Hell In A Cell is a unique escape room concept where you star in, and play out your own horror movie scene. An exhilarating escape game experience that will give you nightmares for weeks to come. Kidnapped and taken prisoner by a sadistic serial killer, you’ll need to work together under pressure to figure out how to free yourselves and escape. You and your team will be locked underground in a 19th century prison cell in the dark, eerie depths of Bristol’s Old Crown Courts. Prepare yourself, both mentally and physically, for a truly horrifying escape from reality.
	60 minutes
	Up to 10 players
	No difficulty level stated
	£30 per person
	Bristol
	bristolhorrorescape.com
	Played by Daiman, Jenny, Paul, Bharath
	June 2018
	Escaped with around 5-10 minutes remaining

Theming

6/10It’s a genuine (abandoned) prison cell so I guess you don’t get much more authentic than that but it’s not that interesting and you can’t really appreciate much of it because it’s full of such a dense fog that you can just about see your hand if you fully extend your arm. I don’t care for this style of deliberately obscuring your view, it’s just an annoyance and artificially impedes your progress through the game.

 Daiman

5/10I had high hopes for this game after hearing it won an award for no 1 scare escape room, however, I feel what had a good premise fell short in delivery. The setting for the underground prison was already in place as they had used an abandoned courthouse, whilst other rooms I’ve done would add to this, Hell in a Cell was just left as it was found. As the game took place in pitch black with constant fog it made it easier to cheap out on the set as visibility was limited. However as the game moved on we entered rooms where decoration was added with scary prosthetics and the use of vile smells which added to the theme, however, I felt more could have been done.

Jenny

9/10The game is held in the dank abandoned underground prison cells of Bristol’s old crown courts which they’ve filled with dense smoke. Even with your torch that you soon find, you can still barely see more than 30cm in front of you! This means you lose your bearings very easily which puts you on edge as you don’t know what’s around you. You see brief flashes and feel brief touches of the killer “Pig Face” who is somewhere in the room with you, which ups the scare factor even more. It’s a vast area which suits the theme perfectly with its run down and smelly rooms and crawl spaces.

Paul

7/10The escape room was held in an abandoned prison cell. It had a very grotty/filthy feel. Part of the cell that we were locked up in was partly flooded. In areas of the prison there were some intense smells. This definitely added to the realness of the room. There was a smoky atmosphere which meant you couldn’t see that far ahead of you, this gave the live actors who were wearing masks a chance to provide jump scares which increased the scare factor.

 Bharath

Puzzles

5/10I would say a good portion of the activities here were search-based. There were one or two number padlock combinations that we had to divine but it was mostly hunting for keys (or locks for the keys that we had). There wasn’t anything challenging here and the focus on looking for items was more frustrating given the smokiness of the game’s space. That said, there were one or two physical tasks which were quite fun – would’ve loved to have seen a few more of these!

 Daiman

3/10There was a shortage of puzzles in this game where the majority of them were find a key, then the lock and then you could move on. There was no real logic or skill required for any of the games. Also as we were put in a mixed group we found where there was an actual puzzle that all 9 people would be shouting over each other with ideas/answers which made it very difficult to hear.

Jenny

5/10As is usually the case with an escape room that is heavily focused on the theming, the puzzles are compromised a little. Because of the lack of visibility, it limits what they can do. A large chunk of our time was spent exploring the rooms to find things and then find where to use them. There’s a few relatively basic logic games which are made trickier due to the lack of light.

Paul

6/10When entering the prison you are blindfolded. This provided a much more immersive experience at the start of the game. The prison itself was quite dark, this made solving the puzzles much harder as you are only given torches to help you. As this escape room is based in the dark, there is a lot of time spent searching. The puzzles itself were not that difficult once you found them. The clue system was through the live actors itself. If they saw you going off course, they would point you in the right direction. What I liked was how the clues were given in character and were more like hints rather than giving too much away.

 Bharath

Enjoyment

5/10I think this game was pulling in too many different directions – was it an escape room, was it a scare experience? It didn’t really commit to either resulting in a pretty tepid product. We’ve done a couple of other ‘scary’ rooms so we may be a bit more immune to it and I’m sure it could be a way more intense time for anyone a bit ‘fresher’.

