Messing with the supernatural in this immersive murder mystery.

Everyone loves a good mystery, particularly if it surrounds a grisly crime. In Sight Lines Entertainment’s latest venture, the team is once again elevating the live entertainment experience with Crack the Case: Mind Hunter, as you enter the mind of a criminal, and save his victims before it’s too late.

Written and directed by Krish Natarajan of Strawberries Inc., Crack the Case: Mind Hunter gives you an invitation by renowned psychologist Dr Nithin to beta-test the Mind Hunter, an invention designed to study the minds of criminals. Through the experience, you and your fellow teammates will enter the disturbed mind of David Menon, and attempt to find and save three women’s he’s supposedly abducted, before it’s too late, all by navigating his subconscious and gathering important clues to get to the truth.

Sight Lines Entertainment is no stranger to devilish mysteries, with virtual treasure hunt Time Heist or ghostly murders with Murder At Mandai Camp or Murder at Old Changi Hospital, and Mind Hunter follows in those footsteps with an equally compelling case. By now, the team has figured out how to properly structure an experience to ease audience members into their unique world, where in the courtyard, Dr Nithin (Shrey Bhargava) introduces us to perpetrator David (Gosteloa Spancer), hooked up to the titular ‘Mind Hunter’. Turning on the machine, we’re instructed to figure out the location of the abducted women, and bring them home.

One of Mind Hunter’s strongest traits is its commitment to creating a fully-formed, somewhat surreal world for us to experience, taking care to transform Centre 42 into the physical manifestation of the complex human mind, using cleverly placed lights that cast shadows on the wall, or unexplained, atmospheric sounds to build up the creepy environment. It often feels like moments of guilt, grief and trauma are constantly haunting its corners. While there is no outright horror, blood or gore, there are genuinely affecting scenes that get under your skin, with nightmarish exchanges that help us understand the feelings of vulnerability and danger felt by these victims.

From an artistic standpoint, Mind Hunter also utilises the space well to create the sense of disorientation, as we jump from one flashback to another depending on our choices in the ‘memory museum’, successfully allowing all audience members to spread themselves throughout the space and reflecting the messy nature of our own memory. Disturbing , bordering-on-supernatural elements are also introduced, where inner demons are made real, in contrast to a literal goddess making an appearance, and when David uses a banana as a phone, it’s clear he’s not quite right in the mind, unpredictable and unknowable.

Eventually, Mind Hunter also enters deeply sympathetic territory, where we learn of David’s tragic backstory, and how he came to be. Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai does a particularly good job as David’s mother, damaged and hurt both physically and emotionally, and you feel her desperation to escape grow over the course of the experience. You understand how monsters are made of men, when the ones closest to you are pushed to the edge and tip over, where you too begin to lose faith in humanity, haunted by the spectre of sin and trauma as it follows you well into adulthood.

When all is said and done, there’s still a mystery to solve and case to crack, and as we gather in small groups to decide our conclusions, it becomes a fun and engaging exercise in sharing that is well-facilitated and makes us feel comfortable enough to be forthcoming in presenting our thoughts. Dr Nithin returns and does a good job summarising it all, and leads us to the experience’s eventual end, and the cold, hard truth behind it all, in a well rounded wrap-up.

Crack The Case: Mind Hunter represents a new level of innovative storytelling for Sight Lines Entertainment, with a good script and capable cast able to bring its tech-driven narrative to life. As audience members, we are kept engrossed throughout the experience with its well-planned pacing, giving us enough time to engage with each ‘station’, and ultimately satisfying in its ending. This is an exciting form of live entertainment coming to the local theatre scene, and as its title suggests, a deep dive into a disturbed mind that leaves you pondering over the human condition.

Photo Credit: Sight Lines Entertainment

Crack the Case: Mind Hunter plays from 10th November to 10th December 2023 at 42 Waterloo Street. Tickets available from SISTIC