A low and ominous rumbling is coming from the walls around us. Something isn’t right, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Our car is covered by camouflage netting and we’re blocked in on all sides. Suddenly we hear some crackling on the radio and the loud voice of mission control: You idiot! You led them into a trash compactor. An industrial siren is blaring over the grinding noise of the walls. As our team members struggle to cut the power, we realize that this isn’t going to be an ordinary mission, and this is only the beginning. Hallowheels Las Vegas’ Trapped is a Drive Thru Experience in Las Vegas, NV.

The Trapped Experience

Hallowheels Las Vegas’s Trapped is a drive-through sci-fi/horror experience in Las Vegas.  During the 15-minute experience, you will take on the role of scrappers attempting to gather resources in a post-apocalyptic world.  Your mission control team will attempt to guide and protect you, but this is only narrative backdrop and there really isn’t any agency or engagement here.  The setting is high-tech and industrial, and the mechanics make this far more private than most drive-through haunts.  Filled with fun film references, this one is more sci-fi and campy than truly scary.  Fans of Bethesda’s Fallout or the Mad Max series will immediately pick-up on the inspiration here – Hallowheels Las Vegas’ Trapped is a fun homage to sci-fi horror crossovers that showcases some unique technological capabilities.  This is an approachable Halloween event for a family or group of friends.

Two scrappers, Bob and Smoss, serve as your pre-recorded guides over the an in-car radio station and the main characters in the experience.  Bob’s acting especially is physical and engaging. Unfortunately, your seats for the experience may limit your ability to see the live actors. With only two cars in the space, the show feels very intimate.  The high-tech use of lights and lasers sets this apart from other drive throughs, and this is a fun and worthwhile experience for those looking for something different.

Your Backstory

The pre-show audio describes a barren post-apocalyptic land full of only chaos and death. As scavenger volunteers from Clan Road, your scanning team is sent out into the violent wasteland at drop location alpha in search of life-preserving items, hoping to go undetected by Hekuri enemies who will attempt to convert you to their post-apocalyptic religious sect if you’re caught by them. Once you reach the mission location, you are able to communicate with your advance party who help you tune your radio to the right frequency to communicate with mission control.

Once you reach the A-team drop location, Bob and Smoss leave to check out a strange noise up ahead.  You’re left on your own, and things quickly go south. An ominous alarm indicates that you’ve been abandoned right in the middle of a trash compactor, and this is only the beginning. Each attempt to correct the situation seems  to only make things worse. From nuke bugs to Hekuri soldiers to toxic gas to supernatural enemies, your car will go through it all. Over the course of the show, the team faces a series of mishaps as they await the return of Bob and Smoss. But will Bob be a match for the supernatural forces at work? And will Smoss get to you in time? Prepare yourself for a sci fi shootout ending that is really freaking cool.  In the words of Smoss himself, “We’re here to kick ass and chew bubblegum…and we’re all out of bubblegum” (A They Live line quoted in both Fallout and Ghost Busters spin offs).

Immersion

According to the Hallowheels Las Vegas’ Trapped team, the experience is immersive because you are a player in the story, given context and backstory to your role.  While this is technically true, the show is not interactive at all, and this can be misleading to those who often associate the two. For example, at the start you are instructed to pick the slowest member of your scavenging team, but this choice never matters and is never even referenced. Don’t expect any agency or any conversations with characters, but it can be fun to get into your role while waiting in line and listening to the pre-show audio tracks and atmospheric music. The characters talking over the radio during your orientation are the same ones you meet on your journey. This continuity helps the experience feel logical and cohesive.

The sense of immersion could be increased by using some practical effects (the walls rattling during the trash compactor scene for example) or including some of the “to be scavenged” items from the orientation in the set itself, rather than relying heavily on exposition delivered by radio. One fun immersive element is that the safety warnings at the beginning of the experience are given in character (the scanning equipment won’t work unless your car is turned off, for example), so the attention to detail and immersive cohesiveness is certainly there.

