Easy horror escape room in Hongdae for two: Cube Escape Monkey House

Hi, it's Ddaedongsseu! I've been looking for something different to do on a date in Hongdae lately, and I ended up going back to try an escape room after a while. This time it was Cube Escape Hongdae Branch!

Where is Cube Escape Hongdae Branch, and what are the hours?

Cube Escape Hongdae Branch is on the 4th floor of Mugwang Building, 15 Yanghwa-ro 16-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul. It's about 402m from Exit 9 of Hongik University Station — walk straight along the main road from Exit 9, then head up the hill next to Baengnyeon Tojong Samgyetang main branch to the 4th floor of the Harmony Mart building.

Hours are Monday to Thursday 11:00–23:45, Friday to Saturday 10:00–00:05 the next day, Sunday 10:00–23:45, and 10:00–00:00 the day before public and substitute holidays.

There's a proper seating area inside, which I liked~

They also have separate lockers for storing bags and shoes, plus a phone charger — super convenient~

Why two players picked the Monkey House theme

My friend and I were trying to decide which theme to play, and we ended up choosing Monkey House! The mood and difficulty vary a lot between themes, so if it's your first time or you haven't played in a while, it can be hard to know what to pick — we wanted something we could enjoy without it being too hard or too physically demanding~

Spoiler up front: Monkey House wasn't that scary, and the difficulty was on the easy side, so it worked well for two people.

There's a video explanation before you start, and the staff also gave a friendly, detailed briefing beforehand, so even as escape-room beginners we found it manageable haha.

The Monkey House storyline at Cube Escape Hongdae Branch

To sum up the story briefly: "I'm not crazy! I'm NOT crazy!! But... who am I?" You come to your senses with no memory of why you're here or how you got in. Then, along with the next dose of medication, a mysterious explosion goes off, and everything shakes like an earthquake amid a deafening blast. When you open your eyes, everything around you is total chaos, and outside it sounds like patients are running wild in a riot! But the biggest problem is there's no door visible in the room. No matter how hard you rack your memory, you never saw a nurse or doctor come in... In the end, it's a theme where you have to piece together the traces left in the room to find a way out. Just from the story, it sounds pretty scary, right?

How hard is Monkey House, and how much moving around?

For us, Monkey House was on the easy side in difficulty, and there was almost no physical activity involved. We tackled it as a pair, and personally I think two people is plenty for this theme. It wasn't the kind of escape room where you run around or move your body a lot — it was mostly about finding clues in the room and solving puzzles. So even people who don't like physically demanding escape rooms should be able to try this without much worry.

The difficulty was also easy from our perspective. Of course, how hard it feels can vary depending on your escape room experience or puzzle-solving style, but for us, a lot of the puzzles clicked more smoothly than expected.

Is the Monkey House horror theme actually scary?

The thing we were most curious about going in was how scary it would actually be. Monkey House is a horror theme, but it wasn't as scary as we expected. We were a little tense before going in haha — I'm not a fan of sudden jump scares or overly dark atmospheres in escape rooms, so I went in half-dreading it... but it turned out not to be that terrifying.

That said, since it is a horror theme, the atmosphere is definitely creepier than a typical mystery theme, and there were tense moments here and there. But it never got to the point of "I'm too scared to solve this!" I think even people trying a horror escape room for the first time could enjoy this one fairly comfortably.

The result: 3 hints and an escape with 23 minutes left

And our final result was... escaping with 23 minutes left! Though it wasn't a clean escape — we used 3 hints. Hahaha.

The puzzles themselves weren't super hard, but with just the two of us, we missed a few things, and once we got stuck on one, we kept searching in the wrong spot. Still, using hints when needed left us with a decent amount of time to spare. Personally, I don't think you have to aim for a no-hint escape every time — using hints when you're stuck so you can enjoy the story all the way through is fine too. Monkey House in particular is on the easier side, so it seems like a good theme for first-timers or anyone looking for a 2-person escape room!!!

• Playable with 2 people
• Low physical activity
• Easy-ish difficulty
• Horror theme but not as scary as expected
• 3 hints used
• Escaped with 23 minutes to spare

Cube Escape Hongdae Branch prices by group size

• 2 people: ₩45,000 total / ₩22,500 per person
• 3 people: ₩60,000 total / ₩20,000 per person
• 4 people: ₩76,000 total / ₩19,000 per person
• 5 people: ₩90,000 total / ₩18,000 per person
• 6 people: ₩102,000 total / ₩17,000 per person
• 7 people: ₩119,000 total / ₩17,000 per person
• 7+ people: ₩17,000 per person

The price was also pretty reasonable compared to other escape room cafés in Hongdae, so it was easy to enjoy without worrying about the cost!! And the lower price definitely didn't mean lower production quality. The set design and atmosphere inside the theme were better than expected, which actually made it feel like great value for money :)

Other themes at Cube Escape Hongdae Branch besides Monkey House

And it was great that Cube Escape Hongdae Branch has a variety of other escape room themes besides Monkey House, so you can pick one that fits your taste haha. There's everything from immersive horror or thriller themes to ones with a different vibe, so it's worth checking each theme's difficulty, scare level, and physical activity before you visit and picking whichever one you're in the mood for~! We're planning to come back and try a different theme next time ^_^