Intense, unsettling, and incredibly well performed, CLAWS by Candle House Collective is an utterly unique horror experience.
This is something a little outside of the usual Big Boss Battle wheelhouse as CLAWS is something you go through completely via phone call. Describing it as a game is perhaps a little inaccurate, though your inputs do drive events in different directions. Thanks to the genuinely impressive and quick-thinking responses of the performers, everything comes together as an exciting and intense horror that’s personalised to you.
CLAWS can most closely be described in game terms as a role playing experience. You are an operator for the Etcetera Helpline, a nondescript company that helps out those who get in touch. When your shift starts you are immediately contacted by a teenager named Danny who is absolutely convinced there’s a monster in their closet. Your job is to talk Danny through this problem in the hopes that you can get him out of it alive.
I’m obviously not going to give any spoilers as this is pure narrative. If you stay in character, which I strongly suggest you do, you will learn about Danny, and Danny will ask about you to determine if you can be trusted, adding to the personalisation of the experience. Danny will attempt to act out the advice you give him, but as a flustered, stressed, and scared teenager, he may not act as rationally as you might hope. Over the course of the 45 to 60 minute phone call, he’ll put his faith in you and you’ll be able to listen to how your decisions play out.
The person performing Danny during my call was nothing short of incredible throughout. It takes no small amount of skill to be able to perform the role of a terrified teen so effectively, let alone to respond to you on the fly. He expertly maintained the ebb and flow of the pace from the moment he’s pleading to someone to help him right up until the call ends.
Setting up your call is easy enough, with you simply selecting a date and time from their website. It should be noted that they are USA based, with the times on their site being in Eastern Standard Time, so if you’re from the UK — or indeed anywhere else — make sure you pay attention to the time you’re choosing. To their credit, Candle House Collective worked with me to ensure I could get a time that would work for both our time zones. I was quite happy to go for 11pm, as the middle of the night is a perfect time for a horror experience.
You’ll receive an email, all completely in-universe, giving you your orientation for working for Etcetera Helpline, explaining how to answer the phone and what your duties would entail. Something I especially liked about this was that there’s the inclusion of a safety word for if what you’re participating in is too intense or triggering. This being an experience that handles a teenage boy in danger could potentially upset some, so having a way out that passes you over to someone to check in with you is genuinely thoughtful.
After my call ended, I sat in the spare room for about ten minutes, silently decompressing due to quite how intense and personal the whole thing had become. I didn’t really know what to expect at first, but it’s the sort of thing that I’ll be thinking back to for some time to come. It’s hard to say much more without spoiling things, so I’ll leave it at that, but suffice to say that if you want a completely unique, personal, and solo experience, this is absolutely it.
Candle House Collective have a number of other offerings too, including immersive theatre and a series of phone calls set in another universe that I’m genuinely curious to try out. For now though, CLAWS is one of the most fascinating gaming experiences I’ve had and I would urge anyone looking for something new and different in the horror space to set aside an hour and give this a go. They’re currently booking on the Candle House Collective website through to the end of July, but I expect more dates will open up as the year goes on.
