Special Look: The Dollmaker's Pitch Black Friday Special

Do you ever wonder what happens in the DARK?

Well very soon, you’ll never close your eyes again.

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.

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!“. For me, there’s only one rule: Each year must be bigger than the last.

2021 introduced the world to our most immersive production yet – The Dollmaker. The show was a true blend of escape game puzzles with intimate immersive theater interactions. It should be no surprise that it instantly became Peachstone Scream!’s most popular production.

But sometimes just creating an instant hit isn’t good enough. It leaves you wanting more, and sometimes that desire just cannot wait a full year until the next Halloween. The Dollmaker wasn’t ready to leave. There was more to his story left to be told, so, he did what any good shopkeep would: set up a killer Black Friday Special.

This experience is framed as being a sort of “1.5” continuation of the original. Perhaps most compelling from a design perspective, it was designed to use *the exact same* space as the initial Dollmaker game, allowing two completely different attractions to operate from within the exact same footprint at the exact same time. With very minimal change-over, the attraction could switch from The Dollmaker to The Dollmaker’s Pitch Black Friday Special – full of completely different puzzles – instantly doubling the value of the space it takes up.

The Dollmaker’s Pitch Black Friday Special was also created to be a much more intense encounter with the character, designed to be Peachstone Scream!’s most terrifying attraction.

Sometimes all it takes is a wish upon a star for all of your dreams to come true. But then sometimes, dreams are not meant to come true at all. Sometimes there’s nothing to look forward to when you close your eyes but pitch black nightmares. And sometimes those nightmares are your own fault.

What did you think was going to happen? You chained a psychopath to the wall and left him for dead. Did you think he would just disappear in the darkness? Did you think he’d forget? The Dollmaker never forgets.

Now, years after a reckless group of hapless friends traveled back and turned all of his wishes upside down, The Dollmaker’s lust is no longer for a love long lost; it’s for vengeance. Violent, volatile vengeance.

You should have have never returned to his Doll Shop. In this Black Friday Special, it’s not the prices being slashed.

Sometimes children learn by touching the stove. Burn their little hand once and they respect that danger for the rest of their lives. But sometimes, people never learn. Sometimes people are foolish enough to fall into the same trap time after time. It’s those people Miss Bunny feast on.

After tinkering with amateur time travel, it should come as no surprise that “she” caused a butterfly effect that must be corrected. Doing so will require “her” same group of unwilling henchmen to return to the Doll Shop, this time in present day, to retrieve the Little Miss Bunny doll “she” tried to have destroyed back in 2017.

The Dollmaker hasn’t forgotten “her” broken promise to bring his wife back from the dead, so “she” will need an unassuming group of hopeless fools to do it for her. Hello, that would be you.

The Doll Shop is exactly as you left it, with one small exception. After leaving The Dollmaker chained to the wall in 2017, there was no one to pay the power bill. And now, your short-sighted second encounter will be in pitch black total darkness. The. Entire. Time.

Rustling through the leaves in the yard outside his Doll Shop by in the blackness of night catches the attention of a familiar friend – Old Uncle Monty. Thankfully he brought his own flashlight, which is just bright enough to illuminate him in the upper window. As it turns out, living alone in total darkness for several years gets lonely, so he’s adopted a pet, and now he’s out foraging for the food its very special diet requires. Actually – you may have met him before; it’s the Beast Living in The Wall, and that special diet? Well, let’s just say eating Brother Steven upset the poor thing’s stomach. In fact, in loving memory, Monty named him New Steven.

Eager to help his long-lost pals, Old Uncle Monty offers his flashlight, which naturally immediately dies. But don’t worry – there was another one around here somewhere. He last saw it by the sewer system; a big rat was chewing on it and now it’s caught in the pipes. Successfully maneuvering the rat’s remains around those pipes sure will make life a lot easier for everyone moving forward. Well, except for the rat. It’s dead.

The good news is, that flashlight isn’t dead. Mostly. In reality, it’s an IR programmable piece of tech that can be made to flicker, black out and even change colors on command. It’s better than spending an hour in literal blackness, but not by much.

