Did I just willingly go into someone’s actual real-life basement, where I was pursued and chased by a chainsaw-wielding serial killer for an hour? Yes, and I had the effing best time doing it! I should preface by saying our team of 2 cowards don’t do horror. We are afraid of jump scares, and we avoid scary rooms. Yet this week, we went straight from avoiding horror to playing what might possibly be one of the scariest rooms in the entire US! And I’m glad we did, because Ripper was an exhilarating ride with some of the most immersive fun we’ve ever had in an escape room!
The owners Tom and Nicole are honestly masters of their craft. Looking back on the experience, I can tell that every single cinematic moment was meticulously planned out to periodically escalate in tension. Each scare changed the rules of what we could do, with masterful show-don’t-tell storytelling and very helpful guidance from a second in-game live actor, who was also trying to escape the Ripper’s clutches like us. The gory setting is the haunted house of my nightmares. Everything looked so realistic and freaky. Even when the Ripper isn’t physically with us, the rooms are designed to make us anxious, until the Ripper makes his grand adrenaline-pumping appearance, sending chills down our spines. This is a grade-A thriller movie, and I’m not even a big fan of the genre!
The owners are extremely nice, and their other room Nevermore was one of my favorite rooms in the entire Carolinas, which is already a hit destination for high quality escapes, so that’s saying something! It was worth taking 2 separate long detours to do both rooms, and again, it says a lot that we would willingly drive an hour out of the way to do a horror room that is well beyond our comfort zone. Nocturne is worth it!
There is a non-scare version, without the Ripper or the jump scares. And you can just focus on the puzzles. There’s also a PG-13 version that removes the swearing and nudity. We are crazy, and despite being cowards, we went for the whole rated-R scare version. (Rated R for Ripper) I can’t imagine this room without the titular Ripper. The puzzles, while still high quality (I thought Nevermore’s puzzles were literally perfect), are only made difficult because we can’t think straight when we’re scared. So really, the best reason to do this room is to immerse yourself in a serial killer’s basement. We faced our fears, but we escaped and lived to tell the tale for years to come! Maybe we secretly are horror fans? Who knows? But either way, we love the Ripper! Be brave and let it Rip!
So nice when they aren’t Ripping
Particularly interesting or different
Yes
You are in a horror thriller movie
Multiply it by 2 because of anxiety affecting nerves and thinking ability
Definitely one of the scariest experiences we’ve ever had as scaredy-cats
Yes a couple, including the Ripper
The Ripper is after you, so you will naturally run
Accessibility
See above, also it’s dark, and bigger groups might require someone to crawl
Yes, but it’s also someone’s real-life house so you may get confused
If it were anyone else, we wouldn’t feel safe probably, but we trust Nocturne!