A Puppet Show has sprung up at the end of Peachstone Lane, promising to provide free candy and not be a trap*.

*May be a trap.

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 build an elaborate haunted attraction at my home for the neighborhood kids to enjoy while Trick-or-Treating. I call it “Peachstone Scream!“. For me, there’s only one rule: Each year must be bigger than the last.

In 2015, things took a turn from over-the-top décor to a full-fledged haunt for the first time. A long, enclosed passage lead from the driveway to the front door, full of several tricks (and effects) which more than made kids earn their treats that year. Appropriately, this big re-imagining of our neighborhood fun was under the demented Big Top dubbed The Circus of SLaughter.

The next logical step came in 2016, with detailed full scale facades and, for the first time, a bona fide escape game hidden within an 8′ x 8′ room literally erected on my front lawn. Featuring an entirely unique theme, The Krampus Beast came to town, and as one might expect when such a thing occurs, Christmas is Canceled.

Then, in 2017, the Big Top returned to town for an encore performance, and despite claims that The Circus is Canceled, it offered an all-new, full-fledged escape game – mixing traditional haunted house surprises with challenging puzzles and multiple talented actors encompassing both outside and inside the entire first floor of the house.

2018 ushered in the glorious season of The Harvest, an immersive escape game hybrid attraction that pushed boundaries and became the scariest production Peachstone Scream! has showcased over the years.

But now, something has gone wrong, threatening to bring an end to this cherished neighborhood tradition…

As smoke billows from the puppet show stage, it’s booth opens to lure neighbors to step into the show itself. Behind the curtain, the old theater’s backstage is cluttered with props and décor from prior years’ shows, hanging almost in tribute on the aged brick walls. A single wooden coffin – the very same used for The Harvest’s final sacrifice, stands silently dead center. Beyond it, a gateway into the past.

Familiar worlds return with an identical look, but packed with all new, never-before-seen surprises. Within the tattered big top tent of The Circus of SLaugther, its hall of mirrors leads into its infamous ball pit, three times the size it once was, full of severed limbs and hiding clowns, eager to seek visitors. The ultimate joke – a set of locked nesting doors, each smaller than the last, opens a hidden portal into a jarringly different world.

Crawling through the final door, neighbors find themselves in the grass outside the old Ample Valley Barn – appropriately kneeling before His Greatness, The Provider. The barn stands exactly as it did one year prior, on the night of the sacrifices made to The Reapers. Inside, its rafters still crumble in the light of unseen dancing flames.

Escaping The Harvest sends neighbors even further back in time, to a warped world with a full scale Christmas Tree hanging quite literally upside down over their heads – in a massive, twelve foot tall vaulted space. “Finding the key” opens a tiny door into the fireplace of the very same abandoned house – #669 – used to trap neighbors with its faux Christmas cheer.

The sense of familiarity is tangible for returning visitors, but this is anything but a clip show. As the exploration unfolds, it quickly turns into a sense of “everything you know is wrong.” And if this is The End, it’s sure to go out with a bang; the new evil brought by The Voiceless is hardly the biggest threat to face the peaceful people of Peachstone Lane this year; it turns out this massive, soulless-eyed, faceless brute is merely a puppet himself, and the one truly pulling the strings over the years is here to finally seek his vengeance.

Despite the pernicious plot facing the peaceful people of Peachstone Lane, the show must go on. And it begins where every good show does: the Ticket Booth. I suppose, technically, that bad shows also begin at the Ticket Booth. But let’s not talk about that. Audiences are once again greeted by The Bitch, now wearing a gaudy sash labeled BOX OFFICE. As always, while presenting the evening’s rules, she’s the very antithesis of customer service, rudely chastising them, stopping only to chomp on a large, dripping pickle. It’s sort of her thing.

Once guests are issued their physical tickets, they’re welcomed into “the theatre” to find their seats. The Bitch quickly reverses her sash to now display the title USHER. Guiding them by flashlight, she instructs guests to take their specifically numbered seats – 1, 2, 3 and 5. The problem is, there are only four chairs. And none of those chairs are numbered. And there’s a Homeless Man sleeping perpendicularly across them all.

The Homeless Man is insane. That’s not us being insensitive, mind you. To the contrary; he’s dressed in a one-piece UFO printed romper, and wearing a literal tin foil hat. Apparently, he gets his sustenance from eating popcorn he picks out of a nearby trashcan. He calls it trashcorn. Somehow that makes it better, apparently.

Anyway, once The Bitch scares off the Homeless Man, she again reverses her sash to reveal her newest role in the show, ACTOR. ♫ It’s time to play the music; it’s time to light the lights; it’s time to raise the curtain on the Puppet Show tonight! ♫ [NOTE: WE CHANGED THE LYRICS, SO PLEASE DON’T SUE US, DISNEY.]

Halfway through the show, of course, comes intermission – a time to gather tasty treats from the concession stand. The Peachstone Reparatory Theatre, being a fine establishment to the highest esteem, brings those snacks right to your seats! Returning from behind the curtain, now wearing a sash that reads CONCESSIONS, The Bitch serves fresh popcorn and tiny cups of water to each member of the audience. “Eat. Eat. Eat. This is stupid,” she muses, while reversing her sash to ACTOR once again to begin the second act.

Things only get rougher for her evening, as The Bitch is repeatedly interrupted by the Homeless Man, who just wants to join the Puppet Show.  Upon making several attempts, but being rejected on the technicality of not having a puppet, he finally returns with one, and it’s… well, embarrassingly awful. The unhinged insanity of the Homeless Man provides the perfect foil for The Bitch, and offers welcomed comic relief to the never-ending story of bad news that’s plagued Peachstone Lane year after year.

But as things go to hell upon reaching the Puppet Show’s conclusion, so too does The Bitch’s willingness to play along. Standing up in front of the curtain, she’s quick to make it clear that The Voiceless’ interruption was not apart of the script. But, before she’s able to gain help from the audience, she’s once again interrupted by the Homeless Man. Seemingly under a trance, he’s acting strangely, even for him. “THE END IS NEAR! THE END IS NEAR!” he shouts erratically while throwing water balloons that explode all around the audience. Also, he somehow ended up on the roof. So there’s that.

With the help of the audience, The Bitch is able to unlock the door to the Ticket Booth, freeing herself from the cramped space. Taking them backstage, she instructs the audience to stay put while she looks for the manager. Naturally, in a move befitting her name, she leaves the guests to fend for themselves.

The coffin door swings open all on its own, and standing within it is The Voiceless. Sharply dressed in a solid black suit, his ominous empty eyes stare holes through the audience trapped in close confines before him. He aggressively hushes the audience, silencing both their voice, and the background music that was previously accentuating the scene, allowing him to shift focus to a large, locked crate. Within it, the real puppet master awaits ultimate freedom.

A ventriloquist dummy – its clothes filthy and well-worn – looks back and forth shifting his heavily scarred wooden face. “LISTEN UP CHUMPS, the name’s Knucklehead – and ‘fer years, I’ve been the puppet master behind every bad thing that’s ever happened here on Peachstone Lane,” the dummy says, seemingly speaking on its own. “I do the thinkin’, and I do the talkin’, and he’s the muscle that makes it all come true,” Knucklehead brags, imposing himself as ‘The Voice of  The Voiceless.’ “From here on out, I’m pulling the strings...”

Venturing back into the coffin with Knucklehead, The Voiceless disappears, leaving behind him a portal into the Circus of SLaughter. It’s here that audiences encounter the first of several immersive theater puzzles to be tackled through The End. A sinister clown guides guests on how to properly create a balloon animal dog. Deeper into the Hall of Mirrors, the twisted reflection of the Ringmaster, Kernel, appears, demanding that new dog learn some tricks. What begins with simple stunts like “sit” and “speak” quickly turns into something far more unspeakable – but you know what they say kids, “You can’t spell SLAUGHTER without LAUGHTER!”

Amusing Kernel gains access into his ball pit – where audiences are promptly left on their own, locked inside. But don’t worry, kiddos! He left a key for ‘ya! It’s inside a red ball. There’s only about a thousand of those!

Entering the world of The Harvest offers little escape. Left under the watchful eye of our resident psychopath, Miss Bunny herself, audiences find themselves unwillingly thrust into another immersive theater puzzle. The key into the Ample Valley Barn hangs freely around the skeletal remains of last year’s sacrifice – still tied ceremoniously to the massive crucifix in the yard. But despite being easily within reach, getting that key is no easy feat with Miss Bunny hopping about. Audiences will need to find a way to distract her – but how? Perhaps something from her childhood – something that drove her to become a murderer – will be enough to quell her devotion to The Reapers’ Greater Good.

