The reviews are in for Room 13, the 35-minute immersive horror show that Immersive Octopus and Battersea Arts Centre are running at the Lavender Hill building until 1 November. Directed by Tom Maller from a script by Bells Pendergast, it turns the real fire of March 2015 into a ghost story: small groups are led through the building to a room supposedly sealed after the blaze, solve a puzzle at a séance table, and then sit through the dark with whatever is inside. The critics agree on the craft, singling out Matt Farthing’s sound design and Max Sharp’s lighting, and several praise Megan Louise Wilson and Jeffrey Mundell among the performers. Where they part company is over the story and the scares. Some found it brisk, effective Halloween fun; others felt the lore was too thin and the frights drew more giggles than screams.
2.8 / 5 from 8 criticsThe verdict: nine reviews in, eight of them with a rating: one four-star notice, four at three stars (The Stage among them) and three at two, for an average of 2.8 out of 5 among the critics who score. UK Theatre Network gives no rating. The sound and lighting are praised almost everywhere; what splits the field is whether a short running time and a sketchy mythology leave the horror enough room to bite.
What are critics saying about Room 13?
Musical Theatre Musings
Reviewer: Serwah O’Neill
The warmest notice so far. O’Neill enjoyed the escape-room puzzle at each table and the unsettling host, and singles out an audience member’s apparent possession as a particularly effective twist. Her one complaint is that the stretches of darkness go on too long. Her summing-up:
“Room 13 is a distinctive and engaging theatrical experience that successfully immerses its audience in a world of mystery and horror.”
Read Serwah O’Neill’s full review at Musical Theatre Musings
Time Out
“This short, sharp immersive horror show offers efficient chills that leave you free to enjoy your night”
Reviewer: Andrzej Lukowski
Lukowski confirms that it is genuinely frightening once the séance sequence begins, and credits the sound and lighting with turning a plain room into something otherworldly. He would have liked more story, and thinks a quarter of an hour extra would have helped. His conclusion is a qualified recommendation:
“…being short cuts both ways: it's a bit undernourished, but it’s still an effective scare”
The Reviews Hub
“Steampunk horror”
Reviewer: Richard Maguire
Maguire likes the design and the journey up through the building, led by increasingly creepy marshals, but finds the room itself less frightening than he hoped, with a lot of sitting in the dark. His point is a familiar one for the genre:
“As with these kinds of experiences, the anticipation of being scared is more effective than the scares themselves.”
A Young(ish) Perspective
“Room 13 is an immersive horror experience for lovers and newcomers to the genre alike.”
Reviewer: Jessica Steans-Gail
Steans-Gail sees it as a gentle way into horror for people who usually avoid it, relying on light and sound more than shocks, and praises the ensemble. The story is where she has doubts:
“It’s an exciting premise that falls modestly short in practice.”
She found the ending an anticlimax after the build-up.
Read Jessica Steans-Gail’s full review at A Young(ish) Perspective
BroadwayWorld
Reviewer: Franco Milazzo
Milazzo enjoyed the paperwork that sets the scene, but the main event left him cold, and he notes faces around him ranging from intense to bored. For him the creative team’s strong track record makes the result more disappointing:
“…weighed down by an uninspired script, the result is far from surefooted.”
He does credit Farthing’s sound and Sharp’s lighting with doing a lot with very little.
Everything Theatre
“An immersive Hallowe’en chiller ushers us into a cursed room unearthed after the Battersea Arts Centre fire, but struggles to live up to its potential.”
Reviewer: Alex Sarll
Sarll admires the premise of the building playing itself, but argues that the instruction to stay silent is undone by a table puzzle that needs talking, and that the lore which is finally revealed is too generic. On the night he went:
“Reactions will likely vary from one performance to the next, but on this occasion I heard more giggles than shrieks.”
He thinks a couple of small changes could still make it work.
The Spy in the Stalls
“offers a fair share of frights”
Reviewer: Hannah Bothelton
Bothelton makes a similar complaint about the rules of the world and the noisy antechamber, and wants the tension to start building before audiences reach the room. She praises the sound, the lighting and the ferrofluid puzzle, and Mundell’s shift from guide to ghoul. Her verdict:
“‘Room 13’ has the makings of a haunting Halloween experience but needs further development.”
Read Hannah Bothelton’s full review at The Spy in the Stalls
UK Theatre Network
“Enter Room 13 if you dare…”
Reviewer: Bertie Pearson
A self-described wimp on his first immersive horror, Pearson was reassured by the opening puzzle and won over by the design of the room, the carved tables in particular. He reserves his biggest praise for the performer who stays with the audience throughout:
“Wilson gave an excellent performance that relied on her physicality to embody the entity”
He calls Farthing’s sound design the element that pulls everything together.
Production photographs by Harry Elletson.
Also reviewed by: The Stage (Oliver Jones, three stars, “Nerve-shredding”), whose review sits behind a registration wall.
For more from Battersea Arts Centre’s autumn season, read our roundup of NINA, and our earlier news on the cast and creative team of Room 13.
Room 13 is running at Battersea Arts Centre until 1 November 2026.
For more information, visit the official website.
