Immersion experiences can be hit or miss, but I often feel like its a two-way street where the audience member has to let themselves be immersed. Sure, there’s definitely shoddily constructed experiences; I have been in a haunted house where a wall quite literally fell down when I touched it. But are you someone who screams when the actors in those houses dash up to you, even though you know it’s fake, because you know you’re there to have fun? Or are you someone who always stands stony-eyed when the Disneyland performers finish their big dance number? If you’re the latter, this post probably isn’t for you. But if you’re the former, Stranger Things: The Experience might be right up your alley.
Co-produced by Netflix and Fever, the event reimagines the world of Hawkins, Indiana as seen on Netflix’s sci-fi drama Stranger Things, now in Season 4. There are several similar experiences taking place in New York and London, but I went to the San Francisco location at The Armory. (As many San Franciscans will point out, a venue once owned by Kink.com.) On the tin, the immersion experience promises a whole new adventure in the world of Stranger Things, as well as the ability to interact with iconic locations and characters from the series.
This is an accurate summary of what happens. While it literally does take place in a giant warehouse space, the Netflix/Fever team do their best to make you forget where you are. When you arrive, you’re shuffled into a waiting area and told you’ll be participating in a sleep study for Hawkins Power & Light. Sounds harmless, but the scientists in the area stare a little too hard at you, and jot down notes every time you speak or glance at them. From there, you’re ushered into Hawkins Laboratory, and as you can expect, you are definitely not participating in a simple study.
I won’t spoil what happens after, but just know everything you do requires some degree of interaction with actors, as well as participation with the other audience members. Think an escape room mixed with an amusement park show where you’re likely to be called on in some way. If the thought of “Being Seen” mortifies you, again, this is probably not for you. It’s definitely a bit silly — the target audience for this seems to be tweens or, again, adults willing to get into it — but the actors also do a great job carrying you through it. (Shout out to the one guy in the first room who was so believable that I felt my anxiety spiking.)
After the actual “experience” — which I’d say lasts about 15 minutes or so — you’re then let out into a massive, neon-colored area. In my humble opinion, this is where most of the fun lies. Here you’ll find recreations of the ’80s locations seen in the show, from Scoops Ahoy and Surfer Boy Pizza to a bar called The Upside. You can purchase food and alcohol at each of these locations. (Pizza was $6, while premium cocktails were $16, based on the signs we saw.) The food was very OK, but the draw here is that there’s an opportunity to dress up in ’80s garb, mill around, and take a bunch of photos with friends in locations like Rink-O-Mania and the Byers’ living room — all while drinking cocktails and eating ice cream. There’s also merchandise from the show sprinkled all throughout this area.
In particular, we found ourselves won over by the number of actors who approach you on the floor here. They’re pretty much all archetypes based on characters you see on the show: they all go to school with Nancy and Steve, and they fall into groups like intrepid journalist, popular girl, video store nerd, or counter-culture rocker. They’ll come right up to you and ask if you know anything about the local sleep study, or what you’re even doing here. I found this a bit startling at first, but after interacting with a few of them we realized their storylines would often overlap in amusing ways. Somebody had gossip on somebody else, for example, and we were often suggested to go talk to the other person to suss it out. This was never enforced, obviously, but it was an interesting extra layer of immersion that allowed us to feel like we actually lived in Hawkins.
This is all to say: this immersion event is heavy on corniness and nostalgia. But the actors also make it feel very earnest, and it’s a fun way to pass the time especially if you’re missing these kinds of events from conventions like SDCC. It also helps that at least for the San Francisco location, it’s in an area surrounded by good eateries. So maybe check it out; grab some pupusas in the area, and let yourself be lured into the Upside Down.
Tickets are available for July and August and can be found on the Fever website here.
