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Lost Souls Alley - Krakow

JoshC.

Strata Poster
Forgive me for starting a new thread about an obscure foreign scare attraction, but certainly something that I think requires mentioning... (It's also more of a review than a general discussion thread, so mods feel free to move to Trip Reports if you want!)

In the heart of Krakow, Lost Souls is very tucked away and easily missed. We heard about it whilst researching for things to do in Krakow, and it's got excellent reviews on Trip Advisors (at time of writing, over 1600 reviews, almost 1400 are 5*). Marketed as Poland's "first interactive museum dedicated to fear", with inspiration from horror films. We thought it was very much like an in-house, scarier Merlin dungeons attraction, mixed in with an escape room that lasts 20 minutes. Check out their website - http://m.lostsoulsalley.com

We were wrong.

After more digging, we found out that there were three extreme levels - two of which involved "pain". Okay then. Undettered, but slightly concerned, we went to the attraction to find out what the deal was.

Upon asking, we were told there are now 4 extreme levels:
Pink - Newly added. Actors won't touch, no pain involved
Green - Recommended. Actors will touch you lightly, but no pain.
Amber - Actors can use tasers to mildly shock you, and there will be some pain.
Red - Not recommended at all. Tasers set to full level, you could be separated from your group, no hold bars, no rules.

After discussing what touching was allowed in Green (arm grabs, gentle pushes, nothing that would hurt you), we decided to go for Green and booked a slot for a couple of hours later.

We returned, had the rules explained. It operated like an escape room - each room requires a key, find it, actors are there. They may touch you, etc. If you attack the actors, they have permission to either remove you from the attraction, or up the scare factor to Amber. If you personally wish to leave, tell an actor 'stop stop stop'. The group can carry on as long as there's two people.

We entered the first room, and escaped quite quickly. Next room was inspired by Hannibal. Actor is behind a door, encourages one of our group to come closer, and then swipes at their face. They're then encouraged to grab the key from a hole, but his hands are then cable tied extremely tight.

What then follows is a blur. We had the key, by the actor had "escaped", attempted to put members of our groups in choke holds, swiped at our faces, pulled us very vigorously. This was more than mild touching.

We made it into the next room, but I felt uncomfortable. For me, this had gone beyond what we were told was allowed, and this was only two minutes in! So I approached the actor, said stop stop stop', and left the remaining two members of my group to it.

I thought they were okay with the experience. Understandably scared, but in a good way. A couple of minutes later, they both came out. Despite only being the Green level (which, to add, was suitable for 14+), the other two had actors clasp their hands over their heads, and chased into corners by an actor with a live taser. That was too far, as their was no trust any more - what level intensity did we actually have?

After speaking with the receptionist, she looked into it, and apparently the Hannibal actor had gone a bit too far. Why was unclear, but it happened. Despite this, the other stuff - being grabbed pretty roughly, being chased and threatened by tasers, etc - is all green level. Wow.

In fairness, we were given a full refund and assured something like this wouldn't happen again, and offered a free go later in the day. But sadly, the trust had gone. It's too much of an off-putting experience for us to want to go again.

All of us like scare attractions, and aren't afraid of a little roughness. None of us had ever said a safety word / stopped a scare experience before. And equally we know our limits. Physical pain is a line we draw at, and there seems to be a very blurry line with where that is at this attraction.

For those who are ever in the area, I definitely think it's worth a look if it's your thing. And I'd love to read another's experience, especially someone who goes all the through (which a lot of people did, I assume under the pink version). But proceed with caution - it is EXTREME, it is INTENSE, there are no waivers, and I don't know what people are thinking when they go for anything higher than Green...
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
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See, I think that sounds ****ing vile.

Probably some @Ben would die for though. :p Each to their own, I guess.
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
I've done this, it was fab.
When we went we weren't offered the different levels though. And the actors/rooms sound a bit different.
Our one started with the hannibal room, but was themed to the ring, with a screen showing where the key was, again one of ours got cable tied. Ring girl chased us out once we had the key in the lock.
There was then a room with boxes and numbers and question marks which involved a clown.
Other rooms included a sealed room which we just kept going round and round until actors entered and left the door open to escape from, as well as a couple of wheelchair ghouls and a torture device room. All of which had a find the key or combination type goal to get from room to room.
We all loved it, and while there was some touching there was no heavy handedness like you mentioned.
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
Interesting...I did some digging and it seems like they introduced the different levels fairly recently. It's a shame they've done what they've done, as the version you describe sounds exactly like what we were hoping for and promised.

Obviously what they're doing at the mo is working and responding to the feedback they've got, but it's just not up my street. Hopefully they don't go too far into extreme and turn it into more of a survival-horror focused experience, as it'd be a shame to lose a decent-sounding horror maze experience in a city centre!
 

vaugc002

Mega Poster
It sounds like a horrible experience personally - I think the whole roughing up aspect is a bit ridiculous.
But I'm going to say I'm 99% certain they wouldn't be using real tasers on customers - I mean those things have been known to cause cardiac arrest and all sorts of health issues....
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
It sounds like a horrible experience personally - I think the whole roughing up aspect is a bit ridiculous.
But I'm going to say I'm 99% certain they wouldn't be using real tasers on customers - I mean those things have been known to cause cardiac arrest and all sorts of health issues....

