Locked In Edinburgh - "The Cutting Room"

Cici Cao

Jun 4, 20193 min read

Updated: Apr 23, 2024

LOCATION:  Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Photo above is property of Locked In Edinburgh

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: The Cutting Room
📅 DATE PLAYED: June 4, 2019
🎬 GENRE: Horror
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 8.5/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: Up to 8PPL
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins.
💰 PRICE: £17-31/PP (pending on the group size)
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: No

Locked in Edinburgh is our third stop in Edinburgh, Scotland. Right from the start we were handed a difficult challenge! Do not attempt to find the location yourself. If in doubt, they will pick you up in the lobby of the University building and bring you to the lobby area. They are located in Summerhall, which is Edinburgh’s old veterinarian school. Watch our YouTube video to see how many “tunnels” we had to go through to find their hidden spot. But once you find it, you will not be disappointed!

Locked in Edinburgh is owned by two female owners who are enthusiast themselves and have played many escape rooms. We were amazed at what they have done with the space as they pretty much utilized there surroundings (since this building has hundred years of history) and created the storylines based on them. For instance, their control room had square spaces that were kennels for pets, but they are working stations for their game masters now. How clever!

Our game master got in to character right away when she led us to the waiting area. We were agents being sent into a serial killer's laboratory to find evidence and the missing organs of the 5 new victims as we must save their lives. Even though there were no live actors involved, the sound, the visual, and the eerie atmosphere were already good enough to put me in a terrified condition. Right when we entered, we realized that there was a lot to do. This is their hardest room and for two people it was definitely challenging. We would suggest at least four people to tackle this room. There was a lot of unique puzzles and props that we haven’t seen before, and we loved the ideas and how it was incorporated into the story line. It felt very real what we were doing in this room versus just playing a game. We are always happy when there's misdirection in what we expect to be a "surprise”, is actually elsewhere. Since we’ve played a handful of games, if the room isn’t made well, it’s pretty easy to figure out where the “surprise” might be. One thing I did feel that could be improved is that typing in the clue and receiving an answer was slowing down the game a bit. I wonder if there's another possible way to receive the clues. We also refrained from asking for a clue in the beginning, which in this room we should have just kept moving especially with two people. We ended up not being able to escape in time, but we did get to see the game until the end. Despite being able to successfully escape, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves a lot for this room's design and originality.

Currently there’s two other rooms at the location: "The Distillery" and "The Secret Lab". The designs for both are amazing as we took a sneak peak (which you’ll be able to see also in our YouTube video). We would love to return to play their other games and you should definitely check them out if you are ever in the area!