The Witch House

“The Witch House” is a tense supernatural thriller filled with intriguing puzzles, surprises and a compelling narrative. Our next mystery begins with a student who rents a room inside an old house with a long and dark history.
His dreams are haunted by those of a Witch from the town’s legend. During the witch trials of 1692 she disappeared never to be seen again. It’s 11pm and your team has been sent to help the poor student uncover the mystery that lies within the room. hat happened to the witch? Can you break the curse before the clock strikes midnight?

The Panic Room Hub is based in a nondescript tower block in the centre of Harlow, with a few signs outside advertising both The Panic Room and Lazer Quest. The room itself is located up around 4 flights of stairs, and with no obvious lift access is not the easiest place to get to.

The ‘waiting area’ is a large space shared with some arcade games and a bar. On arrival we were directed to a small area and sat down in front of a short and to the point briefing delivered by an enigmatic puppet that is generic for all of the rooms.Led back up the stairs we entered the escape room floor where we were directed to the room of our choosing. Our game master was very pleasant and helpful, and got us settled in to the room and gave us some background on the room itself.

The room was fairly small, and almost everything in the room was accessible. The theming of the room was good, and it all felt in character. There was an option to have the large lights above or the mood lighting in the room which made the room more atmospheric. The set pieces did not look out of place and many of the puzzles were hidden in obvious places that were unnoticeable as they blended in well to the surroundings.

The puzzles followed the standard key for a lock pattern, with the goal to free the witches bones in our allotted time. Some of the clues did have a little wear and tear you can expect on a well used room, and this did throw us off the trail and was a little distracting. The story of the room played out through the puzzles and was actually crucial in solving one of the harder puzzles near the end of the room. The room would have definitely benefited from another hidden area, as we were convinced that a new section would open up to us nearer the end of the game.

With less than 4 people there is not really enough time to listen to and enjoy the voice acting for a string of clues that leads to one of the more complex puzzles.

The ending of the room was very underwhelming with our group not quite realising that we had completed the room, and forgetting that we all had to leave the room for the timer to stop.