The Alone Experience [An Existential Haunting] is a fully immersive ~45 minute walk-through experience, which you enter alone. “Your body will move and be moved through our space.”
Now that you’ve read that, I want to start with: Hi, My name is Josh Gilson and I am a wuss. That’s right, I didn’t go through. Would you after reading the first sentence!? So while I did attend the waiting area and opening night, I brought my good friend Terry, who loves this stuff more than anyone I know to be the guinea pig for this haunt. There was no way in hell I was getting remotely close to it. So while we are going to take you into this very intriguing haunted experience, we are going to do it interview style, because again, no way in hell I was going in.
Located in Los Angeles, California (North Hollywood) at an “undisclosed location.” We pulled up to a weird industrial building, with the words “Alone Inc.” on a door, but were directed to enter down a long dark alley and wait in area that resembles a scene right out of the walking dead, minus the walkers. The area was full of weird sounds and atmospheric music, strange people including a gender neutral person holding an 8-week old dog that he/she was raising gender neutral as well, and lighting to convey a sense of different and wonder. This is Los Angeles after all, what else did you expect?
When it was Terry’s turn to enter “Alone Inc.” he was summoned by a man in a black suit with his name on a list, along with 4 other people. It felt like a doctor’s office visit and he was next on the operating table. At this point, I watched him and 4 other people enter the building and that’s pretty much where my story ends and his begins. I interviewed Terry immediately after he came out of the experience, and this is his story. Good luck ready it ALONE… *SPOILERS AHEAD!
Me: Once you entered the “Alone Inc.” entrance, what happened?
Terry: The concierge escorted me and four other people into a room where we all have to sign release forms and told the safe word “Together” in case we needed to exit. I went third, so I had to wait about 5 minutes between each person.
Me: When it was your turn, how did you enter in?
Terry: When it was my turn, a lady walked up to me and grabbed me by the arms. She walked me towards a black curtain and whispered in my ear “At anytime you go into a room you go into any door you want. All unlocked doors are game. All locked doors, you cannot go through.” She then pushed me through the curtain into the first room.
Me: What did the first room look like?
Terry: The first room was completely white with very dim lighting. As I begin to maneuver, I find 3 doors. 1 door was locked, 1 door was open and 1 door was closed. I decided to go through the closed door. The second I opened the closed door I was grabbed by somebody. I was immediately sat down on a rolling office chair and then the lights went out. They then start rolling me in the chair around the room in the dark. When I was stopped, the lights came back on and I was sitting at a desk and there was a lady on the other side. She immediately started telling me about light and color and how color is only visible when there is light. She also started talking about fragments, and light and darkness and other things. She also kept focusing on the fact that we’re not circles, we’re triangles.
Me: While she’s talking to you what is she doing?
Terry: She was drawing all over my arms that looked like hieroglyphics and her head was cocking back and forth, very creepy like. She ended the speech with “Remember, you are a triangle, not a circle!” She then grabbed me and moved me into another room where I was moved by a second person into another space.
Me: What was in this new space?
Terry: There was a long, very dark staircase going up that I couldn’t see the end of. As I started walking up the staircase, lights start flickering and I notice 1 door on the left. I tried to enter it, but it was locked. As I continued up the stairs, I was bracing myself for anything that might happen. I got towards the top of the stairs and I noticed that the stairs keep going and the ceiling was not. So as I get to the top, I have to start crawling, which felt like forever, until I was in complete darkness. I had to feel my way around. The textures were cloth curtains, brick walls and plywood.
Me: What are you hearing during this?
Terry: It was very quiet while I was crawling, but in some rooms, I hear machine sounds and sounds of static and music.
Me: Once you got out of the crawl space, what happened?
Terry: I see a guy looking through all this paperwork at a desk and I imagine it has something to do with consumerism, but I don’t know. He starts to hand me pieces of paper over and over. I tried to read them , but it was very dark. He starts to move me around in office chairs, spins me around, stands me up and pushes me into a room with a guy in a hazmat suit.
Me: What does the man in the hazmat suit do to you?
Terry: He looks at me frantically, runs over to me and pushes me against the wall pretty hard and makes me sit down. He then starts to take my blood pressure and starts to shake his head no, like “this is not good.” After some more acting and movement by this guy, he pushes me into the next room where I was ushered by someone else into a small movie theater with stadium-style seating.
Me: Once you sat down, were you by yourself?
Terry: No, there was one other guy sitting in there. It was the first person from our group. By he was quickly ushered out by a guy with a flashlight. There were also mannequins sitting in a bunch of the seats.
Me: What was on the screen playing?
Terry: There was color flowing on the screen in a loop and the audio was speaking about fragments of light, triangles, circles, colors, darkness and how, if you see other people in the theater that look human, they’re not. They work for Alone Inc., this was running theme and they kept talking about “Alone Incorporated.” You see Alone Inc. throughout the entire experience.
Me: From the theater, where were you usher into next?
Terry: I was put into a room where there was a short, petite young woman crying. As I stand in front of her I noticed they were real tears and then she grabs my hands and cries even harder. Then out of nowhere, she embraces me hard. Like a really, hard hug and cries for over a minute. And I was just sitting there, embracing this girl as she cries. She then releases me, nods and walks me into another room.
Me: There seemed to be a lot of grabbing. Were you grabbed in the next room?
