More and more Koreans are participating in escape rooms, where they are given a set amount of time to solve puzzles using clues scattered around rooms in order to break out of the place.

With various themes and different amounts of time, there are escape room experiences that suit a wide range of ages.

Nestled in the side streets of the Apgujeong Rodeo area is Holic Room Escape, where three Korea Herald summer interns attempted the “Fall of Mankind” zombie-themed escape room. Touted as “the scariest” theme at Holic Room Escape, guests were dully warned before facing the challenge. 

There are four other themes available, and the fee is 18,000 won ($15) per person. Groups of people can try to escape in time for the chance to have their photo displayed on the “board of honor” if successful.

Visitors are not allowed to bring their cell phones into the rooms to prevent the content of each theme from being revealed.

The following are what the intern reporters felt while navigating the puzzles to win the game.

“It was the most horrifying experience I’ve ever had. The theme, very similar to a haunted house, was super scary, with the sound and look of fake zombies. Since I never open my eyes whenever I’m in this kind of horror-themed amusement, it freaked me out so much when I had to solve the clues in this room. I was busy screaming so I’m not sure whether I was any help to my teammates but still it was such a good experience even for a fainthearted person like me. We were almost about to break out of the room in time, but at the last moment we were stalled due to an error in the system.” (Kim Soo-bin) 



“Since I’m terrible at both escape rooms and horror experiences, I was quite hesitant to join the interns on this excursion. But thanks to their encouragement, I was able to take part in something that I typically never agree to. The puzzles we had to solve in order to escape were quite challenging, but our team solved nearly all of them in the allotted one-hour time slot. I’m not sure if it is something I would do again, but I am definitely glad that I tried it at least once -- it was a unique experience!” (Serena Soh)



“I love scary things and anything horror themed, so I went into the experience with an excited attitude, ready to conquer the mystery. Personally, it was a slight disappointment, with how much it lacked in horror. Not only were the puzzles themselves random and hard to solve, but the whole theme of the room horror, was lacking. This may be because I am a horror enthusiast, but I wished there could have been more suspenseful elements or scary jump-scares. Other than that, being with the other interns and working together to solve a puzzle is always fun and exhilarating! I hope to go again with more friends and challenge the other many rooms available!!” (Nadine Lee)

By Korea Herald intern reporters