The Deadbolt

Hello there, everyone. My name is Rob. My wife, Maren, and I began developing The Deadbolt about a year ago. We were married on Halloween night in 2015, and have both had a lifelong, unhealthy fixation on the holiday and all of its trappings. We have an extensive horror film collection. Pumpkins and skulls adorn our home year-round and we just become generally giddy at even the mere mention of Halloween. We’re huge dorks. Maren’s always been a big escape room junkie. I like them, too, but I guess I was a lot pickier about them. There were too many that we visited that just felt phoned in. On the other hand, there have been a bunch that really did up the atmosphere, and we felt like THAT was the key.

We did haunts every year, and being from Florida, there are some major league events in the haunt industry. But we love the little ones, too, the ones some poor shmucks dedicated their time and resources to without looking to make a dime on. You can feel the love in those. So every year around Halloween, we were throwing big parties. Costumes, special effects, everything meticulously themed, the works. This expanded into turning the whole backyard into a haunt walkthrough. Then we were those schmucks. And we loved being those schmucks. It clicked: we could build a haunt with all of our love of and experience in horror, and take what we’ve seen in those really great escape rooms and then add the atmosphere we felt was missing.

So The Deadbolt was born. We set to work in the summer of 2019, and most of our downtime has gone into developing puzzles and scares, and room themes and layouts. Being a graphic designer so I’m lucky enough to get to brand the entire thing, make all the logos and imagery, and eventually the music and soundscapes. It’s been a labor of love, but we’re certain the public will delight in having something year round that scratches that spooky itch.

So, friends, here we are. We're putting down roots in central Massachusetts, and building a relationship with the community. There’s a very long way to go, but if we can get you on board now, and get as excited as we are about what’s to come, then hopefully it’ll be reality that much sooner. We’re putting up shirts for sale to raise funds to build and develop. We have designs representing The Deadbolt itself, and one for each room that’s being developed. The designs may seem cryptic, but that’s part of the fun…no spoilers! Hopefully they’re intriguing enough to where you’d just like to wear them, then when you finally get to experience the room, they’ll make sense!

So thank you in advance for your support, it means the world to us. We are going to be working very hard to get everything launched and built as quickly and efficiently as we can. Welcome to the ride.

Rob & Maren