Once inside our Vancouver escape room, you have 45 minutes to get out. You will need brains, guts, and nerves of steel to make it out - before it's too late.
With the new version of It hitting theatres later this year and its ultra-intense trailer already giving us nightmares, we thought it was high time to revisit one of our favourite topics here at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game: the jump scare.
Some horror films and thrillers get away without featuring a jump scare, but where’s the fun in that? Being on the edge of your seat and literally jumping out of it is part of what makes scary movies so addictive.
So, without further ado, here are our top three favourite jump scares that you already know are coming. Yet, whether it's from a remake that restages a jump scare from the original or a sequel that leans heavily on the original, these jump scares still do the trick.
3. The Thing (1982/2011)
Maybe it’s John Carpenter’s original 1982 version starring Kurt Russell or maybe it’s the CGI-heavy 2011 remake that does it for you. In any case, when it comes to The Thing, the alien creature’s habit of popping out of where you least expect—whether an ice block or a human chest—is sure to get your heart racing.
2. The Blair Witch Project (1999) / Blair Witch (2016)
Sure, the new Blair Witch film is basically like a shot-for-shot remake of the original, but that also includes repeating its best jump scare. Fancy staring into a corner in a super creepy house for all eternity, anyone?
1. It (1990/2017)
Right, we know we’ve only seen the trailer for the 2017 film, but Pennywise has already managed to do it again. Whether it’s Tim Curry in the original 1990 TV version or Bill Skarsgård in the forthcoming movie, the anticipation of seeing Pennywise’s horrible painted face appear in that sewer grate is almost too much to bear.
See how many jump scares you can count during your 45 minutes in Krakit’s Zombie Apocalypse escape game. Book now.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year—at least according to us at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game. When the nights grow longer than the days, that means one thing: more time for creepy crawlies and spooky ghouls to do their thing. Namely, scaring us human types.
To celebrate the fall season and the approach of Halloween, we’re making one of our escape rooms into a full-fledged haunted house experience. So not only do you need to use your brain to solve the puzzles and escape the room, you also need to watch your back, because you never know who—or what—might be lurking, just out of sight ...
As every horror fan knows, there are certain elements that every haunted house needs, especially these five.
5. Ambience
Dry ice? Spooky music? Low lighting? A chilling draft coming from somewhere unidentifiable? That’s all part of building the truly eerie haunted house experience. If your haunted house doesn’t have at least one element that raises your hackles before the experience even begins, they’re not doing it right.
4. Loud and sudden noises
There’s nothing more frightening than walking around a darkened and silent room when—bang!—there comes a sudden pounding from the other side of the door. This incredibly vital haunted house element is a big part of the next item on our list ...
3. The jump scare
The jump scare is a staple of horror cinema—and Krakit’s haunted house-inspired escape game, too, of course. These all-important rushes of adrenaline come courtesy of sudden loud noises and the unexpected emergence of a masked menace from a corner you previously thought empty.
Remember: no haunted room can be called complete without at least one live actor to scare the bejeesus out of you when you least expect it.
2. Perfect timing
You’ve got your horror-soaked ambience, you’ve got your Method actor going mad in the break room, just waiting to drag their fingernails across an unsuspecting guest’s back—what else do you need? Absolutely perfect timing.
The best haunted houses have a perfect tension between empty moments that build the tension and all-too-sudden events that make your heart pound.
1. A good story
Everything else won’t work the way it’s supposed to if there’s not a good narrative to go along with it. More than anything, haunted houses—and escape rooms, too—are about engaging the imagination. An immersive story to get you hooked from the get-go will make every shadow deeper, every noise louder, and every sudden scare that much more heart pounding. Accept no imitations this Halloween.
Above is just a little of what you can expect when you book your haunted house escape game with us here in Greater Vancouver. Grab a slot here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.
Here at Krakit Escape Room, one of our favourite things in films and in our escape games is the jump scare. Why? Because it’s the best part of being a horror fan—it’s what we’re all waiting for and simultaneously what we’re all dreading.
The music starts to get all intense and screechy or, alternatively, everything drops dead silent. And then—WHAM. It’s got you. Because there are two essential parts to any good jump scare: the build up and the actual scare. One just can’t exist without the other.
Below we list our top five perfectly built up and perfectly executed jump scares. (Spoilers ahead!)
5. Alien (1979)—Dallas’s death in the air vents
In Alien, it’s the ping, ping, pinging of the motion tracker that builds much of the suspense the franchise is known for. And this scene is no exception. Nostromo captain Dallas crawls into the pitch-black vents in an attempt to force the xenomorph into the airlock, and then out into outer space. We watch, breathlessly, as the pings of his tracker getting ever more frequent.
Unfortunately, the alien has the upper hand in the dark, cramped space of the air vents, popping up out of the blackness to end it all for Dallas, in one of cinema’s classics jump scares.
4. It Follows (2014)—The bedroom scene
A primary reason It Follows has been named one of the best horror films in recent years is it’s perfect use of music to build up tension. It uses a classic screeching horror score in combination with dead silence to pull off some masterful scare jumps. This scene, where a tall man suddenly enters Jay’s bedroom, is one of the film’s best.
3. Mulholland Drive (2001)—Diner dream scene
Though more of a thriller than a horror, David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive has one of the most perfectly controlled jump scares out there. The very simple yet incredibly eerie build up—during which a man tells another man of a strange dream he had about the very diner they’re sitting in—is what makes this one of the best.
The slow switch from reality to dream and the two men’s incredibly tense walk from the diner to the alleyway behind it—to see if the dream holds true—means that absolutely anything that awaited them at the end of that walk would have the audience jumping from their seats.
2. The Descent (2005)—The night vision scene
The Descent doesn’t just have a few choice jump scares, but actually employs the jump scare formula throughout the entire film. The “atmosphere” comes courtesy of the labyrinthine and claustrophobic cave chain the protagonists are stuck in, and the “scare” comes courtesy of the creatures that are down there with them, just waiting to pop out.
The creatures’ first appearance, in the night vision scene, is just the cherry on top of a perfectly nerve-wracking film with several acutely scary moments.
1. The Shining (1980)—Danny’s tricycle ride
This granddaddy of all jump scares has an incredibly long build up and a flawless payoff.
We watch little Danny Torrance take the most terrifying bicycle ride in history, with every corner he turns becoming more and more stressful. With one major false start at the middle that makes the audience drop its guard too early, the scene’s grand finale—the sudden appearance of the Grady twins—is almost more than a viewer can take.
At Krakit, we employ live actors to spice up our eerie atmospheres with a right good scare. But remember, the jumps you get at Krakit Vancouver Escape Room are all in good fun! There’s never any real danger.
