Escape Room (2019) | Film Review

If you’ve ever taken part in an escape room, you understand how unrelentingly frustrating it can be. Confusing, misleading, deceptive. These are all words that come to mind as you think casually about sacrificing a teammate just for a hint. At the same time, the adrenaline pumping from solving a complicated puzzle or sheer thrill stemming from “beating the system” morphs that irritation into pure cathartic release. Of course, unlike in director Adam Robetil’s new film, Escape Room, I’ve never played for my very life.

Any horror aficionado recognizes the essentials of this watered-down Saw premise; six strangers (Taylor Russell, Deborah Ann Woll, Tyler Labine, Logan Miller, Jay Ellis, Nik Dodani) find themselves trapped in an isolated room together must work as a team and solve a myriad of tests to move on to even greater ones, or face certain death.

We learn about our mysterious characters and their connection as they dovetail through their insane situation, and Robetil ratchets up the tension as we go. Each surrounding brings with it a renewed promise of demise if the respective puzzles are not completed both timely and with a strict appreciation of the rules of the game. While this is certainly a neutered version of that “other” series of films, Escape Room does manage to innovate in various ways to create a fairly fresh aesthetic of its own.

As our team bounces from room-to-room, each puzzle is functionally sound. Therein lies the greatest compliment I can give to Bragi Schut and Maria Melnik’s screenplay in that – despite the absurdity of a casually furnished room-sized furnace or an emulated Wisconsin winter completely indoors with collapsing ice – each test is decidedly solvable. Any time a film of heightened circumstances like Escape Room (or the recent Game Night) comes along, much of the enjoyment lies in the relatability of each struggle and, though bombastic, most of these make a semblance of rational sense when looked at logically.

The majority of Escape Room works proficiently as a mind-bending thriller taking full advantage of the game’s current popularity. It’s the final reveal and landing where the story and the film begin to significantly misfire a bit. While functional, it’s more of a stretch than an upside-down billiards hall, and one character in particular erupts into a ham-fisted, Bondian villain-esque monologue that threatens to bring what came before it crashing down.

Overall, Escape Room ends up an enjoyable night at the movies. There is nothing here that reinvents the wheel of horror, nor is it particularly terrifying or memorable. Yet, it is clever enough to respect what it wants to be, and there is enough talent both in front of and behind the camera to keep the audience invested, even when the script begins to spiral out-of-control. In fact, there is certainly enough promising material to tantalize us into seeing what Adam Robetil and company could do with another film. Even more so, you’re going to walk out of the theater dying to join in on an escape room of your own.