I also enjoyed the upside billiard room which began to fall apart to reveal a steep drop down an elevator shaft for anyone unlucky enough to be on the floor when the buzzer sounded. The first room was the most ingenious as it began to transition into an oven as the contestants blundered their way through a number of clues. The design of the Escape Rooms was very impressive and it really captured the spirit of an actual Escape Room experience, especially when the secret exits were revealed. I won’t ruin the ending here, but I had a number of theories throughout the film as to whether it was real, fake or even, the afterlife. Given how some of the deaths were obscure, it also had me doubting the reality of the situation and whether, like in Roald Dahl’s classic, they would all be okay in the end and waving happily at the winner. At some points, the film actually reminded me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as each of the six contestants were picked off one-by-one in each of the rooms. Fans of the Saw series might see this as a diluted alternative, but I actually enjoyed this more restrained approach. I was actually quite relieved that the film wasn’t a total gore-fest and that the focus was more on solving clues and avoiding traps instead of “torture porn” and grim choices. However, Escape Room is much less visceral and most of the violence is either implied or off-screen. With deadly puzzles and death-traps at the heart of the action, it is natural for horror fans to draw comparisons to both the Saw and Cubefranchises. Straight away, this decision seems to split out the main protagonists from the “cannon fodder”, although I must admit that the film does a great job at maintaining the tension. After this odd directorial choice, the film spends the rest of its opening act developing the backstories of half of its protagonists with the other half just arriving at the Escape Room as the action begins in earnest. I understand that the sequence was designed to inject some action into the first fifteen minutes of the film to balance out the slow build-up, but it might have been better if we’d seen the fate of a previous batch of contestants rather than a sneak peek of what was to come. The film opens up with a flash-forward to a sequence near the end of the movie which immediately undercuts the dramatic tension because it reveals the fate of one of the six protagonists. The most recognisable name here is Deborah Ann Woll, who played Karen Page in the Daredevil TV series. Released in January 2019, this particular Escape Room features a bigger budget than the others I’ve seen online, although it has a cast of relative unknowns. Twisting the concept for the horror genre and making a film about a deadly Escape Room seemed like a no-brainer idea and when researching for this review, I discovered there were actually multiple films already out there with the same name. Reminiscent of point-and-click videogames of the past, Escape Rooms have massively grown in popularity over the last decade and offer an exciting physical real-world activity ideal for small groups. Done correctly, they can be immersive experiences that encourage players to search for clues and solve puzzles in order to escape from themed rooms. I love Escape Rooms, and have participated in over a dozen different rooms over the past five years or so. 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. Synopsis: 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. Starring: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller & Deborah Ann Woll
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