Rating: ★★★★
Venue: Hackney Wick, London
DEATHCELL: MAGENTA is a 60-minute, immersive horror escape experience. It combines all the terrifying thrills of run-out-the-exit scare mazes with the adrenaline-pumping-rush of solving puzzles under pressure.
Uncover the truth behind the twisted-torture of DEATHCELL as you brave this origin story, playing through the past to piece together the future. We’ve hit rewind, are you ready to push play?
From R Space Productions, known for their immersive experience, comes this brand new theatrical escape room. Deathcell: Magenta is an origin story and with Deathcell yet to exist, the small group of participants at hand are experiencing how it came to be.
Before the escape room section begins, you're shown a short film projected in a dark, enclosed space. This playing beforehand was perfect at providing a back story and context to the escape room. Without spoiling too much, a woman is hired to create a survival game containing torturous traps for groups of participants - and your group is the first to try out the new game. It's the ideal blend of an escape room and live action experience.
You're led through multiple different rooms and given little direction as to what to do, but often given hints from Magenta herself if needed. The reason this isn't a five star review from me is simply because it was very difficult. If you're an escape room novice, you'll more than likely struggle with the puzzles and teasers at hand. While extremely well thought out, it's tough to navigate; particularly with a group of strangers. The puzzles often require you finding keys, numbers and codes to allow you to navigate freely between rooms. While you're left to your own devices once inside a room, Magenta and the flies are at hand at all times throughout.
And as a side note, you're offered glowsticks throughout the experience - be sure to pick them up as you'll need to make use of them. It can be incredibly dark in places and you may need them to help you find your way out...
With a lot of horror experiences similar to this one, there's the "don't touch them and they won't touch you" rule. This rule is completely shattered in Deathcell: Magenta. You might be crawled over, touched, and most importantly, you will be terrified, and you will get up close to the actors involved. You may even need to find a clue on one of them...
Steph Ricketts as Magenta is the standout in both the film and the experience. She's nothing short of exceptional, embodying the character of Magenta both on screen and onstage (so to speak). And a shoutout must go to Keith, one of the Warden's flies in our story. There's always a character that an intimate group like this one connects to, and Keith was definitely ours!
From crawling in tunnels, to donning boiler suits, you're set a variety of tasks as a group and must work together to escape this game of survival. It's adrenaline-inducing and exhilarating. There are sections that are more intense than others, but you're not given a moment to relax and that's always the most important aspect of a live horror experience for me. It's wickedly clever, so expect the unexpected and be prepared to be tested in every conceivable way. An incredible 60-minute thrill ride for any lover of horror and escape rooms.
No comments