Effects and Organization

In terms of organization, Trapped solved some of the problems encountered at, for example, Urban Legends, by funneling only two cars each into five or six separated lanes. The lanes isolate (or “trap”) the cars, making the experience feel more intimate, isolated, and enclosed for the duration of the 15-minute show. The sound effects were also well executed and apocalyptic, from metal grating to scanning noises, to industrial alarms. Like many haunts such as Horrorwood Video, Haunted Hayride, and The Bite, they used FM radio to blast their sound effects directly into your vehicle. The use of two separate audio channels meant that you could hear the setup audio with both instructions and backstory while waiting in line, and then hear the unspoiled show audio once you entered the experience.

The projections are the absolute highlight of this experience. By putting a net over your car and filling the area with fog, the projections shine through clearly as if they’re right on your car window. Neon three-dimensional bugs crawl across your windows as ghosts press-up against your car in a delightfully unsettling way, and we didn’t see this particular effect at any of the other haunts we attended. The diversity of projections really brings the show to life; for example, the start sees your car “scanned” with symbols appearing on the netting just outside your window. Lighting and laser effects against the massive amount of fog makes the experience visually stunning.

For a fun touch, the actors were on roller blades, explaining the name Hallowheels Las Vegas. Add some lasers directed at your car, sound and lighting effects, and a whole lot of smoke (they make sure you keep your windows up) and the result is a fun sci-fi experience.

Acting

Bob was by far the most hilarious and likeable character, which gave some emotional stake to his possession arc. He is a comedy of errors as he fights to defend our vehicle, breaking the generator in the process (and leaving us vulnerable to new threats like nuclear bugs). His fight scene is incredibly physical, including a massive laser gun for some all -out apocalyptic madness as he destroys everything around him.  “Remember, don’t cross the streams” he quips as he fights what appears to be a massive alien dragon.

Areas for Improvement

The story line is a lot of fun and full of great references, but it’s a bit odd or messy at times, and a catastrophic situation seems to resolve and de-escalate pretty quickly, making the end a bit jarring. There is a campy horror element here, as one catastrophe leads to another in rapid succession, as if attempting to forcibly fit in every monster/scene/projection they could think of.

The projections were also not optimized for the car windows, so depending on where you’re seated in the car you may miss a lot of the action. Sit in the back to facilitate a better view, but know that you still may miss live acting on the other side of the car. Also, reliance on projections means that you get very few actor-facilitated scares or practical effects. Those who take offense at CGI in their horror movies may not find this experience to their taste. The projections from are visually interesting and well distributed, but not particularly frightening. Haunts like Majestic Repertory Theater’s Horrorwood Video, Fear Farm Phelan, Haunted Hayride, and The Bite have all used live actors for their scares, with Horrorwood Video going as far as having them touch your car windows to deliver a few extra jumps.

With only two actors per show area (on the lower end of haunts we’ve attended and a few more would have gone a long way), participants must rely on the audio tracks to get the story. One side of our car got most of the action from the actors, leaving the other side feeling like they’d missed out. Being the front car, we were unable to see any action taking place behind us, which exacerbated the problem.

Final Thoughts

Hallowheels Las Vegas’ Trapped is a creative take on the post-apocalyptic sci-fi genre; one that the immersive realm rarely touches.  With attention to detail, well executed projections, and immersive pre-show content, the experience really tries to deliver a holistic experience from the safety of your car.  Accessible for family and friends, this versatile show is more likely to inspire awe than fear, as physical acting on roller-skates blends with laser guns and industrial sound effects. With dialogue playing homage to everything from Ghostbusters to They Live, longtime fans of sci-fi and the supernatural will find a lot to smile about.  With the right expectations set, this one is worth a trip if you’re looking for a visually impressive show with low interactivity. We just hope mission control got the items they needed.

For more information on Hallowheels Las Vegas, check out their website, Facebook, Instagram or Yelp pages.

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Hallowheels Las Vegas brought a drive thru scifi experience to Las Vegas. If you’re looking for a beautiful show with projections, Hallowheels Las Vegas Trapped is that, but sadly it misses out on engagement. We recomment that Hallowheels Las Vegas up their engagement and actors in future runs.