Cities across US are home to zombie-themed escape shows

Michigan — A theater show offered in more than a dozen cities across the U.S. encourages participants to channel their inner Sherlock Holmes in an end-of-the-world team game-building exercise.

"Trapped in a Room With a Zombie" is a "room-escape" experience, versions of which are offered in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and other cities.

The show, "Trapped in a Room With a Zombie" is a "room-escape" experience in which up to a dozen people are ushered into a room and locked inside for an hour alongside a supposedly bloodthirsty zombie (played by an actor) who is chained to a wall. Every five minutes, a buzzer sounds, and the zombie is given another foot of chain, allowing the creature to scamper closer to its next meal.

If participants don't solve a series of puzzles and riddles, the zombie eats everyone.

Rick Broida, the Detroit show's executive producer, said "the zombie is there to add an adrenaline rush."

He said, Audrey Poe, who was in a group of seven people who entered the room, "was trying to find something fun and interesting to do" for her 30th birthday when she read online about "Trapped in a Room with a Zombie."

Poe's group solved some clues, but not quickly enough to make it out "alive."

"We almost got out," she said, minutes after affixing her name tag to a wall reserved for those who didn't "survive."

About 30 percent of the groups that have taken part in the Detroit show "survived." The record time so far is 58 minutes, 21 seconds.

"It always comes down to a race to the finish with the zombie nipping at your heels, and everybody's trying to solve the last puzzle," Broida said.

"It makes for a really exciting time."