Six strangers find themselves in circumstances beyond their control and must use their wits to survive.
Escape Rooms have been big business for many years now. I’m sure many of you have experienced them, I know I have and they are great fun. You are put into a room, locked in, and when the countdown begins, you have an hour to try to get out of the room. It’s not as easy as trying to locate a key, the key to the door is the very last clue and some rooms have extensions and some even have additional rooms so you must make your way around the room(s), finding clues to unlock a safe, then once you open that safe, it gives you a clue to open a small door, that door then gives you another clue and so it goes. It was only a matter of time before Hollywood jumped on the Escape Room bandwagon and with the aptly titled “Escape Room,” we are given our first big screen adaptation. And it isn’t half bad.
Six strangers receive an invitation to try their luck at breaking out of the newest Escape Room. They are told if they succeed, they will win $10,000. Their invitations mysteriously arrive at either their residence or place of work and while all are a little skeptical, eventually, the thought of winning that much money gets the better of each of them and they all arrive at the address supplied to them. While in a large waiting room, one of the guys, Danny (Nik Dodani), is a game nerd and because most of the group have never played before, he gives them, and those in the audience who have never played themselves, the necessary exposition, filling them in on the rules and regulations.
They quickly ascertain that the waiting room is actually the beginning of the game and once they are locked in, and the room begins to heat up, it becomes apparent that this is not just a game, they are playing for their lives. After narrowly escaping, they wind up in a seemingly snowy outdoor location and the small log cabin they traversed their way through to get to where they are now, closes all its doors and windows, preventing them from re-entering the building. With the temperature quickly dropping, the group must work together to find the necessary clues to take them to the next room. There are more rooms that follow but when we reach the final room, only two of them remain, and they must figure out the very last clue if they want to escape with their lives.
As the game progresses, we know that one by one, our group of hapless participants, will gradually begin to dwindle until only two are left but watching them evaluate and figure out the clues is what makes the film interesting. It is very reminiscent of a movie that came out in 1997 called “Cube,” where a group of strangers wake up in a peculiar room which has six possible exits, small doors embedded into each wall and an exit in the ceiling and the floor. They must navigate their way through each room, trying to avoid booby traps that lay in wait in certain rooms until they reach the very end. Filmmakers steal ideas from each other all the time so I have no problem with them borrowing this idea, here though, the acting and production quality is far superior as “Cube” was made on a considerably smaller budget.
“Escape Room” is pure, unadulterated fun. As we watch our protagonists unravel the many clues laid out in front of them, you find yourself doing the exact same thing, trying to beat them to the punch but this being a movie, the filmmakers don’t give us enough time, or clues, to decipher them ourselves, instead, they let our onscreen counterparts do the hard work. The finale is the weakest part of the film. Instead of letting our survivors survive, and live happily ever after, the filmmakers, which seems to be the norm these days, find a way to drag them back into the game and once the credits start rolling, you feel cheated. So many movies have to end on a depressing note, where everyone gets killed or have no way of escaping their current situation, just for once, I’d like to see the end of a horror film where someone survives and goes off to live their life with a newfound appreciation for it. But this being Hollywood, they’re probably hard at work on “Escape Room 2.”
In theaters Friday, January 4th
