On June 21 of this year, YouTube star Joey Graceffa released the third season of his pseudo-reality YouTube series titled Escape the Night. YouTube has continuously renewed the show, which premiered in June 2016, as thousands of eager fans await each new season and the cast of well-known YouTubers that comes with it. With the ever-present success of the series comes all the fantasy and horror someone could hope for. So, what exactly is Escape the Night, and how has it found as much success as it has?

Every project big or small starts as an idea, and it takes the right people to make that idea a reality. Graceffa approached Adam Lawson, the show’s director, writer, and showrunner, to relay his desire to make something new and different for his YouTube platform. Together, they crafted a story influenced heavily by the murder mystery genre. Due to his desire to be involved in the show as a cast member and have the same experience as other YouTubers, Graceffa left some of the more pressing details, such as puzzles and plot twists, to Lawson. Henceforth, Escape the Night was born.

The series follows Graceffa and nine other cast members as they navigate through different time periods, each person donning a persona that reflects the era.  When the group realizes that they are trapped in that era, they must solve a series of puzzles and endure challenges in order to escape the night and go back to the modern world. The twist: each episode ends with a challenge that only one of two cast members survives. Ultimately, creatures, curses, and casualties litter the episodes and come together to form the unique series.      

The show’s success depends heavily on the novel elements that Graceffa utilizes alongside his production team, but a big part of its appeal comes from the cast. Each season, nine new YouTube personalities are chosen to compete alongside Graceffa. Season 1 came with names like Shane Dawson and Glozell, while the second season cast people like Tyler Oakley and Liza Koshy.

I didn’t end up watching the show until later on, and this was only because two of my favorite YouTubers were cast members in Season 2. That said, I’m living proof that using popular YouTubers in the cast attracts more viewers, and Graceffa has figured out this formula and crafted it to play in his favor.

Recently, Graceffa took to his Twitter account and revealed the cast for Season 3. As each day went by, cast members such as Miranda Sings creator, Colleen Ballinger, and Nerdy Nummies creator, Rosanna Pansino, were revealed to fans.   

There’s no denying that any horror story isn’t complete without a monster, and Graceffa and his production team do not disappoint. Mermaids, werewolves, and banshees are among the few creatures that have stolen the show throughout the years. Special FX makeup artist Cristina Waltz joins the team behind the scenes and is the mastermind behind many of the monsters in the show. Prosthetics are her best friend as she uses pieces to mold ordinary actors and actresses into terrifyingly detailed demons.

Ultimately, hours of work go into the creation of each of these beasts, and the swamp man for Season 1 is a great example of the immense effort. Not only did the concept and development of this character take three days, but it took four hours to put on the costume. Made up of a ghillie suit, real leaves, and vines, the teams from the makeup and art departments worked side by side to scrap pieces together in order to form this one of many horrors.

Whether it’s in a book, movie, television show, or play, settings impact the ability to tell a story. In this case, it aids in setting the tone for the series, whether it be the 1920s in Season 1 or the Victorian era in Season 2. Both of the first seasons were set in grand estates, the Season 1 mansion located just 40 minutes outside of Los Angeles, California.

In the past, Escape the Night has filmed on a secluded estate, which creates a mysterious and isolated atmosphere for the show; however, Season 3 takes it up a notch and is actually set in a small town. This gives the cast more room to run around solving puzzles and more places to hide from the monsters, and it gives the producers more opportunities to improve the show’s production as a whole.

At the end of the day, production is probably the most important aspect of the entire series, as pseudo-reality means that the cast is interacting with a defined storyline in an improvised manner. Production designer Geoff Flint and his team carefully construct the sets and constantly test everything so that the filming process runs smoothly. In Season 1 alone, there were about 160 clues and puzzles that the cast interacted with. When a puzzle is solved, any trap doors or items that are supposed to react need to function properly.

On top of that, the team needs to carefully set up puzzles one episode at a time so cast members can’t accidentally find a clue during episode 2 that is required for episode 7. Katia and Yoni, puzzle designers from Enigma Escape Room, are in charge of creating the puzzles that the cast interacts with. I find the company’s involvement in crafting the puzzles to be a great choice because the show shares a lot of similarities to an escape room: solving puzzles and riddles using clues, hints, and strategy to complete an objective. Ultimately, Katia and Yoni make the show’s puzzles really stand out, and I personally love Escape the Night due to its escape room feel. 

Filming the series seems to be an intense process full of long nights and endless preparation. The crew begins at noon and preps for four to five hours, all before the cast comes to the set. Filming occurs at night, for reasons that the title clearly exhibits, and lasts until around seven in the morning. It’s a rigorous schedule for everyone involved in such a hectic creative process. Along with the YouTube talent, Graceffa and Lawson hire real actors and actresses to help move the storyline along. Some of their lines are scripted, but, for the most part, they just need to have a sense of what their character would do or say in order to interact with the YouTube cast smoothly.

Ultimately, Graceffa’s dream of having a unique form of YouTube content has since turned into a complex, entertaining series that takes a massive amount of time and effort to produce. There is no doubt that everyone involved in the creation of this project is extremely dedicated, which is evident in the details of the set, costumes, and puzzles. With Season 3 already airing and more YouTubers solving puzzles and running from monsters, who do you think will escape the night?