Volunteers wanted – Join the search for Derry’s missing kids! Based on the 2017 film, experience the terrifying world of Stephen King’s “IT: Chapter One” in this immersive escape room. Navigate the dark, twisting sewers, face your fears at the haunted Neibolt House, and outsmart Pennywise before time runs out. Can you escape?

Ah – Derry, Maine; such a quaint, quiet little town. Also, every twenty-seven years, a supernatural murder clown awakes from IT’s ancient slumber and sets out to eat an entire generation of local children. Is there anything more New England than that?

Stephen King’s classic novel, IT, remains to this day one of the most iconic pieces of literary horror in existence. The IP has spawned three movies and a new original streaming series. Virtually everyone recognizes the twisted smile and disjointed stare of its namesake monster. Pennywise the Dancing Clown has been inspiring nightmares for decades, but thankfully he’s not real.

At least, that piece of mind used to be true – but Egan Escape Productions, who have harnessed some of the most wicked movie monsters to power their collection of ultra immersive games have finally gone a step too far. They set Pennywise free, and he’s gotten so powerful after his most recent hibernation that just one escape game is not big enough to hold him.

Inspired by the 2017 and 2019 films starring Bill Skarsgård as a most twisted version of Pennywise, Egan Escape Productions have created the ultimate homage by producing two incredibly high end immersive escape games to bring the story of IT to life in the most realistic, tangible way possible. In this review, we’ll focus on Escape IT’s Chapter One: The Sewers. Keep an eye out for a separate dedicated review featuring Chapter Two: The Funhouse coming soon.

Escape IT takes a refreshing approach at adapting the story of The Sewers from the film’s own Chapter One. While the thrilling adventure checks all the boxes of visiting iconically recognizable locales, it at no point feels like a book report that simply rehashes them in a predictable manner. Instead, the experience puts would-be volunteers into their own personalized story within the IT universe, happening simultaneously to the horrors facing the film’s established main characters: Bill, Richie, Beverly, Mike, Ben, Eddie and Stanley – affectionally more commonly referred to as the Losers Club. Although there are ample amounts of easter eggs that reference them throughout, this isn’t their story – because this time, Pennywise isn’t after them.

IT is after us.

Guests begin their ill-fated journey as volunteers at Derry Public Works, ready to set out on a search for the township’s missing kids. This rescue mission, however, quickly shifts focus to one of self-survival.

The story is brought to life through the use of multiple live actors, each portraying original characters who are not only relying on our help but also put the pressure of an entire world onto our shoulders. Their performances combined create a tangible amount of urgency and sense of consequence that quickly turns The Sewers into one of the most immersive escape game attractions anywhere to be found.

As the adventure progresses, the danger becomes more apparent – and more organically frightening. Appropriately, it all builds to an intimate first-hand encounter with Pennywise himself in what will likely forever go down in history as one of the greatest escape game finales of all time.

Let’s just skip right to the real headline: Escape IT has some of the most impressive scenic to be found in any existing game. In fact, it’s so believably realistic that it can give even the highest budget theme park attractions a run for their money.

The scenic throughout The Sewers’ more than fifteen different rooms is the textbook definition of stepping directly into a movie. And moreover, not only are these sets instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with the film, they’re of such a detailed high quality that a Hollywood production team could have set up their cameras and filmed scenes for the silver screen right there in Las Vegas.

There are multiple moments throughout The Sewers that have set pieces and facades of such grandiose scale that one may find themselves stopping dead in their tracks and shouting out loud “how can this be an escape game?!”

Perhaps best of all, the world-building throughout The Sewers always feels like a natural progression; these are anything but a clip show of disjointed vignette scenes. Every step of the journey volunteers are destined to embark upon is carefully thought out to segue seamlessly from one stop to the next in the most immersive of ways to truly bring the world of IT to life.

Paired with its familiar yet personalized narrative and instantly recognizable scenic, the puzzles throughout The Sewers organically compliment the storyworld each step of the way. Challenges feel like real-life reactions to the situations a would-be search party might find themselves in, so much so, in fact, that it’s easy to forget they are puzzles at all.

