Mike Schnurr
- Oct 23, 2021
- 12 min read

Delusion by Jon Braver (Produced by Thirteenth Floor) - "Reaper's Remorse"

Updated: Apr 18

LOCATION:  Pomona, California, USA

Photo above is property of Delusion by Jon Braver (Produced by Thirteenth Floor)

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: Reaper's Remorse
📅 DATE PLAYED: October 23, 2021
🎬 GENRE: Horror (Immersive Theatre)
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): N/A
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: Up to 12 ppl
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60-120 Mins.
💰 PRICE: $89.99/ pp
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Public
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: N/A

Keep reading till the end for the exclusive interview with the creator, Jon Braver!

📖 THE STORY

Welcome to the Phillips Manor in the 1950s. Esther Phillips, has invited a select group of individuals to come and join her for the evening and view some of her artifacts she has collected throughout the years. These artifacts, she claims, hold souls, souls that are attached to each item, souls that have not been laid to rest. The very special reason, and the one why all of you are here, is because she has collected an extremely rare piece that even she will not interact with. What is this artifact and what has Esther so terrified that a lone woman, all with similar items, makes her so nervous to be around? Explore the Phillip Manor and uncover the souls trapped inside their anchors. Are they to be trusted? Is Esther to be trusted?

Video above is property of Delusion by Jon Braver (Produced by Thirteenth Floor)

👀 THE EXPERIENCE

Delusion's "Reaper’s Remorse" is an immersive theatre show. This is not an escape room but a full fledged play. What makes this different from all other plays that you have seen is the clear divide between the stage and the audience. In "Reaper’s Remorse", you are part of the play, you are part of the cast. Throughout the sixty minute long show, you and your group will be expected to improvise, run, crawl and hide all while actors are telling a story about what is truly going on in the Phillip’s Manor. Please do not let any of the above actions dissuade one from going, where the actions needed are planted into the storyline and guests are made well aware of what will be expected of them. Understand though, the more you put into your “part”, the more you will receive from the show.

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

Everything that is presented to you, scenic and prop wise, makes you truly believe that you have been transported back in time to a house that is lived in by this lone woman. There are items scattered everywhere in the house that tell the backstory and add to the intense storyline. Plot threads are introduced and/or clarified by these items and are visible to all.
The actors in the show were top notch! They kept to their character the entire time and were able to spout out proper remarks when improvisational moments occurred.
Sound design and lighting deserve a shout out. There was an original score created just for this production and it does what a great soundscape should, tense up those who listen to it when it is needed and throw away our sense of discomfort in the lighter moments. The lighting also created spot on cues. There was plenty for when the group was running for our life but in the more quiet moments, the use of blues and dim whites added to the creep factor.
There is so much technology packed into this show, it's amazing! All to the better is that none of the tech detracts from the core story or overrides the true horror of the show. The actors stay creepy, the tech enhances the scares and the audience delivers the reaction needed for each encounter to be pulled off.
The lobby is wonderful to snoop around in and one can easily spend thirty minutes learning about what is to come or what has happened from notes written by Esther herself. There is even a little puzzle for those observant folks out there.

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

** After careful review, nothing is needed to comment upon in this section.

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

Delusion is one of the first companies to make their mark on the immersive theatre scene back in 2011. A decade later, it shows. The production value, the interactivity, the care of the world and the show that the creators put into this is unlike anything I have ever seen. There is a reason they are constantly rated as one of the top immersive theatre shows in the nation.

There is an extra add on to the base ticket called “Her Private Collection”. Purchasing this extra experience gives access to the second floor of Phillip’s Manor where an exclusive bar and lounge is provided. Entertainment, such as magicians and actors wander around. Most intriguing of all though is an entire experience and encounter with one of the most eccentric and mysterious residents of the manor.

So with this not being an escape room, who would Reaper’s Remorse be for? I think that if you are a fan of horror or love escape rooms with actor interactions, attending this show would be a great use of your time. It is hard to explain more of the show without spoiling the spooks and scares and encounters that you will experience but the best comparison I can give is one of your favorite horror video games. It is like that, many of the moments in the show felt like something I have experienced while playing a video game and I got to act those out in real life!

I would also like to mention that even though Reaper’s Remorse is a horror show, do not expect it to be like a haunted house. There are very rare moments that actors will startle you out of nowhere, but the show focuses more on the unsettling and psychologically horrific. Will it be scary? Yes. Will it be uncomfortable? Yes. Do I believe that it is a show that almost anyone can watch and still come out enjoying the last sixty minutes? Absolutely. Reaper’s Remorse is an outstanding piece of theater that will have you and your friends talking for years to come.

