Box set: The ghoulish double caskets couples will be sleeping in. Photo / Supplied
Box set: The ghoulish double caskets couples will be sleeping in. Photo / Supplied
'Til death, or claustrophobia, do us part.
In one of the creepiest endurance tests ever devised, an American amusement park has selected six couples to spend 30 hours in a shared coffin boxes.
Six Flags resorts, which is using the stunt to mark the Halloween Fright Festival, is offering the brave couples who make it through the ordeal US$600 ($980) to split, along with 2020 season passes to the parks and other ghoulish goodies.
Spending hours in the 180 by 158cm box, the couples' nerves will be tested by a series of tasks.
Meet the Coffin Challenge COUPLES in order of appearance from left to right:
• Jamie and Chris Warne of Delta, PA –...
At the Six Flags America resort in Maryland, around about 4pm this evening, the twelve contestants will climb into their shared coffins and await the onset of night.
They won't actually be buried but they might begin to feel like they have been, at around 1am under a thick wooden lid.
Contestants picked by ballot were announced yesterday.
Going into the coffins will be Jason Paff and Brieanne DeCarolis who are on a Tinder date, Iraq War veteran David Betkijian and his partner, and Jamie and Chris Warne - married parents of six who welcome the contest as a quiet night in.
The terrified pair in the box are allowed to bring one friend as support, who can check up on them during park opening hours but will have to bid them farewell overnight. They will also have to leave their phones and any connections to the outside world out of their coffins. Smoking breaks are also not allowed.
Sleep tight: Contestants will have to stay in the coffins for 30 hours. Photo / Supplied
They will only be allowed a few designated breaks to sit up, eat if they have to, and visit the restroom every three hours. Note that a strict six minutes are allowed to sprint to the toilet.
Any couple coming up for air between those breaks or caught out of their box will be disqualified.
But at least this year contestants will have each other. Last year the events were held for solo sleepers.
"The open top was brutal," said one of last year's contestants. "Lights everywhere, people talking, you could barely sleep."
However the long night passed relatively quickly, with all last year's contestants claiming the prize.
Maryland's Six Flags America - the flagship park - will be the only event open to couples. However a number of other parks in the franchise are having their own versions of the coffin challenge, including St Louis and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in St Louis.
For these challenges the solo sleepers will have nobody else to hold when things go bump in the night.
