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Apartment 213 Interview – First-Look at a New Extreme Horror Experience

In the promotional materials that have been making their way through the horror and haunt community over the last few weeks, Apartment 213 describes itself unequivocally as “an extreme horror experience”. Naturally, a designation like this doesn’t come without a hefty amount of baggage, conjuring up associations (and inherent competition) both with heavy hitters like Blackout and Heretic, as well as successful new up-and-comers like Fear Games and Santu Deliria. The act of appointing oneself a member of this formidable group is not only a bold one, but also one that is likely to garner your event a reputation that is bound to precede it. Apartment 213 Interview. 

 

Yet curiously, when I entered Apartment 213 last Saturday at their ScareLA mini experience, I wasn’t met with anything that one typically associates with the “extreme haunt”. I received no plastic wrap tightened over my face, no electric shock, and no needles under my fingernails. I wasn’t subject to any torn clothing, bruises, contusions, ligature burns, or any of the other thousand natural shocks that the flesh of the extreme haunt goer is heir to. Instead, what I was met with were things like miraculously immersive set design, genuinely affecting performances, and a pervasive sense of the extreme effort and care that seemed to be put into making even this small free sample a compelling theatrical experience.

 

If there was a subgenre to describe what I witnessed inside Apartment 213, “domestic grotesquerie” might be a good name for it. As soon as one steps through the doorway, they have somehow managed to leave ScareLA behind in favor of a dingy apartment unit that positively oozes unpleasant vibes (perhaps even literally oozing them, as from a broken piece of plumbing). It should be noted that while this level of immersion is already no easy feat, it is perhaps doubly impressive when one considers the limited and/or non-existent soundproofing available to the show’s cast and crew inside that extremely busy and active section of the convention. And while the chaos and extreme tension of Apartment 213 admittedly made it difficult to glean any concrete plot or character details in this particular version of the haunt, the emotional tones that the experience aims to create are not only crystal clear, but cut like a knife.

Not knowing how much of the ScareLA experience will be remounted or reappropriated at a future date, I will not reveal too much of what happened inside apartment 213. A few particularly potent images and experiences that come to mind however include the opening view of a dead-eyed young woman transfixed to a television showing only static, the gut-wrenching reveal of perhaps the most physically intimidating patriarch I’ve ever came across, and the sensation of a soft bed sinking under me as a blade was held to my throat. However, what stood out to me more than any individual moment or image was simply how plainly theatrical the whole experience was overall, eschewing traditional scares in favor of emotional brutality and creating an experience that was less like being in a haunted house and more like being stuck in a dark and torturous kitchen sink drama as penned by Sarah Kane.

 

It is a rare but pleasant experience to be as impressed by something in such a short amount of time as I was by the 3-4 minutes it took me to experience the ScareLA sample of Apartment 213. It was a refreshing, emotionally-driven, and sophisticatedly-designed take on the haunt genre that far exceeded my expectations. And while I have very little doubt that the full-length show premiering this haunt season will ratchet up the physical intensity and earn the “extreme” title that we’ve seen employed in the marketing, I am of the utmost confidence that all extremity will be employed in service of a fantastic theatrical experience first and foremost, rather than as a gimmick or badge of honor for participants to simply “survive”. It is perhaps still too early to make proclamations as bold as this, but based purely on what I saw in a few short minutes at ScareLA, I would put money down now on the bet that this haunt season,  Apartment 213 will be finding a well-deserved place to sit at the “extreme horror” table, just as advertised.

 

 

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Apartment 213 will be doing a second, new experience for fans of extreme and non-extreme haunts on September 1st and 2nd. For those who don’t want a full-contact experience, Guest tickets will be $20 dollars; those who want a full contact experience can purchase an Extreme Guest ticket for $30. Keep an eye on their website this Friday, August 18th for tickets going on sale or join our slack forum and we’ll alert you.

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About The Author

Max Zumstein
Max Zumstein received his M.A. in English from Cal State Northridge in 2017. When he isn’t writing, he’s teaching English at some college or another. Having only lived in Los Angeles since 2015, he first stumbled into the world of immersive theater and haunts by visiting Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre on Halloween night. Things have been all downhill ever since.

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