specifically after horror movies and television series.

In their “Rage Against Jigsaw” room guests are divided into two teams to investigate one of the infamous Saw killer’s lethal traps. When the trap resets itself, the two teams are pitted against each other, and only the team that works smartest and fastest will escape Jigsaw’s clutches.

And in Atlanta, Georgia, attraction owners invite you to Escape the Netherworld in what has been rated as one of the most terrifying escape rooms in the U.S. Their current games invite you to face down Sasquatch, Nosferatu, and in one particularly chilling room, an evil Night Hag that has haunted a family for over 200 years and must be banished in order for you to escape.

The popularity of these escape rooms is really no great mystery when one considers that for years we’ve had horror films where characters had to work together and solve puzzles in order to escape certain death.

The Canadian-spawned Cube franchise was based on this premise, and who will ever forget the Saw films to whom Laurel’s House of Horrors pays tribute? And then there was The Collector and the vicious traps his victims had to maneuver to escape.

Oh and don’t forget Hellraiser! Oh wait…never mind…wrong kind of puzzle.

In fact, there’s a brand new film from Adam Robitel set for release in January 2019!

Starring Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood) and Tyler Labine (Tucker and Dale vs. Evil), Escape Room centers on six strangers who wake to find themselves locked in a seemingly hopeless and lethal situation with only their wits and cooperation to save them.

Have you ever been to an escape room? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below!

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Editorial

Yay or Nay: What’s Good and Bad in Horror This Week

Published

2 days ago

May 4, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Welcome to Yay or Nay a weekly mini post about what I think is good and bad news in the horror community written in bite-sized chunks.

Yay:

Mike Flanagan talking about directing the next chapter in the Exorcist trilogy. That might mean he saw the last one and realized there were two left and if he does anything well it’s draw out a story.

Yay:

To the announcement of a new IP-based film Mickey Vs Winnie. It’s fun to read comical hot takes from people who haven’t even seen the movie yet.

Nay:

The new Faces of Death reboot gets an R rating. It’s not really fair — Gen-Z should get an unrated version like past generations so they can question their mortality the same as the rest of us did.

Yay:

Russell Crowe is doing another possession movie. He’s quickly becoming another Nic Cage by saying yes to every script, bringing the magic back to B-movies, and more money into VOD.

Nay:

Putting The Crow back in theaters for its 30th anniversary. Re-releasing classic movies at the cinema to celebrate a milestone is perfectly fine, but doing so when the lead actor in that film was killed on set due to neglect is a cash grab of the worst kind.

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Lists

The Top-Searched Free Horror/Action Movies on Tubi This Week

Published

2 days ago

May 3, 2024

Timothy Rawles

The free streaming service Tubi is a great place to scroll when you’re unsure what to watch. They are not sponsored or affiliated with iHorror. Still, we really appreciate their library because it’s so robust and has many obscure horror movies so rare you can’t find them anywhere in the wild except, if you’re lucky, in a moist cardboard box at a yard sale. Other than Tubi, where else are you going to find Nightwish (1990), Spookies (1986), or The Power (1984)?

We take a look at the most searched horror titles on the platform this week, hopefully, to save you some time in your endeavor to find something free to watch on Tubi.

Interestingly at the top of the list is one of the most polarizing sequels ever made, the female-led Ghostbusters reboot from 2016. Perhaps viewers have seen the latest sequel Frozen Empire and are curious about this franchise anomaly. They will be happy to know it’s not as bad as some think and is genuinely funny in spots.

So take a look at the list below and tell us if you are interested in any of them this weekend.

1. Ghostbusters (2016)

Ghostbusters (2016)

An otherworldly invasion of New York City assembles a pair of proton-packed paranormal enthusiasts, a nuclear engineer and a subway worker for battle.An otherworldly invasion of New York City assembles a pair of proton-packed paranormal enthusiasts, a nuclear engineer and a subway worker for battle.

2. Rampage

When a group of animals becomes vicious after a genetic experiment goes awry, a primatologist must find an antidote to avert a global catastrophe.

3. The Conjuring The Devil Made Me Do It

Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren uncover an occult conspiracy as they help a defendant argue that a demon forced him to commit murder.

4. Terrifier 2

After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to Miles County, where his next victims, a teenage girl and her brother, await.

5. Don’t Breathe

A group of teens breaks into a blind man’s home, thinking they’ll get away with the perfect crime but get more than they bargained for once inside.

6. The Conjuring 2

In one of their most terrifying paranormal investigations, Lorraine and Ed Warren help a single mother of four in a house plagued by sinister spirits.

7. Child’s Play (1988)

A dying serial killer uses voodoo to transfer his soul into a Chucky doll which winds up in the hands of a boy who may be the doll’s next victim.

8. Jeepers Creepers 2

When their bus breaks down on a deserted road, a team of high school athletes discovers an opponent they cannot defeat and may not survive.

9. Jeepers Creepers

After making a horrific discovery in the basement of an old church, a pair of siblings find themselves the chosen prey of an indestructible force.

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News

Morticia & Wednesday Addams Join Monster High Skullector Series

Published

2 days ago

May 3, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Believe it or not, Mattel’s Monster High doll brand has an immense following with both young and not-so-young collectors.

In that same vein, the fan base for The Addams Family is also very large. Now, the two are collaborating to create a line of collectible dolls that celebrate both worlds and what they have created is a combination of fashion dolls and goth fantasy. Forget Barbie, these ladies know who they are.

The dolls are based on Morticia and Wednesday Addams from the 2019 Addams Family animated movie.

As with any niche collectibles these aren’t cheap they bring with them a $90 price tag, but it’s an investment as a lot of these toys become more valuable over time.

“There goes the neighborhood. Meet the Addams Family’s ghoulishly glamorous mother-daughter duo with a Monster High twist. Inspired by the animated movie and clad in spiderweb lace and skull prints, the Morticia and Wednesday Addams Skullector doll two-pack makes for a gift that’s so macabre, it’s downright pathological.”

If you want to pre-purchase this set check out The Monster High website.