The new suspense/horror film Escape Room is the first theatrical release of 2019… and it manages to be not so bad. Usually the first release of the year is a bad horror movie that couldn’t hack it over the holidays. Escape Room manages to bubble up just a little above that low standard, surprisingly enough.
So Escape Room is about six people who are invited to an Escape the Room game where the winner(s) get $10,000 (something the one member of the group notes is unusual for this type of game). Of course, since this is a movie, the escape room is deadly and if the characters can’t solve the puzzles in each of the rooms, they will die.
Hey, if nothing else, this movie has characters who are a bit more multi-dimensional than I’d have expected. They aren’t all good people and unfortunately only one of them wants to be there… which matters since they are generally unhappy, morose people with tragic backstories from the start. Compare that to the idea of a bunch of people who want to enjoy the game only to have it backfire. But whatever.
This flick is kind of a PG-13 version of a later Saw film… though also a better film than most of that series. It doesn’t nail everything it tries to do… though if you are susceptible to its brand of suspense, the film will probably work for you. It really does try to ratchet up the suspense, to turn the screw just a little bit more. I appreciate the attempt at being a suspense-filled tension machine… it just didn’t work on me.
But, hey, it’s far from the worse movie I’ve seen, especially at this time of year. The acting is generally pretty good, the moments of suspense decent (or at least well-intentioned), and the characters a slight step above the norm. It’s a decent little film.
Score: 72