In short: Answers about Cannibal, the 18+ horror escape room by Escape This: the Northbridge Butcher, difficulty, prices in Northbridge and Sydney CBD, group sizes, the age rule, accessibility and records.
He’s the killer whose lair you wake up in. Cannibal’s story starts with butchered remains buried at a William Street construction site and tourists vanishing around Northbridge. The cuts were so expert that police feared a cannibal copycat. Everyone called the Butcher a hoax. He isn’t.
A night out that went badly wrong. Cannibal begins with you coming round on a cold, blood-slicked floor, memories of the evening blurry, industrial freezers humming and a blade being sharpened somewhere nearby. Nobody remembers getting there.
It’s how you beat him. Cannibal asks you to decipher the Butcher’s twisted diary as well as break out of his meat locker, so getting inside the killer’s head is part of getting out alive.
In the story, dinner is served. In real life, Cannibal’s hour ends, a gamesmaster opens the door and your group gets a few minutes afterwards to catch its breath and talk through what it missed.
It’s a big first bite. Cannibal is rated 8 out of 10, and Escape This recommends having a few escape rooms behind you before trying it. First-timers in Perth are pointed to Bank Heist or The Wizard’s Chamber at Escape This Perth CBD; in Sydney, to Pirates or The Wizard’s Chamber.
One hour in the meat locker. Cannibal also needs 15 minutes beforehand for check-in and the briefing, and about 15 afterwards, so set aside roughly 90 minutes. Groups who escape early get out a little sooner.
Complex and a little sideways. Cannibal’s puzzles sit at the hard end of the Escape This scale, and reviewers talk about puzzle interactions they hadn’t met in other rooms, having to think well outside the box, and a final puzzle that is a real test.
At Northbridge, Cannibal is $49 per player Monday to Thursday and $59 Friday to Sunday. At Sydney CBD it’s $55 Monday to Thursday and $65 Friday to Sunday. Everyone at the table is an adult, so there’s one price per head, and public and school holidays are excluded.
Pick Northbridge or Sydney CBD on this site’s booking page and choose a time. Cannibal bookings confirm on the spot. Prefer a phone call? Ring Escape This Northbridge on (08) 6118 0286 or Escape This Sydney CBD on (02) 9173 8535.
Evenings and weekends get busy, so book Cannibal ahead if you can. Escape This advises reserving early at Northbridge in particular. Same-day bookings work when the live calendar still shows a free slot.
Split the party. Cannibal’s limits are fixed (six at Northbridge, eight at Sydney CBD), so the rest of your group books another room starting at the same time. For office outings and big crowds, Escape This’s team-building hub shows how many people each venue can host at once.
Never. Every Cannibal booking is private to your group. Escape This has always run its rooms that way and says it always will.
Yes. Escape This gift vouchers work for Cannibal at Northbridge and Sydney CBD and are sold on escapethis.com.au. Because Cannibal is strictly 18+, check that whoever you’re treating, and their group, are all adults.
Yes, as long as the drinks come afterwards. Escape This recommends Cannibal for date nights, buck’s and hen’s parties and work groups that like a challenge. Nobody under the influence is allowed in, so start the celebrations once you’re out of the locker.
It depends on the venue. Cannibal at Northbridge takes 2 to 6 players and Sydney CBD takes 2 to 8. On Saturdays both need at least four, although a pair or trio can phone on the day or walk in for a spare slot.
No. Cannibal is strictly 18+ at both venues, with no exceptions for anyone younger, even alongside a parent. Staff can ask for ID, and under-18s can’t come in as spectators either.
A lot. Cannibal leans heavily on English reading, and its spoken clues are in English at Northbridge. Most of the group should read English comfortably. In Sydney CBD, the narration is also available in Simplified Chinese.
Partly. Cannibal at Escape This Sydney CBD offers Simplified Chinese audio narration and clues, so groups fluent in Mandarin can follow the story. Some written material inside the room is still in English.
Yes, at both venues, with one wheelchair per session. A few Cannibal puzzles are harder to reach from a chair, which teammates can cover. At Northbridge, one or more chambers may be hard to reach depending on the size of the mobility aid. Northbridge’s downstairs rooms, Cannibal included, are reached through a step-free gate that staff open with advance notice, so call ahead to arrange it.
Yes. Cannibal has no crawling and no tight gaps to squeeze through, so Escape This rates it a good choice for pregnant players and anyone with limited mobility. Strong themes and jump scares are the bigger consideration.
Usually not. Escape This lists Cannibal as a good pick for claustrophobic players because it has no tight spaces to crawl into. Its safety notes do warn that confined spaces and jump scares may occur, so if you’re worried, talk to the team first.
No. Cannibal has no smoke effects, so players with asthma or other breathing conditions can play comfortably. The chill in the story stays in the story.
