My pick for Denver’s most anticipated new immersive work of 2026 hit the ground running in March, selling out the full run by the end of opening weekend. A couple weeks later, they extended the show through May 10, turning it into a 10-week run.
Cryptic is a collaboration between Fictive’s Cody Borst (who designed the tech that powers the entire show) and the team at OddKnock Productions, whose creative direction and production bring it all to life. It’s not the first time they’ve teamed up—Borst programmed the interactive DOS-mode computers that I interacted with as an employee of BANR in OddKnock’s 2022 masterpiece, From On High—but never before on this scale.
As in all great immersive shows, the premise was simple: I was there for a tour of the Cryptic Keep, an ancient mysterious structure on display in a tiny roadside attraction museum. My tour guide is appropriately cheesy and over the top, at times displaying more enthusiasm and reverence for the attraction than those of us travelers who’d paid admission to see it.
We spend about 10 minutes inside the museum looking at photos and watching a short projector-style film about the history of the Cryptic Keep and the arcane tome that appeared with it, all while our guide gives us more background information about what it is and how it came to be (spoiler alert: no one knows for sure).
Though not the main focus of the show, this onboarding step is thorough and effective. The room was brimming over with research, notes, illustrations and photographs of the ancient structure and its mysterious symbology—complete with a framed sepia-toned photo of Dolly Parton posing in front of it!
What Lies Inside
When the curtain is pulled back and we finally enter the Cryptic Keep, it looks exactly as it was depicted in the museum, except now it’s illuminated and glowing, almost as if it’s alive. But, of course, once it begins, the tour doesn’t go exactly as planned. Up to this point, my tour guide has been spirited and cheerful, but they drop that demeanor once the power goes out.
“Shit…” they say under their breath, but loud enough for us all to hear, as we realize this sudden darkness isn’t part of the tour. The guide picks up their walkie talkie and radios their colleague for help. “Hey, uhh… I thought we fixed this! How am I supposed to give these people ‘the ride of their life’ when we can’t even keep the power from going out?” they continue on with palpable irritation.
Suddenly, a secret door opens from the base at one end of the structure, revealing the exact tome from the movie we’d just watched in the museum. Fully dropping the roadside attraction schtick, our guide confesses this is not supposed to happen; they have no idea how the tome got there. Not sure what to do with it, we convince them to look inside.
For the next 10-15 minutes, we enter an escape room-esque puzzle-solving phase of the show. With the help of our guide, we discern instructions from the book, doing things like standing on symbols on the floor and repeating chants. The tour guide is now navigating uncharted territory with us—as clueless as we are about what to do and what might happen next—and accepting any and all ideas from the group, while gently nudging us towards whatever needs to happen next.
It feels like we’re actually cracking open a centuries-old riddle because the technology hidden throughout the experience is responsive to what we do. For example, when we draw the symbol from the tome’s cover in chalk before an altar in a secret room next door, the lights change and sound effects occur that give a satisfying confirmation that we’ve done the right thing.
Something Ancient Wakes (SPOILERS)
(Editors Note: rollover or tap on the text to reveal story details about the climax of Cryptic, which has ended its run.)
It never occurs to me that we could be rousing a slumbering spirit until the guide suddenly rises to their tiptoes and throws their arms and head back, frozen in air in unexpected paralysis. As this happens, the lights shift to reveal symbols (just like those we studied in the museum) all over the guide's skin, like fluorescent tattoos done in blacklight responsive ink.
When the lights shift back and the guide comes to, dazed and confused but none the wiser to whatever just happened, they’re a bit annoyed with all of us when we tell them something strange just occurred. Convinced it’s a prank, they storm off to reply to the walkie talkie going off in the other room, the tour guide’s coworker finally responding to their call for help earlier.
As they attempt to conclude the tour, it becomes clear that whatever we’ve awoken has begun to possess the guide. It is here that we first see OddKnock’s signature style of movement that conveys something deeply unsettling through stunning choreography. Every time the lights and sound shift, the neon symbols reappear on the guide’s skin, as well as on every other surface of the Cryptic Keep. The guide doubles over on their knees, then jumps to their feet, twisting and contorting their body as the evil spirit attempts to take over.
The show culminates as the possession is fully realized. Back in the secret room next door, the guide lowers their head forward and looks up at us with an evil grin as they speak in a deep, demonic voice that is amplified throughout the space. It is creepy and convincing; I notice some of my fellow travelers shuffling away from the guide as they stumble around the room sizing up their captive audience.
The fully possessed guide stands before us to show off their new powers, seemingly able to grab a hold of beams of light and throw them from one side of the room to another. There’s more of that signature OddKnock movement, juxtaposing choppy, highly physical stunts (like sliding across the floor and kicking their legs into the air) with arresting, trance-like fluid movement.
The Tech Behind the Magic
These magical moments are accomplished with a cast and crew of just two: the actor who is with us the entire time, plus one show technician behind the scenes. Cryptic creator Cody Borst says that the show’s technology was created with a focus on programming speed.
“We had real-time editing and playback as early as the first day of rehearsal,” he told me. “This allowed us to build some wonderful synchronous moments between the performance, audience, and show tech.”
Since the technology has been so meticulously programmed with just 10 triggered scenes, the show technician is freed up to do things like page a curtain when the lights go out.
“Sensors built into the environment automatically trigger some scenes, while our show technician activates others using a remote,” Borst explained. “Within those scenes are many time-based cues tightly linked to the performance, which slowly shift to looser timing to accommodate audience variations.”
Two guides were cast for Cryptic (Beau Fisher & Deanna Schaekel) who alternated between show days. I saw Cryptic twice—once with each guide—and while they both realized the role in their own way, there was no difference in the quality; they were equally engaging, funny, and convincing in their possessions.
Cryptic nailed all the important qualities of a great immersive show—thoughtful onboarding, a simple story, great acting, meaningful audience engagement—but it was the technology behind it all that left an impression of novelty and excitement in me for whatever comes next.
While this chapter of The Keep has closed, it may not be all that story has to tell. Borst says that Fictive is shifting to a new set of goals with sights set on blending that current show technology with something that puts control into the hands of the audience.
Whatever it is and whenever it comes, I’ll certainly be first in line to experience it.
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