San Diego Comic Con has always been an exclusive events. Badges selling out in minutes, lines lasting hours and the waiting list for booth real estate is upwards of ten years! That doesn’t mean you NEED a badge to have fun in San Diego. The Gaslamp District has tons of crazy stuff going on that doesn’t require convention access!
One of those things events is The Experience located in the Lexus lot at PetCo Park. I was able to check out a few of the offerings this year.
Sacred Lies is an upcoming show on Facebook Watch. It is based on the Brothers Grimm tale The Handless Maiden and the novel Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly. The show is about a handless teen who finds herself in juvenile detention, under the suspicion of know who killed her cult leader.
The Sacred Lies Reverse Escape Room was something I was stoked for the moment I saw the press release. Escape rooms are something that I absolutely adore (Juan Carlos and myself tackled the Black Ops III Escape Room back in 2015).
Getting to the parking lot I was already sweating. Though this year isn’t the hottest SDCC on record, its still a doozy for this thiccc Alaskan Boi. I checked in with the security at the gate and wandered over to the Sacred Lies area. The setup was intriguing. A small ramp led up to a large trailer, about 20 X 10. Fake trees and grass adorned the outside, and all of the staff were wearing flower crowns. I went up to someone to ask where the check in was, and apologized for being late. He said “OH don’t worry, you’re here now. And Charlie is excited to have you. You’re finally home.”. I wasn’t aware of the cult aspect of the show just yet, so when I heard this response I immediately knew I was in for something fun. All of the folks working were dress the same, and talking with a light and airy cadence. Think, well, cult like.
I joined my group going into the escape room. We were told to leave our possessions outside, and leave our past behind us. We walked into the first part of the experience.
We were in a smaller room. It was decorated to look like a campground. A facade of a pull along trailer was on the right hand wall, the back of a pickup on the back and on the left a sign for the campground. I forget the name of the camp, because I was immediately drawn to the highlightd letters on the sign. I was in Inspector Clouseau, ready to solve the case! The actor in the room told us that we were getting ready to go to our new home in the woods, but we had to shed our past experiences. We explained that we were children of “Charlie”, or God, but the prophet who we were to follow told us he likes being called “Charlie”. I was so absolutely hooked! We were to find four objects of our past, and leave them in the back of the pickup. There were shapes painted in red on the bed of the truck, so we knew what we were looking for, basically. Our guide handed us a hint sheet and we began.
Noticing the highlighted letters on the sign, looked for the hint that relating to those. The hint was something along the lines of “Follow the signs to salvation and embrace nature”. The few highlighted letters on the wooden campground sign, when rearranged spelled the word PLANT. I looked down and saw a few bushes buried in dirt and wood chips. After spending a minute or two digging through dirt, I realized this wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I got up and noticed two of my team had found the first item, a few tambourines. I went over to the camper facade and found a lockbox with an alpha numeric padlock on it. Twisting the sliders around, I spelled out the word PLANT. KA-CHUNK, the lock opened. Inside was a small jewelry box, that matched exactly a shape on the pickup bed. We were only one object away from finishing. We saw a small key stuck behind the window of the camper, with only a small opening at the top. I said we probably had to find a hook or a fishing pole to get the key out. Hidden in the corner were some PVC pipes with magnets attached to them via a string. We quickly snagged the key and unlocked a box on the floor. The last item, which escapes me at the moment, was freed and placed on the truck!
At this point I thought we were done, but the wall opened up behind us. Our guide, still talking in his lilting cult voice, said we were now on our way to the woods! Our final home. The next room had five trees, each with a picture of a cult member on them; actors from the show. Luggage, trunks and cases were thrown about the “forest” floor. We were told that we had to “get to know” our fellow family members. We started opening things. Inside the trunk in the corner, under the lid, were the same pictures as on the trees. Inside the trunk were a bunch of items, with evidence tags attached. Then we started to notice that almost everything had an evidence tag attached to it. Someone found a UV flashlight. I picked up an axe, and noticed a smudge on the tag. I shouted for the light, and sure enough there was a bright dot painted in UV light on the tag. I told my partner with the light to shine it on the pictures nailed to the trees. All of them had a different number of UV dots. The next part was easy, just match the evidence tags with the faces on the trees, and put the tags on the hooks in the trunk.
Our mission was finished, and we were told that we were ready for Charlie’s blessing. We grabbed flower crowns, and held hands around a fountain. We were instructed to follow along. CHARLIE PROTECT US! CHARLIE PROTECT US! CHARLIES PROTECT US! All the lights went out, and then red lights turned on. Our guide said that one of us was lying, and that we were keeping parts of our past behind. A large TV turned on behind our guide, and we saw a clip from the show. One of the faces from the photos on the trees, who I now assumed to be the cult leader, was standing at a fire. Shouting about absolving someone of their sins. He threw a large green book into the fire and the flames changed a bright green. A few men were bringing out a teenage girl to the fire. The cult leader explained that they were doing these things for her own good, and that Charlie was going to forgive her. He turned to another man and said “Here are your Cinderella slippers”. The second man had a pair of metal shoes that he placed in the fire. Once they were red hot, the men holding the teenage girl placed her feet in them. This scene made me feel extremely uncomfortable, but instantly engrossed in the show. I am super stoked to get into Sacred Lies when it comes out.
The TV turned off, and our guide said that we were to perform a cleansing ritual to save ourselves, and opened a cabinet with full of tools. This is where I have to applaud the actor. He played his part amazingly well. He opened the cabinet and just stared. No guidance. No hints. It was super creepy and definitely added to the whole experience.
The fountain we were chanting around had a mantle with four coins in it, with the space for a fifth one. Which was missing. In the cabinet there were a few mason jars full of water. I looked down at the fountain and saw that the drain was just the same size as the coins. “Pour the water down the drain and a coin will float to the top.”. Sure enough, when one of the group dumped the jar, the missing coin popped up. One of the group asked if I had done this before and I just said “Naw, played a lot of adventure games as a kid!”.
We were done! We were out and apart of the family. The actors greeted us and told us we were welcome.
Sacred Lies at the experience at SDCC was absolutely incredible. It was advertised as a reverse escape room, and once it was all over I finally figured out what they meant .We were not escaping FROM the cult, but joining them.
Sacred Lies premieres, Friday, July 27 on Facebook Watch. New episodes will be available every Friday at 9pm ET/6pm PT on the Sacred Lies show page www.facebook.com/sacredliesshow