Escape Room

Starring: Deborah Ann Woll, Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Tyler Labine, Nik Dodani, Jay Ellis

Director: Adam Robitel

Six strangers receive a mysterious invite to participate in a new escape room experience, with the winner receiving $10,000. It quickly becomes obvious to everyone that this isn't an ordinary escape room, where each room they encounter becomes terrifyingly real. As each room becomes more and more difficult, the participants find that they are more connected than they appear, and that each room may have been designed specifically for them.

For a PG-13 horror/thriller film being released in the doldrums of January, this wasn't bad. A mix of Saw with a little Cube thrown in for good measure, the first hour or so is quite entertaining. The character set up feels clunky but once they enter the escape room and the traps start happening, things really kick into gear. It's clear that the writers had fun coming up with what each room was going to be and what the solution was. A trip to an upside down room was quite well done and honestly, the production design was better than expected for this type of film.

Where the movie fell apart for me was the number of hoops it feels it needs jump through to set up a franchise, all in the last 20 minutes or so. Without going too much into spoiler territory, it feels unnecessary and forces one to ask more questions than the film probably wants you to.

I also felt some confusion about who the main character was meant to be. The beginning sets up three potential main characters without committing to who we should be following or care about. Someone does emerge towards the end but it's definitely not clear until then. The actors all do fine given the type of film and thinly drawn character types they need to play.

Despite my complaint about the third act, I had fun watching this and it's worth a look if you have nothing to do on a weekday.