Key To Escape — Local services in Statesville

Monday evening, a group of friends who are in the escape room business and I made the drive up to Statesville to check out “Under Pressure” at Key to Escape. Now THAT was a TOP SHELF room and place overall I must say! 🤗 They actually are closed on Mondays, but the owners Kim Siegrist And Roger Siegrist gladly fit us in...SO very nice of them! The building itself is historical, and you get a little bit of a history lesson complete with an old signed document on display as part of the introduction to this room (I’m guessing for the others as well). Super neat!

About the room-

I would definitely rank this room toward the top of my list of favorites. You get a bit of on-theme, not cheesy theatrical amusement mixed in with the clue hunting and riddle solving. They have used every inch of this 1920s speakeasy wisely, and have included elements, props, and antiques I haven’t seen in any other escape rooms that I’ve done (I’m at 30ish). I definitely had a few “whoa! awesome!” moments while playing and soaking it all in my eyeballs🤪.

The few things that could be seen as the “down side”of the room are: •The room is upstairs with no elevator; hence, I would not recommend folks with a disability or hardship to do this room😞; however, a downstairs game is available. •The maximum number of players I believe is 6, but I think that’s too many. I would go with a group of no more than 4 so that way it’s not as tight and everyone will be able to see all parts of the room.

Don’t read the bullet points as complaints, but rather as suggestions.

I live on the Charlotte/Mint Hill line. The long drive up to Key to Escape is well worth it. From the neat building to the super nice owners to the well designed room, my first experience at Key to Escape was fantastic. And to top it all off, they send you home with a FREE key keychain! I highly recommend this place for sure and will be back to check out the other 2 rooms for my upcoming...

Unique exciting adventure for family or a group of friends

Came back to my hometown to see family over my birthday and as part of the celebration went over to Key to Escape. My sister had booked the "Will" room, as it seemed the best one for beginners.

Walking up to the building, you are already struck with the architecture of what used to be a church (good selection of location by the owners). Then walking into the lobby and seeing the decor / dressing you start to get a sense that this is going to be something special.

We signed in while waiting for the last member of our part to get there (babysitting issues, not her fault! :)) and the hostess for that day (Maddie) did a wonderful job of keeping us entertained while we waited. She was very friendly and engaging, and when we did get to start gave the instructions for the room and told the background story expertly.

I won't say much about the room itself, as I don't want to give anything away inadvertently. But I will say just say dig right into it and try everything (although don't try to pull the camera down, like my mom tried to do before we stopped her!). After 5 or 6 minutes, I was worried we were going to be permanently stuck; but once you get going, everything starts to fall into place.

I'd like to go back some day and try Redemption and then the new one. Hopefully it won't take another birthday to...

From the moment you pull into the parking lot, you can tell this experience is going to be different compared to your run of the mill escape rooms. The building is an old historic church purchased by Roger and his wife. Roger's labor is evident in every corner of the building. My best friend and I, team name "Unbiological Sisters", are working on becoming escape room experts and we completed both rooms (barely and not without using every hint available) available at Key to Escape in one day.

Redemption works perfectly with the overall church atmosphere. This was the harder of the two rooms. Roger explained that the escape rooms aren't linear, meaning there isn't a necessary order to solving all of the puzzles. This room had a decent storyline and lots of puzzles and codes to find to solve the mystery.

We believe the better of the two rooms was Under Pressure. The work that Roger and his wife put into this room was amazing. It held history and real props that were from the time eras within the story. This escape room had twists and narrow turns that kept us engaged and interested from start to finish. There is certainly a pressure to complete the room in time.

We spent a lot of time talking with Roger and he was a delight. You can tell he loves what he does and is passionate about his projects. We can't wait to come back when Oz...