A cartoon spider hangs from an invisible ceiling, twirling in an endless circle. Crumpled scraps of paper line the floor of what looks to be a home library. We click on a book on demonology, revealing a passage written in Latin, but our attention is diverted. “It’s the spider, click the spider.” Our appointed Point-and-Clicker clicks out of the book and onto the spider, but nothing happens. “Pick up the pen, and poke the spider.” We try, but nothing happens either. We change our approach and click on what looks to be a crude iPod, and a heavy metal rendition of “Ring Around the Rosie” plays; well, a gruff singer sans band plays. Our entire group laughs aloud at the ridiculousness of the song, and we continue our search with smiles on our faces. son of sam

Laughs Over Screams

Son of Sam is a new remote escape room from Terror DTLA and Dionysus Productions. Reminiscent of point-and-click games that preceded modern escape rooms, this experience provides sixty-minutes of campy, ridiculous entertainment mixed in with simple puzzles, an illogical narrative, and some hard-to-hear pre-recorded acting. To differentiate itself from other remote escape rooms, Son of Sam offers participants a chance to partake in various immersive challenges throughout in which one or more participants must do something loosely related to the narrative to progress. Don’t expect a frightening time here; even for teenagers, the experience feels more silly than scary, leaning on camp with some jump-scares achieved through loud noises.

Further differentiating itself from other remote experiences, Son of Sam has no live actors, no guide, and no game master. Feeling more like a quick Alternate Reality Game (ARG) than a true escape room, participants can traverse the experience at their own pace and moderate their own game. There are also no clues or clue systems, but they aren’t needed – all puzzles are very simple and straightforward, relying on just clicking around the room and looking for the only number or button to progress. This game can easily be completed alone, but we recommend, if you are going to try it, to do it in a group of friends with drinks in hand. Expect laughter over screams.

Gameplay Structure

The game is divided into four chapters, each composed of pre-recorded videos of live actors, a room to explore via point-and-click, a simple puzzle to solve, and ending with an immersive challenge for your group to partake in. This structure works well, with the videos providing just enough narrative to motivate the puzzles and acting as a reward for solving them. Yet, each of the four chapters feel disconnected from each other, drifting in tone as the experience progresses. Moving from a stalker to a serial killer, to a demon from Hell, each new chapter introduces new characters and new locations.

Ultimately, this shifting focus in each chapter proves to be more harmful than beneficial. Just as players begin to connect with the young woman being stalked in her apartment, Chapter 2 begins and they are introduced to a detective and never see the girl again. As players progress to Chapter 3, the detective disappears and is replaced by a new character. This eliminates any potential for participants to connect with the characters. I think other escape rooms like Logic Locks’ Amsterdam Catacombs had it right when they picked a single character to lead participants through the experience, providing a stronger emotional bond by the end. I would have preferred having the detective be our partner as we investigate the Son of Sam case; the narrative payoff would have been stronger.

Night Traps

The narrative pays only a slight homage to the titular Son of Sam murders carried out by David Richard Berkowitz in 1977, and abruptly transitions into the supernatural. This is not meant to be a retelling of these murders or even a frightening exploration of the darkest aspects of mankind; instead, Son of Sam is much more aligned with horror movies of the ‘80s tonally, with ridiculous logic, and begs audiences to laugh with it. While it’s unclear if the ultimate goal of Terror DTLA was to create a hilarious experience for a group of friends to enjoy a drink and share some laughs over, they succeeded at capturing that tone regardless. This is far more of a Night Trap or Evil Dead than a Mindhunter.

In line with the campy and ridiculous tone, the game is not bound to normal logic and reason; however, this lack of grounding also tends to break immersion often. Numerous times throughout the experience, our group found itself laughing out loud as we exclaimed “What?” in unison. There are so many moments that come across as odd, silly, or just unexpected. For example, the narrative begins with your group FaceTiming a friend. At the end of the FaceTime call, you are placed in her apartment, only to hack into her security system and explore her place via cameras in her bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and even closet. Even moreso, you are able to use these cameras to interact with items. It’s incredibly unclear whether you’re in the house with her, whether you’re a magical hacker, or some combination of the two. When this chapter concludes, your team is now working with a detective in a completely different part of town, charged with taking pictures of cars to ensure the neighborhood is safe. A stronger narrative thread connecting all chapters would improve this profoundly.

Simple Puzzles

In line with the narrative choices, the puzzles are much in the same. With no game master or clue system, the puzzles have to be easy or they would frustrate novice players – and I would not say any of the puzzles proved to be frustrating. They all were simple, linear, and straightforward. It was rare that we needed more than what was directly in the room with us; and with usually three to four clickable items in a given room, it’s not hard to figure out what to do. Further, almost all puzzles were single-step puzzles, not requiring any clever usage of items or multi-step solutions. This room would be perfect as an introduction to escape rooms for a kid just getting into horror.

To make the puzzles even more friendly, all clickable items were visibly different from the backdrop and extraneous websites were provided via clickable links on the page. There was no trickery in hidden objects to click; everything that needed to be clicked stood out clearly against the static backdrop. Further, the game designer was as helpful as possible, often holding your hand through each challenge. When presented with a book in Latin, a large button labeled “Translate” was found next to the text, and when clicked, led to a website that translates the Latin for you. All in all, audiences should not have the expectation to be challenged here, but rather, to have a drink and enjoy some fun with friends.

