Get ready to don your fanny packs, dig out your denim, and escape a Demogorgon, as Stranger Things: The Experience brings Hawkins straight to you! As a huge fan of Netflix’s hit TV series Stranger Things I was incredibly excited when I was offered the opportunity to attend the Stranger Things: The Experience event in Seattle recently with some friends.
The entire experience was wildly fun and engaging, something I would do again in a heartbeat. Stranger Things: The Experience – a collaboration between Netflix and event creators Fever – is an immersive and incredibly detail-oriented event, which not only exceeded my expectations as a fan, but made me truly so pumped for the upcoming fifth and final season of the beloved Stranger Things.
Warning: this review contains minor spoilers
Stranger Things: The Experience is a world-wide phenomenon, traveling to New York, San Francisco, London, Atlanta and Los Angeles, Toronto and Paris in the past year, now settling in Seattle for the coming weeks. Stranger Things: The Experience is broken up into the “experience,” an escape room-like immersive story where you participate as test subjects in Hawkins Lab, followed by admittance into the impressively 80s “Mix-Tape” a gorgeous lounge area filled with recreated iconic sets from the show, such as the Byer’s home, Scoops Ahoy, and others.
The experience itself – which takes around 45 minutes and brings you to at least 3 different settings throughout Hawkins Lab – was incredibly impressive, using dedicated live actors who stayed perfectly in character throughout, mind boggling practical effects, brilliantly placed screens, and the best use of 3D glasses I have ever experienced.
Without getting into too many spoilers, participants in the experience are all attending Hawkins Lab, which has been beautifully recreated in a SODO neighborhood warehouse space, where they must team up with the main Stranger Things crew (Eleven, Max, Dustin, Will, Mike, Lucas, and Erica) to save themselves and the kids.
Courtesy of Stranger Things: The Experience
Courtesy of Stranger Things: The Experience
Not only is the plot interactive and engaging, but the live actors are so wonderfully dedicated to their roles, while the pre-recorded videos of the real Stranger Things cast perfectly cut-in to engage with you as a participant. Without giving too much away, the 3D glasses are used in a bombastic – and honestly pretty scary – sequence in the Upside Down to great effect, eliciting shocked gasps and screeches from participants due to the realism of the immersion.
In my opinion, the two thing that could have improved the overall experience was if they were able to make it even more into an Escape Room with increased active participation, and if the “experience” was a bit longer. Participants are not given a lot of time to solve puzzles, and you are more “along for the ride” of the plot, which is definitely not a bad thing, but it would have been enhanced by allowing some slower engagement with some of the Hawkins Lab sets and activities.
Kids under five are not allowed into the experience, and anyone younger than 14 must be accompanied by an adult, and for good reason, as the experience is bloody, filled with light cursing, and all the other not-so-appropriate shenanigans one would expect from the Stranger Things crew. For the ticket price – starting at around $29 – the “experience” part of the Stranger Things: The Experience is already worth it in my opinion, and that doesn’t even begin to include the absolute blast that is the “Mix-Tape” lounge and arcade.
The “Mix-Tape” allows participants to, “Step into the neon world of Mix-Tape and enjoy a throwback to the 80’s with delicious themed food and drinks, fun photo ops, Stranger Things merchandise, interactive performers, and radical party vibes!”
The food is fun (Scoops Ahoy and Surfer Boy Pizza!) and perfectly on theme with the iconic 80s-themed show, the drink options are great and come in cute themed cups, and the merch options are truly vast and varied. There is also a free 80s themed photobooth, a real arcade with games to play, and just so many photo ops!
In my opinion, the single strongest aspect of Stranger Things: The Experience is the brilliant and curated attention to detail, which starts from the very first “waiting room” the participants are herded into, with signs for Starcourt Mall and posters for Mayor Larry Kline.
From there the recreation of the “Rainbow Room” in Hawkins Lab to the 3D experience in the Upside Down is chockfull of carefully crafted detailing, which explodes into an 80s wonderland once you enter the Mix-Tape lounge space, with a particular highlight being the Byer’s living room, a perfect recreation of Joyce Byer’s hectic but loving home.
Any fan of Stranger Things, even if you are just a casual fan or someone who enjoys immersive “Escape Room” like experiences, will get a true blast out of Stranger Things: The Experience. An exciting, terrifying, and engaging romp through the Hawkins Lab, the Upside Down, and then a relaxing and nostalgic trip to the Mix-Tape makes Stranger Things: The Experience not only worth it, but a must-see experience for anyone who is just as obsessed with Stranger Things as I am.
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