In recent months there seems to be a new trend catching the eye of many people: room escapes. For those who don’t already know, a room escape is where you and a group of friends get put into a themed room and you have to solve riddles, find keys, and unlock doors all in one hour. Some people might see this as a living nightmare, for others it’s a fun and collaborative way of putting your intelligence to the test.

Personally I’ve had the opportunity to participate in three different room escapes. I’ve done two room escapes in South Beach and one in West Palm Beach. The theme of the rooms in South Beach were panic room and black ops. Unfortunately, my friends and I couldn’t escape in an hour for either room in South Beach.

The most recent room escape I’ve done my friends, I actually made it out with time to spare. The room was my favorite one that I’ve escaped from. The room was called Nightmare on Datura Street. This room was a halloween special at the Legends of Escape in West Palm Beach. The mission in this room is to find a killer named Ivan’s Mask and stop him from killing. When I was booking the room there was a disclaimer that crawling was required and there were some jump scares. My friends and I scared ourselves more than anything else. The whole time we were in the room, we were screaming about nothing and pushing each other to get into the next room when no one else would go.

“I like how when we first started we had to find the mask and the pressure that was put on us to solve the mystery,” said senior Harley Dizengoff. “I felt like the murderer would come out any second. All of us that participated in the rooms come from a different mind set, but we all came together to solve problems. My favorite part was when Savannah got scared by the animatronic spider and also by another spider that jumped out of a box. It was funny because she was screaming.”

I would recommend a room escape to anyone. They are fun and a great way to work on team building. Most room escapes are inexpensive and range from $25-$30. So get a group of friends together and see if you can escape.