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.

Escape Games: Corporate Team-Building with Flair

In today’s workforce, creating a strong and inviting team environment can be not only what makes your employees work better, but what might make them stick around for the long haul. According to Forbes, 88% of millennials prefer a collaborative work culture to a competitive one and definitely don’t want to be an anonymous cog in a faceless machine.

Luckily, escape games can help with that. No, really!

Escape games are only becoming more and more popular, especially among the millennial generation, precisely because of the reasons that also make escape rooms great team-building exercises.

1. Escape games force communication

It’s the rare person who can get through an escape room on their own, so putting your team into an escape game situation means they have no choice but to work collaboratively and—gasp—even speak to each other in person, rather than over email.

2. An escape game will put your team under stress—without any real consequences

Want to see how your employees work when they’re under the gun? Krakit Vancouver Escape Game’s ticking 45-minute clock will definitely give you insight into how your team behaves and works together when the pressure is on.

3. Scary escape room themes put everyone in a giggly mood

Though the 45-minute escape room countdown can put people on high alert, the scary themes of some escape rooms (including three of Krakit’s own) give people just the right dose of adrenaline to put them in a silly and playful mood. Bottom line: at the end of a creepy escape room, everyone is in a good mood—just what you want for a good team-building session.

4. Cracking clues—or the entire escape room—together builds camaraderie

Nothing builds feelings of trust and goodwill like making it through a zombie apocalypse or busting out of an insane asylum together. Solving any clue in an escape room comes with a sense of accomplishment, but if your team manages to solve the entire room—which isn’t easy—then the sky’s the limit for more corporate-minded collaborations.

5. Escape rooms are actually fun, and no awkward trust falls necessary

Corporate team-building events can have employees groaning, but escape rooms are bonafide fun. Most people want to try one if they haven’t already, so team-building at an escape room is sure to be a win in the eyes of even the most unconvinced of employees.

Looking to do some team-building in Vancouver? Why not book some time in Krakit’s four themed escape rooms, located right next to Lougheed Skytrain station. Visit our website or give us a call at (604) 484-6552 for more information.

When it is a Board Game Kind of Night.

Photo GinnyRobot. (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Unfortunately, you may not be able to come to play with us at Krakit Escape Game, every single night, but we have come to know one thing about you (beyond the shadow of a doubt): you enjoy playing games with your friends. Here are the most bomb board games for you and your friends for raucous nights in:

Cards Against Humanity.

This game tops my list of funnest, and funniest, games to play with close friends; for a second or third date (we recommend a Vancouver Escape Game room for an impressive first date); or, as an icebreaker with new neighbours, friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Beware! This game is R-rated, capitalizing on raunchy humour and tasteless jokes. Worst person wins!

Monopoly.

An oldie, but a goodie. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past century, you have played at least one game of Monopoly in your life. Collect cash, set up a neighbourhood, and charge your friends exorbitant rental fees. Fun fact: monopoly was created in the United States in 1902 and sold to Parker Brothers during The Great Depression.

Settlers of Catan.

I have had it on my agenda to ‘settle’ down and play this game; I’ve heard only praises of its worthiness in the gauntlet of friendly competition. Here’s what the Financial Times had to say about Settlers: “Settlers has its own elegant economy, in which the supply and demand for five different commodities are determined by tactics, luck and the stage of the game.”

Come have a killer time with us at 4035 North Road in Burnaby! It’s a treat for a night out. And, remember, the first Monday of every month is Singles Night! Between 7:00-8:30 singles will be grouped together to play. Oo-lala…

Oak Island: A Good Old Canadian Treasure Hunt

Richard McCully, McCully Nova Scotia Archives, 2012-010/004

Sure, Canada may be known internationally as sort of a boring place—some people think not a lot goes on here beyond snowstorms and the occasional bear in a swimming pool. But did you know there’s a centuries-old Canadian mystery involving buried treasure, which is still yet to be solved?

We’re sure most people, like us here at Krakit Vancouver Escape Room, would agree that a mysterious treasure hunt is pretty exciting.

Back in the day, a small island just off the coast of Nova Scotia—Oak Island, to be exact—was a favourite stopover for pirates, including the famous Captain Kidd. On this island is something known as the “Money Pit,” first discovered by 18-year-old Daniel McGinnis in 1795. After gathering some friends to help him, McGinnis began to dig down into the strange-looking pit, discovering layers of flagstones and log platforms every 10 feet.

They also found a stone inscribed in a secret code. The most commonly held solution of this code reads: “Forty feet below two million pounds are buried.”

An island, pirates, a money pit, and a code telling of buried treasure? Yes, please.

Unsurprisingly, this discovery caught the attention of more than just McGinnis and his friends. Since their eighteenth-century excavation—during which they did not find the two million pounds—several attempts have been made to dig down deep enough to find the treasure.

However, as several unlucky treasure seekers have found out, the Money Pit is booby trapped, with channels of water directed into the pit, which flood the dig in order to keep out raiders. At least six people have been killed during attempts to excavate the Money Pit.

Today, Oak Island is privately owned, but thanks to the Oak Island Treasure Act of 2011 (yes, that’s a real legal act), treasure hunters are still allowed to access the island in pursuit of solving the mystery. If you want to give it a go, you’ll just need to apply for a treasure hunting licence from the Minister of Natural Resources.

But, beware, for many have failed before you.

If you’re the type who looks for much safer—but equally mysterious—excitement, book a round in one of Krakit’s Vancouver escape rooms here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

Dynamic Duos: Escape Games and the Power of Two

The first Vancouver escape games opened in late 2013, which means Vancouverites have had more than two years to fashion themselves into escape room superstars. If you’re one of these escape game connoisseurs, have you ever thought about how to give yourself a greater challenge? What about scaling down your team? Think you could pull off the solve with just two people?

Generally speaking, the more people you have playing an escape room, the more brainpower you’ve got to help decipher all the clues. But sometimes, less is more. After all, there are plenty of mystery-solving duos who pull it off all the time.

Below we look at some of the greatest mystery-solving duos out there, and examine what it is that makes them such a great team. 

1. Sherlock and Watson

Where we would we start but with the greatest mystery-solving duo in history. While Sherlock is undeniably the brains of the operation, Watson is there to keep Sherlock on course, triggering new trains of thought and most importantly keeping Sherlock tied to the wider human world.

2. Mulder and Scully

A close second for most revered mystery duo out there is The X-Files’ Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who rock a believer vs. skeptic dynamic. Scully sticks firmly to what science can tell her, while Mulder is more willing to go off into bizarro land. Between the two of them, they always find the answers.

3. Rust and Marty

With the two protagonists of the first season of True Detective, here again we find the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Rust’s edgy, left-of-center character is complemented by Marty’s easygoing, steadfast personality, creating a powerful mixture of abstract and concrete thinking.

4. Rosemary and Thyme

The dynamic between the “gardening detectives” of Rosemary & Thyme is completely different from those previous listed. These two are more like peas in a pod than yin and yang, knowing how to play off one other to foil others’ expectations of their capabilities and to misdirect attention. All the while, they’ll calmly piece together all the clues to solve the crime at hand.

5. Jamie and Adam

Here we have a real example of a dynamic mystery solving duo: MythBusters’ Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage. The two trained special effects artists use critical thinking to try, try, try again, until they find the answers to the (literally) burning questions at hand, in their effort to prove or dispel myths of science and the natural world.

Feeling confident? Book one of our Vancouver escape rooms for you and just one friend here: http://bookeo.com/krakit/.