A group of strangers are invited to take part in an Escape Room challenge, only to discover the rooms act more like death traps...
Escape rooms have become a very popular thing these days. I've done it once myself, getting together with friends, or work colleagues and having fun trying to work out the clues to escape from the locked room. So perhaps it's not a surprise that filmmakers have thought they are good settings for horror or thriller films.
As I write this, I am aware of three films that have the title Escape Room. Two were made in 2017, one of which is on Netflix, currently, the other on DVD. I've seen the Netflix one and thought it little more than 'meh', the other I haven't. The only one I've seen in a cinema is the 2019 film.
The idea of bringing strangers together to solve puzzles has been used before, in films like Cube, or Fermat's Room, both terrific films. Even films like those in the Saw series, people have to try and escape traps to survive. It's almost a subgenre of film to itself.
I tend not to begin with the end of the film, but here I will, because in some ways, it's the key to this film's purpose. Simply put the end of the film deliberately acts like an epilogue to this film AND a prologue to a sequel. It's clear the makers of this film, want to set up a franchise. From that point of view it does set up a potentially intriguing follow-up.
However, that potential follow-up has a problem. I've gone on before about how a film doesn't need to be original, but it does need to be well written and made, with characters you want to care about, and here you simply don't. In the better films of this type, the script reveals the characters and what drives them carefully, which often leads to surprises. Here, almost from the moment we meet them, we know each of the characters and what drives each and they all, with only one exception, develop through the film and it has to be said, you don't really care.
Zoey is a girl haunted by events in her past. When we first meet her, she is more interested in science and its mysteries but holds back from being more outgoing, engaging with lectures in classes for example. And yet, by the end of the film she is turning into the action star. The rest of the characters don't really change. Another begins as a ruthless businessman and you just know how he'll turn out by the end. There are no real surprises at all from a character point of view. Once you meet them, you know who will live or die by the end. Of course, it doesn't help that the fate of one is hinted at in the trailer itself and the opening of the film takes away any tension regarding another, at least to that point.
From a story perspective while there are some interesting moments, the film forgets its own title, in that towards the end, it seems to get closer to the Saw films, rather than about the puzzles. Not that it ever gets as brutal or bloody as a Saw film, but you can see the influence.
The cast are okay. Taylor Russell plays Zoey and is the lead and she is okay. The others in the group, Logan Miller, Jay Ellis, Tyler Labine, Deborah Ann Woll and Nik Dodani are okay too. it's just the characters needed more development.
The film is directed by Adam Robitel (who also directed Insidious: The Last Key) and he keeps things moving at a good pace, even generating some tension at moments, it's just a shame the film lacks an ending. It might not be fully down to the writers Bragi F. Schut and Maria Melnik and more down to a decision by the producers but whoever made the decision has harmed the end. The last moments would have been better suited as a post or end credit scene.
Escape Room is not terrible. It's certainly not the worst film I've seen with the title. But I do think it needed some better writing to really work. Instead what you are left with is a film with an interesting premise, one that has a some good moments in there, but let down by its desire to be a series of films rather than being a satisfactory film on its own terms.
Rating: 2/5
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