#3 - Escape Room (2019)

Escape Room (2019)

(dir. Adam Robitel)

Six strangers each receive a mysterious invitation to participate in a new immersive escape room from a company called Minos (that should've been a clue right there), with a $10,000 prize for the winner. They arrive and meet in the waiting room, exchange some bad dialogue, and soon realize that the game has already started. As they look around for clues, things start to get intense, and soon they suspect that their lives may be in danger. Basically Saw meets Cube meets House on Haunted Hill.

I really like the premise of this, but I thought the execution was poor at best. The writing is generally really awful and the characters are all one-dimensional stereotypes. Each character has a short backstory that is told through very awkward exposition dumps. None of the acting stands out as particularly bad, but no one is very memorable either. At least the escape room puzzles themselves are pretty neat, even if they don't always totally make sense. The ending in particular is super fucking dumb.

Overall I found this entertaining but ultimately forgettable. I think the PG-13 rating hurts it a lot - a horror film doesn't necessarily need to be bloody to be good, but the deaths were so toothless and lame that I was expecting the characters to show up again at the end unharmed. If you go in with low expectations you might have a good time with it, but I can't really recommend it. It looks like a sequel is in the works, and the premise has enough potential for me to give it a fair shot.