The door is locked tight—protecting us from whoever, or whatever is outside. But there’s missing rangers out there—and now a missing search party—I need to find them. As I slide the last key into the padlock and it turns, the door inches open. Cold air rushes in, the smell of evergreens and pine follows closely after. The forest is dark at night, illuminated only by a pale moon. I begin my search, calling out the names of the missing rangers. It only takes a few minutes until we came across a camp site, maybe their camp site. A tent is zipped tight and there’s the remnants of a fire along since extinguished. I call out again but get no response. So instead, I start to unzip the tent—until I hear a noise emanating from within. Egan Escape Productions returns with Escape Blair Witch, an immersive horror escape room based on The Blair Witch Project.

Escape Blair Witch is the second escape room in the Las Vegas by Egan Escape Productions, following the success of their Official Saw Escape Room. While the Saw escape room is incredible, with movie studio quality sets and production value, Escape Blair Witch elevates the puzzles, the set design, and the flow to create one of the best escape rooms ever made. With ten rooms—yes, ten complete rooms, all decorated to perfection and including puzzles to solve—this experience relies on story and narrative to progress, ensuring that all puzzles are diegetic and needed to solve the curse of the Blair Witch.

As the title suggests, Escape Blair Witch is themed around the 1999 movie The Blair Witch Project, a found footage film of three film students who’ve traveled to the Black Hills woods in Burkittsville, Maryland to shoot a documentary about a local legend, name the Blair Witch. Yet, Escape Blair Witch casts you as a search party sent into forest to search for local campers who’ve gone missing. Yet, as the experience continues, you learn that it’s far more than just campers who’ve disappeared—and when you come across an aged, rotted manor in the middle of the woods, well, you might find yourself investigating the same local legend as the film.

Escape Blair Witch is far more focused on telling a compelling narrative than its predecessor—and most escape rooms for that matter. We recommend you go in blind (if so, bookmark this review and return to it afterwards), but if you want some hints as to what to expect, keep reading. The experience can be divided into three main areas, each with numerous spaces or rooms to explore. The first is the Ranger’s Station, in which the lore is expanded, creating a powerful sense of dread for what’s to come. The second is the woods, in which the dense trees and low light provide the perfect home to many of the scares and horrors. But it’s the Blair Witch’s home, nestled deep into the forest, that provides the palpable fear, strong scares, tight spaces, and amazing special effects—as well as a conclusion to the narrative.

As the story is the focus, Escape Blair Witch wants you to make your way through its experience. Thus, they have implemented a system in which there is no time limit for the experience—though most guests escape between an hour and an hour twenty. While The Official Saw Escape Room had a system where each room had it’s own individual timer, Escape Blair Witch does away with the timers for most of its experience, allowing guests to solve the puzzles, enjoy the story, and get scared. Immersion is key; and the Ranger’s Station does have a countdown to ensure throughput is optimized, the remainder of the experience is fully immersive. If I was to compare it to anything, I’d say this is the immersive stylings of Delusion with a stronger focus on puzzles.

Those who’ve done The Official Saw Escape Room know that Egan Escape Productions has sets that feel straight out of the movie. While not in the original film, the ranger’s station has a quaint, small-town feel that is both eerie and eccentric. Model trains move through the space, watched by the numerous taxidermized heads adorning each wall. Evidence cabinets have small nods and Easter Eggs for the franchise, and as mentioned, everything feels in universe, as if this was a real Maryland ranger’s station. Yet, it’s in the woods that the sets are truly impressive. Creating a space in which you feel that you are outside, in a forest, is an impressive feat—which they manage to accomplish. They even flew out wood from the actual Maryland location to add to the authenticity of the forest—and the house within in it. I won’t spoil what’s inside, but the lair of the Blair Witch is the highlight of the experience, offering some of the best surprises, scares, and immersion I’ve ever experienced in an escape room.

Some of the aforementioned scares arise from the excellent sound design in the rooms. Normally, I’d mention this along side of the sets, but the design here deserves its own paragraph. The ding of a model train as it passes by the station is echoed over the speakers, filling the room with the noise of a real-life train. The horn of a ranger’s truck lost to the forest startles the group. The thundering clap of lightning above rattles the bare bones of the old house. The screech of a witch reverberates against the bark of the trees, warning of the dangers later on. There’s also music too—mostly in the ranger’s station as well as prior to the experience. They fit the eeriness perfectly, adding a soundtrack that may start out as comforting, but only grow in intensity as the night progresses. The sound effects and music are loud here—and it’s by design. It becomes an oppressive force that urges you forward, to escape the heaviness lingering in the air.

Much like Bailey in the Saw Escape Room—or any of the guides in Delusion—you may meet a few others along your adventure into the Black Hills. These guides, from a logistics standpoint, are meant to help you along, an active hints system as there is no time limit to the experience. But from a narrative standpoint, they act as a litmus test for the audience—if the actor is scared, then it only intensifies the fear the audience feels. Notably, Jamie was a highlight for us, providing a character for us to help, to protect, and to guide us forward in our journey. Our only slight criticism comes in the fact that Jamie may be a little too eager to help urge us forward, we’d suggest allowing us to struggle a bit more and feel the reward of solving a difficult puzzle or finding a hidden door, if we are already doing fine on time.

Finally, the special effects are what further contribute to the Delusion comparisons, making this incredibly memorable and oftentimes, frightening. Powering up a gas-powered generator emits smoke as its mechanical gears come to life—but when this fog continues to fill the space as you work on the puzzles, this can add to a sense of claustrophobia and panic if you don’t solve them in time. Lights and fog can often be seen coming from behind doors and inaccessible areas, only adding to dread when you know you’ll have to explore them later. But none of this compares to the finale, which we won’t spoil. Just be prepared and remember what you were warned of during orientation.

It’s odd to see the comments on the puzzles come so late in a review about an escape room—but the focus here isn’t so much on the puzzles, but rather the narrative through line. That isn’t to say that the puzzles aren’t challenging—because they are, and slightly harder than the Saw themed room. Most puzzles fit the universe; the ranger’s station has padlocks and number codes because they have locked up evidence and areas to keep people like you away from them. But once you get into the forest and the witch’s lair, you will only see one or two locks, because instead, they are focused on ritual and magic, like fitting runes into symbols and completing spells. There’s a few things here that I’ve never seen in an escape room before—so if you’re just a puzzle fan looking for a challenge, this will scratch that itch.

Ultimately Escape Blair Witch is a fully immersive escape room that may ruin other escape rooms for you. This is more an immersive experience with puzzles interwoven, much like Delusion, focusing on strong storytelling, cinematic sets, movie-style special effects, and great sound effects. And on top of all that, it’s actually scary providing some of my favorite frights this Halloween season. This is a must-do for your Vegas trip, just make sure you don’t get lost in the woods. I don’t think the next group will be too keen on having to find you and the missing rangers.

For more information about Escape Blair Witch, check out their website, Facebook and Instagram pages. For information about similar events, check out our Event Calendar.

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Escape Blair Witch is an immersive horror escape room from the creators of the Official Saw Escape Room.