BLK4M4SS - PATHOLOGY review by Sam Berrett


Where do I even start...? BL4KM4SS' immersive show, Pathology, is an ongoing show, so I won't be giving away any spoilers. This has made it challenging to find my words, as I honestly just want to gush about it and give every detail of what I went through. It was that powerful. However, I respect others' experiences and of course BL4KM4SS' request to keep details to a bare minimum, so here it is, a couple weeks after the show.

Word came around the immersive horror/haunt/theater community this year that BL4KM4SS, represented by their cryptic Instagram page and unique business cards, is not to be missed. Their first shows were in LA, and we couldn't make it. We did, however, have friends involved with Haunting and Hvrting that went and highly recommended it. When word came out that they were touring with a show called Pathology and wanted to know where people wanted them to come, we of course commented to them about coming to Portland, or at least the Pacific Northwest! Then one day, there it was on Instagram... they're coming to Seattle for one night, August 9th. Needless to say, we were immediately excited, sent our applications in (just in time), were accepted, paid the entrance price and were given our time slots, all in one day.

I say slots, because this was our first show where we went through alone (I was at 9 PM, she was at 10:30). We haven't had the chance yet to do Blackout, Victim Experience, or any of the other big name shows known for solo experiences that we still hope to attend one day. We've done countless haunted houses, including House of Shadows which is full contact and our favorite haunt in the Northwest. We've also done much more extreme and longer horror simulations like Cracked vs. Heretic (Year 2, night 2) in LA, and Cracked Survival Experience (Year 5) in England. All of these, despite moments of separation, were group experiences, and we knew who the people behind the scenes were before going into the shows.

None of this applied to BL4KM4SS. We had guesses prior to the evening who was doing the show; we were in the right ballpark, but wrong. We actually didn't realize who they were until after Nicci's show when we were talking and suddenly realized together who we had just interacted with. This element of the unknown, and standing, waiting alone to be picked up, was a feeling of anxiety and excitement I had never experienced before. We parked nearby, waited for our times to approach, and walked alone to our pickup point when our respective times approached. As I waited, every person, every car, every van that went by made me think THAT MUST BE THEM. Looking back, it's pretty funny, but at the time it was a new feeling, and it was genuinely scary.


Pickup occured, and soon I found myself where the event would take place. I quickly felt very comfortable with the actors, and before I knew it, I was emotionally wide open and vulnerable, and they now knew things about me that few others ever will. They lead me on a journey that made me confront issues in my life that weren't easy, but were important. The way they handled me, physically and emotionally, was as professional as it gets, even when aggresive, and as a result, I experienced a catharsis that was so personal and meaningful that I'll never forget that night and the healing that came from it.


There are rare opportunities in life like BL4KM4SS, where you get what you put in, plus a lot more, but it requires you to be very willing to open up, and I'm so happy that I did. This was a wholly unique, moving show with amazing, empathetic actors, and I'm simply grateful for the opportunity to have attended. Thank you, BL4KM4SS.


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