Not everyone wants to star in their very own horror film, but that’s exactly what some escape rooms have in store. You might find yourself locked in a mad scientist’s laboratory, chained in a jail cell, or at the center of a murder investigation. But not all escape rooms are terrifying—some are designed with children in mind, or those who just like a good challenge. How much pressure do you think you can take? Find out with our guide to the best escape rooms for any stress level.

Low Stress

Horror Level: 1 Hatchet-Wielding Hockey Player

Genres: Classroom, library, or magician’s dressing room

Where You Can Find It: Vroom Vroom Escape Room’s College Exam Room | Atlanta, GA

With no zombies, murderers, or any general elements of doom-and-gloom, escape rooms like these induce the least amount of nail biting. They’re ideal for kids and those looking for pure puzzle-solving, sans the scary.

For example, in the premise of Vroom Vroom Escape Room’s College Exam Room, you’ve locked yourself in your dorm room to study for a big test with no distractions. Unfortunately, you’re relying on a not-so-reliable friend to let you out, and you’re still locked in one hour before the test starts.

Medium Stress

Horror Level: 2 Hatchet-Wielding Hockey Players

Genres: Bank heist, conspiracy theories, or detective missions

Where You Can Find It: Amazing Escape Room’s The Starlight Lounge | San Fernando, CA

These rooms have a bit of an edge, but they’re still free of the blood and gore. The pressure is mounting, though: you might be a hard-nosed detective or, on the other end of the spectrum, a hardened bank robber.

In Amazing Escape Room’s detective scenario, The Starlight Lounge, you’re transported back in time to 1976. You’ve been recruited to build a case against a notorious crime boss who’s on the run. He will get off scot-free if he boards his flight to South America in the next hour, and you must investigate his nightclub and find some evidence before he vanishes for good.

High Stress

Horror Level: 3 Hatchet-Wielding Hockey Players

Genres: Murder mystery, disease outbreak, alien abduction, or prison break

Where You Can Find It: Escape In Time’s Water Landing | Madison, WI

Look out, because here comes the blood, murder, and supernatural horror. These scenarios can be truly terrifying, challenging you to prevent society’s fall to a deadly outbreak, find the perpetrator of a grisly murder, or escape a kidnapper’s basement—and in some escape rooms, you might even be handcuffed to a wall.

But nothing captures the sheer sense of impending doom quite like Escape In Time’s Water Landing. You’re a smuggler traveling across the Atlantic Ocean in the cargo hold of a Boeing 747, and the engine has failed. The pilot executed a water landing and saved the day—at least, for the paying passengers. You’re still trapped in the cargo hold, and the plane won’t stay afloat for much longer...

Buried-Alive-in-a-Coffin-Full-of-Rats Stress

Horror Level: 4 Hatchet-Wielding Hockey Players!!!

Genres: Zombies—yep, just zombies.

Where You Can Find It: The Great Room Escape’s Zombie Room | San Antonio, TX

This is it: the most terrifying escape room. Blood, guts, gore, screams—it’s all here, thanks to zombies. And The Great Room Escape’s Zombie Room takes it to a gut-wrenching level of realism: an actual zombie is chained in the room with you, and his chain gets longer and longer as time passes. (Well, he’s technically not an actual zombie—more just a very convincing actor.) You must escape before he breaks free and devours your brain.