Terry: Yes, I was grabbed by a guy who forced me into another series of crawling mazes. So as I’m crawling through brick and curtains, and plywood, it gets very dark and I can’t see anything. At the end of the maze, I was grabbed again and brought into a room with a guy in another hazmat suit who would inch closer and closer every time a light flashed in my eyes until he was right up on me and then he grabbed me.
Me: Did he say anything?
Terry: No, in fact I noticed that the girls talked a lot, but the guys didn’t talk at all. Which was interesting to me.
Me: What was the next room you were in?
Terry: After that, there were many different weird actors in rooms. From a person in a tiger suit that forced me to dance, a guy that played peek-a-boo with me in a room full of pillows and tarps, a room full of static old televisions, a backstage of a different theater and then into that theater, a supply closet with cleaning supplies and a few other random, strange interactions. Throughout these rooms there was either music or a drone sound in the background.
Me: In the second theater, what happened?
Terry: There was a girl that asked me my name when I was backstage by the projector. I told her my name. She then asked “Do you remember the first room?” I said “Yes I do” and she asked “Do you remember the last thing they told you?” I had to think for a second, but I said “You’re not circles, you’re triangles.” She got really close to my face and smiled very creepy, like the Joker and said “you’re correct!” She then grabbed me and moved me into the theater to sit down.
Me: What would have happened if you didn’t remember what was said!?
Terry: I have no idea. After I sat in the theater watching the same color looping video an usher flashed a bright light in my eyes and asked me my name. When I responded he said “Great, we’ve been expecting you! In a minute, you’ll be going into an interview and we want to make sure you answer everything accurately so we make sure you’re the right man for the job, but boy you better hope you’re not the right man for the job. So what I need for you to do is take this laptop case [hands me a laptop case] and go down the stairs and you’ll see a green down. Open the door and scream ‘I WANT TO BE ENCOMPASSED BY LIGHT!’ Now practice it.”
Me: So what did you do once you went down the stairs and in the room with the green door?
Terry: After I went into the room and shut the door, I was in complete darkness. I screamed “I WANT TO BE ENCOMPASSED BY LIGHT!” like six times until someone grabbed me in the dark and moved me into a tunnel where there was lights flashing in my face. I had to start crawling in a labyrinth of dark mazes again above and below me. This was very physical and claustrophobic.
Me: What did that maze lead to?
Terry: I ended up in a room where I had to dance with a person dressed as an elephant and he proceeded to wash my hands. I walked into the next room that looked like a kitchen and my hands were washed again for me. The next room has a man inside a hazmat suit with a very large bowl of white powder. He started taking handfuls of the powder and dumping it on my hair and making sure it covered my arms. It got all over my black pants.
Me: Can you see at this point? Are there bright lights?
Terry: No. It’s always either very dim or flashing lights to disorient me.
Me: This is a crazy experience and long! What came next after the man in the hazmat suit?
Terry: The next room had me wash my hands and then I was forced into a long hallway with about 9 doors in it. Each door was labeled something different. One was called supplies, one was recording room, just different names. I would walk into a different rooms and there were guys set up with in front of computers. It’s like they’re behind the scenes guys you’re not supposed to see. When I walked in, one of the guys would stand up and walk towards me and yell “NO! GET OUT!” like you couldn’t be there.
Me: Was this part of the show? Were they actors?
Terry: Yes, they were obviously part of the show. I think it felt a lot like big brother watching over me and controlling everything.
Me: So did you find a room that you could go in?
Terry: Yes, I went into a room with a computer at a desk and I sat down. There was someone speaking to me through the computer and a microphone for me to respond.
Me: What were they asking you?
Terry: It was hard to hear them and the audio would cut out and then I would hear “…so do you agree!?” and I would say I couldn’t hear them. This repeated until they said “we need an answer! Do you agree!?” So I said yes and then he asks “What is the one thing you’re worried about in life?” I said “Will I succeed?” and the voice says “Well you’ve answered one of the two questions correctly. But I’m ashamed that you’re so worried about success…” I was abruptly grabbed and moved into another room.
Me: What other rooms do you remember?
Terry: There was so many rooms. One room had a large wicker swing attached to a track that I sat on while house music played and I was pushed around and spun. Another room, I was forced to sit on a chair in complete darkness and the chair started to tip backwards. The chair then landed on a cushion and it was like I was on a conveyor belt where I moved and saw flickering lights above me.
Me: Very creepy. What was the last room before you exit?
Terry: The final room was the creepiest room. This room had a lot of light shining and I didn’t know where to go. As I kept walking into the room, a very large and tall man, wearing a dress grabs me and starts to dance and waltz with me. This goes on for well over a minute until he suddenly stop and stares at me. After that, he grabs me again and pushed me outside to the exit.
Me: Wow, that seemed very intense. What are your final thoughts on the whole Alone experience?
Terry: Never boring. Thought provoking and wildly weird. It was very interesting and I would definitely do it again as it seems it could be different, based on the doors you open and the rooms you go into. I loved it.
After Terry & I were discussing his strange journey that lasted about 50 minutes, we saw other people come out the exit confused and very disoriented. Some people had clay on them and after talking with them they obviously had different experiences inside this unique alone haunt.
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Are you braver than me to try this? (You probably are). The Alone Experience is running in Los Angeles from October 17th – November 1st. Get your tickets HERE and let us know what you thought of it!
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