Escape Room — KB Movie Thoughts

*WARNING SPOILERS*

Seen 1/15/19

I was very curious as to what I was going to get walking in to Escape Room. I had heard generally positive things about it and the trailer did it's job of making me say "I would go see that" but I'm always cautious about low budget horror/thrillers that are released in January.

Let me start off by giving the movie credit for being made for only 9 million and then pulling in about 35 million domestically. At least the movie was a financial success.

To me this movie was just fine. Nothing to horrible but nothing spectacular either.

Some of my biggest problems happen right in the beginning. The very first scene is a scene from later on in the movie and I think they did this to try and build suspense right away but it didn't pay off for me. I had no connection to the character they showed or any context as to why he was there in the first place. So this scene to me almost played off as comical. Then the movie introduces us to 3 characters who would be participating in the escape room and shows us a little bit of where they are right now in life. Then we see these characters all receive a package and solve a puzzle box to receive their invitation to the escape room.

Fast forward to these characters now at the escape room and we are introduced to 3 other characters out of no where. When a movie takes time to set up some characters and not others I immediately know the latter characters are going to be unimportant and in a movie like this, be the first ones killed off. Then there is the just problem of cheesy dialogue and awkward character interactions.

What I did appreciate was the movie's explanation of why all of these characters are put in this situation. It made sense and was believable. I also appreciated a particular level in the escape room. They are all in this billiards room that is upside down. It made for some cool camera shots and I thought it was interesting how they had to problem solve in this room.

There are a couple of things I wish this movie had done that I think could have made it great. They go a little in to each of the character’s back story, which ties in to the explanation of why they are all there. I wish they had shown more flash backs for some other the characters or spent more time in their flashback. I think this could have really helped solidify some of the character development. And then there is the ending. There is a scene towards the end where one of the characters is brought back to the site of the escape room and everything is gone and the police don’t believe her story. I think it would have been so cool to just end it right there. It would make the audience question everything they had just watched up until that moment. Instead the movie goes on for about another 10 minutes setting it up for a possible sequel.

Again, for a low budget horror/thriller released in January this wasn’t the worst. It was definitely entertaining enough for me to say I had a good time. If you’re looking for something to randomly go see, sure give this one a chance. If you want to see this movie but don’t feel like spending the money to go out to the theaters, you could definitely wait for this to be on a streaming site or redbox it.