The Doll House

Scram Escape Rooms - O'Connell Street, Parramatta (Sydney, Australia)

Time limit: 60 minutes

Age limit: 13+ recommended (flexible)

Player limit: 2-8

Difficulty: Hard (escape rate 42%)

Awards: TERPECA Nominee (2020-2022)

Date visited: April 2025

The Doll House was a delightfully creepy room with some well-timed jump scares that got me!

We had to start off blindfolded as we were guided into the room and separated into two groups of two. We had done rooms before where players were separated from each other, so it was not a big deal, but it did add some extra pressure because you would not want to be the one that held your team back.

This was also quite a dark room, which often needed the little torches that they provided in order to see properly, though I did not think it was too dark at any time to solve any of the puzzles.

Speaking of the puzzles, they were generally quite challenging and varied. There was a good variety of padlocks and mechanical puzzles, though one particular prop did not work as intended on our first try, and we had to be told by our gamemaster to try again, and luckily it worked the second time. There was also one puzzle that we got stuck on — and apparently most teams get stuck on — that was a little inelegant and could have used a little more signposting. We eventually figured it out, but it did take a lot more time than it should have.

As for the scare factor, I actually didn't find it too bad, even though our gamemaster told us people tended to find it scarier than The Witching Hour. It was mostly the atmosphere of the creepy dolls, and the anticipation of unexpected loud sounds that kept us on our toes. And yes, the gamemaster does participate as a live actor, though the interactions are very limited and sporadic, and I'm sure you could tell them to dial it down or not do it at all.

We ended up making it out with a few minutes to spare, but according to our gamemaster, we actually did very well, as the group of eight girls before us — who were 20 minutes late and pushed back our own start time — barely made it to halfway and spent most of their 60 minutes seated on the ground chatting because they had given up.

As a horror room, The Doll House isn't quite as polished as Scram's newer and fancier The Witching Hour, whether in terms of theming or execution, but it is still quite an interesting and fun room in its own right. It is definitely our preferred room of the two we played at Scram's O’Connell Street venue.

Escape time: 55 minutes

Verdict: A creepy and occasionally scary doll room with solid theming and puzzles.

Rating: 8.55

Player	Theming	Atmosphere	Puzzles	Creativity	Fun	Average
H	8.5	8.5	8	8	8.5	8.3
E	8.5	8.5	9	8	9	8.6
Z	9	9	8	8	9	8.6
J	9	9	8	8.5	9	8.7
Rating						8.55