At times. Cannibal uses controlled lighting, including periods of total darkness and flashing light. If anyone in your group is sensitive to flashing light, Escape This suggests choosing one of its other rooms.
Yes. Cannibal has panic buttons, and a gamesmaster watching on CCTV opens up straight away for anyone who presses one. The rest of the group can stay and keep going.
Yes, with a little help from the group. Cannibal’s narration and clue system are audio, so teammates relay what’s said, and the puzzles call on plenty of other skills.
Fifteen minutes before your start time. That covers check-in, lockers and the briefing, so your full hour in Cannibal is spent on the puzzles.
Please do. Butcher’s aprons, chef’s whites and black-tie dinner guests all look right in Cannibal. Wear closed shoes and something comfortable to move in.
No. Phones, smartwatches, cameras, video cameras and sound recorders are all banned in Cannibal and go into storage before you enter.
Not if you want to play. Cannibal’s story starts with one night out too many, but in real life anyone under the influence of alcohol or drugs is refused entry. Save the bar crawl for after you’ve escaped.
Cannibal plays at Escape This Northbridge, 48 Lake Street, Northbridge WA 6003, and at Escape This Sydney CBD, 630 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000. The Butcher is also setting a table at Escape This Brisbane CBD, due in the first half of 2027, address still to be revealed.
The story, the one-hour limit and the 8 out of 10 rating are shared. Cannibal differs in the details: Northbridge seats up to six and costs $49–$59, Sydney CBD seats up to eight and costs $55–$65, and only Sydney offers Simplified Chinese narration.
Yes. Cannibal shares Escape This Northbridge with The Haunting, Dracula, Buried Alive, The Possession, Asylum and more, so a horror double is easy. The Haunting’s ghost story makes a good contrast to Cannibal’s flesh-and-blood killer.
42% of the 4,745 groups locked inside Cannibal have made it out. By venue: Northbridge 33% of 2,186, Sydney CBD 49% of 2,559.
Yes, on the numbers. Ranked by escape rate, lowest first, Cannibal is the hardest of 9 rooms at Escape This Northbridge, where 33% of 2,186 groups escape; and the hardest of 9 rooms at Escape This Sydney CBD, where 49% of 2,559 groups escape. Only rooms with 100 or more recorded games are compared.
29:50, by a team of 3 at Escape This Northbridge, using 0 clues. That left 30:10 on the clock before the Cannibal came home.
This year 48% of 1,739 Cannibal groups escaped, against 42% across all 4,745 games on record.
Successful Cannibal teams ask for 4.8 clues and spend 56:08 of their hour, on average. By venue: Northbridge 6.6 clues, Sydney CBD 3.7 clues.
By escaping, fast. The Cannibal leaderboard ranks teams on escape time, and fewer clues break a tie. Team photos only go online when the group has agreed to it at the venue.
Reviewers say yes. Cannibal averages 4.98 out of 5 across Northbridge and Sydney CBD, with 503 five-star reviews. Guests single out their game masters by name, a theme that holds up for the whole hour, and puzzles that are tough without feeling impossible.
Escape This designed and built Cannibal itself, from the meat locker to the Butcher’s dining room, and runs it in Perth and Sydney. Escape This is Australia’s largest escape room operator, with its own escape room design studio and escape room factory.
It’s a comic, fictional journal that Escape This writes in the voice of the Northbridge Butcher, Cannibal’s villain: his menus, seating plans, recipes and sulks about being called a copycat. It is safe for work to read, even though Cannibal itself is strictly 18+, and each entry sits beside the real room facts.
No. Inside the meat locker, reading the Butcher’s diary is part of escaping, and that one stays in the room. The website diary is a separate, private one he keeps for himself. It never quotes or describes the in-room diary, so reading it online tells you nothing you’ll need on the night.
It won’t. The Butcher writes about food, guests and grievances, and never sets down a code, a hiding place or the order of anything in the room. Read every entry before your booking and Cannibal will be exactly as hard as its 8 out of 10 rating promises.
The Undertaker, villain of Buried Alive. In the Undertaker’s own comic diary, the Northbridge Butcher is one of his alter egos, and he grumbles that the Butcher writes recipes in his margins. The two diaries mention each other but are written separately, and Cannibal’s story stands entirely on its own.
Two of them do. Cannibal opened at Escape This Northbridge on 23 May 2020 and at Escape This Sydney CBD on 9 August 2024, according to Escape This’s booking records, and the Butcher’s opening-night entries carry those dates. Every other date is chosen for the story.
About once a month through 2027. Each new entry appears on the Cannibal site on the date written at its top, so there’s usually a fresh menu or complaint waiting when you come back.
Book Cannibal at Northbridge or Sydney CBD. Adults only, one hour, one very hungry host.
