In short: Questions and answers about Murder Van, the concept horror escape room Escape This is developing for Northbridge: the van, the Night Locksmith, the serial killer series, how scary it is and what is not announced yet.
In Murder Van your group is trapped in the cargo hold of a serial killer’s panel van while he drives. You have one hour, the length of the trip, to find a way out before the van reaches wherever he is taking you. It is a concept horror escape room Escape This is developing for Northbridge.
Murder Van’s concept begins with a lockout. Your group calls the 24-hour number on a sticker, a friendly man in a white van arrives within minutes and offers you somewhere warm to wait. The sliding door closes, the engine starts, and the game begins.
The Murder Van concept fills the hold with the killer’s working kit: a ribbed steel floor, a coil of cable ties, a torch, a pegboard of keys on numbered tags and a grille looking through to the cab, where a police scanner crackles beside a road map marked in red.
Because the Night Locksmith unbolted them. In Murder Van’s story he never bothers locking passengers in; he removed every inside handle from the cargo doors, so the only latch that works is on the outside. Getting those doors open is the puzzle at the heart of the room.
That is Murder Van’s central mystery. Groups of marks have been scratched into the steel by an earlier passenger, and they are not counting days. Escape This’s concept treats them as a message left for whoever is thrown in next, and reading it may be your only route out.
One hour. Escape This has confirmed that Murder Van gives players 60 minutes, and the story frames that hour as the drive itself. When the van stops for the last time, the Night Locksmith opens the doors from outside.
The Night Locksmith listens to the police so he always knows where they are not. In the Murder Van concept the scanner on his dashboard is both his alarm and your clue: whatever it picks up during the drive is worth hearing.
The Night Locksmith is Murder Van’s killer: a man who answers late-night lockout calls in a white panel van and drives away with whoever accepts his help. Nobody has a description of his face, only of the van and the words painted on its side.
No. The Night Locksmith was invented for Murder Van as a new face of the Undertaker, a fictional villain, and is not drawn from any real crime, killer or victim. His van, his map and the town it shows are fiction, and the lettering on the van is not any real locksmith business.
Murder Van never says outright. Each key on the Night Locksmith’s pegboard hangs from a paper tag with a number on it, and one hook is empty. Work out what the numbers mean and you learn a great deal about the man driving.
It is the Night Locksmith’s road map, folded open with circles in red marker, a few of them crossed out and joined by string. In the Murder Van concept it shows where he has been, and perhaps where this drive is meant to finish.
Yes. In Murder Van’s fiction the Night Locksmith is the newest mask of the Undertaker, the killer who buries players alive in Buried Alive and hides behind other faces in Asylum, Cannibal and Meat Grinder. The van is his latest game, and he has been writing about it in his diary.
Murder Van is part of Escape This’s serial killer series, alongside Buried Alive, Asylum, Cannibal and Meat Grinder. That series circles the Undertaker, the villain of Buried Alive, and the masks he wears in the other rooms. Murder Van is the Undertaker’s latest game, and the first chapter in which his lair has wheels.
Murder Van’s Northbridge neighbours include two of them: Buried Alive, where the Undertaker shuts you in a coffin, and Cannibal, where he becomes the Northbridge Butcher. Asylum, another of his masks, also plays on Lake Street, and Meat Grinder is in Melbourne CBD.
No. Murder Van is a standalone chapter with its own van, its own clock and its own mystery, so nobody needs Cannibal first. Fans of the series will enjoy pairing them, though, and Cannibal already plays at Escape This Northbridge, the same venue Murder Van is heading to.
Very. Escape This describes Murder Van as claustrophobic, scary and intense, and it is being built as extreme horror rather than a gentle spook. The exact age rule and any content warnings will be published when bookings open.
Probably. Murder Van’s whole premise is a cramped cargo hold with the doors shut, and Escape This calls it claustrophobic by design. Anyone who struggles in tight, dark spaces should wait for the full room details and talk to the Northbridge team before booking.
Murder Van’s concept leans on confinement and dread: a locked hold, a stranger at the wheel and a clock you can feel through the floor. Escape This has not released content details yet, so read the warnings when tickets go on sale.
Escape This has not set Murder Van’s minimum age yet. It is being built as extreme horror, so expect an age rule when bookings open; the Northbridge horror rooms currently range from 13+ to strictly 18+. Check the room page before booking for anyone under 18.
Escape This has not rated Murder Van’s difficulty. The room is still in development, so its puzzle count and rating will be published closer to launch, alongside the team size and price.
Murder Van is destined for Escape This Northbridge at 48 Lake Street, Northbridge WA 6003, in late 2027. Northbridge is the only venue Escape This has named for it so far.
Northbridge is the horror heart of Escape This in Perth. Murder Van will join Cannibal, Buried Alive, Asylum, The Haunting, Dracula and the rest of the Lake Street horror line-up, so a night out there can now end in the back of a van.
Escape This Northbridge’s team is on (08) 6118 0286. They can talk about the rooms open now on Lake Street; Murder Van sessions cannot be booked until Escape This releases them.
No. Murder Van will be a purpose-built set inside Escape This Northbridge, designed to feel like a moving van’s cargo hold. Nobody climbs into a working vehicle or leaves the building.
Escape This is aiming for late 2027 at Northbridge. Murder Van has no exact opening date yet, and this site will show one as soon as it is confirmed.
Not yet. Murder Van is still a concept in development, so there are no sessions or prices to book. Registering on the Escape This coming-soon page is how to hear when bookings open.
Murder Van’s prices have not been set. Escape This will publish them, along with team sizes, when sessions are released for Northbridge.
Escape This has not confirmed Murder Van’s team size. A cramped van suggests a tight crew, but the real numbers will be announced with the booking page.
Yes. Murder Van is a concept, so the story, the set and even the date may shift as Escape This develops it. The confirmed facts are its premise, its one-hour clock, its place in the serial killer series and its Northbridge destination.
Escape This is designing Murder Van in-house. Escape This is Australia’s largest escape room operator, with its own escape room design studio and escape room factory in Australia, and was named Escape Room Operator of the Year at the APAC Insider Australia Business Awards in 2025 and 2026.
Leave your details on the Escape This coming-soon page and you’ll hear before Murder Van sessions are released.