Black Lake Escape Rooms: The Bride / La Novia (Madrid)

A wonderful unknown

Among the neighbors in Black Lake, there is no talk about anything else: a strange person who calls herself Anael Vidal has just moved in. She says she has the ability to see completely clearly into the future, but also, for a few weeks now, she feels that she has a special attachment and it doesn’t seem to be a pending matter for any of her clients. What has happened in that house?

Will you be able to confront The Bride?

After a lovely, but short weekend in Madrid, inevitably we had to head to the airport to fly home. Fortunately we had heard about a new (well, new in English anyway) game that was worth playing and it was not too far from the airport: The Bride by Black Lake Escape Rooms.

We took a taxi from the city centre and found ourselves in a very residential area, and not the type of location that you’d expect to find a full on horror escape room.

Incidentally, at its first year of eligibility, The Bride placed a very respectable #76 in the 2024 TERPECA awards (Of course, we may have helped it achieve that position, as we loved it).

The Bride is one of those locations where you arrive exactly at the time you’ve booked for, and then ring the doorbell, and only at the exact time. We did this and we were greeted by Aeneal. Aeneal was in character from the moment we met him and his briefing and everything he did blurred the lines between escape rooms and reality.

So in a very dark room, and our smart watches and other electronic devices stowed away, it was time for us to meet the bride.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

There’s no denying it, this is 100% a horror experience and not one for those who are easily frightened. Because of this, the room was dark – very dark. Despite being dark, the use of lighting was very good and we were expertly guided to where we needed to be.

I would imagine if we turned on all the lights that the set would be much less impressive, but with the intended lighting levels, it was spot on. Nothing that will wow you, but it did exactly what it needed to.

Where this game excelled, actually, the two areas where this game excelled were the acting, and some clever game design choices that mean everyone in your group will be tested. Cryptic? Yep.

I’m not usually a fan of ‘silent’ rooms, but the silence of The Bride added to the experience as everything felt genuine and the only noises to be heard were the bride, or our screams.

PUZZLES

Horror games seem to be becoming more popular and that’s great, however I personally like it when you get a horror room with scares AND puzzles. Fortunately The Bride had both.

The puzzles were perhaps not the most complex, but when you’re being traumatised by ‘something’, your brain can get a bit mushy, so lighter puzzling is probably not a bad thing. Other than attempting to not void one’s bowels, the puzzles generally revolved around; observation, teamwork, wordplay, audio, and many tests of your bravery.

I guess I could add ‘navigation’ as a puzzle as there is a lot of back and forth between the rooms, but thanks to the lighting it was quite simple – even if it was ‘rushed’ at times.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Aeneal was, in a word, exceptional. He created a character that personally I think would be hard to play in one’s native tongue, let alone a second language that you’ve only recently learnt!

Obviously a horror game called ‘The Bride’ perhaps has another character, and yes, this role was equally well done. But for me, the star of the show was Aeneal from the start to the very end. The end that brought everything back full circle and ended our experience perfectly.

We needed a little bit of help here and there and when we did, it came through perfectly. Ok at times it was hard to understand at times perhaps due to the language barrier, but we got through the game and no immersion was broken.

ANYTHING ELSE

The team at Black Lake are so, so lovely and they deserve all the praise that The Bride is getting. I’m glad that they made this game playable in English as in our eyes, this is now one of the top games in Madrid – and considering the completion, that is very high praise.

I could write so much more about our experience with The Bride, but part of the joy is the unknown. You should definitely play this game, simply so you can also be impressed by what they’ve created.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players

Address: Travesia de Pablo Ortiz, 2, 28701 San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid, Spain

Website: https://blacklakeescaperoom.es