Photos above are property of Delusion by Jon Braver (Produced by Thirteenth Floor)

🎙️ Exclusive Interview w/ the Creator, Jon Braver

Mike (ESCAPETHEROOMers):

My name is Mike Schnurr. I am from ESCAPETHEROOMers. It is a website dedicated to escape rooms, immersive experiences, online games, puzzle games and more! We're trying to seek out different experiences that are escape room adjacent. Being in the immersive industry, it feels fairly similar coming from each other.

Jon (Delusion):

Absolutely. Yes!

Mike (ESCAPETHEROOMers):

My very first question behind this masterpiece of a theater is, what is your inspiration behind Reaper's Remorse?

Jon (Delusion):

The main inspiration was to bring back our roots, bring back a horror show like we used to do in the past. We did a Sci-Fi action adventure, which was cool in 2018, called The Blue Blade. And then now we're going back to horror.

So my inspiration is to make sure that I do as scary as the show as I can for this year and something that really harkens back to, like, Halloween and captures the magic season and all that kind of stuff. So that was the foundation of what I wanted to do. But then once I found this location, I found out how old the house is, and that it was a Museum of different artifacts. From the beginning, I started thinking about what if there were more to these artifacts? What if they were, like souls captured within these artifacts? And then the story just sort of, like, built upon itself over time, where I started thinking about this woman, Esther Phillips. She's a real life woman who died a long time ago along with her husband, Louis, back in the early 20th century.

And there's not much written about her. She's a sort of reclusive kind of character, whereas her husband Louis was one of the richest men in LA. So once I heard that there wasn't much of a story behind her, I took her and thrust her into this dark adventure and had her become, like, a caretaker of souls, if you will. And then I started learning about this house and more about it. And I figured, you know what part of the house is going to be, and part of the estate is going to be, like, her latest acquisition, like her latest artifact. But it's tied to her background, the world she used to be in this halfway house. She took care of people, but she was possessed by this wrath shadow. I wrote the story faster than any other story. It just all sort of came out really quickly once I found the space, and once I saw these artifacts in the space, then it just boomed. The outline came through, like, a week and then I finished the script in a couple of weeks after.

Mike (ESCAPETHEROOMers):

Oh, excellent. That sounds great. So, this isn't your first foray into this immersive industry. How did you first get started?

Jon (Delusion):

Well, that's a long story. I'll make it a short, exciting story instead! So I know this is an ESCAPETHEROOMers thing, but I'm going to say this a few times. This is not an escape room. There are escape elements to it as well as haunted house elements. But at its core, it's a play. It's a theatrical production.

So how I kind of got into this thing in the beginning, with regards to your question, it all started from role playing games. I was a big RPG guy and stuff like that. But then I went into computer role playing games like Baldur's Gate and Skyrim. And then I was thinking, I've always been the type to thrust my friends into adventures when I was a kid, like scavenger hunts and stuff like that.

So that's really where it started. I played these games with my friends in my basement (my parent's basement). And then I would love to take these adventures and bring them into the real world. So I did that in the city of Chicago with Clock Tower. I decided to write a story in a clock tower and then bring the audience through, like a ten minute play. It all stems from wanting to, especially nowadays, get back to the childlike state. Let's get back to those adventures that we don't ever go on anymore.

For me, it's all about thrusting the audience into something they would never imagine into a world they would never conceive. Our lives are all kind of a bit repetitive when it comes to the things we have to do. So I'm trying to create an adventure. That's really what this is about.

Mike (ESCAPETHEROOMers):

I love it! So you talk about adventure. Is that the main driving factor behind all of your plays? What makes this experience different from all sorts of the other Immersive theaters out there?

Jon (Delusion):

This is our 7th year. So we've developed a style, the delusion that is sort of fantastical and otherworldly that's kind of the stories that I write. What sets us apart is our mantra, "play your part". We really dive deep into that where you have to help move this story forward. But I think what sets us apart is that we create a living, breathing, almost movie that you're inside of. We have an original score, sound effect, lighting cues... It's extremely cinematic. So the difference with what we're doing is I come from a film background, and everything we do with Delusion is like creating a movie, but live. Everything we're doing is cinematic. I think of people as a camera, like, when your group is going through the show, your lens and what is the best angle for the camera. So that's kind of how I'm staging and blocking the play as we're moving through, what's the best place for the guest/camera? So, in short, this is the most cinematic kind of live play that you'll ever encounter.

