Sci-fi and horror movie fans will get a chance to experience their favorite freaky stuff up close and personal next month as Think Tank Art Gallery becomes Trap House—a Halloween-season pop up combining a gallery show of work by Hollywood special effects masters with a performance-art take on an escape room.
Enter Trap House and you’ll be surrounded by pieces curated by Syfy Channel star Ian Von Cromer spanning the creative disciplines that go into getting gore on movie and television screens. There are elaborate models and monsters carved by Cig Neutron, Ben Ploughman and Mike Hill, visual art from Alex Pardee and Blake Neubert and masks and special effects make-up prosthetics from Immortal Mask and Ian Von Cromer himself. Several of the artists here also have pieces over at LACMA’s Guillermo del Toro exhibition, so you know they’re at the top of their game.
The gallery show itself is free to visit, but buying a ticket to the escape room experience grants entrance to two inner chambers for a 30-minute session. Groups are capped at six people to keep the experience intimate and, they warn, the game will involve special effects cadavers and lots of fake blood (so dress appropriately).
This escape room is not quite like the typical puzzle-solving game, rather it’s a project by designer Adam Milecivic, responsible for creating the popular “Death Note: The Escape” escape room attraction for Universal Studios Japan. As Trap House puts it, the production “makes escapees into art.” Ticket buyers will start being contacted prior to their session to build the narrative and will be coached on live in-game characters.
A third portion of the converted warehouse will be a lounge and event space hosting a variety of performances and parties during Trap House’s run. Interactive horror theater production The Rope will play on certain nights, the roving tiki bartenders of the Coconut Club will set up shop and more.
Trap House runs October 8–31 at Think Tank Art Gallery, 939 Maple Ave, Suite 200. Hours are noon to midnight on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 3pm to 11pm on Monday and Thursday. Entrance to the gallery is free with tickets available to a private preview reception and performance on October 8 at 5pm available for $150. The escape room is ticketed separately for $25 to $35, with performances every half hour during gallery hours.
Image: Courtesy Trap House
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