Escape Boardman now open

January 30, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

BOARDMAN

The doors lock, lights flicker and the spooky starts. There’s a coffin, a piano and a fireplace inside this room, and the guests have one hour to problem-solve and escape.

Guests must sink their teeth into the clues inside Escape Boardman’s Vampire Room to do so.

“We are trying to make it lighthearted and fun,” said Nancy Smith, one of the owners of Escape Boardman. “We always want a theme that’s intriguing.”

Escape Boardman, 7253 Glenwood Ave., opened with the Vampire Room and a Winter Wonderland room earlier this month.

The business is the brainchild of five friends turned business partners.

It all started with Halloween. Smith is known for the elaborate Halloween parties she’s put on since 2010 for hundreds of guests. Her extreme decor for themes – such as a dead wedding and an insane asylum – led her to collect a storage room of decorations and props.

“My neighbor, Ivan [Bosnjak], made these coffins,” Smith said, pointing out some of the props. “The bridesmaids came out of the coffins.”

Smith, the bride in this dead wedding, came out of a real coffin inside of a hearse.

“We never picked a sweet Halloween theme,” she said. “We have accumulated so many props that we contemplated a haunted house.”

Smith, Don Hepler, Joe Terlecky, Ivan Bosnjak and Jeff Humphrey decided last summer that instead of a haunted house, they would develop an Escape Room.

Every owner has their own role in the business. Smith is an accountant, Terlecky is an information-technology technician, Bosnjak is an engineer, Humphrey is a security integrator and Hepler is in sales and marketing.

Together, they are all Halloween people who like a bit of eeriness.

To bring the eerie feel, they spent weeks painting, printing art and setting up the props. Then came the setup of the clues for both rooms.

In the Vampire Room, it seems there could be a piece to the puzzle anywhere. Black walls bring intensity, and the coffin brings the real. In this room, the goal is to find your lost friends. They went missing while filming footage on reports of vampires killing tourists in a Transylvania castle. To figure this out, four to eight players are needed.

In the Winter Wonderland, where guests have 45 minutes to figure out the puzzle, a Christmas tree is the centerpiece and colorful, cheery decor helps to hide the clues. The goal here is to get back Santa’s stolen presents before the children wake up. This room requires at least two players.

This is something “that would challenge you instead of sitting in front of the TV,” Hepler said. “It brings you and your friends closer.”

The Vampire Room is $30 for adults and $20 for children up to age 16; and the Winter Wonderland room is $25 for adults and $15 for children.

Booking for Escape Boardman is done online at escapeboardman.com/ or on Facebook.