Escape IT truly masters the art of crafting a game so immersive that each individual step along the way not only helps to further build toward the climax of its storyworld, but also immerse IT’s newest victims into their own real life movie come to life. Objectives may involve rescuing one of the live characters, or perhaps even taking steps to actively ward off a supernatural attack from Pennywise himself.

And while, of course, we absolutely live for the immersion these puzzles create, the most important thing to stress about a trip through The Sewers is that each and every task is both logical and intuitive. The puzzles feel “just right,” mastering the fine art of balance between presenting a thoughtful challenge without being too hard in a setting that, more times than not, is genuinely tense and terrifying.

Escape IT’s two experiences differ from traditional escape games in that they are structured with a progressive flow – meaning that players are always moving forward as other groups begin the experience behind them, with their paths never crossing. In the past, we’ve had mixed experiences with this type of flow, as sometimes it can cause more seasoned groups to need to wait for the next door to open, or cause more novice players to be pushed forward, perhaps without even completing a puzzle at all. We’re happy to report that in the case of The Sewers, the timing of this progressive flow played out seamlessly, leaving us never waiting or being rushed forward. Our small team had such a consistent experience throughout that we would have never guessed there were other groups of volunteers elsewhere in The Sewers.

Clearly, there’s a lot to rave about what we found in The Sewers (boy, if only we had a nickel for every time we’ve made that statement through the years!) From the instantly immersive storyworld to the jaw-dropping scenic, and puzzles that tie it all together in a way that is perfectly complimentary, the team at Egan Escape Productions has more than earned the praise throughout this review. We’d be remiss, however, to not also recognize something that is to its very core critically important.

There is occasionally a big problem with IP-based attractions; often times the emotional connection to their characters, film or other form of media really only works when guests enter with a pre-programmed understanding of having seen it before. We’ve long said that the sign of a great IP-based attraction is one who crafts its own unique storyworld so solidly that any guest will instantly understand it, without needing to have seen the movie, or read the book, or encountered the characters elsewhere before arriving. The best IP-based attractions reward long-time fans with ample easter eggs, without ever alienating more casual – or even first time viewers.

And that’s exactly why Escape IT stands tall among the very best examples of IP-based attractions. If you’ve seen the films, you’re guaranteed to be wowed by how lovingly authentically they have been recreated across these two games – and if you’ve not – you’re going to be blown away by how immersively impactful the world that Egan Escape Productions has created truly is. Simply put, Escape IT is a shining example of using an intellectual property in all of the best possible ways.

We do have a few other pre-planning bits of advice for future volunteers who fancy themselves brave enough to join a search party  into The Sewers: the only thing greater than the number of missing kids in Derry is the group capacity for these games. The Sewers is a publicly booked experience – meaning you can, and almost assuredly will be paired with strangers – and it carries a total group size of up to ten players. That’s a lot of people to manage clear communication with if the majority of them are strangers. Luckily, Escape IT does offer a private booking option, which they label a “VIP ticket.”

To make your experience private will require you to bring a minimum group size of four people, and the ticket price will be a bit higher for the perk. We cannot stress enough how highly we recommend you splurge for this VIP experience. Both games at Escape IT are so good that they’re worth the extra cost to guarantee you receive the highest possible quality of experience from them.

Lastly, Escape IT truly is a hybrid attraction that blends escape game puzzles with immersive theater character interactions. For the uninitiated, the most important rule of immersive theater is that you’ll get from it what you put into it. What that means is that the more you’re willing to suspend disbelief, accept that the storyworld and its characters are real and interact with them as such, the more authentic and memorable your time in it will be. This very much applies to Escape IT. Play along with the actors and your experience in The Sewers will rise to a whole other level. After all, we all float down there.

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Venue: Escape IT

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Number of Games: 2

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 60 minutes

Capacity: 10 people

Group Type: Public or Private / You may or may not be paired with strangers depending on your choice of ticket type. (Private upgrade requires a minimum of 4 people.)

Cost: $55.99 – $59.99 per person depending on date and time selected. Groups of 4+ may upgrade to a private experience for an additional $20 per person. Specially priced combo tickets are also available when bundling The Funhouse with The Sewers, located at the same venue.

We thank Egan Escape Productions for inviting us to play this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.