Brighton Asylum Escape Room — Attraction in Passaic

I unfortunately cannot recommend this place. We were very excited to come and drove all the way from NY to experience the escape room and axe throwing.

The escape room. We weren't told about how to reset the lock and even after we attempted the correct code multiple times, it did not work. The worker had to come in and even he had to try it multiple times before it worked. One of the steps in the tunnel did not work and caused confusion. You can hear clues being given to other rooms which caused confusion. Overall, it was just not a good escape room experience (and we've been to multiple).

Axe throwing. This is where our group just had enough - after the bad experience with the escape room, the axe throwing was just unacceptable. All of us have been axe throwing multiple times in multiple different locations and we have never, ever been to one where 1) the axe was so blunt most of us were unable to get any to stick. We even went up to the board to try to test it and it still wasn't sticking. 2) the axes would ricochet back across the room, way past the line - which is a huge safety hazard that we have never ever experienced at other locations.

When we had enough of the terrible axe throwing experience and wanted to talk to a worker, we had to walk around and try (unsuccessfully) to find someone. What if someone had gotten hurt? Or just needed help?

The owner that we had to reach out to for a refund for the unacceptable experience wasn't even there at the venue but told us how we were completely wrong, tried to give us an over the phone tutorial and tell us that his employees are not trained and do not know what they're doing. The employees, to their credit, did tell us that they had multiple complaints on the axe throwing and the owner had ignored all the feedback. Not For nothing, even the group next to us had told us that they were not able to stick any axes and had difficulty with it as well.

Lastly, the owner had offered 50% off but instead just refunded 34% of the package escape room and axe throwing deal. Then told us we were the ones lying...? It was honestly just a combination of bad set ups and even worse customer service on the part of the owner (you could tell the employees were just trying...

DO NOT GO HERE!!! Nothing works. The escape room has a lot of malfunctions to the point that the workers had to come in and struggle too. On top of that, another group was doing an escape room and you can hear their clues and it really messes with your game. The tiles were not working properly either. The pages in the books were ripped and could barely be seen. We also did axethrowing and it was even worse. The two employees even said that they tell the owner, Rich, that nothing works and he doesn’t do anything about it. The axes were dull and the board were broken. The employees said that Rich has summer boards that work better but he hasn’t put them up yet. Both employees were quick to throw Rich under the bus because he treats them horribly. We spoke to Rich over the phone and he was very rude and dismissive. After arguing for 30 minutes and him calling his employees untrained and uneducated, he promised us a 50% refund. Turns out he lied and gave us a 34% refund and when confronted he said he never said 50% even though we have it recorded. DO NOT GIVE THIS HORRIBLE PERSON ANY BUSINESS!

Reply: Rich was not there and there was no instructions on the padlock. The employees agreed with us that this place is a scam. The folks in the other room doing axe throwing also left early and said it was a scam. It was not just us. We finished the escape room with ample time left but many of the components were defective. Again, the owner has a massive ego and will tell you how to properly throw an axe and that everyone including his workers are...

I don’t recommend this place.

I saw the other review about how hot it was inside, but took a chance on this place anyways. That was a huge mistake. It was 90 degrees outside today and it felt cooler outside than it did inside. We were full body sweating within 3 minutes of just standing in the first section of the escape room, making it incredibly hard to concentrate. We passed through escape room 1408 on our way out and I saw just one small portable A/C unit that said 60° but it 100% wasn’t anywhere close to that temperature physically in that room — maybe mid 80s at best. There wasn’t even a portable unit in any section of the room we did (The Tomb.) If there was some form of A/C besides a portable unit like they say in their response to the other review, we didn’t feel a thing.

The escape room itself was fine. Well decorated but had convoluted clues in my opinion, and had worn down props that lead to a lot of confusion for us.

Also beware dozens of tire-ending potholes when driving up from Brighton Ave to the warehouse area. And no official signage at either of the 2 visible doors and no one around in the general vicinity at the location — you have to text a number back to have someone come out and get you. On our way out we ran into a poor soul who said he drove there all the way from New York. He looked about ready to leave cause he wasn’t even sure if he was at the right location and questioned the legitimacy of the place when we told him he was at...