From a spooky cabin to a sinister motel, this metro Phoenix escape room is a winner

Most medical office buildings don't lead you to a creepy cabin in the woods.

But 312 N. Alma School Road in Chandler, a hub for chiropractic clinics and hearing centers, also houses a spot where campers' vacations go wrong and their survival depends on solving a series of puzzles.

The spot isn't really a creepy cabin. It's an escape room game.

ESCAPE:chandler is considered one of the best escape rooms in the Southwest for its themes and customer-focused experience. AAA named it one of the five best escape rooms in the Western U.S.

Recognizable for its logo, a running yellow figure with protruding spines that looks like a cross between a cactus and a board game piece, ESCAPE:chandler was the first escape room in Chandler when it opened in 2018.

Other escape rooms have opened in the Valley since then, including Escape the Room at Chandler Fashion Center, but ESCAPE:chandler continues to stand out for its independent, nonfranchised operation and how its four story-driven escape rooms provide a challenging yet fun (and sometimes scary) entertainment experience.

It's also one of few places in the country to take part in Kate's Motel, a 90-minute game where players must collect evidence to investigate suspicious disappearances.

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What is an escape room?

Escape rooms are immersive live-action games where a group of at least two people works together to complete tasks and solve puzzles to find an "escape" from the game's setting before time runs out, usually within an hour.

Like martial arts, video games and anime, escape rooms were popular in Japan before arriving in the United States. The Japanese company SCRAP is credited with creating the first escape room, known in English as Real Escape Game, in 2007.

Escape rooms sprang up in many U.S. cities in the years after SCRAP opened a Real Escape Room in San Francisco in 2012.

How did ESCAPE:chandler begin?

Kate Obermiller and her family were avid escape game players before she opened her escape room in 2018.

Around that time, they had to travel far distances to experience escape rooms. Some of them didn't allow young children.

"When we started doing escape rooms in Phoenix, we thought, 'Why wouldn't you let kids play there,' and 'Why are there no escape rooms in Chandler?'" she said.

So she created one with her husband, Lewis. They opened with one game — Pawn Shop — in 2018.

Its first paying customers were a group of Girl Scouts who were working toward their Detective badges. Their mystery to solve: Recover $2 million in stolen diamonds hidden inside a laptop computer.

The scouts paid just $1 to play. That first dollar is framed on the lobby wall, signed by each scout in the troop. (Their signatures are only visible under a blacklight.)

In the first few months, most of Obermiller's customers didn't know what an escape room was. Now, she gets many big escape room fans who've done at least 20 of them.

"It's a super fun industry," Obermiller said. "People come happy and leave happy. And it's very rare you come across an unhappy person."

How many escape rooms are in Arizona?

A database compiled by Scott Levy, a member of the Facebook group Phoenix Escape Room Enthusiasts, counts 61 escape room venues in Arizona, including 33 in metro Phoenix.

Several escape rooms are in prominent dining, shopping and entertainment districts, like Escape Westgate in Glendale's Westgate Entertainment District and Escapology in Gilbert's SanTan Village.

But many others, especially independent operations like ESCAPE:chandler, are off-the-beaten-path venues in strip malls and professional plazas that don't typically draw fun seekers.

How does ESCAPE:chandler stand out?

What sets ESCAPE:chandler apart from other escape rooms is how it offers games that are unique to the region and are family-friendly.

Even the games with scary themes appeal to families, though Obermiller recommends them for older children because younger children can't handle some scary images.

She and her staff work to accurately replicate the settings in the game. For instance, she'll pipe in the smells and sounds of the woods in The Cabin room. The theme for The Cabin evolved from a concept for a lighthearted game that would simulate fall in Flagstaff, she said.

While many escape rooms involve puzzles, the 90-minute Kate's Motel incorporates more physical challenges, allowing people with different skills to enjoy the game, Obermiller said. Kate's Motel pays an obvious debt to the Bates Motel in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller "Psycho," whose opening shots depict the downtown Phoenix skyline, including a hotel guests can stay at today (hint: it's not called Bates Motel).

The more tasks and challenges are needed to escape the room, the harder it tends to be. ESCAPE:chandler's website states that more than half of its participating teams successfully escaped the Pawn Shop and Tony's Bistro rooms, compared with only 34% for The Cabin and 16% for Kate's Motel.

ESCAPE:chandler's escape rooms follow a nonlinear structure, meaning people can work on each of the tasks at any given point, Obermiller said. Getting to the next task doesn't depend on whether the first task was completed.

Multigenerational families typically are the most successful in escaping the rooms, she said.

"Kids get some parts of puzzles that adults might not," Obermiller said.

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What escape rooms are available at ESCAPE:chandler?

ESCAPE:chandler offers four escape games, three 60-minute games and one 90-minute game:

• Pawn Shop: Players must uncover $2 million in diamonds hidden in a laptop computer in a pawn shop. 60 minutes. $30-$39 per person depending on the group size.

• Tony's Bistro: In this Mafia-inspired game, players must find cash intended for a hitman named Rocco Calzone before the authorities get to it. 60 minutes. $30-$39 per person.

• The Cabin: This horror film-inspired game puts players in the role of campers who discover one of their friends is missing and follow a trail of blood to a cabin in the woods. Their goal is to find a way to call the police before the cabin's resident returns. 60 minutes. $30-$39 per person.

• Kate's Motel: In a longer horror film-inspired game, players must uncover evidence in mysterious disappearances at a hotel before its sinister proprietor catches them. 90 minutes. $49 per person for groups of two to four people; $45 per person for groups of five to nine people.

Booking in advance is generally required. Make reservations at https://escapechandler.resova.us.

Details: 312 N. Alma School Road, Suite 9, Chandler. 480-466-0005, escapechandler.com.

Reach the reporter at Michael.Salerno@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @salerno_phx.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Best escape room in Phoenix: Four ways to play at ESCAPE:chandler