I don't have enough familiarity with the Saw franchise to know how similar it is to Adam Robitel's Escape Room, but Sony's new horror-ish (this should be a genre of its own) definitely feels like a hodgepodge of a lot of different horror movies. Beyond the Saw comparison, the clearest narrative influence is Drew Goddard's Cabin in the Woods, another film where characters become pawns in a game at the mercy of shadowy figures. And on a micro aesthetic level, Robitel and co-screenwriters Bragi F. Schut and Maria Melnik even throw in a little riff on the old-timey Coagula video from Jordan Peele's Get Out.
The connection between these two influences? It's imitation without the satire; take the visual components and the basic framework without using it in service of something more significant. That's not necessarily a disqualifying factor, but it's noteworthy in terms of where this movie succeeds and where it fails.
Broadly speaking, Escape Room is already a stronger success than most January horror movies, and the fact that I actually made the effort to see it in theaters is quite telling. Most of the time I'll just skip out on the schlock doldrums of the early calendar year, but the word-of-mouth and moderately intriguing concept drew me in. This is an entertaining movie, and perhaps an inappropriately playful one, content to give the audience a bit of fun even as characters die left and right. There are no real scares in sight; instead, Robitel and company stage a series of brisk and intense setpieces, all of which operate at a crisp, breakneck pace.
The setup itself is quite simple. Six people, each with their own personal tragedies and backgrounds, receive mysterious invitations to an escape room, promising a unique challenge and a significant cash prize. Before the games begin, viewers are introduced to only a few of them- Zoey (Taylor Russell) is a shy college student who needs to take more risks, Ben (Logan Miller) is stuck in a dead-end job, and Jason (Jay Ellis) is a business power player in his prime. When they reach the Minos Escape Room, they meet Mike (Tyler Labine), a trucker who needs the money, as well as ex-soldier Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll) and escape room expert Danny (Nik Dodani).
As they exchange pleasantries in the waiting room, the strangers come to a startling realization- this waiting area is the actual escape room. That's perfectly fine, but then the room starts to get hotter. And hotter. Soon enough, it's boiling inside. In those moments, all six of them come to the same conclusion: this is not a game. From there, they'll jump from room to room, hoping to make their way to some conclusion that may or may not exist at all. And as the game progresses, the bodies start to pile up, leaving them to wonder if anyone will make it out.
Robitel knows how to put together an impressive action scene, which is crucial considering the film rarely slows down to take a breath. There's a more explicit connection between the six players, but the film is smart about its exposition, doling out information in careful intervals as the dangerous game progresses. Yet as fun as Escape Room can be, there is a slight aftertaste of disappointment that comes with the territory, a feeling that Robitel misses a few opportunities for something riskier or more experimental.
Let's take the first setpiece as an example. All six characters learn, in real time, that they're stuck in a room with a rapidly escalating temperature, and that there's only a few minutes to get out. They attempt to solve the puzzle, running around a single location to find as many clues as possible. Despite the limitation of the space and time, everything in this sequence is edited in the most conventional fashion possible. There are no long takes, no feeling of restriction- it's all rather pedestrian. Was I surprised by the lack of innovation? Not especially. Still, if this does eventually become the next big sci-fi/horror sandbox for filmmakers to explore, I hope we're treated to something a bit more ambitious. In its current form, Escape Room is an efficient time at the theater, but it's too safe to be totally satisfying.
THE FINAL GRADE: B- (6.6/10)
The connection between these two influences? It's imitation without the satire; take the visual components and the basic framework without using it in service of something more significant. That's not necessarily a disqualifying factor, but it's noteworthy in terms of where this movie succeeds and where it fails.
Broadly speaking, Escape Room is already a stronger success than most January horror movies, and the fact that I actually made the effort to see it in theaters is quite telling. Most of the time I'll just skip out on the schlock doldrums of the early calendar year, but the word-of-mouth and moderately intriguing concept drew me in. This is an entertaining movie, and perhaps an inappropriately playful one, content to give the audience a bit of fun even as characters die left and right. There are no real scares in sight; instead, Robitel and company stage a series of brisk and intense setpieces, all of which operate at a crisp, breakneck pace.
The setup itself is quite simple. Six people, each with their own personal tragedies and backgrounds, receive mysterious invitations to an escape room, promising a unique challenge and a significant cash prize. Before the games begin, viewers are introduced to only a few of them- Zoey (Taylor Russell) is a shy college student who needs to take more risks, Ben (Logan Miller) is stuck in a dead-end job, and Jason (Jay Ellis) is a business power player in his prime. When they reach the Minos Escape Room, they meet Mike (Tyler Labine), a trucker who needs the money, as well as ex-soldier Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll) and escape room expert Danny (Nik Dodani).
As they exchange pleasantries in the waiting room, the strangers come to a startling realization- this waiting area is the actual escape room. That's perfectly fine, but then the room starts to get hotter. And hotter. Soon enough, it's boiling inside. In those moments, all six of them come to the same conclusion: this is not a game. From there, they'll jump from room to room, hoping to make their way to some conclusion that may or may not exist at all. And as the game progresses, the bodies start to pile up, leaving them to wonder if anyone will make it out.
Robitel knows how to put together an impressive action scene, which is crucial considering the film rarely slows down to take a breath. There's a more explicit connection between the six players, but the film is smart about its exposition, doling out information in careful intervals as the dangerous game progresses. Yet as fun as Escape Room can be, there is a slight aftertaste of disappointment that comes with the territory, a feeling that Robitel misses a few opportunities for something riskier or more experimental.
Let's take the first setpiece as an example. All six characters learn, in real time, that they're stuck in a room with a rapidly escalating temperature, and that there's only a few minutes to get out. They attempt to solve the puzzle, running around a single location to find as many clues as possible. Despite the limitation of the space and time, everything in this sequence is edited in the most conventional fashion possible. There are no long takes, no feeling of restriction- it's all rather pedestrian. Was I surprised by the lack of innovation? Not especially. Still, if this does eventually become the next big sci-fi/horror sandbox for filmmakers to explore, I hope we're treated to something a bit more ambitious. In its current form, Escape Room is an efficient time at the theater, but it's too safe to be totally satisfying.
THE FINAL GRADE: B- (6.6/10)
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