The Cursed Carnival [Abandoned Carnival]The Cursed Carnival [Abandoned Carnival]
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The Cursed Carnival [Abandoned Carnival]

Very Positive (121 ratings)

Lock and Key Escape

  • Escape room
  • IRL

Mark as done to rate

You and your fellow true-crime podcast hosts have found the perfect story for your next season. Shadow Hills Carnival was shut down over 50 years ago after visitors started vanishing. Local legend speaks of a mysterious person that runs the abandoned carnival once a year. Can you survive the night and report the true story to your loyal fans?

  • 2-8
  • 60 mins
  • Spooky

Ratings

All ratings (121)

Very Positive

Gameplay
Very Positive
Atmosphere
Very Positive
Customer service
Very Positive

Reviews

@in2crew
in2crew

26 escape rooms

π“†œπ“‹˜π“„ π“Š›π“‡™π“‹Έπ“Œ€π“Œ₯ π“Œ¦ 𓅐𓆒 𓆣 𓀉𓆀 π“†₯ π“…‘π“†˜ 𓆙 π“…’π“„™ π“„š π“„› 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 π“…” π“…• 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 π“Ž· π“„π“ŽΈπ“…– π“…½ π“…Ύ π“…Ώπ“…— π“…˜ 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 π“…š 𓁡 𓁢𓂡 𓂢𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 π“‚Ίπ“…œ �𓅝𓃄 οΏ½π“„π“…žπ“‚™ π“…Ÿπ“‚Ώ π“†œπ“‹˜π“„ π“Š›π“‡™π“‹Έπ“Œ€π“Œ₯ π“Œ¦ 𓅐𓆒 𓆣 𓀉𓆀 π“†₯ π“…‘π“†˜ 𓆙 π“…’π“„™ π“„š π“„› 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 π“…” π“…• 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 π“Ž· π“„π“ŽΈπ“…– π“…½ π“…Ύ π“…Ώπ“…— π“…˜ 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 π“…š 𓁡 𓁢𓂡 𓂢𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 π“‚Ίπ“…œ 𓂨𓅝𓃄 π“„π“…žπ“‚™ π“…Ÿπ“‚Ώ

Apr 19, 2026
@thezildjman
thezildjman

29 escape rooms

I can tell my new love is going to be doing spooky escape rooms. I had fun with the room as a whole, but I definitely wouldn’t say that I ever felt truly spooked at any point during the game. This is not a bad thing. I still love a good episode of Scooby Doo as long as I am not counting on Paranormal Activity levels of fright. The story was fun and I enjoyed all the puzzles, with a couple being notably memorable. I also love when there are large changes to a room mid game. This delivers there. Lots of fun, probably my second favorite game at Lock and Key!

  • store/u/2514b7d4-bb47-4fcf-9a35-8a3eb24928b5_75.jpg
Gameplay

Love the flow of the puzzles. Really fit into the story as well

Atmosphere

Cool props and vibe, but the room didn’t truly feel β€œspooky”. Looking back it may have been the lighting being too bright. Not a huge complaint though

Customer service

Rachel was AWESOME and so was the person who outroed our game (forgot your name im sorry!!)

Particularly interesting or different

No

Story
Difficulty

Easy

Scary

Spooky

Was anything broken?

No

Live actors

No

Physically active

Somewhat

Nov 9, 2025 | Experienced Nov 8, 2025
@arycsch
arycsch

25 escape rooms

This game was super fun and the puzzles were unique and our game master Rachel was awesome

  • store/e/2f95bdb2-8594-4b99-9f11-d0c27a5ccf18.heic
Gameplay
Atmosphere
Customer service
Particularly interesting or different

Yes

Story
Difficulty

Medium

Game tech

High tech

Ideal number of players

4

Scary

Spooky

Minimum age

14

Was anything broken?

No

Live actors

No

Physically active

Somewhat

Accessibility

There are some parts of the game where it would be difficult for someone who is not able-bodied to do however not everyone has to do it in the room to complete the puzzles.

Easy to find location

No

Southdale Center is just confusing and has no directory but lock and key does everything to help you find them

Parking

Easy

Nov 8, 2025 | Experienced Nov 8, 2025
@Iffy
Iffy

63 escape rooms

I enjoyed this room a lot. It did feel pretty easy, but we still had fun playing it. There was some fun twists in the room's progression that were quite memorable, too.

