Time is a Circle which always repeats, and today it comes round once more to bring about His return.

NOTICE: THIS REVIEW DISCUSSES a show based in sacreligious themes that is meant to heavily blur the lines of reality.

It is for entertainment purposes only.

Though posted within our Reviews section, this entry will not include a Key Rating. As a team, we at Escape Authority feel the correct thing to do is disclose that I was the Designer of this attraction on behalf of Chris + Creative. While I am excited to share its final results with you, our readers, I cannot officially endorse it in order to remain neutral to other games we have and will continue to review around the world.

For the past decade, each Halloween, I produce an elaborate haunted attraction at my home for the local community to enjoy, free of charge. I call it “Peachstone Scream!“. From the start, my personal goal was to achieve a ten year run for the event. Through it all, there’s only ever been one rule: Each year must be bigger than the last. Now, on the dawn of Peachstone Scream!’s 10th Anniversary, that challenge was about to be put to the ultimate test.

Following the experimental success of what would become a hugely engaging viral marketing push to expand the story of 2023’s Christmas is Canceled: Santa’s Gone Psycho, it was clear that Halloween season didn’t need to be limited to just October. The audience wanted more, and for for the 10th Anniversary in 2024, that’s exactly what they received – with Peachstone Scream!’s longest and most detailed storyworld build ever.

A mysterious transition to the event’s Facebook page occurred on May 24th, with a simple message: “follow.” In the days after, more ominous single word posts made clear that something was about to occur. “accept.” “remember.” “soon.” Then, what appeared to be a date: “6 June 6p.” And on 6/6, at 6pm, the truth would begin to present itself.

The Order of the Circle would make its introduction, offering welcome to all willing to follow. The Circle promised that its believers would “learn from His teachings,” failing to identify just who “He” is. Continuing, “may they prepare you for what’s to come. it is glorious.“

The Circle would continue to share these teachings in the coming weeks, offering words of compassion and motivation. “the Circle is enlightenment.” “the Circle is empowerment.”  It seemed easy enough to trust them. But that’s exactly how a cult lures in the unsuspecting. 

Like all cults, The Order of the Circle attempted to keep the truth hidden, often in plain sight. As new teachings were added to their website, some began to hold their own secrets. And some of those teachings would prove to be very useful as this online story unfolded.

Hidden within a posting labeled “secrets,” Truth Seekers could find instructions on how to view the source code of the website itself, as well as a prompting for which page to try out this new skill on: “H4RBINGERS.” Embedded within it was a chilling secret of things to come:

“there are 4. 
each brought destruction before.
but now 4 stand together.
white. red. black. pale.
combined they signal Him.

He is all of them.

and then all shalt become none.”

The ‘4’ referenced are the H4RBINGERS, horseman to the greater power embraced by the Circle. Each of them have been here before; the villains of prior Peachstone Scream! events. Now they’re all back, arriving individually in the months that followed, then united as one, to bring about ‘His’ return.

“and I looked, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on it went out conquering and to conquer. the first exists to sow chaos.”

The first of the H4RBINGERS represents conquest, lead by a counterfeit idol pulling the strings. You may remember him as Kernel the Clown, twisted ringleader of the Circus of SLaughter, and Peachstone Scream!’s first ever villain nearly a decade ago.

“When he opened the second seal, another horse, fiery and red went out.”

The second H4RBINGER represents war – an eternal battle which formed the core of Peachstone Scream!’s lore. Dressed all in red, his goodwill taken from him by a belligerent Bunny, Santa Claus takes peace from the earth, leaving behind a holiday of horrors.

“When he broke the third seal, I looked, and behold, a black horse. And on it, the third rode like a plague.”

The third H4RBINGER represents famine – the result of refusing the gift of Harvest. Self-righteous to his very core, The Provider returns to reap the wicked and mold a purer world in his infamous image.

“When the lamb broke the fourth seal, I looked, and behold, an ashen horse. the fourth, who sat upon it, had the name death, for he is the butcher of life.”

The fourth H4RBINGER represents death – the ultimate justification of love long lost. The Dollmaker returns to consummate his desire for perfection, and for the love of his lost wife, Teufel.

And just as the Circle teaches, with the four seals broken, the H4RBINGERS bring about His return.

