Unlock the mystery, face your fears and escape the woods — if you can — at Mystery Rooms Indiranagar

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to spend an hour frantically fiddling with combination locks, scouring every part of a set-piece room for non-existent clues and growing increasingly irate or excited — depending on your experience — while shouting half-baked theories at your companions like you’re Archimedes in a bath, Mystery Rooms in Indiranagar is the place to be!

Our group of four brave (and mostly clueless) souls took on the Cabin In The Woods — The Murder Mystery challenge, one of the hardest on offer. The experience felt like starring in our own low-budget horror flick — albeit with a bit more (collective) brain power. We had just 60 minutes to escape and the stakes were high. We were supposedly at the mercy of a mysterious killer. Would we be the next victims of a man-eating tiger? A witch concocting mind-bending, bodyaltering potions? Or worse — a serial killer who probably reads this very paper? We had no idea

The room started off deceptively calm, but once the adrenaline kicked in after cracking the first few puzzles, things escalated fast. Lights flickered ominously, unsettling sounds of screeching and growling filled the background and one of us may or may not have screamed when accidentally picking up what turned out to be a (plastic) snake. At one point, when we all had to crawl on our knees while clutching odd crockery as if our lives depended on it, we genuinely started questioning our life choices — why didn’t we just go to brunch instead?

The puzzles were no joke either. There were codes to decipher, riddles to unravel and random games that frustratingly led nowhere. Oh and did we mention the time crunch? Every time we’d solve one clue, another one was waiting to smack us in the face.

The final room had plenty of scares up its sleeve, especially if you don’t like dark, cramped spaces that emanate odd, bloodcurdling noises. But — after much screaming, sweating and contemplating sacrificing one of our own — we made it! As for the culprit? No spoilers, but let’s just say it wasn’t who we expected. We even snagged a shiny medal for our efforts, though we’re pretty sure it was mostly for bearing each other’s presence throughout.

INR 2,000 onwards. At Indiranagar.

Email: desegowda @newindianexpress.com

X: @dese_gowda