Trapping yourself in a small room with a group of your friends has become all the rage among teens lately. I was fortunate enough to experience the craze this weekend, and I have to say… it was amazing.

The Beast Escape Room opened here in Glen Carbon last fall after a group of SIUE graduates decided it would be a fun business idea.

There are two, hour-long styles of play you can take part in: Trapped Friends (save up to eight of your friends in separate trapped room) or Investigation (solve the puzzles and escape the room as a group before “the beast” comes).

My friends and I chose to give the investigation room a go.

Once inside we had nothing but our brains to help us solve the clues and open the locks to get out… oh and a walkie talkie to ask for clues when we were really stuck (but we can just act like we were smart enough to make it out without the help).

Each investigation group has 12 people in the room at a time. We only had seven people in our group, so five strangers tagged along to try and escape as well.

Despite escaping, the amount of people in the room started to make me feel claustrophobic even with the short time constraint.

Along with the large group of people there were also many number and letter combinations that were extremely hard to remember if you had used already. A possible white board or scrap pieces of paper lying around for us to utilize could have made things a little less hectic, but the craziness is also what made it a little more fun.

Overall, using obscure clues, numbers, letters and pictures to work together toward making it out in time was more exhilarating than I thought it could be. I constantly felt like I was a part of a classic thriller movie and I’d like to think that I’m fully equipped to make it out of any trapped situation alive now.

Reservations can be made online at beastescaperoom.com for $25 per person. Times vary depending on the day and slots fill up quickly so reserve your room several days in advance.