Escape Room (2019)

 

**This post contains spoilers**

The Story- The Minos Corporation chooses Zoey (Taylor Russell), Ben (Logan Miller), Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll), Danny (Nik Dodani), Mike (Tyler Labine), and Jason (Jay Ellis) to participate in an escape room game. Playing the game seems like a fun challenge at first, but as the rooms become more dangerous, it’s clear Minos has sinister motivations.

My Thoughts- Escape Room features the usual cast of characters you’ll see in a survival game horror movie. Zoey is the wholesome protagonist, who wants to help and hopefully save everyone from certain death. Jason? Well, he’s a jerk. Jason represents the kind of relentless participant, who will do anything to win the game and stay alive. He’s selfish and heartless, and Jason only wants to be a team player, if it’ll help his chances of survival. But his mindset is also understandable, because if we’re being honest, not too many people are going to risk their lives to save and protect complete strangers.

Personal tragedies play a big part in the games for Escape Room. Amanda is a combat veteran with PTSD, so you can easily see why she’s the first member of the group to panic. There’s also the red jacket from Jason’s story in the outdoor winter room. Jason used that jacket to keep himself from freezing to death after he murdered his friend. In the winter room, the red jacket is shared amongst the group to fight off hypothermia, something Jason selfishly refused to do with his friend.

The clever interweaving for using personal hardships as tie-ins for the games adds an emotional layer to Escape Room. The main cast of characters are forced to face their demons. The majority of the escape rooms have their own brands of uniqueness and deadly creativity. Starting things off with the oven room was a good choice to set the tone for the rest of the movie. The upside down room with the bar and the pool table was truly unreal. It’s easily the only room, where I could buy into the possibility of anyone dying, because of how extremely dangerous everything was, a true nail biter.

Something to pay close attention to is how the mood changes, as the game progresses. At first, the banter and jokes throughout the group are playful, but that changes as things get more serious. The insults are more personal and nasty, because the group realizes death is a realistic possibility. Jason gets more belligerent with his finger wagging, while constantly trying to expose the weak links, and everyone’s moral compass is put to the test.

The second to last escape room was a big letdown for me. It’s down to Jason and Ben for the final two survivors, and Zoey is presumably dead. The whole sequence inside this boring and plain room didn’t do anything for me. I get the whole idea behind the distorted POV, because Jason and Ben were heavily drugged, but it’s just too whacky overall. And to make matters worse, the placement they chose for this room didn’t fit. It’s toward the end of the movie, so I was expecting something more complex to reflect the high stakes to make it to the finish line.

The Gamemaster’s (Yorick van Wageningen) explanation to Ben for Minos’ motivations might be a tad bit cliched, but it still works. Minos’ clients are rich and powerful, and they’re willing to pay top dollar for more extreme content. The Gamemaster believes most of the world has gone soft, and that’s where Minos steps in. You can believe the rich and powerful see ordinary people as disposable toys for their amusement, and The Gamemaster also uses gladiator games and public executions for examples. That specific group of spectators never vanished, they were just pushed further into the shadows as the world changed.

Ben making it to the end as the “dark horse” survivor was a decent enough surprise, because you knew Jason’s selfishness and his arrogance would come back to bite him sooner or later. I didn’t buy Zoey’s death in the carbon monoxide poisoning room for one second. They tried a swerve, but they invested too much in Zoey, as the shy and scrappy protagonist with a fighting spirit. She’s too smart, and Zoey was going to find a way to make it. 

Escape Room has an alternate ending, where Zoey is lured back into one of her college classrooms. She gets the $10k grand prize check (she defiantly tears it up) and her mother’s compass, and the Puzzle Maker traps her inside for another game. This ending just feels flat, when you compare it to the theatrical ending. Zoe and Ben continuing their pursuit to expose Minos, while the Puzzle Maker prepares another game for both of them with the crashing flight simulator is a far more intriguing cliffhanger and ending.

Escape Room is a fun and entertaining game horror movie, with a lot of energy and brisk pacing. The thrills are consistent, and the entire cast delivers solid performances. I almost wish Yorick van Wageningen had more screen time. I understand the idea behind saving his only appearance until the end for the big reveal, but Wageningen is genuinely evil, cold, and cruel as The Gamemaster, truly a perfect fit to represent Minos. He does a lot with a little amount of time, and Wageningen would’ve made a great villain to showcase throughout the movie.

Rating- 7/10