Escape Room (2019)

Movie Info

Get an invitation…to death!!!

Zoey Davis (Taylor Russell), Jason Walker (Jay Ellis), Ben Miller (Logan Miller), Amanda Harper (Deborah Ann Woll), Mike Nolan (Tyler Labine), and Danny Khan (Nik Dodani) don’t know each other but they’ve just been invited to partake in an escape room challenge promising $10,000 for winning.  When the “contestants” learn that the game might be more real than they expected, a fight for survival against a ticking clock begins…and the people building the puzzle seems to know all their fears.

Directed by Adam Robitel, Escape Room is a suspense-mystery-horror thriller.  The film was released to mixed reviews but performed strongly at the box office.

Escape Room seemed like one of those pandering type of horror films.  It has a popular idea (escape rooms), and it seems cheap and easy to make.  While this appears to be the case, the film does have a few moments, but largely, Escape Room isn’t very inspired.

Wait…I’m out?!?!

The story kind of plays out as you expect.  It feels like a less graphic Saw combined with something like Cube.  The characters (of course) all have something in common that they don’t realize at the start and the ending has the classic horror cliffhanger.  It does feel a bit more “action film” in the set-up for the sequel which does give the movie a different flavor.

The cast is loaded with a lot of “that person looks familiar” actors that generally have impressive backgrounds despite not being able to place them.  Taylor Russell is a solid (but slightly unbelievable “nerd” character) who obviously is going to survive by her presentation.  Daredevil’s Deborah Ann Woll’s war survivor seemed like the more interesting character that could have carried the movie.

We literally have to make people trip to make this trippy

The movie doesn’t seem to utilize the whole idea of the escape room enough.  I like the upside down room and the drug tripping room, but the rooms literally could be anything and any theme.  With a budget and an unrealistic story, the rooms should have been insane.  It needed a more high-concept ideas around the puzzles than the movie gives viewers.

Escape Room isn’t bad, but it also is kind of bland.  The horror, the action, and the puzzles are all kind of underwhelming.  I left most scenes wanting and feeling the viewer deserved more (plus, an R-Rating would help).  With a complete set-up for a sequel, Escape Room could potentially get better or more developed.  Escape Room 2 is scheduled for a 2020 release.