Escape the Night: The Lost Tapes

Escape the Night: The Lost Tapes
No. of contestants	6
Winner	Joey Graceffa
No. of episodes	3
Release
Original network	Tubi
Original release	November 27, 2025 (2025-11-27)
Season chronology

Escape the Night: The Lost Tapes is a miniseries created by Joey Graceffa and made exclusively for Tubi. The miniseries is the sequel to the YouTube Premium original series Escape the Night and served as a "grand finale" to the original Escape the Night franchise.

Picking up after Graceffa's Savant vanished into Pandora's Box at the end of the fourth season, the miniseries finds him marooned in a strange limbo resembling a long-defunct video rental store, where five friends — four series veterans and newcomer Jojo Siwa — arrive dressed in period style to bring him home. There they discover a shelf of cursed VHS tapes, each of which, when played, unleashes the horror recorded on it.

Format

Unlike the parent series' season-long artifact quests, The Lost Tapes is built around the cursed tapes themselves: each of the three episodes takes its title and its threat from one videotape — Silent Night, Red Mask, and Space Parasite — whose playback releases that tape's evil into the store and its adjoining spaces. The guests must survive each unleashed horror, working through its rules and puzzles to contain it, while searching for the way out of the limbo connected to Pandora's Box.

The competitive structure is correspondingly compressed. Only the second episode uses the series' traditional vote-and-death-challenge format; the first and third episodes instead stake lives on group survival challenges in which capture or falling behind is fatal. As in the parent series, the storyline is scripted while the challenge outcomes are contested.

Production

On November 2, 2023, Joey Graceffa announced that he was starting an Indiegogo to help raise $1,000,000 to create a movie for the series. The campaign managed to raise $169,600 from 2,929 supporters. This failed to reach the goal, but it was in demand and raised enough to create "The Lost Episode".

However, there were many setbacks to the production. In September 2024, Graceffa stated that the production had experienced setbacks, including the departure of the original director due to personal circumstances. He also noted that the project faced a financial deadline, as funds raised through Indiegogo had to be utilised by the end of 2024 or a significant portion would be lost for tax reasons.

Production was carried out at Willow Studios in Los Angeles, California. The project utilised the facility's basement level, which includes several pre-built environments commonly used for horror and thriller productions, such as a jail area, mechanic room, hallways, and meat lockers. The studio describes this section as particularly suited for atmospheric or genre-based shoots.

During early development, Graceffa asked viewers whether the project should be released as a single film or divided into three parts. Before or following the project's acquisition by Tubi for distribution, the decision was made to structure the final work as a three-part miniseries. The project was subsequently retitled Escape the Night: The Lost Tapes.

Guests

Joey Graceffa

Manny MUA

Nikita Dragun

Rosanna Pansino

Jojo Siwa

Tana Mongeau

Guests of Escape the Night: The Lost Tapes

Guest	Persona	Status	Cause of Death
Joey Graceffa	The Savant	Escaped (Episode 3)	—N/a
Manny MUA Season 3	The Jock	Trapped (Episode 3)	—N/a
Nikita Dragun Season 3	The Glam Rocker
Rosanna Pansino Season 3 & Season 4	The Fitness Instructor	Dead (Episode 3)	Torn open by an alien creature bursting from her abdomen
Jojo Siwa	The Burnout	Dead (Episode 2)	Killed within a séance circle, held down by dark magic
Tana Mongeau Season 2 & Season 4	The Prom Queen	Dead (Episode 1)	Sliced in half by the Minotaur's chainsaw

Guest history

Legend:

  Guest escaped Escape the Night: The Lost Tapes.

  Guest was trapped before being able to escape.

  Guest was voted into a challenge and won.

  Guest was declared safe from the challenge.

  Guest was captured and died.

  Guest was voted into a challenge and died.

Escape The Night: The Lost Tapes voting history

	Episode 1	Episode 2	Episode 3
Voted Players	(None)	Jojo Manny	(None)
Challenge Winner(s)		Manny
Eliminated	Tana	Jojo	Rosanna	Manny Nikita
Joey	Safe	Jojo	Safe	Escaped
Manny	Safe	Jojo	Safe	Trapped
Nikita	Safe	Manny	Safe
Rosanna	Safe	Manny	Dead
Jojo	Safe	Nikita
Tana	Dead

Challenges

Episode	Guest(s)			Challenge	Eliminated	Cause of Death
1	Everyone			All guests must work together to locate three hidden gems while avoiding capture. Any guest who is captured twice will be killed.	Tana Mongeau	Sliced in half by the Minotaur's chainsaw.
2	Jojo Siwa	vs.	Manny MUA	Two guests must prove they can flawlessly impersonate the Cursed God's minions by completing three tasks. If their disguise is exposed, they are killed.	Jojo Siwa	Dragged to the floor and killed within a séance circle, held down by dark magic until she vanished.
3	Everyone			Without realising it, once the guests collected the antidote, they had to race back to safety. The guest who fell behind everyone else would be seized by an invisible force and dragged away.	Rosanna Pansino	Pulled backward by the invisible barrier and gruesomely torn open as an alien creature forced its way out of her abdomen.

Episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
41	1	"Silent Night"	Adam Lawson	Joey Graceffa	27 November 2025 (2025-11-27)
Alone since he entered Pandora's Box, Joey is found: a package addressed to his rescuers draws Manny, Nikita, Rosanna, Tana, and Jojo — dressed the part — into a limbo resembling a long-defunct video rental store, where they reunite with a Joey who has no idea how they got there, or why. None of them do. On the shelves waits a library of unlabeled VHS tapes; the first, Silent Night, is played, and its horror steps out of the recording. Group Challenge: The guests must work together to locate three hidden gems while evading capture; any guest captured twice is killed. Eliminated: Tana Mongeau (The Prom Queen) — sliced in half by the Minotaur's chainsaw, to the shock of the newcomer among them: "You're telling me people actually die here?" Notes: There is no vote; the miniseries opens, like every season premiere before it, with a group challenge. For Jojo, the only guest without a previous death in the franchise, the rules of Joey's world arrive all at once.
42	2	"Red Mask"	Adam Lawson	Joey Graceffa	27 November 2025 (2025-11-27)
The second tape, Red Mask, is played, and the Cursed God's masked minions pour into the limbo. Voted into the challenge: Jojo and Manny — the miniseries' only traditional vote. Death Challenge: The two must pass among the Cursed God's minions undetected, completing three tasks while flawlessly impersonating them; exposure means death. Challenge Winner: Manny. Eliminated: Jojo Siwa (The Burnout) — her disguise exposed, she is dragged to the floor of a séance circle and held down by dark magic until she vanishes. Notes: The mythology tightens around the tapes: the horrors are not random, but the Cursed God's.
43	3	"Space Parasite"	Adam Lawson	Joey Graceffa	27 November 2025 (2025-11-27)
The final tape, Space Parasite, is played, releasing an infestation that forces the guests to secure an antidote — and to run. Group Challenge: Unbeknownst to the guests, collecting the antidote starts a race back to safety; whoever falls behind the others is seized by an invisible force and dragged away. Eliminated: Rosanna Pansino (The Fitness Instructor) — pulled backward by the barrier and torn open as an alien creature bursts from her abdomen. Endgame: With the horrors closing in, the survivors fight to escape Pandora's Box itself, barricading the doors as the store overruns. Manny and Nikita do not make it out: they remain trapped in the limbo as Joey, alone at the machine, rewinds the tape. Trapped: Manny MUA and Nikita Dragun. Escaped: Joey Graceffa. Closing: Over footage from the series' very first cold open, Joey's final narration folds the franchise back onto its beginning — "I thought I was running from the darkness, but I was the one who called it. I'm where it begins" — before the original invitation monologue replays.

Controversy

Controversy involving Tana Mongeau

In February 2025, a public dispute emerged between Tana Mongeau and several individuals involved in the project following comments Mongeau made on her Cancelled podcast regarding a negative experience during the filming of a project related to the series. Mongeau stated that she had felt uncomfortable on set, describing an alleged "creepy encounter" with a masked actor during a scene filmed in a meat freezer in which she was physically restrained. She also claimed that her pinky finger had been broken during the filming and that the incident was not handled with appropriate seriousness. Mongeau further alleged inappropriate behaviour by a crew member, though other participants disputed her account.

Joey Graceffa responded to the allegations on the Just Trish podcast, denying that Mongeau had sustained a broken finger and suggesting that she had exaggerated aspects of the situation. Rosanna Pansino also disputed Mongeau's claims, reportedly stating that Mongeau had misrepresented events and characterising the filming conditions as less demanding than in previous seasons. Pansino's comments drew backlash from some viewers, who accused her of dismissing Mongeau's concerns. Trisha Paytas, Mongeau's co-host and friend, publicly supported Mongeau and criticised both Graceffa and Pansino for downplaying her allegations.

See also

• Murder in Small Town X
• The Murder Game
• Whodunnit?
• The Quest