"From Hell They Came"; a Murder Mystery With a Twist

It’s a cold, windy night in Manchester, and Tom Cruise is dead. I know this, because Freddie Kruger just ran in to tell us as I was sitting down with The Devil to enjoy a glass of wine. As the cold wind howled, carrying the moans and wails of the drunken, shambling zombie students outside, the 15 members of the Horror Council sat at their tables, horrified to hear that their leader, Tom Cruise, was found dead not 15 minutes ago, under a bar stool downstairs. He hasn’t been chopped up; he’s just that small.

The problem is, one person here is pretending. One person in this room hides a not-so-terrible secret; that they killed Tom Cruise. Was it Chucky? Was it Frankenstein? No one knows; but Beetlejuice is looking especially shifty.

Yes, on Thursday, I was invited to my very first murder mystery event; a Halloween themed evening hosted by Manchester Murder Mysteries, a company that creates bespoke, hand crafted events with various themes, from Halloween to Hollywood and more. Each event contains completely original characters, stories, and of course, plenty of intrigue.

Indeed without spoiling anything, I can certainly say that the imagination put into the event we attended was very impressive. From the moment I walked in and was asked for my name, I knew this event was going to be different to anything else. “Name?” I was asked by a very solemn lady at the door, and was taken aback straight away when I was informed they had no one on the list by my name. A second of confusion, before I understood what was happening, and I hesitated another name “…Count Dracula?” I said.

“Of course! Welcome, Count. Please, come inside.” After the initial shock at being thrown in at the deep end subsided, I was very impressed, and I can certainly say that this theme continued for the rest of the night.

Once each character had arrived, dressed up in fantastic outfits thanks to a character profile and general info being emailed out ahead of the night, we all introduced ourselves. Then the night truly began, as we were prompted to open an envelope on our tables, helpfully marked “Clues”. This contained multiple snippets of information on our fellow guests, some seemingly incriminating; (“Morticia is notorious for spreading gossip”) and others seemingly unimportant red herrings; (“Freddie Kruger owns a fetish shop, called Feathers And Leathers”). With plenty of these clues to sort through, each table settled down to work on who killed Tom Cruise; the most evil man/alien in the world.

As you may have guessed already, the event had a good mix of humor mixed in with the intrigue, and this was well paced, with the result a good mix of entertainment and comic relief, without ruining the whole atmosphere. As far as the clues themselves, many different individual storylines quickly became apparent, and again these were very well crafted. Most plot arcs spanned multiple characters or intertwined with other clues, to provide an impressively deep and intricate experience. This was reflected by not only the different opinions on who did the deed at the end of the night, but also by how in depth and well thought out the stories and reasons were that each team gave.

If I had one criticism with the evening, it would probably be that out of the perhaps 15 characters involved in the evening, the plot seemed to concentrate mainly on just a handful, meaning that certain characters had very few clues to involve them in the game. Indeed for a couple of characters in particular I only saw perhaps 1 or 2 snippets of info, whereas other characters had entire stories revolving around them.

However as complaints go, there’s little else in the evening to find fault with. Snacks and a drink were provided on arrival, and the course of the evening was well paced, with new clues arriving throughout. The enthusiasm showed by our hostesses reflected well on the rest of the crowd, and I for one thoroughly enjoyed getting into character as the suave, traditional Count Dracula. This enthusiasm was encouraged via a couple of acted scenes between characters, which everyone dove into gladly.

All in all, it has to be said that our evening with the Manchester Murder Mistresses was extremely entertaining. The combination of inventiveness, intricacy, red herrings and excellent characterization, not to mention the skill of our hostesses all came together to make an excellent experience for first timers and murder mystery aficionados alike.