Mike (ESCAPETHEROOMers):

I know you said it was a very fast writing process, but when did this play actually come to fruition? How long has this been in the works?

Jon (Delusion):

Well, it's been in the works since January of 2021. I found the venue and then wrote it in February and March. And then we started getting the preproduction. So it's all building the team, doing the design work at first and then by the time we got to July/early August, we started more of the build. Most of the build was finished in Aug/September and then rehearsing took ten days. And then we're off to the race. We started on September 16th.

It takes almost six to seven months to kind of get all this stuff up and running.

Mike (ESCAPETHEROOMers):

All right. Well, being an blog that concentrates mostly on Escape Rooms, I do have to ask you the question, do you do Escape Rooms? And if so, which are some of your favorites?

Jon (Delusion):

So, yeah, I've gotten that question before about escape rooms. The funny thing is, every time I hear that, I realize I need to go to more. I don't go to nearly enough, but I have been lately. I went to one I really enjoyed with my daughter called "Whatever happened to the Garrett’s"? I thought that was pretty cool.

Mike (ESCAPETHEROOMers):

I heard good things about that room.

Jon (Delusion):

It’s a really good room. And then there's the venue 60out. Oh, I went to one of my favorites before too and the owner use to be one of my old actress and now she has her own company called Cross Roads Escape Games.

Mike (ESCAPETHEROOMers):

We are familiar with Cross Roads.

Jon (Delusion):

Yeah. Madison Orgill. She's amazing. But I will say one thing. My favorite Immersive experience, The Nest, is done by Jarrett Lantz. He actually helped create some of Delusion this year. He is an art director and owns some of the property. And the Nest is a beautiful, haunting kind of adventure in the storage unit. There's this woman who died a long time ago. She's got a bunch of stuff in her storage unit. You're kind of moving through it, collecting these cassettes and putting in a player and learning more about her life as you move through the storage units. And just the atmosphere is so beautiful. I can't recommend that enough.

Mike (ESCAPETHEROOMers):

That's wonderful, it sounds like an amazing time! Do you have any closing comments for our readers or just what to expect coming up, maybe even a teaser for next year?

Jon (Delusion):

Oh, wow. Okay. So what would I say to your readers? Well, I will say once again, I will repeat that if you're an escape room lover, that means you love being a kid. You love adventure. You love these kinds of experiences. So come into Delusion. But don't destroy all of our props. So let's just put it that way. It's not an escape room. Don't start ripping things off the walls, treat everything with respect and know that you're in a play. Number two is I guarantee you'll love it. It's a hauntingly beautiful, and terrifying story. And then in terms of next year, I'm with this company, Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group. So I'm starting a new Department for them called the "Immersive Experiences Department", and I'm directing that. So I have about four projects in the works right now. We'll see if they come out next year or the year after, but there's a long time here. My plans are measured in years instead of, like months. There's a long, exciting process. We're going to be going through lots of different experiences, but I would definitely stay in touch with Delusion. We helped bring about this interactive theater trend here in LA back in 2011, and we're just continuing to try to break the mold all the time and push the envelopes!

Mike (ESCAPETHEROOMers):

So far, so good. And after the show, after Reaper's Remorse, I had a wonderful time, the show was phenomenal. The storyline made sense and I know that's a hard thing to do in this type of industry.

Jon (Delusion):

That's another topic. How do you tell a story in this kind of format and get it across? Because there's a lot going on. People have came back multiple times. That's the cool thing about this kind of theater. It's like you come multiple times because you'll get different storylines but there's only one main storyline. And that storyline branches into different narratives. So there are moments when you're being captured and taken away into different “side quests”, if you will. But then you come back to your main group. So when you're done with the play, you come back to your friends, like, what did you do? How did it go? And you have different actors as well, too. So it's always different.

Mike (ESCAPETHEROOMers):

Does that mean every day there's a different show, or is it still always the same?

Jon (Delusion):

It's the same basic show. But the thing is, it's very organic because we double and triple cast actors. So the actors will bring about a different energy and you yourself, as I said, when you might get captured and taken away into one path, whereas you come back another day and you go on a different path, it will feel different every time you come.

Mike (ESCAPETHEROOMers):

Excellent. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. This is Mike Schnurr with ESCAPETHEROOMers along with Jon Braver. Make sure you check out "Reaper’s Remorse" in Pomona, California. Now playing through November 13th!

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