Gameplay

There was a ball toss puzzle to knock over some ducks! Also a really cool one where you have to blindly feel for the answer in order to solve the corresponding puzzle. Pretty linear, but not a bad thing.

Atmosphere

Definitely has a creepy vibe to it. I absolutely loved the reveal towards the end behind the tent! Not to mention when everything goes black. The little dummy adds a fun little touch, too.

Customer service

Very nice staff!

Particularly interesting or different

Yes

The tarot cards!!

Story

The 'intro' story was not really relavent to how the experience progressed. There was also some voice overs throughout the game that narrated a completely different story.

Difficulty

Easy

Game tech

Mechanical

All practical puzzles.

Ideal number of players

2

We escaped with twenty-five minutes to spare with two of us.

Scary

Spooky

Spooky vibes.

Minimum age

12

Was anything broken?

Yes

One puzzle didn't trigger when we solved it, but got confirmation that we were correct.

Live actors

Yes

A puppeteer!

Physically active

Somewhat

Normal amount of moving around.

Accessibility

One puzzle involves crawling.

Easy to find location

Yes

In a mall.

Parking

Easy

On site mall parking.

Aug 10, 2025

R

RhynoRoo

2 escape rooms

Good variety of puzzles. The atmosphere caused one person to make me do one scary part - that was fun and immersive! The theme was good and the final bits were tricky. I can’t say more due to spoilers. One thing didn’t quit physically work as designed. But other items worked better than expected. Sizes and spaces were used well too!

Gameplay
Atmosphere
Customer service
Aug 9, 2025
@cookie8mea
cookie8mea

43 escape rooms

Was an epic room! The story was so silly and fun! The jumpscares were spooky and timed pretty well. I like how the puzzles / room is all very cohesive. We don't care as much about being immersed in the atmosphere so we didn't mind there was a few broken things. But our game guide was awesome and it never was awkward. We've done quite a few escape rooms at this point and managed to escape with 11 minutes!

  • store/e/7d0d5e67-b508-4e6d-ba08-255bb0ee8dc6.jpg
Gameplay
Atmosphere
Customer service
Particularly interesting or different

Yes

Story
Difficulty

Easy

Game tech

Mechanical

Ideal number of players

2

Scary

Spooky

Minimum age

13

Was anything broken?

Yes

Live actors

In a way yes? There are moment where someone's hand would reach through a hole / would make pounding noises

Physically active

Not at all

Accessibility

It was very easy to move around. However! there were parts where someone needed to crawl / a tent like part that would be difficult to get a wheelchair on. For hearing much of the story is told audibly, I would assume they could give captions but many of the conformations you did a puzzle are audio. It is somewhat dark in this room and you are not supposed to use flashlights, but maybe they could make exeptions for people with vision issues. there was 3 color based puzzles with the 4 colors red, yellow, green, and blue

Easy to find location

No

Its on the bottom floor of the mall and we struggled a bit to find it haha

Parking

Easy

Jun 7, 2025
@kiraxmiller
kiraxmiller

49 escape rooms

Such a fun place to play a room at. They put a lot of work into their rooms and they are soooo welcoming. We had a major game malfunction in our room but they played it off and made sure we still had a great time

Gameplay
Atmosphere
Customer service
Particularly interesting or different

Yes

Aug 20, 2024
@kaileemartens
kaileemartens

77 escape rooms

The story of this room was unique and engaging, and served to uplift the experience as a whole. The room itself has some fun nods to the carnival theme, but could definitely do better at actually making you feel like you’re at a carnival. The ending was fun. I was on edge the whole time but there was nothing legitimately scary.

  • store/u/fa24e06a-dd69-43cf-806d-2f3f591680c7_133.jpg
Gameplay
Atmosphere
Customer service
Particularly interesting or different

Yes

Story
Difficulty

Easy

Game tech

Mechanical

Ideal number of players

4

Scary

Spooky

Minimum age

16

Was anything broken?

No

Live actors

No

Physically active

Somewhat

Accessibility

There are parts where you have to crawl. There are some steps up. There’s a throwing requirement. There was a puzzle that relied on color. There was a lot of audible hints and story.

Easy to find location

Yes

It’s inside a mall.

Parking

Easy

Jun 8, 2024 | Experienced Jun 8, 2024

D

DeeH

200 escape rooms

6 adults did this room and enjoyed it. Loved the unique puzzles. I would not say it is spooky.

Gameplay
Atmosphere
Customer service
Physically active

Not at all

Apr 10, 2024

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