Evil Dead 2 Escape Room (Review)

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

PLOT: Set in an alternate timeline where Ash, along with the entire Knowby cabin, gets sucked into the vortex at the end of part two. In present-day Seattle, the cabin has re-appeared; you and your friends must explore this time-skipping anomaly and save the damn day.

LOWDOWN: You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't love THE EVIL DEAD series. From its humble beginnings as a low-budget project with friends, to the fantastic sequel and mainstream (my personal favorite) third entry ARMY OF DARKNESS. I'm still holding out for a bit more closure to ASH VS EVIL DEAD, but life doesn't wrap itself into a neat bow, so I'll be content with what I've got until I hear otherwise.

It makes me smile to see what was a cult phenomenon grow into a franchise juggernaut as I've gotten older. Besides movies and a TV series, we've got video games, comics, a musical, and last year; we got an escape room.  Now you can imagine my excitement when asked to participate in an EVIL DEAD 2 online escape room (BOOK HERE). I'm not good at puzzles, and honestly, I can f*ck up a cup of coffee, but I'm wise enough never to turn down a good time.

The star of the show is the cabin, and Hourglass Escapes deserves a beer and a handshake for their attention to detail. This may be the closest to a near-perfect replica that I've seen, which is clearly a labor of love. The owner admitted to even having the floorboards going in the right direction while the shelf curtains in the kitchen are screen-accurate. I consider myself a hardcore fan, but even I wouldn't have noticed a different styled shelf curtain! The level of care for something so crucial to my horror obsessed childhood gives me hope in humanity.

Through the power of the all-consuming app Zoom (we're never going back to work in an office, btw), I, along with my wife and a friend, experienced this digital adventure through a gamemaster/ avatar who's your eyes and ears on the ground. It's here that the puzzles and their purpose come into focus. You tell your avatar what to do, where to look, and with a case of ghost-hunting tools fulfills your request. There is a lot to deal with as every time you hit a certain point; you're told to type a code into the link sent with the experience. These codes will bring up either pre-recorded videos or online documents for clues on how to progress in the cabin. Though detailed and well thought out, It is a bit much trying to balance all of this while focusing on the timed task at hand.

 You spend your time in the main cabin room, kitchen, and shed. By solving specific puzzles, you access these rooms with the primary goal of destroying the Necronomicon. As someone who gets frustrated quickly, I didn't feel like these puzzles were too tedious or unfairly tricky. Everything is EVIL DEAD 2 inspired, so you need to use items from the film to do complete tasks, and that helped me from tossing my laptop across the room (I'm trying meditation currently). It's designed for three to six players, and I recommend at least four because of the extra content. We had three people, and juggling the number of online documents (needed to be typed in live) with the virtual walkthrough got confusing at times, and I ended up sounding like Joe Pecci from Casino. I don't know if it was recorded, but for the record, I regret nothing.

I ended up having a lot of fun here, and though I didn't have enough people to play this as it was meant to be, It was a ray of light during these strange times. With the detailed packet, you get an intensive RPG-esq experience that put in the effort, and its passion shows. I'm not in love with the Zoom method and had some difficulty getting this going smoothly; It's not the fault of Hourglass Escapes as, during a Pandemic, this is a safe alternative to keep the experience going. I'm all for supporting a small business, and I'll always be down with supporting one in the horror community. I hope one day to try this out in person, but until then, this will do. Take my advice and have an excellent internet connection and at least four friends willing to delegate.

BOTTOM LINE: The whole experience is around seventy minutes, so I have tried to give you as little as possible. The cabin is chock-full full of easter eggs, and the story is built around everything in the second film. This isn't a cash grab, and it's clear that the owner/operator is not only an EVIL DEAD fan but also a lover of horror. The Zoom execution isn't great, but I can appreciate the smart way it was utilized. I'd say to do this right, you need to get a handful of your buddies, make their signature cocktail, light one up, and have a good time. We all need to de-stress, right? If you're interested in trying this out, you can book RIGHT HERE.