Zombies, xylophones, and 20 minutes to escape

In 2014, Victor Hung ’15 and Next House dormmates rapidly built a two-story haunted escape room, “Next Haunt,” in the basement of Safety Third. The 160-square-foot structure, now an annual Halloween event, houses four to five rooms with puzzles that test spatial reasoning, pattern recognition, and teamwork, and teams have 20 minutes to solve them and escape. Each year the theme, layout, props, and sound effects change, keeping the challenge fresh for participants.