 Daiman

7/10Whilst my scores for theming and puzzles are low I still found the game enjoyable. I feel most of this was due to the other group we were teamed up with. These ladies were so terrified it was fun seeing their reaction, particularly when the host in the room would appear out of nowhere. Lastly I feel the penultimate part of the game was pretty epic, however, the actual ending was quite lame.

Jenny

8/10This is the first escape game I’ve had to play with strangers and I was expecting to hate it. But in this case, we got teamed up with a group of girls on a hen do who were petrified and we found ourselves protecting them throughout the game! They were very funny and actually helped improve the experience for me as we don’t get very afraid by these things so it’s nice to witness some genuine terror and it shows that Hell in a Cell is indeed a scary room!

Paul

7/10A lot of the enjoyment came from sharing the room with another group. They were definitely more scared than us. It does show that this room can provide a scare factor. I enjoyed the crawling around, the tunnels and the different spaces that you went into.

 Bharath

Value

5/10£30 is a lot for what you get here. The game aspect of Hell in a Cell is very light touch and the scares amounted to someone jumping out at you on the odd occasion. If you want either experience, you’d be better off seeking out a dedicated escape room or scare event. This game just doesn’t toe the line between the two that well.

 Daiman

4/10At £30 pp I felt this room was very expensive for the experience you get. As they mix you up with other groups and you can have up to 15 people in the experience I felt they should have had a larger cast so as to be able to scare each of you throughout the game. Whereas I only got visited by the ‘fear element’ once to tell me I’m going the wrong way.

Jenny

7/10It’s a bit pricy at £30 per person, but it involves a couple of actors – Pig Face and the rescuer – which helps justify the higher cost. The overall experience is really good and it’s held in a great setting. The puzzles aren’t amazing though so this won’t suit those who are looking for a mental challenge. But if you’re looking for a scary experience with your mates, you should definitely check this out.

Paul

6/10The value in this room is dependent on what you are looking for. I would consider this room as more of a scare experience. They don’t really time you which is what I normally expect from an escape room.

 Bharath

The good

I liked the idea and location – I just wish I could’ve actually seen it! It’s a great concept but the puzzles need to be worked on and the live actor should be put to better use than just skulking about in the fog.

 Daiman

I particularly liked the mixed groups for the additional fun element, the cast were good and I liked the occasional horror prop and use of smell.

Jenny

It’s set in a great location which has lots of space to play in. Judging from the reactions of the girls we played with, Hell in a Cell certainly succeeds in being scary! I personally was on edge because the dense smoke meant I didn’t know where I was going or what would be there.

Paul

What I liked about this room is the teamwork required to solve puzzles due to the lack of vision. Sharing the experience with another group also added another layer to it and in a way added a humour element to the game due to their fear. However, you may not always be lucky on who you share a room with.

 Bharath

The bad

Mixed rooms are a real pet peeve of mine. I find they rarely work – as a team, we’ve tuned (and still are tuning!) how we play together and it can get thrown completely out of whack when others come in who attack the tasks differently. It’s also a size thing – the game absolutely couldn’t provide enough for nine people to do so there were inevitably a number of people milling about at any given time.

 Daiman

For me, I was left a little disappointed as there was not enough terror in the game. I think they needed a bigger cast to add to the intensity. Also, they could have been a lot more imaginative in the puzzles. If you’ve never played a room like this before you would enjoy it, but after playing ‘Butcher’ this game felt like it’s infant brother.

Jenny

There was one game in there which I spent time trying to solve which we never ended up needing. Maybe they bypassed it to help us escape on time, I don’t know. If you end up being teamed with strangers, they could spoil your experience. It also means you don’t get to see or solve all of the puzzles as the strangers will be doing them. You don’t get to play that many puzzles, and they aren’t very challenging, so I wouldn’t recommend this room for people who only care about the games.

Paul

I’m not the biggest fan of rooms where the majority of time is spent searching. I would have preferred to have more puzzles to solve and skill games to complete.

 Bharath

Overall scores