Haunted Escape Rooms: Top 5 Things Every Haunted House Must Have

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.

Under Pressure: Timed Escape Games and the Benefits of Stress

Out here on the West Coast of British Columbia, we like to think of ourselves as people who live a relaxed, go-with-the-flow lifestyle. But maybe sometimes we take things a little too easy.

As it turns out, a bit of stress can actually be a good thing. And in the controlled environment of a Vancouver escape game, it can be a fantastic thing.

There’s nothing to get those brain cogs turning like knowing a clock is quickly ticking down to your ultimate failure or success.

1. Healthy pressure makes us accomplish more

Although the phrase “I strive under pressure” sounds like something made up just to impress at job interviews, it’s actually true.

Quite simply, when we’re under the gun—like have 45 minutes on the clock and a mad doctor waiting to lobotomize us—we’re more likely to really, really, really try to accomplish the task at hand. In the case of escape games, pressure pushes us to make our way through all the puzzles and unlock the last lock that leads to freedom.

2. Low-level stress makes our brains work better

No, really. When you’re stressed (but not too stressed), your brain will pump out more chemicals called neurotrophins. These work to strengthen the connections between neurons in your brain, meaning you will start to sort out all of those escape game puzzles a lot faster.

Basically, what this means is that the time limit we place on you at Krait Vancouver Escape Game only really helps you to win. So, you’re welcome.

3. Dealing with pressure makes you more resilient

The more you put yourself in situations that are a little stressful, the better you will be able to cope with the next one.

So instead of that super calm, uber relaxing yoga retreat deep in the forest, perhaps the best way to deal with real-world pressure is to exercise your stress reflexes within the controlled (and fun!) stress of an escape game. Maybe even a weekly regimen is in order!

See how well you do under the gun at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game in our brand new Wonderland Room. Book here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

Escape Game History: The Art and Science of Cryptography

When you play escape rooms, there’s a good chance you’ll encounter a cryptography-based puzzle. Cryptography is the art of writing and solving codes—so you can see why it’s a favourite tool for the creators of escape games.

Although people have been writing codes to protect their secrets for literally thousands of years, cryptography as a science has only been around for about a century. That’s because it really took off during the World Wars. With a vast network of telephones and telegraphs and even carrier pigeons encircling the world, code writing suddenly took on global proportions during the Wars.

But we’re jumping ahead.

The first known use of a code goes way back, right to the ancient Egyptians and the tomb of the nobleman Khnumhotep II. Written around 1900 BCE in hieroglyphs (which proved to be their own code for Egyptologists to crack!), this burial script features symbols that don’t appear anywhere else in the language—intentionally obscuring the message.

The first use of encryption to deliver messages, however, is attributed to a man famous for many things: Caesar. The army general used a simple substitution cipher to send encrypted messages to his top men at the front. Known as the Casear cipher, this code shifts the letters of the alphabet over three, so “A” is written as “D” and “B” as “E” and so on.

It’s not the toughest code to crack, is it? That’s why, when electricity started making automated codes easier, there arose intensely complicated ciphers, such as the famous Enigma code of WWII. Any cipher becomes a race between the codemaker and the codebreaker, and in the case of war, crypotography plays a life and death role.

Information sent through wires continues to be encrypted (including the messages you send from your computer), making cryptography a daily part of our modern lives—and not just when we’re playing an escape room.

However, remember that escape games don’t take a degree in cryptography to crack. Any single puzzle definitely isn’t meant to take up all of your time, so if it’s starting to do that, you’re probably overthinking it. More than likely, the puzzle is of the Caesar variety rather than the Enigma.

Try your hand at the codebreaking at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game by booking a spot here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

3 Reasons Lewis Carroll Would’ve Loved Escape Games

Lewis Carroll, self-portrait, c. 1856

While he was born into the world as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, history—and generations upon generations of children—knows him best as Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was released into the world in 1865, followed six years later by the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.

And ever since then, Wonderland and its cast of characters have been a part of our world.

This includes us at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game: we’ve found inspiration in the fascinating world Carroll created for our latest escape room: the Wonderland Room.

Not only does Alice’s journey down the rabbit hole and her bid for escape make a great escape room theme, but we have a sneaking suspicion Carroll would’ve been a master of escape himself, if he had lived to take part in the escape phenomenon.

1. He was a polymath

Though he’s best known for his two books about Alice and her Wonderland, Carroll was also a mathematician, a logician, a photographer, and a deacon. Phew! With a wide knowledge base like that, Carroll would have a good chance at answering any trivia question thrown at him.

2. He loved riddles

To make your way out of an escape room in the allotted time—at Krakit, you have 45 minutes—you’re going to encounter a riddle or two or three. Wonderland is positively riddled with riddles, and, as it turns out, Carroll is responsible for one of the most famous head scratchers around: “Why a raven is like a writing desk?”

3. He had serious imagination

The most important ingredient of an escape game whiz? Great imagination. While logic and linear thinking are great assets in an escape room, the ability to get creative and think way outside the box is what will inevitably get you the win.http://www.krakit.ca/

Fall down the rabbit hole and into our Wonderland Vancouver escape room by booking a spot for you and your pals here. (Costumes optional!)