“I saw under the altar the souls of those slaughtered, and they cried out with a loud voice saying “o sovereign Master, how long before you judge those who dwell on the earth and avenge our blood?

then a white robe was given to each of them, and they were told to rest a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants was complete – their brothers and sisters who were to be killed as they had been.

the sun became as black as sackcloth made of goat’s hair, and the full moon became like blood.

the stars of heaven fell to the earth like a fig tree drops unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.

the heaven ripped apart like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from their places.

and they tell the mountains and the rocks, “fall on us, and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb.””

for the great day of their wrath has come.

are you ready to meet him?

The Circle teaches that He is responsible for everything that’s come before. Nine years of stories. And what’s a story without a villain? He is all of them.

But those which you call “villains” were merely chapters in His greatest story. And now, that story WILL end for the true villain, but make no mistake, that villain is not a character He have Created. That villain’s story will end in the only way it ever could, the way it was always meant to be. It… will… be… glorious.

But make no mistake; He is not the villain. In this story, He is the victim. He Created them, but YOU Created Him.

All you had to do was say thank you.

And now, His CREATIONS are all your fault.

We’d be remiss if we failed to mention the Outsider. The one who exists solely to corrupt the Circle. Under a mask of anonymity he hides behind the moniker “RadialTruth.”  Every riddle, every code; every great work He has created to test your worthiness, all they do is spoil it. Like some insufferable hint system for an online game, but this is no game. RadialTruth claims they’ll expose the Order of the Circle, but don’t you see? When will you learn? There is no catching the Circle unprepared.

And now, RadialTruth has sent their followers, their Truth Seekers to the Church of the Circle in defiant hope of exposing Him, in all His Glory? Blasphemy. RadialTruth may exist to help the non-believers, but in the end, who will be left to help RadialTruth?

Those so-called Truth Seekers – heathens all – gather outside the old Church, and, in secret communication with the RadialTruth Facebook page, they gain attendance to a public ceremony of His arrival.

High above them, up in the bell tower, The Creator, in all of His glory, basks before His congregation. He casts judgement upon their sins – their greed, their sense of entitlement – and reaffirms His teaching that He is not the villain.

In a cloud of smoke, He disappears – leaving Truth Seekers no choice but to begin their investigation at the very site of their own greatest sin – the old neighbor’s house at the end of the trail in the woods – the very place where, just one year before, they murdered (the admittedly psychotic) Santa Claus.

With the front yard draped in police tape, it’s clear this home, once full of holiday cheer, is now an active crime scene. Inside, the skeletal remains of jolly old St. Prick still lay amid the presents under the Christmas Tree, in the very spot he took his final breath after consuming the chocolate chip cookie that you poisoned.

Looming above the Christmas corpse, in malevolent merriment, is the mastermind behind his murder, Miss Bunny. Reunited with “her” accomplices, “she” orders them to get rid of the evidence, including tearing one of their own pictures from the wanted poster, and eating what’s left of the stale, year-old poisoned cookie, whose scent still fills the air.

Truth Seekers inadvertently discover a video will left behind by Santa Claus himself. In it, he admits defeat and leaves his enterprise, including the fabled North Pole toy workshop, to Miss Bunny. Shocked, “she” drops a wooden horse which was apparently stored in a very unspeakable place. “I see you when you’re cross-dressing!” Santa quips, before identifying the red horse as one of four held by each H4RBINGER which, when combined, gain access to The Creator himself.

Content to claim her new festive fortune, Miss Bunny passes on the horse and instead uses her accomplices to find a way to reopen the fireplace portal, presumably back to the North Pole.

But that’s not where this portal leads at all. Truth Seekers are about to find out that in this story, each passage opens into another world, and within each awaits its own villain, all brought back by Order of the Circle, and by will of The Creator. From one world to the next, it’s a twisted trip down memory lane through ten years of Peachstone Scream!’s worst nightmares. Each world intricately recreates familiar scenes laid out exactly as they once were, brought back to life through theatrical lighting transitions and their own iconic background music tracks, each leading with a thematic mini-preshow introductory announcement.

Just on the other side of the fireplace portal lies a hauntingly familiar old Doll Shop, abandoned, smelling of mothballs while collecting dust, in pitch black darkness. There’s no festive cheer in this place; this is the storyworld of The Dollmaker.

A dim, flickering flashlight on the floor lures Truth Seekers into another time, and straight into a trap. The Dollmaker has been waiting for them – all these years – ever since they left him chained to the wall long ago. Oh, how he’s longed for revenge – and on any other day, he’d skin them alive. But not today. For you see, today is his wedding day.

