Hide and seek, a fun game that evokes many happy memories right? Well this Halloween, the otherwise-innocent game is being turned on its head, transforming into a disturbing and twisted experience.
Devised by The Kraken Rum, the creation has been suitably dubbed hide and shriek. The ordeal is exclusive to over-18s and even involves participants having to sign a waiver to play due to its intense and physical nature.
Players will be required to hide in a series of claustrophobic and dark spaces, including rusty lockers, dirty bathtubs and gruesome bins. As if that wasn’t enough, the hiders will then be relentlessly hunted by a group of malevolent masked seekers.
The experience at Kraken’s Screamfest VI: Here We Come was designed in consultation with former SAS: Who Dares Win star and ex-serviceman Jay Morton. Tickets for Screamfest VI cost £10, including a welcome drink and a cocktail token, with the experience running for three days from October 27 to October 29.
This is truly a game of hide and seek like no other. Finding the ultimate hiding spot, be it in an antique trunk, under a filthy bed or in a pool of unidentified gore inside a dilapidated bathtub, could crown you the ultimate victor.
However, remaining silent in these horrifying circumstances is another challenge altogether. Due to the sheer terror of it all, as well as the requirement to conceal yourself in oppressive physical spaces and the prospect of being dragged into the shadows by a masked cult, this unique game is strictly 18+.
Upon signing the waiver, the foolhardy folks will then be ushered into a dank and disorientating labyrinth, otherwise known as The Ditch in Shoreditch, to begin their hide and seek nightmare. Just like the game played in school playgrounds, hiders will be given a brief period of time to find a hiding place and conceal themselves before the seekers arrive.
However that’s where the similarities end, as from there on in its pure unadulterated horror as players are pursued by a group of foes, said to be so expert at seeking that constantly moving from hiding place to hiding place is the only way to have any chance of remaining unfound. To succeed, hiders will need to evade the seekers for a full 20 minutes, with anyone caught being dragged to a cage and locked away until the game is over.
The story goes that the seekers were accidentally unleashed into the real world from an accursed arcade machine, where they existed as pixelated characters in a horror hide and seek computer game. Now donned with flesh and blood, they repeatedly play out their video game roles in the real world, hunting real-life players to present them to their master: The Beast.
The only way to diminish the curse and banish the seekers to their arcade form is to outwit them in this very real, very scary game of hide and seek. During the game, players can find collectibles to exchange for Kraken rewards after the game is over.
All players, whether caught or otherwise, will be rewarded with entry to a Kraken bar, where they can enjoy original cocktails and share frightful tales from their recent hide and seek experience with other participants. After the pre-Halloween immersive experience comes to a close, Screamfest VI will be available to play in virtual form, both online and on arcade cabinets situated in bars across the country.
Tickets for the three days can be booked here, with five time-slots available each day - from 7pm-9.35pm.
