Nightmare Before Christmas: The Experiment

ONE LINE SUMMARY: Come with an open mind and be willing to participate.
PRODUCTION:
When I attended the 7 p.m. showing on a Wednesday, there were more or less 30 audience members that filled up a good half of the seats. I would really recommend future attendees to go during the less crowded days of operation because it will avoid distractions from others and increase a person’s focus during the experiments.
According to their website, the show «plans on exploiting those levels of fear for 50 minutes of twisted holiday pleasure.» The experiments do try to push the limits of the volunteers’ boundaries, but nothing out of their capabilities; that is why these audience members are volunteers to begin with. I don’t want to spoil anything for future audience members (or you can just read detailed ones below) but just be prepared to have your mind rattled. It’s sick, twisted, hilarious and revolting.
FINAL COMMENTS:
I understand where some critics are coming from when they nitpick at the minor faults in the production. I do agree that the ending was a bit rushed and some experiments were a bit underwhelming. However, please keep in mind that the audience members also contributes 50% to the production’s success. The crazier the volunteer, the more whacky and hilarious the experiment will become.

Oh man, this was bad. I also thought it would be a haunted house and was disappointed that it wasn’t. But ok, once I realized it was a seated theater show, I decided to make the best of it. Unfortunately there was no best to be had. Each segment was dumber than the next. None of the segments were scary, or even disturbing. The experiments mostly fell flat. Here’s an example. A rat was going to lick a woman’s face… unless she pushed a button. So she pushed the button. And then… went back to her seat. What? Another one had a couple up on stage and the guy almost kissed another girl in front of his girlfriend! Except… he didn’t want to. So he didn’t and they went back to their seat. Where are the scares in this? Please people, don’t waste your money. (Edited to add that… I think the people who rated this highly must have friends in the production. There’s NO WAY any unaffiliated person would rate this a 5, or worth $ 30.)

what a waste of $ 18 and an hour of my life. if you don’t like the idea of possibly being chosen to come on stage and be made fun of, i’d pass on this. it started off funny, but it got worse towards the end. the ending was horrible, and everyone was confused. it ended so eruptly, i thought it was part of the act…
all i can say is unless you’re amused by dry humor and enjoy being poked at, pass…

If you paid $ 30 for this, you’re an idiot. I paid $ 18 and felt ripped off. I think maybe $ 10 would’ve been satisfactory to what they presented. This is a staged performance w/​alot of audience participation. None of the «experiments» are scary. The guys get humiliated. The girls have a few queasy moments with rodents and pain threshold. There were a good amount of laughs (mostly from the drinking we did to pre-​game) And my biggest problem with this …“event” is 1. Advertising. Extremely misleading. It is not a haunted house nor is it scary. 2. It’s not horrible and could’ve definitely been good with a few tweaks. Such as a build up to something scary or something grand in the finale. The finale is soooo predictable and laughable. No one was caught off guard and then it just ENDS. We kept expecting a final twist, even in the exiting area, but NOTHING. THANKS for your Money, now GO HOME!

It was a lot of fun and different. Actors were great!

