I feel like all the different zombie movies/books/television shows attempt to twist the theme of the human condition to help us more fully realize the nature of our truest fears, the real nature of our conflicts. The thought of zombies helps us to examine and process our fears through a new filter by forcing us to approach our darkest wonderings from an oblique angle… or some other such highbrow interpretation, but when you’re locked in a room with a zombie who’s chain lengthens with time, your mind is clouded and escape is all you focus on. It’s primitive. It’s scary. It’s safe…. And most importantly, it’s a blast!
Would you like to be locked in a room with a zombie? Personally, I’m not into zombies, not even a little bit, but I appreciate a good scare and enjoy trying new and different adventures. I seek out unique outings for my family either for my three boys, as a married couple or the entire family regularly.
This last Christmas, 2014, my brother & sister-in-law stayed with us and I wanted to give a non-material gift. So I gifted them a double date night with myself and hubby which included us going to a warehouse shed where we were all locked in a room with a zombie. Yes, seriously.
Did we seriously get locked in a room with a zombie?
Yes, and it was crazy awesome! Emphasis on crazy. You, and a small bevy of other victim-meat-humans are locked into a room and have one hour to solve riddles, coded puzzles, working with clues and locks leading you to the one golden key that will unlock a door. This door will let everyone (or at least one of you to win) except the chained up zombie, escape the room. When you first enter the room, you see cabinets, tables, superficially random room décor, lots of possible clues, then the door shuts, locks, and the timer starts. You are given one hour to escape the room.
Five minutes into the game, a loud buzzer goes off, a door opens and a zombie with thick, silver, clicking chains oozes quietly and creepily onto the floor. Now the game really begins, because every five minutes the buzzer will sound off again, and the chains restraining the quickening zombie give a little more slack….
If the zombie touches you, then you instantly die and have to go into a dead zone. The game gets really serious when you’re trying to solve a puzzle but the buzzer seems to be ticking faster–although it isn’t; you have a hungry-looking zombie crawl-running-leaping after various other people and yourself, the small mob of you moving like a flock of fish in depths, ebbing around the movements of a shark.
At one point, we had several men on one side of a table and the zombie went from squatting position on the floor to jumping up some four feet, over a table and landed back on the concrete floor with a slap where he continued to crawl-run after the men. Everyone was shocked at the zombie’s ability to do this and subconscious questions raised as to just how authentic is this zombie crossed everyone’s mind. Everyone was screaming and the person who froze yelling “did he really just jump over that table” got eaten! It was disappointing to see one great team player give himself up for “self-sacrifice” so another player could get a key. At least he was taken quickly but not quietly! You can’t afford to freeze, give up or panic when playing this game of survival to escape.
You can tell yourself that you won’t be scared! It’s not a real zombie, right? Well, it’s difficult enough solving coded ridden puzzles and clues while rested and relaxed, but within an hour; in a small room; with a zombie trying to eat you???
When the event was finished, my brother, sister, hubby and me were laughing and talking about strategies, the clues, the players, and zombie for hours following. At one point during the event I was cornered with my sister-n-law as the zombie was reaching for us, and we had to push ourselves as far back into a corner as possible.…at least this distraction allowed some other players to work on clues.
Depending on how many people you go with, there can be up to 13 people in a room. Since we were a group of 4, we were teamed up with eight strangers. Everyone wore a name tag and when I wrote Beth on my name tag, some people mentioned how clever this was taking on the well-known character Beth from The Walking Dead. However, as I mentioned before, I’m not down with zombies so I had no idea what these strangers were talking about. But there was a George Romero, Rick, and Shaun along with other genre-famous monikers among us…
There are many elements of fun and adventure to be had with this experience. I was locked in a room with a zombie; that is my review; now go get yourself locked in a room with a zombie for some crazy fun!
You can be locked in a room with a zombie several times depending on the day: Wednesday through Sundays throughout cities in the US. Dallas location: 3001 Quebec St. Suite 107, Dallas, TX. For more information: Room Escape Adventures.
Beth – you guys are brave! I’m sure I would have nightmares after being stuck in a room of zombies for an hour. It’s awesome that you did this adventure as a gift for your family.
Kristy, Honestly I don’t like zombies, but I have to say this adventure was really great! The puzzle elements to the game made it fun and the zombie, different! It was a blast!