Deeper inside the barn another immersive theater puzzle leads audiences to an entirely awkward interaction with a very drunken talking horse inside the Hay Place™ – A Place For Hay™. But getting out is “as easy as finding a hay in a needle stack… err… needle in a haystack! Hiccup!” Make no mistake; this drunken message carries no proverbial meaning; the piles of hay audiences are sitting in is full of real hypodermic needles, and they’re full of blood. Also the horse is a vampire. Look, I don’t’ make the rules; I just think them up and write them down on a piece of paper. But if audiences want to make it to the final act, they’ll need to top off the horse’s golden chalice by squirting several needles’ worth of blood inside.

Transitioning worlds once again, audiences are thrust into a cold, dark winter’s night, and find themselves crawling back through the fireplace into an all-too-familiar Christmas cabin. But this time, it’s not an elf chained up underneath the Christmas Tree – it’s Miss Bunny herself. “That damn doll turned on me! You gotta help me!” she pleads, momentarily forgetting the number of times she’s tried to kill everyone in the neighborhood through the years. Realizing she’ll need a bit more reason behind her negotiations, she acknowledges that although you may not like each other, you’re simply going to have to work together in order to defeat a much greater evil. As Miss Bunny eloquently phrases it, “Help me help you help me kill you.”

Together in this unlikely temporary alliance, Miss Bunny helps uncover a child’s letter to Santa. In it, he lists out the flavors of cookies he’s left on the mantle in hopes of getting all the presents he asked for this year. The very notion repulses still bitter Miss Bunny – leaving audiences to check the offering themselves. Although this would likely not score points with Santa, Christmas captives are forced to actually taste the freshly baked cookies, each in various colors and flavors, to crack the code in their very crumbs that leads toward freedom.

Opening a door up to the attic, the space is littered with all of the old, forgotten decorations from Christmases past. A knotted web of extension cords are tangled between strings of mostly burned out lights – leading up the stairs and around the corner to Knucklehead himself. This time sitting alone, the key to the cabins front door is chained to his hand. It would seem as though the only way out is to take him with you.

Seeing an opportunity to escape, Miss Bunny refuses to venture out with “that wicked doll.” Instead, she shoves guests alone into the snowy woods, instructing them to “find a box and lock that thing in it forever!” Naturally, because everything on Peachstone Lane somehow seems to lead to a happy ending, a glass “ANTI-EVIL CABINET™” sits unlocked glowing in the center of the woods. Placing Knucklehead within and locking its door tight will close the rift and seal the curse once more – at least until 2039, that is.

Each year, the goal is to create something distinctly unique for Peachstone Scream!. We’ve done traditional haunts, traditional escape games and hybrids of the two. In 2018, attention was shifted to make something that’s genuinely psychological frightening. The clear progression for The End lead to a complete focus on immersive theater interactions, delivered through escape game puzzles.

The Puppet Show itself was a necessary evil. The only way a “clip show” style format could work for an attraction like this is if every guest had visited every single pervious year. That is, of course, unlikely – and what would result is utter confusion when a circus tent lead to a barn and on to…. Christmas? With a plot device necessary, the Puppet Show was a perfect, whimsical way to bring back each of the prior villains and introduce them to some neighbors for the very first time.

Each character is represented through a large, custom sculpted puppet, who bounces up and down on wooden sticks to bring their stories to life. The puppets closely resembled not just the character costumes, but the actors who played those roles throughout the years – creating a very personalized connection for returning guests.

Throughout the show, triggered audio changes as audiences access each new act – bringing back classic, recognizable background music tracks from Christmas is Canceled, The Circus is Canceled and The Harvest. With everything perfectly timed in sequence, it evokes a sense of being truly immersed inside of a movie.

Best of all, rather than going the route of traditional clip shows wherein everything is rehashed content, The End simply embraces the familiarity of these storyworlds and their locally iconic settings to launch a whole new story, woven together by a brand new villain in the ventriloquist dummy, Knucklehead. In revealing that he has in fact been the true source of evil behind each prior year, he appears in the arms of every icon villain from The Voiceless to Kernel the Klown, to The Provider and even The Krampus Beast. Each time, he appears to be whispering in their ear as their own sinister plots unfold. And within those plots, every puzzle is new, and although the scenes at first glance appear to be the same, each is packed with fresh, unique surprises.

Some have wondered if dropping the final curtain on The End was, in fact, a hint toward the future of Peachstone Scream! To that, perhaps, The Voiceless said it best. “There is no happily ever after to this story…”

And the show must go on.

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Creator:  Chris +

Number of Games: 24

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 90 minutes

Designed Capacity: Can be scaled to suit each installation; recommended 4-6 people

More Photos: -> click here <-

Chris + exclusively owns the intellectual property rights to The End attraction.

To inquire about its availability for your venue, email Chris@Chris.plus.

The End …… ?