I honestly don't know. When we said that the actors had tasers to the person at front, one of her first questions was "but they didn't actually tase you, did they?", implying that they could use it on you. Of course, it could be some sort of trick / misdirection, along with the expectation of being shocked, but tbh that doesn't seem like this place's style..

There's also the fact that Poland seems a lot more lax in H&S (no disrespect or anything, but a simple observation from my time there). And plenty of extreme attractions do stuff that can cause health issues, so don't think this is any different.
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Yeah, it's something very recent of them to do the different levels of 'intensity'.

The issue for me is that 'intensity' is just a mask term for endurance. There's an event that's recently opened in the UK that doesn't actually have an 'ending', you just endure as much as you physically can, and guess what? They market it as 'intense'.

I'm not one to be scared of these things and have done some pretty extreme/intense attractions, but actual physical pain is not what these types of attractions are about. If you want pain, go and see a Mistress/Master.
 

X: Uknown

Mega Poster
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Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
Hi, regular reader, just signed up for the first time as I came across this thread and felt the need to defend them a little.

Recently did this (Oct 9th) and it was an amazing experience, simply the best scare attraction I’ve done to date.

We got handcuffed with cable ties (loosely,) had to put our arm up, shall we say “inside” a dead lady, to retrieve a key, pulling it back out covered in blood and guts. Tazered by a clown (very mild, does not hurt much, just shocks and makes you jump, think along the lines of those silly shocking hand shake devices from the joke shop, but a little more extreme) locked inside a coffin with the clown jumping up and down, swung around by the girl behind the doors, who wrapped her scalf (i think) around my waist and swung me around with it, holding me back from my group, and of course, chased with a chainsaw at the end... All whilst experiencing the usual escape room and scare attraction clue solving and jump scares. It was absoloutely brilliant. Have done Alton Towers Scarefest, Screamfest at Burton and Extreme Scream Park at Twinlakes since, all good fun, but not even remotely scary in comparison to Lost Souls Alley.

At the end of the day, that’s what we pay for, to be scared, I certainly got my money’s worth in Poland, unlike most UK events. Cannot reccomend it highly enough. But let’s be real, they’re not going to really hurt you are they? Just look at their trip advisor, you don’t get a glowing page like that from hurting your guests. Remember, you pay them to scare you!
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
Glad you enjoyed it - what level did you go for out of interest?

For me, it was all very much about context. I love being scared, but I draw a line at experiencing actual pain in an attraction - you say even with the tasers, they don't "hurt much", which is still crossing a line I don't want to. The way the experience was described to us, the level of touching would have been comparable to something like Sub Species at Scarefest, so it put me very much on edge when we're being put in chokeholds, tightly cable tie someone and the like.

It's clear they've got their niche and that they've got people who love, even with the recent changes. And I've no doubt that lots of people will enjoy it - just we had an unfortunate experience which highlights the extreme nature it can reach very easily
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
We did not get to pick our level, we hadn’t booked and so tagged along with a Spanish couple who had booked, but based on what others have said I’m going to say it was yellow, or an excessive green maybe?

I think what I was trying to say is that I don’t think they ever intend to “hurt” you, I think it’s just different levels of touching, from the mild touch jump scare, to the physical “you will actully feel something, and it will shock you.” Obviously there is likely to be times when the actors get it wrong, and go too far for the level, or too far for any level. For example, at Thorpe park an actress scratched my face in the Saw:Alive maze this summer, and I was bleeding lightly from a pretty long cut. I didn’t even mention it to them, because it was obviously accidental. Whilst I felt the contact at the time, I actually didn’t realise I was bleeding from it until after I came out of the maze and my daughters boyfriend pointed it out. These things can happen.

Below are some of the better photos from our visit, to give folk an idea of what it’s like. I’m the big lad in black trousers and white t shirt.

1B75E790-7E68-42C6-9B29-5BFEA3E0AB00.jpeg 388FA60B-2E80-4EB1-92F2-36BF50BE5901.jpeg 0C28E2DF-2ABC-403A-93B8-58D17A58F7A0.jpeg 6291E8E3-288E-4385-B676-3ADB33322E47.jpeg 85F9E278-F0E7-43FF-9902-97B267EDBEEB.jpeg 09FF4166-5291-4269-803A-7F5ABF27835D.jpeg C77B2622-BCD0-495D-9BC9-6AE9F227DC8B.jpeg 5DD03388-E199-4C43-8308-FEA54E65434B.jpeg C2C73307-F77F-4689-AC30-CFCC050712CD.jpeg 015768E0-62A0-4AF4-B986-FF4D02A2BDAB.jpeg 8B2B25E0-69E6-4971-A2FF-55C46928563B.jpeg 7794F949-1E07-44A5-9EF4-463754717ADB.jpeg
 
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