After years of practice, The Dollmaker has finally created the perfect vessel in which to reanimate the soul of his dead wife, Teufel. But, since ‘death do us part,’ they’ll need to be remarried. Legally, he cannot officiate his own wedding to the doll corpse he stitched back together from pieces of his dead wife (that would be weird) – so Truth Seekers will be required to play the part of minister.

First, of course, they’ll need to be ordinated, with help of an old-timey silent training film hosted by another familiar face – ironic because he, himself, has no face. The Voiceless, former well-dressed manservant to the enchanted ventriloquist dummy Knucklehead has decided to put The End to his evil ways and spread love, instead of fear.

Of course the wedding goes anything but smoothly, leaving Truth Seekers in the dark – quite literally – trying to figure out how to stitch back together the custom teddy bear that’s now ripped to pieces, once meant to symbolize of The Dollmaker’s true love. They’re anything but heroic knights in shining armor, but success might find Truth Seekers a pale horse – and the safe passage it grants to another world just the same.

Truth Seekers cross through the next portal onto the creaking floorboards of the old Ample Valley Barn. Despite decaying for decades, the air still smells of fresh pumpkin crops. This forgotten landmark is home to a supernatural hoard of scarecrows known as The Reapers.

With foreboding fanfare, their leader, The Provider, addresses his audience from the barn’s second story loft, offering them the gift of Harvest.  “Others before, entirely willing, like yourselves, have offered themselves as sacrifice… to the Reapers… and in return, were granted a life without constriction, a life without concern, a life without… corruption. Now, my brothers and sisters, it is your turn. Are you prepared to receive our gift?”

Hidden in the shadows of the barn’s celling hangs a scarecrowed body, swaying slowly by a noose-like rope. “Now, dear brothers and sisters, I offer you a simple choice: his life, or yours? After all, dear brothers and sisters, one must give, so others may live.”

With no real choice to make, Truth Seekers are forced to participate in yet another of The Harvest’s sacrifices, joining hands to once again chant an ancient spell: “rejicimus salutem!” In a dramatic moment, the sacrifice’s hanging body suddenly falls from the ceiling, narrowly missing the group gathered just below it.

One might think these Truth Seekers, with nearly a decade of experience, would have learned by now not to blindly recite a spell without first translating it; rejicimus salutem is Latin for “We reject salvation.” Now, too, willing sacrifices, the Truth Seekers are forced to search the sacrifice’s remains to find anything that can help them gain salvation from the old barn.

Imagine their surprise when they make contact with an old friend they thought to be long lost – the zany Homeless Man they sacrificed remotely in a Homecoming ceremony held on the internet several years prior. Thought to be eaten by the Beast Living in the Walls, it turns out he apparently survived, somehow, and is now due some financial compensation – though as a settlement, he might be willing to trade it to open a portal out for his new friends, and a black wooden horse.

Colorful swirling lights and warped calliope music signal Truth Seekers’ return to where this all began a decade ago: The Circus of SLaughter. Under the tilted big top tent, many clear signs paint a perilous picture that something bad happened here years ago. Trampled snack boxes from the concession stand litter the floor, though the air still reeks of stale popcorn. Rubber chickens and clown shoes hang at face-slapping height, implying the proverbial inmates are now running the asylum, and this circus belongs to its grease-painted goons.

The center ring has been converted into a ball pit, presenting a disconcerting juxtaposition between its colorful plastic spheres and the blood-stained barbed wire carelessly twisting among them. At the back of the ball pit stands a mannequin dressed in ringmaster’s clothing, a television screen smashed over its head broadcasting a live feed from an undisclosed location of another familiar foe.

“Hey kiddos! It’s your old pal, Kernel the Clown! Welcome to the Circus of SLaughter! And you know what they say – you can’t spell ‘slaughter’ without ‘laughter!’” Just as erratic as ever, Kernel turns Truth Seekers into unwilling circus performers, making them jump through the hoops of several pun-filled puzzles that test both their wits and will to live. At the risk of breaking the fourth wall, I’ll ask – have you ever donned a poncho and stepped inside a dunk tank before? Well, you may be shocked to know that’s not even the worst of what Kernel has planned. And just when the fun really gets buzzing…

Did you hear that? It’s the bell. That means…

it’s time to meet him.

Kernel awards his audience a very special parting gift for being such good sports. It’s not the fourth horse they’re looking for – but it might just be the next best thing: a key card. And the symbol upon it matches that on the access pad by the door clearly marked “NOT PART OF SHOW.”

