The places are oppressive. “Stressful and creepy,” even said a recent visitor, who luckily managed to make it out alive. For the past few weeks, terrifying scenes have been taking place in the grounds of the former psychiatric hospital of Montbert, south of Nantes. It is in these premises disused for ten years that the successful horror escape game from Bignon, a few kilometers away, has found its new playground. “With the Sanatorium, we go even further, even stronger, warns Christophe Marchand, the manager of the premises. We didn’t set ourselves any limits. »
In these three vast buildings, acquired by the company Nant’escape, the stale smell and the mold on the walls are in no way artificial. The old morgue, which the bravest will have to use, and the rusty bars on the windows, which will make the cloisters freak out, either. An evidence when Christophe and his team of 14 employees visited the premises. “There is a soul, it’s very busy, it’s what immediately immerses the players,” he says. By team, the latter do not then content themselves with solving puzzles, in the dark, during the game which lasts an hour and a half here. Cranked doctors, sadistic scientists, disturbing clowns…, several actors (they are about fifty artists in total) intervene in the plot, until playing “a real play with people”. All helped by mechanisms, sound effects, and other increasingly advanced special effects, worthy of the worst horror films.
The mansion lives its last days
This is the recipe that has made the reputation of the Hermann du Bignon mansion, which attracts an average of 2,000 players per month from all over France since its opening six years ago. But this strange building, property of the city, must soon be razed to make way for a program of housing for seniors, which prompted the escape game, initially planned to be an ephemeral animation, to move. Until July 31, closing date, the curious will continue to disembark to try their hand at the Orphanage, the Asylum or the Laboratory (between 35.50 and 39.50 euros per person), even if some , like several dozen since the beginning it seems, will perhaps not be able to hold their bladder in the face of these intense stress shots…
” The fear is super interesting because it opens up a very wide range of emotions, says Christophe Marchand. To protect ourselves, we help each other, we laugh a lot. It also questions the notion of courage, of one’s own limits… That’s what’s super interesting, with play, which is essential in life. The Montbert site, prohibited for fragile people, pregnant women, but also for those under 18 due to the violence of certain scenes, currently offers two plots, including ” The persuit “, which takes the form of a giant hide and seek, horror movie version. By the end of the year, the Sanatorium will house two new scenarios as well as a virtual reality room.