By CHIN JIAN WEI, Pictures by DANIAL FUAD

It was BASKL’s anniversary on June 21, so we decided to celebrate in proper BASKL fashion by checking out some fun activities. In the first part of this series, we visited Bomb Battle and had a (literal) blast. Afterwards, we decided it was time for thrills of a different nature. Our next destination was Hauntu, which was billed as a new kind of haunted house, one that puts the focus on immersion to make you feel like you’re in a horror movie.

Hauntu was created by the same company behind the Breakout escape rooms, and just like Breakout, excels in high-quality and immersive themed rooms. Hauntu is themed after a 20th-century, vaguely colonial hotel, and the props go a long way in selling that. Upon entering the premises, one immediately notices the convincing reception desk, complete with a horror touch in the form of a baby doll’s head left on the counter. The poster art is also visually appealing.

It was then explained to us that Hauntu combined elements of a traditional haunted house with an interactive theatre approach where we were expected to interact with actors portraying characters within Hauntu’s story. Currently running at Hauntu was Episode One: The Thief. As the story went, we were robbers infiltrating the Colle Eastern Hotel during a Saloma concert to steal gold. However, a sinister evil lurked within the hotel, and many people have mysteriously disappeared. Of course, the heist goes wrong and the thieves encounter more than they bargained for.

The interior of Hauntu kept up the high standard of props established by the reception area. The dimly-lit corridors and darkened dining areas sufficiently conveyed the atmosphere of an old hotel full of dark secrets. “I liked the details put in the whole experience, every room and setting seemed very authentic,” BASKL editor Shah remarks. Danial concurs, saying, “It really does feel like you were in a hotel.”

Without giving too much away, the experience follows certain horror movie beats, employing techniques such as building tension in dark and claustrophobic places, often following up with a jump scare. Rattling objects, heavy footsteps, slamming doors and demonic voices were used throughout the experience to keep us on our toes. Perhaps the most frightening part of the experience was a chase sequence where we were cornered by a hostile entity. We only caught a brief glimpse of the entity, but it was enough to become the highlight of the experience.

There were four actors involved in the experience, usually serving to provide guidance and exposition. The “scenes” with them usually involved some very light tasks, such as finding keys or documents. Choices are also given to the visitors in a “choose-your-own-ending” style that made the story more open-ended. Azuwan enjoyed this aspect of the experience and wished that Hauntu would lean more into the performance, saying, “I love how they make it an interactive story that we can follow and participate, though I expected Saloma to come out and sing. It would have been even more believable and fun if we were given real characters with costumes.”

Of course, the BASKL team is very familiar with the performing arts due to the nature of our work, and so some of our members had some minor nitpicks. Azuwan felt that the actors’ performances would have felt more authentic if there had been a Bahasa Malaysia option. Nabila agrees, saying, “I agree with the other team members that it would be great if Hauntu has a language-selection option. Their performance in English has some room for improvement, but I feel that they would have killed it in Bahasa Malaysia!” Other than that, Shah and Danial felt that Hauntu excelled at building the suspense, but the follow-through was a bit lacking. Shah says, “I honestly think that it could have been more scary if there was a better resolution to the build up or the climax of the whole story we were in.” Danial adds, “There were times that I felt that it could have been scarier as the experience was cut short to move to other scenes.”

That being said, the team still had a lot of fun as they ran from room to room to avoid the demonic presence. Nabila notes, “I liked seeing the different coping mechanisms/behaviours at play during the immersive theatre experience! One would make up names for the actors, one would push another to open doors, another would stay silent as to not ‘attract ghosts’ (me).” Danial says, “I was actually surprised at how fast the time went by due to the adrenaline, I think. One hour passed by like that and suddenly we are at the end of things.” Shah also appreciated how the experience was priced fairly, at only RM 65 per person.

For more info and to make a reservation, check out Hauntu’s website. Give their Instagram page a follow as well to keep up with the latest updates and new attractions! Hauntu will be opening a new branch at The Curve Damansara called the Seri Panggung Academy. As the name suggests, the scares will be much more Malaysian-themed!

For more BASKL, click on the links below: