Sam and Colby are “betting big” on fan engagement with new Los Angeles escape room

Sam and Colby are no longer content with just putting themselves (and their fellow content creators) into spooky situations.

They want to give everyone a scare.

And to do it, they’ve partnered with the immersive escape/theater/dining boutique Escape Hotel in Los Angeles. Their custom escape room, called Asylum—Room 152, brings guests in as the newest patients of Clearview Hospital, where lead psychiatrist Dr. Baker–and the terrifying entity he summoned in a desperate bid to save his sick daughter–will take very, very good care of them.

In their quest for freedom, guests must uncover Dr. Baker’s dark secrets, which in turn will reveal more about the history of the Escape Hotel itself. Dig deep enough, and they may just learn what they need to escape with their lives.

The room takes ~60 minutes to complete, and is listed as intensely scary, with difficult puzzles. As of right now, only about 30% of groups make it out successfully, Escape Hotel says on its website. (The 70% who don’t are eaten by demons and/or employed as janitors at the hotel, of course.)

Sam and Colby based the room’s story on their experiences last year at the Beechworth Insane Asylum in Victoria, Australia. The YouTube video chronicling those experiences became one of their most-watched to date, and what happened at the abandoned hospital (we won’t spoil) apparently stuck with them long after they passed through its doors.

In an announcement, the duo said they’ve wanted to do an escape room for years, and that opening at the Escape Hotel is “a dream come true.”

“We’ve always loved escape rooms and made sure to make this have all the elements of our YouTube videos: facing fears, demonic rituals, teamwork, and even easter eggs from our channel,” they said.

While this is Sam and Colby’s first escape room, it’s far from their first direct-to-fans endeavor. For a couple years now, they’ve worked with movie theater chain Cinemark to bring feature-length documentaries to the big screen. In 2023, they sold out 168 theaters with the first two episodes of their Conjuring house documentary series, and last year, their 97-minute film Legends of the Paranormal had to be expanded from 260 screens to 350 thanks to fan demand.

A rep tells Tubefilter that the Cinemark deals and their work with Escape Hotel is all part of “betting big on bringing fans closer to the channel.”

Tickets for Room 152 start at $35.