If you are not a claustrophobic, spending your spare time locked in a coffin might look like a great idea to you.
And if you happen to appreciate a total communication lockdown from the rest of the world, this extremely small escape room designed by a British designer is something you’d like very much.
This interesting creation is named ‘The Subject’ and the brain behind it is George Larkwright, a student at Goldsmiths. George wanted to create something in which the participants ‘emerge haggard, almost aged by the experience.’
The Subject is somewhat like any traditional escape room but getting out of it is not as simple as it is with most of the escape rooms.
Normally the escape rooms have rather easy clues which the participants use to figure a way out of it.
But George wanted to make things a bit scary and difficult. He designed this escape room to cause the feelings of ‘claustrophobia, desperation and dread’ for the person locked in The Subject.
The 24-year-old designer said that he was tired of watching office workers getting locked in ‘easy’ escape rooms in their offices, just to come out happy and excited, posting the images on social media.
George did not want the players of his escape room to come out ‘giggling and snapping selfies.’ His escape room is basically a box 120cm in length, 70cm in width and 50cm in depth, and requires two players.
One of the players is locked in the box while the other helps them get out from the outside.
The box has a pencil, paper and flashlight inside. The trapped player must decode a number of encrypted hints and clues written on the walls of the box.
On the outside, the box has an encrypted lockbox and some related documents. Both of the players have to work together to use the information given to work out the puzzles that lead to unlocking the box.
George said: “Escape rooms are increasingly popular, they’ve become a middle-class millennial party experience or corporate team building gimmick. They’re an experience driven by social media for social media. The goal is now to get a ‘we escaped’ selfie at the end.”
George was inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s film Kill Bill Volume 2 in which the lead role of the movie gets trapped in a wooden coffin at a point.
“I want participants to emerge haggard, almost aged by the experience, but also triumphant, proud of navigating a game that is both physically and mentally taxing,” George added.
The game is inspired by human experiments and mind control programs of American Security Services carried out during the Cold War.
Each of the players goes through a distinctive part of the game. The person locked inside plays the role of a prisoner of war, trapped in a laboratory, while the person outside is a secret service agent tasked to free them.
George, who has also written scripts for theater, didn’t want to make coming out of the box a piece of cake by giving too many clues to the players.
Replaced!