Cracking Horror-Themed Escape Rooms: The Benefits of Fear

Though not all of our rooms at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game have a hair-raising theme, you’ll notice we do have a taste for the horror-esque. Beyond being fans of horror films and spooky thrills, we use scary scenarios for our escape rooms because it adds to the challenge—and excitement—of the game.

In addition to pumping more of those fun, fun endorphins into your bloodstream, here are a few other benefits that our horror-themed escape games bring.

1. The ante is upped

Quite simply, the added pressure of escaping from the clutches of a madman or a horde of zombies ups the ante. Even though you know its not real, psychologically you’ll be much more motivated to save you and your team mates from certain death than you are to solve a scenario with lower stakes.

2. Fear is good for you

There’s nothing that will give you focus like a good dose of fear. It helps you to zero in on what’s important, which is a huge benefit when it comes to the basic goals of an escape game. With the shot of adrenaline that comes from the sound of zombie fingernails scraping on the other side of the door, quickly assessing the clues in the room and piecing them together will be your only interest.

3. Stress is your friend

Any escape game scenario is going to be a little bit stressful: all it takes for most of us to develop sweat on our brow is the knowledge that there is a clock ticking down the seconds until we’re deemed either a success or a failure. Add the knowledge that a chemical lobotomy also awaits at the end of the countdown, and badda-boom: you’re doubly stressed.

We know what you’re thinking: Why would I want to be even more stressed?! Because, friends, stress can actually boost brainpower and stimulate your drive to succeed. Not a bad trade off!

An escape room with a scary scenario, besides being extra fun for horror fans, actually puts you in conditions that will make you your best puzzle-solving you: focused, motivated, brain boosted.

Despite all this talk of the benefits of fear and stress, please do remember that an escape game

is meant to test your wits, not your ability to be in small or confined spaces. It’s a puzzle room, not a claustrophobia challenge!

Book your next go-round with our zombies or asylum here: http://bookeo.com/krakit

Haunted Hospitals and Cruel Fates: The Asylum Escape Room

Have you tried the hardest escape room at Krakit yet? That’d be the Asylum room—where you find yourself sentenced to life in a psychiatric institution, with only 45 minutes before you’ll be put into a permanently sedated state. Unless, of course, you can crack the room and escape.

Insane asylums have long spooked us—and for good reason. They were places where some truly terrible medical cruelties took place and where people were locked away for their entire lives, often with no real medical reason by today’s standards. Though a relic of an earlier age, the psychiatric hospital still haunts our cultural psyche, appearing in everything from X-Files to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to American Horror Story.

But these places aren’t just in pop culture—they really existed, and over the last few decades many have been simply abandoned. Unsurprisingly, plenty of these institutions come with tales of tragedy, haunting, and other supernatural phenomena.

Riverview Hospital, Coquitlam, British Columbia

Located right in the backyard of our Vancouver escape room is Riverview Hospital, an abandoned facility in Coquitlam that shut down in 2012, nearly a century after it first opened. It’s often used as a spooky setting for filming, from Supernatural to Watchmen, but it has its own real-life haunting tales. People claim to have heard laughing, snickering, whispering voices on the top floor, when no one else was around.

Liff Hospital, Dundee, Scotland

Westgreen Asylum, 1897 (CC-BY 3.0)

Called the Dundee Lunatic Asylum at the time of its construction in the late 1800s, this hospital saw thousand of patients pass through its halls before its closure in 2013. People have heard footsteps on its staircases—with no one to be found when they sought the cause. Many of the hospital buildings have now been turned into private housing. (No thanks!)

Rolling Hills Asylum, East Bethany, New York

Rolling Hills Exterior (Photo: Paranormal Skeptic CC-BY 3.0)

Established in early 1827, this now-abandoned asylum is known for some extreme paranormal activity, including apparitions involving voices, footsteps, touches, and more. No wonder, since there’s a reported 1,700 bodies buried on the property. It shut down in 1974, and now it’s the scene of ghost tours, horror movie nights, and ghost hunts.

Aradale Mental Hospital, Ararat, Australia

Ararat Mental Asylum, 1880 (CC-BY 3.0)

Definitely one of the most massive mental hospitals ever constructed, Aradale is made up of more than sixty buildings. Constructed in 1867, the hospital had tens of thousands of patients, and more than 13,000 of them died on the premises. The hospital complex, decommissioned in 1998 and turned into a college campus, is said to have several haunting hot spots, from patients who never left—even after death—to inexplicable cold winds blowing through its halls.

Get thrills and chills as you try to escape the Asylum at Krakit Escape Game, on the border of Burnaby and Coquitlam, by booking here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

The Great Vancouver Escape (Game)

You may have heard about some heinous happenings taking place near the border of Burnaby and Coquitlam. A few unlicensed surgeries and some mystery meat being served here and there.

Luckily these diabolical events in Metro Vancouver are happening in the safety of Krakit Escape Game’s loving arms. We’ve captured some of the suspenseful—and bloody—moments on film for your viewing pleasure. It’s just a little taste of what awaits adventure-seekers in Krakit’s four escape rooms:

If you dare take on our Butcher room, you’ll find yourself locked in a meat cooler with an insane knife-wielding butcher itching to get you on his chopping block. For those who find the idea of a lobotomy less than appealing, our Asylum room will give you the right motivation to solve the clues and make your escape.

Maybe you’ve been planning for the Zombie Apocalypse since you were a child (who hasn’t, right?). If so, then our Zombie room provides just the chills and thrills you’ve been hoping for.

For those who like to have the bejeesus scared out of them minus the gore, we’ve created the perfect stomach-dropping moment in our One Night Stand room: figure out what happened last night before the game is up.

No matter which challenge you choose, you get 45 minutes to crack Krakit’s escape rooms. Escape games require a mix of ingenuity, smarts, and determination to solve. Put together the perfect team, and you just might have a chance of escaping the clutches of a bloodthirsty maniac or your own drunken decision. Only time will tell.

Don’t forget to keep an eye out for our next room theme, which will be ripe for cracking closer to September. After all, we just want to keep you on your toes at Krakit Escape Game—and maybe get a scream or two.