The serial killer theme is kind of common, but it’s one that lends itself to the greatest range of builds (in my opinion), so I left the preconceived notions behind and took the room at face value when I entered. The description of this room is short, but it says “the kind of thing that your mother has always worried about,” so it reminded me of my Mom always telling me to “be careful.”

So off to LA I went, not knowing I’d be in for a treat.

Sounds pretty typical, as I mentioned, for a serial killer-themed escape room. This is basically what is on the website. When you get into the room, you watch a video that sets up the more detailed premise of the room.

You’ve responded to an ad to record an intro to an escape room. Little do you know the person you replied to is a serial killer and you are subsequently kidnapped upon completion of reading your lines.

The video is deliberately grainy and looks poorly done, but fits perfectly with the premise, and is pretty creepy to boot.

One thing I’ll note is that I generally dislike having to rate rooms that have website descriptions and briefing videos that differ significantly, because I never know if I want to rate it lower because of this, even if the briefing is well done.

Rating: 9/10

I would have liked to see a little more to do and find in terms of previous victims or who the killer was. You never actually meet him other than in the video. I’m actually lying about that.

Rating: 8/10

I’ll put it to you this way: I had to, literally, open a can with a can opener. I will say no more on the subject.

It was actually finding these things and figuring out what to do with them that made the room fun. Everything wasn’t just brute-forcing locks (not that I regularly do that). I had to actually understand the puzzles I was reading and know what to do with the items that I found, including the one in the can. Leaps of logic, if you will.

As I progressed through the room, there were subtleties that you wouldn’t necessarily expect of a serial killer. Actually, as I say that, I’m realizing that you ABSOLUTELY would expect them from sociopath. Anyway, these subtleties made the second half of the experience more challenging than the first.

Rating: 8/10

I enjoyed the puzzles that involved some kind of physicality, like opening the can. That wasn’t the only thing of that type to do; I just don’t want to give any more of them away. (Basically anything that involved something other than brainpower.)

There was also plenty to find around the room. There was a lot of searching required, and considering I was by myself, it kept me occupied for the beginning of the room while I was getting things going.

One thing I would never have figured out without asking for a nudge was how to remove the door chain on the bedroom door. Just…yeah. (And no, it wasn’t as simple as reaching in the room and trying to pull the chain off, but yeah, go ahead and give that a shot yourself if you don’t believe me.)

I’d like to also point out that there is definitely one puzzle you can say is the hardest, and you’ll know it when you get to it because the answer is obvious while being totally not obvious.

I’d estimate the difficulty spread as a 1-8.

Rating: 10/10

For one person doing this room on their own, there’s quite a bit to do and it requires multiple ways of thinking. Thus, it did add a little bit of difficulty to the room for me. However, the payoff at the end, not to mention the cheap pops, is fantastic.

Puzzles do funnel down to one line of… puzzling… pretty quickly, but once you get the door to the bedroom unlocked, that’s really where the fun begins.

The apartment itself is decorated and built perfectly. It’s dark, dank, and fucking creepy. The fact that Rule Number 5 cannot be followed pissed me off at first, but was easily overcome after finding the hidden flashlight (not a spoiler).

Of all the serial killer rooms we have done, this is easily my favorite one.

Rating: 8.5/10

Rating: ? & ?