Immerse Yourself

While the game does include “immersive” elements, they are more designed for children or young adults, and veteran immersive participants will only have fun in the communal aspect of them. Son of Sam offers one “immersive puzzle” per chapter beyond the standard escape room or alternate reality game puzzles. These immersive elements often bring the story to the real world of the participant, providing a chance for one or more participants to be active. While they are nothing complex, dangerous, or even that frightening, these elements do provide a nice opportunity to include players beyond the point-and-click adventure. It is important to note, these are not interactive and do not have any engagement in the story beyond a simple yet entertaining task – the player never has any agency in the narrative or interactivity beyond mostly pointing and clicking. While we won’t spoil them here, they often include household items, mirrors, and your phone. Try recording them for your friends for extra laughs.

Beyond the “immersive puzzles,” there are one or two elements – employed by many alternate reality games – that do attempt to bring a little bit more engagement. While there are only a few of these, they would be really cool and novel to kids playing this, but commonplace to ARG and immersive fans alike. Further, there’s a key choice made about halfway through the story, but we were not given agency to change our path or make a different choice. We were chastised by the character for not doing something, despite doing it, just not having a way of making a different choice. The illusion of choice only works when both paths lead to the same place, not removing one path altogether.

Finally, players are able to assign themselves roles at the beginning. While escape rooms like Cross Roads Escape Games’ Hex Room revolutionized the industry with their clever use of stereotypical role assignments, Son of Sam does not even mimic that. Instead, the roles you assign are “Reader,” “Point and Click Master,” “Room Explorer,” and “Immersive Challenge Champion,” among others. Why not take it one step further and give each character a role, a job, a description, and a personality? The Room Explorer could easily be the brave rebel, ready to explore a room, while the Point and Click Master could be a detective, ready to uncover the next clue. Make it your own and players will be more interested and drawn into the narrative.

Act the Part

Interspersed between campy backdrops and simple point-and-click puzzles, the live-action, pre-recorded actors were a pleasant treat. But, don’t expect any dynamic shots, fight scenes, chases, or even… well, murders. Almost every shot is an actor against a black wall, monologuing into the camera. Abigail Hunt as Amanda is the one exception to this, as she’s hiding in her bedroom – and by hiding, we mean sitting in front of her dresser in plain sight.

For the most part, the acting is capable, with the actors doing the best they could with the campy source material. Amanda comes off as a typical valley girl, complete with “OMGs,” which did earn some laughs from our group. However, the main problem with the character is her looks and attitude are tonally dissonant, with the actress appearing to be far more goth than airhead. Detective Parker, played by Sean Alexander James, is much better cast, playing the serious, no-nonsense detective. However, without any character development or arc, the aggression the detective shows to the participants is lost and unfounded.

Aaron Groben plays Frank, a Buffalo Bill (Silence of the Lambs) inspired character who comes across as slightly sympathetic but definitely out of his mind. His acting is strong, and his character is one of the more compelling ones. Finally, Charlotte Bjornbak plays the demon, and her voice modulation, make-up, and acting are well done, if slightly unintelligible at times.  However, with a strong set-up of her connection to canines and power as a demon, this would have provided a perfect opportunity to showcase a more feral or physical aspect to the experience. The true power of the demon is never shown, and it’s difficult to truly fear her without some test of that power. With the constructive criticism above, if she was to kill a guide that has been with the participants from the start, she would earn our fear and there would be a small emotional payoff in the conclusion.

Let’s Hear It

Yet, even with simple puzzles, illogical and ridiculous shifts, and missed opportunities, the largest criticism comes down to the audio. With this experience being fully remote, audio is essential to understanding the narrative and enjoying the experience. Yet, the sound is consistently unbalanced, with some scenes requiring the volume turned way up, only to have the next be excessively loud. All actors, except for Amanda, had audio levels that were far lower than that of the main music track, making them difficult to hear. The demon, as mentioned above, had a voice modulation effect that was well done, but ultimately failed because she was difficult to understand. Finally, the game music seemed to be far too loud, preventing us from even hearing quieter members on our team during puzzle rooms. This could be solved easily with an option to control SFX volume, music volume, or actor audio. We were unable to find this option and hope it is something implemented in the future.

Final Thoughts

Terror DTLA’s Son of Sam is ridiculous and campy, silly and laughable, and fun and enjoyable at times. Whether you’ll enjoy it or not completely depends on who you are and what you’re looking to get out of it. If you’re a parent looking to entertain your kids for an hour and probably give them a good scare, I’d say this might be something you want to look into. If you’re a group of adults looking to have a few drinks and laugh with your friends, this could be a great time for that. But if you’re looking for an engaging storyline, an immersive experience, or a challenging escape room – this is none of those things (I’d suggest something like Daemon 9 if you are looking for something similar but a bit more involved with higher production value).

Son of Sam is a callback to point-and-click adventures, with video elements and some decent challenges. With a few adjustments and fixes, the experience could stand out among competitors, but for now, it’s enjoyed by those not expecting too much. The experience is straightforward, accessible, and a low commitment. While a solo option is advertised, the main draw of the experience is in the laughter and collaboration that participants will share with their friends. This casual game is a good fit for a group looking to blow off some steam and enjoy each other’s company while following the trail of a supernatural serial killer.

Find out more about Terror DTLA on their website; purchase your Son of Sam experience HERE. Check out our Event Guide for more immersive and horror events throughout the year.

If you like the above article and want to find more like it, make sure to join our community. If Facebook is your favorite, follow us there and become a part of our groups for Immersive Horror fans and/or Immersive creators. We’re active on Instagram, posting evocative imagery and informative stories to promote our reviews and recollections; follow us there. You can even find us on twitter; click here to follow. For those who want to explore deeper, we have a vibrant Slack community with new event alerts and immediate ticket sale announcements; click here to join. And subscribe to our event calendar to get emails for all or specific events (look for the link right under the calendar)! Finally, we have a newsletter that comes out once a week; click here to sign up.

son of sam son of sam son of sam son of sam son of sam son of sam son of sam son of sam