With some small semblance of light, the team must now find their way into the Doll Shop, get back that Little Miss Bunny Doll and get the hell out of there once and for all. There’s just one problem; the Doll Shop is locked from the inside. There’s no keyholes or anywhere to enter codes. That means the only way to get in is to convince someone *inside* to *let* you in.

A clearly posted “KEEP OUT” sign adorns the door. A crudely hand written note on top adds one important qualifier: “EXCEPT MISS BUNNY.” Luckily (?) for our ill-fated crew, a package left in the yard has a Miss Bunny costume that was recently delivered. It’s terrible quality, and not at all convincing – but hey, maybe The Dollmaker won’t notice in the dark.

Knowing the costume alone won’t be enough to convince anyone, a helpful note was left with it inside the box: “DO THE VOICE!” Like good sports, or gluttons for punishment, one foolishly brave member of the team puts on the costume and makes their best attempt at Miss Bunny’s shrill, high-pitched voice to lure out The Dollmaker and get into the shop. And it works.

Once inside, The Dollmaker excuses himself in hopes of getting the power sorted for his very special guest. After all, he’s spent so many years wishing to see the look on Miss Bunny’s face when he finally extracts his revenge; another few minutes can’t hurt to do it right. With the threat temporarily gone, the rest of the group is able to join, knowing with confidence the clear rules from their prior encounter: as long as they’re safely hidden when they hear the bell ring, The Dollmaker will never catch them.

Sure enough, mere moments after reuniting, that’s exactly what happens. The bell rings just like before, and the group scrambles into their very familiar proven hiding spot in the storage space behind the wall. Once again, The Dollmaker enters, delivering a monologue to himself, all alone. “Ack de leiber! Could I be imagining things again? Is there no one here? Or could it be a pack of little porkchops who don’t think much of my intelligence?”

Without warning, The Dollmaker appears in the hiding spot, which is suddenly illuminated by his glowing red eyes. Grabbing one of the group by their throat, he greets them personally: “Guten tag, mine little piglet. Did you REALLY think you could get away with the same trick twice? YOU UNGRATEFUL SWINE! Now you’ll sit as bait to lure out the other pigs…”

And with that, the first member of the group is forcibly separated – kidnapped by The Dollmaker, and taken to a separate, equally pitch black room where it’s now their turn to be left chained to the wall.

Throughout the next horrifying hour, each time the group thinks they’ve finally found a way to trick The Dollmaker, he outsmarts them again and again. He’s clearly leveled up his game, and is a far more challenging boss to defeat than he was during their first encounter years ago.

Don’t feel bad for that one friend who got kidnapped, either. Sooner or later, every single member of the group *will* be singled out, grabbed and restrained for their own unique, highly personalized experience in the murky darkness. The question is whether or not they’ll be able to figure out ways to communicate with the others – and share vital information available only to them in those moments – without getting caught.

By its nature the darkness itself almost becomes an added character to overcome – and without being able to see almost ever, teams will need to master their senses of sound, touch and even smell to blindly break free from this demented Doll Shop.

And be warned: The Dollmaker isn’t the only one with unfinished business here. Knucklehead has returned home, this time with an old friend of his own to protect him – The Voiceless. Like his ultimate muscle, this silent, hulking brute is both Knucklehead’s well-dressed manservant and devoted protector. Unless, of course, you can figure out the one emotional weakness to is his otherwise apathetic armor. Perhaps a little sympathy toward him is the key to unlocking his seemingly unwavering loyalty?

Once again, the moral of the story is there’s no honor among thieves. In constant in-fighting between the villains, combined with the cover of darkness, provides the perfect recipe for our hapless heroes to overcome the odds, successfully retrieve the Little Miss Bunny Doll and reunite with all of their kidnapped friends before finally escaping.

Perhaps this time a lesson will be learned to protect the peaceful people of Peachstone Lane. Or perhaps the worst is still yet to come. Stay tuned.