Yikes. Okay, where to begin. It is difficult for me to do this, but there more I think about this event in retrospect the more angry, perplexed, bamboozled, and even swindled I feel. Let me say right off the bat that I understand what these guys are trying to do. I respect that they are trying to put on a fun, interactive performance art piece. However, the execution (pun intended) was all wrong. This show is a mess. Now, this could be a case of an isolated incident, but the actors had to break character numerous times because of heckling and animosity between audience members. I understand that this is not their fault directly, but I think the main problem stems from the fact that this advertised as a scary, thrilling, push the limits ‘horror’ experience. It is not. It is anything but. It is PG rated show that is child-​friendly.
If you go on the website to purchase tickets, there is a picture of Jack The Ripper, and a heading that says ‘Serial Killers.’ This is probably pertaining to another event (misleading). The description states that this experiment is «an adrenaline rush of twisted holiday pleasure.» Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a piece of comedy played strictly for laughs. If you are going to advertise something as being comparable to an intense haunted house, and not deliver, the laughs better be huge, which they were not. What this show played as, rather, was an extremely weak episode of ‘Fear Factor,’ where the contestants didn’t even have to follow through with the ‘experiments.’ It was also a bit like ‘Mythbusters,’ except their purpose to reiterate scientific points that any grown adult already knows. There is absolutely NOTHING that is frightening, intense, macabre, or menacing about any of what goes on in this show. The actors make a big deal about the audience having to ‘consent’ to participate. Well, what does that even matter if you’re not going make them do ANYTHING. Just a quick example. The group were simulating an example of the ‘heartbreak’ phase of fear, and they put a woman in a box, claiming that would handle claustrophobia. (Yet the box inexplicably had no top!) They then had her husband sit on a chair while a young pretended to come on to him. This is HORROR THEATER?
I would now like to get to the most despicable aspect of this performance, it’s price. I got my tickets on living social for $ 18, and I suggest that if you must subject yourself to this, you do the same. They are sold on the website for $ 30. $ 30!!! You heard me correctly. If anyone paid full price for these tickets, then this Psycho Clan have committed highway robbery. I was angry at myself for having paid $ 18. The price is by far the scariest thing about this performance, and part of my felt like the actors recognized this. There was strange bit of confusion around the very end of the show. Kind of like a, ‘wait…that’s it?’ among the crowd. The last few minutes felt insanely rushed, and there was an almost apologetic nature among the actors, as if they saw in the faces of the crowd that people finally came to the realization that this was not was they signed up for.
If you a parent and you want to take your child to something that can be slightly cutting edge for a nine year old, then by all means, take them. They will probably have a good time. If you are an adult who loves all things horror and expects to have your limits pushed or for that matter even touched, then avoid this at ALL COST. I went in expecting some kind of a demented play on a haunted house. I expected blood, guts, shocks, scares, surprises, and the tangible, yet controlled threat of menace or danger. What I got instead was a fat shirtless man, a trained rat that served no purpose, peanut shells masquerading as roaches, and i liquid nitrogen magic trick. If that’s your thing, then by all means, go for it. The actors in the Psycho Clan need to seriously reconsider either a) how they advertise this event, and to what audience, or b) the content that want to present if they are going to keep ‘Horror’ or ‘Nightmare’ anywhere near the title or description. If they don’t, they can expect a lot more reviews like this one I am sure.

This was fun. We got a taste of The Experiment when they were part of the Fairytales Haunted House in October. We got LS vouchers for the show and it is very interactive. Three people out of our group, including me, were called up on stage to be part of the show.
It is a very interesting and different kind of show and I hope enough people ‘get it’ because it is awesome but cerebral.
It was a nice change to the regular scare tactics. I hope they do these shows regularly.

This might be my favorite thing Nightmare has done. Is it scary? Not really, unless your scared of seeing grown men get naked on stage because that is what I was made to do (but you dont have to) Is it fun? More than you know. So funny, so entertaining. Great time. Highly recommend.

Beyond retarded. Not in the least bit scary, more like the lamest episode of Fear Factor you’ve ever seen, they lift bits from that wholesale, like putting roaches and rats on people, it’s not original at all. They even recycle bits from their own haunted house they do at halloween, a stupid bit involving a fan. Don’t waste your money. I should’ve known better, given the halloween haunted house was weak, this was a million times worse. One of the actors didn’t even stay in character. All around awful awful awful. What a waste of time, unless you like hearing jokes about Subway sandwich shop amidst really pathetic parlor tricks like people pretending to get their hands smashed by a hammer and audience members being dared to eat pre-​chewed gum. UGH this was the worst.

it was a wasted hour of my life that i wont get back

i guess that maybe I was expecting more of a scare than seeing fellow audience members become contestants on survivor. The acting was extremely wonderful and definitely believable, but the show was… ok.
There whole theater was full, and it was like a sweat box/​sauna in there.
It was different from anything I have experienced before, but I wished it was more scary. lol. What first sold me was «Nightmare»…where’s my nightmare?
It was cute. You should go just to experience it.

absolutely brilliant. 10 reviews that span the gamut. You will get scared, but you will mostly laugh your ass off. AT others misfortune and at your own. This is what the Nightmare brand does best, horror theatre. i am so glad they are finally doing an actual theatre show and not just a haunted house. They really shine hear. had so much fun, and the audience was squealing what felt like the entire time.

Good acting, very scary, GREAT surprise at the end! Don’t ruin it for the kids… just go see it!

Super Scary and well done like an old spook show. The ending (no spoilers) blew my mind off!