Escape Room

Updated: Jul 19, 2021

The 267th review overall!

When I do these reviews at some point I make the joke that instead of a review of a horror movie I could review Notre Dame’s defense (or offense depending on the game) and a good laugh is had by all. It seems like the past two weeks we could say that about Toledo, because... yikes... Of course that’s not really what this is about, so instead I checked out...

Escape Room (2019). Family Video.

One of the reasons I rented this movie was because at Arn’s bachelor party we all partook in a pretty impressive escape room and it was a lot of fun. I’d also like to point out that we escaped with pretty much no help from Larry. Before I get into the review I felt this was information you needed.

A group of people get a weird puzzle box and after getting it open they find an invitation for an escape room with a promise of 10-thousand money if they’re able to solve it. Shortly after meeting the group of eclectic people the game starts and the room begins turning into an oven from the ceiling. Once the walls start getting hot and fire gets introduced, they realize they may be in some trouble.

It’s a cool premise because escape rooms are fun and there’s a lot of imagination in these rooms. I have to give it to the movie, they’re all pretty well done, and I read each room is set up for a specific person, if that’s true, the movie doesn’t do a very good job of explaining it. I can only think of a couple and one of them is a stretch, but I digress. The further they progress you start learning more about the characters and you realize their being there isn’t a coincidence as there’s a shadowy something that set the whole thing up. It didn’t really work for me, but I guess you kind of need the backstory, even if it does kind of feels too close to Rat Race if it were a horror movie.

While they made it to the second room, I started to realize, much to my surprise, I liked these characters. The escape room junkie was kind of tedious, but the rest of them were either likable, interesting or well acted. I found myself a lot more invested in their fight for survival than I thought I would be. But then my two favorite characters die off in back-to-back rooms. It was disappointing but it was clear they were on borrowed time from the moment you meet them and the movie doesn’t bother trying to hide that fact.

There’s really not much to say about the movie, it’s entertaining but not much else to write home about. The ending is kinda “meh”. After a person (or is it multiple people??) survive the final room, they meet the game master and you’re treated with a lot of exposition, and the game master gets betrayed by the ones actually in charge. The shadowy organization behind the whole thing doesn’t interest me, not even a little bit. I want to see the people and the imaginative room! Evil, rich men with too much time on their hands are the go-to when looking for a bad guy. The last bits are clearly there to set up a sequel and the movie did really well for its budget, and lo and behold, a sequel was already greenlit. I’m going to see it eventually because I liked the puzzles, but I really couldn’t care less about knowing more about the bad guys. Cut out the last 15 minutes and it would improve the movie immensely. But who can do that when there’s money to be made?

Before I leave you, here is my favorite out-of-context comment from a Reddit thread on the movie. Enjoy!

“Peeing on things would have solved most puzzles, actually...”