Summertime and the Escaping Is Easy: 10 Summeriest Escape Films

Blake Lively trying to escape an overachieving shark in The Shallows

Whether your fancy is horror, adventure, thriller, or kid friendly, there’s a summertime escape film for you. After you’re done picking up tips from these 10 flicks, you can test out your own escape prowess at one of Krakit Vancouver Escape Game’s four themed rooms.

1. Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Though a great watch in any season, summer is the perfect time to revisit Dana and her compadres as they try to outwit and escape the lineup of horror film monsters set upon them by a twisted crew of reality TV show makers.

2. The Great Outdoors (1988)

John Candy, an oversized steak, creepy twin girls, a misunderstood bear, and an epic cave escape scene. What’s not to love about this summer classic?

3. The Descent (2005)

Talk about your summertime outing gone wrong. When a spelunker thinks she can spice up her friends’ day by taking them to an undiscovered cave system, she really just goes ahead and ruins the whole spelunking season.

4. The Beach (2000)

Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his pals think they’re escaping civilization when they set out to find a beach that’s rumoured to be paradise on earth. Cut to poor Rich trying to escape the hellscape it becomes.

5. Homeward Bound (1993)

The Seavers family think they’re going off on vacation, but their two dogs and cat think they’re heading off forever. The three pets escape the ranch they’re meant to be chilling at and embark on a crazy dangerous journey back home to San Fran.

6. Deliverance (1972)

Decidedly not one for the kids, this classic film is set in the backwoods of Georgia, where four city slickers think they’ll have a nice summer getaway. Nope. Just nope. Their main objective soon turns to escaping the woods with their lives intact.

7. The Hills Have Eyes (19777)

Wes Craven’s dusty desert-set slasher flick takes a similar turn to Deliverance, where a nice family vacay turns into a desperate bid to escape a landscape they don’t know and a group of people who are none too friendly.

8. A Perfect Getaway (2009)

This overlooked thriller is set in luscious Hawaii, but unfortunately for the two couples (including Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich) who are hiking through the beautiful terrain, some psychopaths are killing people on the trail. And, yep, you guessed it: their perfect holiday getaway turns into the perfect “run for your life”-type getaway.

9. The Shallows (2016)

It’s not an escape game any of us would like to play: outwit and wait out a bloodthirsty shark while standing on a teeny tiny rock in the middle of the open ocean. Blake Lively takes on the challenge with aplomb.

10. Super 8 (2011)

A group of ambitious kids plan on spending their summer making a noir-inspired flick. They end up spending it dodging supernatural events and escaping the clutches of a big ol’ alien. Comme ci comme ça.

Get your own summer escape on by booking an escape room challenge for you and your friends here.

Scare Tactics (Part One): Fight-or-Flight

Audiences love to scream in terror at the scenes presented to them on the big and small screen. But why do we seek out scary experiences? Why do we shield our eyes in fear only to return them to the screen seconds later? What sadistic tendency leads us to self-scare?

The answer lays in our body chemistry, or more specifically our brain chemistry. In a fight-or-flight scenario our brain releases the hormone dopamine. Dopamine has many purposes in the human body, but one of the major roles it plays is reward. Our body rewards us with dopamine when we preform certain actions, the most basic being smiling. Our reward is happiness.

In a scary scenario, our brain also rewards our 'fight' option with an increase in the production of dopamine. By sitting through a disturbing scene our body experiences a jolt of hormones. This produces feelings similar to those created when we experience a euphoric situation.

Our self-esteem gets a boost as our confidence increases. Our survival, even when witnessing a two-dimensional scene, is seen as an action worthy of a chemical prize. The more scary scenarios we can sit through the greater our self -worth.

But scares aren't for everyone. Our enjoyment depends on the milliseconds between the fright and our brain's recognition that as viewers, we are in a safe place. If we aren't sure of our safety, we will be less likely to enjoy the experience.

The Krakit Escape Room has similar boundaries. If we feel safe during the experience, then we can enjoy the act of being scared. We feel elated if we are able to solve the puzzle.

Some individuals find safety in numbers and have a far more enjoyable experience when attempting to escape in a large group.

And then there's some who don’t like to be scared at all. Luckily for this group, Krakit has a new theme that has close to zero chills.

Come try one of our four challenges this week. 

Let Your Fear Guide You

A fearful encounter becomes enjoyable when we can accurately gauge the risk of harm. Our bodies are genetically disposed to a fight-or-flight protection response when confronted with fear. When we increase our emotional encounters surrounding our fears, our brains ability to access actual danger improves. We still experience the emotion of being scared, but our mind lets us enjoy the experience rather than running from it.

The science behind enjoying a fearful experience begins and ends in the brain. Emotional experiences stimulate the amygdala, the part of the brain that processes emotional learning and memory. The amygdala increases the production of a protein known as Arc. This protein strengthens the synapses in the hippocampus that store long-term memories. With stronger connections, the brain is more prone to remember an emotional event rather than a neutral one. We use these memories to gauge risk.

Young children are more susceptible to unnecessary emotional responses when confronted with fear because their brain is unable to make the distinction between reality and fiction. Their brains have a limited number of experiences to pull from, so there bodies gauge the risk as high.

This is one of the major reasons why we don't recommend our escape rooms for anyone under the age of eight. We also suggest that an adult accompany guests between the ages of eight and thirteen.

Fearful encounters can also be used for treatment. When we increase our experiences with situations that we consider fearful, our bank of emotional memories increases. Our brain remembers that the experience ended without harm and our anxiety is reduced, reducing our fear. This form of treatment is termed cognitive therapy. It can be used to treat phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder for unnecessary anxiety.

Another benefit of fear is that it focuses our attention. In a flight-or-fight situation, our minds need to be on point. Fear reduces our concern with trivial thoughts and forces our brains to make quick and effective responses to threats.

With a time limit of 45 minutes, Vancouver's Escape Game uses fear to promote success. When we increase the fear factor, we create an atmosphere that demands speedy decision-making. Put the clues together, solve the puzzle and escape to freedom.

Harness your fears and you are guaranteed to enjoy the game.

Ignore Yoda's advice. Channel your fear.