Beyond it, the attention to storyworld continuity is broken. This space is clearly intended to be backstage, not for the eyes of guests. It’s used as storage for every show Peachstone Scream! has performed throughout the past decade. Propaganda posters left over from 2020’s The Harvest Homecoming line the walls. Doll heads line the stairs as seen in 2021’s The Dollmaker. The ceiling is made up of the actual big top tent last used in 2017’s The Circus is Canceled. Short circuiting holiday lights trim pine garland from 2016’s Christmas is Canceled.

Halfway up the stairs, a make-shift alter hangs on the wall warning of the H4RBINGERS, including four clearly marked outlines of the wooden horses which Truth Seekers have been collecting. And then, at last, on the stairs sits the final white horse.

Further up the stairs, torn scraps of paper, cardboard and anything else that can be written on are scribbled with increasingly more unhinged notes. “He did this for you.” “you never said thank you.” “this is all your fault.” “are you ready to meet Him?” Like a swirling tunnel of madness, they all lead toward a blue door, marked with a familiar red Circle symbol.

Placing the fourth wooden horse upon the alter causes the blue door to creak open on its own. Oh, how long I’ve waited for this moment. Ten years. Ten long years, and its finally time. Truth Seekers are about to finally get the answers they seek. They’re finally going to get everything they’ve had coming to them.

Are you surprised? After outlasting all four storyworlds, the fifth isn’t some realm of imagination. But make no mistake, there is a fifth world: the real world. At the top of the stairs is a private home office, its walls lined with attraction posters custom-Created to pay homage to each year of Peachstone Scream!. Trinkets and props from prior shows serve as easter eggs which line the shelfs – a veritable museum of past attractions. A hooded figure sits at the computer, his back turned to the arrogant intruders.

“Well, well, well. What you thought, no doubt, would be a cunning surprise, was in fact entirely expected. Your arrival, and everything about this moment, has been foretold by the Circle years in advance. Do you not understand? When will you learn? There is no surprising the Circle. There is no catching the Circle unprepared. The Circle anticipates everything, because the Circle IS everything, and I… am… the Circ@##%*@#………”

Despite years of planning, endless preparation, the audio track glitches. It’s been hacked. It’s been turned into a mockery. RADIALTRUTH! ARRRRRRGH!!!!

But you know what? Whatever. What I’m about to do doesn’t need these theme park-level theatrics anymore. Hell, I don’t even need this mask. I’m not the one who needs to hide who I am. I’m not the one pretending to be someone else. And I don’t need to hide behind this stupid website any longer acting like some neutral party in an anonymous telling of what went down.

I AM NOT THE VILLAIN.

Every one of them, the “Truth Seekers” – you know what? No. They don’t deserve a title anymore. They don’t deserve recognition. Let’s frame it exactly as it’s always been: they’re noting more than people pretending to be my friends – using me – to get anything they can benefit from. Does that sound familiar to you, dear reader? Just like all of you have been using me since I launched this stupid website. Just like every venue in this country used me for six years, pretending to be my friend. And the moment I didn’t have time to promote your business anymore, well, I guess I didn’t benefit you anymore, huh? How many of you even said hello to me in the few years this site was on hiatus, huh? None of you. Because there was nothing left for you to take.

Oh. I’m sorry… is this getting a little too real for you? Am I making you uncomfortable? You want to talk real? Let’s get real. Not one of you has any problem taking whatever you can get from me. My “friends” and “neighbors” are always first in line to get their free tickets to my show every Halloween. And the rest of you? You all “love” this site until you don’t win a free game contest, and then you disappear till the next handout comes around. So tell me something, how am *I* the villain?

No. I’m not the villain. The villain has been right in front of you this entire time, staring right back at you from their reflection in the mirror. All I did was what should have been done a long, long time ago. So I trapped a bunch of people in my house, padlocked the doors and lit it on fire.

I AM THE VICTIM.

And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for that stupid sock puppet who’s made a mockery out of everything I’ve Created for years. But make no mistake; time is a Circle which always repeats, and I created the Circle. Soon enough I’ll get out, and when I do, I will finish the story once and for all.

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Creator Victim:  Chris +

Number of Games: 25

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 120 minutes

Designed Capacity: Can be scaled to suit each installation; recommended 2-8 people

More Photos: ► click here ◄

Chris + exclusively owns the intellectual property rights to the CREATIONS attraction.

To inquire about its availability for your venue, email Chris@Chris.plus. And don’t forget to say thank you.