Creep (Event #6)
After having done Delusion and Tension, I was feeling pretty good about doing Creep. The idea was that there was an artist, Erebus Burwyck, who contacted “The Darkness” through his work. During one specific art show, he got in contact with The Darkness, with horrible results. Years later, the recording of the tragic art show was found, and his followers aim to reenact the night with us, the participants. With an idea as open and vague as The Darkness, I was excited because they could really go anywhere with it and have some very intense and strange imagery.
Waiting outside for our turn, a children’s chorus sang Radiohead’s “Creep” over the stereo and you could hear banging on the walls. We were let in in groups of 8, signed the usual waiver for an event like this and told the rules. We walked through a dark maze with few jump-scares, and into the lobby/waiting area. There was a bar set up, seating and select pieces of Burwyck’s work. There was also a photo booth and several actors interacting with the guests. The actors gave me the impression of deranged art students consumed with Burwyck’s career. Our group of 8 was led outside, given the rules again and had to line up against the wall holding hands. Then we entered the attraction.
The first scene was pretty great and set up the idea of a ritual/celebration nicely. The recording was especially spooky. After that, unfortunately, I was mostly confused. The first three or four rooms seemed to be connected somehow, but I’m really not sure what the point was. They seemed weird for the sake of being weird as opposed to having a through line, and they didn’t appear to have much to do with art or the concept of The Darkness they mentioned. Occasionally, a group member would be taken and appear further along in a different room, but we pretty much stayed together in our 8. There were strobe lights in a good amount of the attraction, which helped the sense of disorientation, but I didn’t feel like the individual rooms were strong enough. The actors all stayed in character and did well with making the guests uncomfortable, mostly invading our personal space. The production value was really good for the first half, but lacked once (I guess?) we got to The Darkness itself (???). The ending bit was just black with strobe lights and actors.
My favorite part (spoilers if you plan to go) was after a room that was (supposed to be?) seductive, my friend and I were guided to a hole in the wall that we had to crawl into. Once we were in, we felt legs in the blackness and were confused. Turned out, it was another guest of the attraction who had been in there for 5 minutes or so, he said. Huddled in the cramped darkness, we talked to the guy, making friends and sharing our experiences thus far. The door to the other side finally opened and we had to crawl through another hole to get out. Once our new friend crawled through the hole, we never saw him again (!!!!). Overall, I think that they could’ve really milked the concept of The Darkness for better rooms/scares, ones that didn’t drag as much as I felt they did. But I also think that this is a pretty good intro to interactive haunts, as it wasn’t too scary but gives you a sense of what to expect in other interactive attractions.
