Six adventurous strangers travel to a mysterious building to experience
the escape room -- a game where players compete to solve a series of puzzles to
win $10,000. What starts out as seemingly innocent fun soon turns into a living
nightmare as the four men and two women discover each room is an elaborate trap
that's part of a sadistic game of life or death.
Director: Adam Robitel
Cast: Logan
Release Date: January 4, 2019
Genres: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Rated PG-13 for terror/perilous action, violence, some suggestive
material and language
Runtime: 1h 39 min
Review:
Escape Room is one of those January horror releases that pop up every
year. For all intents and purposes, it
should be terrible and forgettable.
Escape Room is surprising in that it’s actually an entertainingly brisk
sci-fi horror film. The film itself
plays out like a blood and gore less version of Saw, at least on the
surface. As the film goes on, you’d be
hard pressed to ignore a more than passing similarities to the 1997 sci-fi gem
Cube. Nobody would ever accuse this film
of being as intelligently written as Cube but it works more often than it doesn’t. That’s because the film cast is surprisingly
likeable even though their characters are written with only the most basic
levels of layering. Recognizable faces
such as Deborah Ann Woll, Tyler Labine and Jay Ellis give the film a bit more
clout than you’d usually expect from films of this ilk. Sadly, the film does lose a bit of steam in
its final act where it seems to rush through the conclusion only to set up a
possible sequel, never allowing this original entry’s plot to settle. Ultimately, Escape Room is one of those fast
food style films where you’re liable to forget about it shortly after you leave
the theater but then have a sequel pop up a year later.
C+
