

| SonyĪmongst the shrieking and freaking out and lines like, "We have to find a key!" "Numbers, look for numbers!" "Why are they doing this to us!?" are a few very solid, at times genuinely affecting, performances from the main cast, especially Tyler Labine as Mike, a classic fishing dad in plaid shirt and jeans who can't stop making self-effacing jokes, Daredevil's Deborah Ann Woll as Amanda, an army veteran who suffers from bouts of PTSD, and Lost in Space's Taylor Russell as Zoey, whose timid yet mathematically brilliant college student ends up being really, really good at solving escape rooms. The best escape room is the evil upside-down saloon. The rooms seem to know, somehow, about the one single, horrible, world-shattering thing that happened to them, and they're repeatedly taunted with it. Gradually, as the game moves forward, it becomes apparent to each of the participants that there's something more going on. Instead, the puzzles are psychological, operating off of each character's specific paranoia or trauma caused by the past. In fact, the players rarely have to harm themselves (even if they think they do) in order to unlock each room.
BEST ESCAPE ROOM MOVIES MOVIE
It's more Hunger Games than Saw (but it's MOST like 1998's Cube), but even with the threat of a violent, horrible death looming at all times, the movie is relatively low on gore.
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Afterward, they're treated to an upside-down saloon with a floor (ceiling?) that occasionally just decides to crumble below their feet, a dingy hospital bunker, and a Victorian drawing room full of antiques that slowly crushes anyone inside. Then they have to find their way out of a rapidly cooling snowy forest with a freezing river that threatens to swallow any one of them whole. First, the group is treated to a waiting area that turns into an easy bake oven as soon as they twist what they think is the dial that opens the door, and they have to find a way out before they're incinerated. If our heroes fail to escape the rooms of Escape Room, they die.Īnd what rooms they are! There is a broader and more intricate plot going on in Escape Room, but, truthfully, it's the rooms themselves that really stand out. But, unlike real escape rooms, which may model themselves after zombie apocalypses and creepy hospitals, the stakes are real. Seems like a pretty chill way to spend a weekend, and shortly after they all arrive at the austere concrete building that houses the game, it begins. If they find their way out, they win $10,000. It was only a matter of time before escape rooms got the horror movie treatment, and, honestly, I can't think of more perfect fodder for a nice, tight thriller.Īt the start of Escape Room, six people are invited, via mysterious puzzle boxes delivered to them in the mail, to test out an extra-special, immersive experimental escape room experience.
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This year, that movie is Escape Room.Įscape rooms, the relatively new group party fad in which you and your friends are locked inside a room and must use clues hidden amongst trinkets and drib-drabs to find the key or the code that opens the door, have become wildly popular over the last few years, perfect for birthday parties or awkward team-building office outings. But sometimes, very occasionally, a film comes along that is not only entertaining, but actually pretty good, and kicks off the new year just right. Most years, January is where the cast-offs from the previous months are shunted while everyone else is busy doing their year-end catch-up marathons before the Oscars. January is, frankly, a dismal time at the movies if you've already seen the latest Star War or superhero joint or awards-baity prestige film and are looking for something to paste onto your eyeballs before the next Avengers movie comes out.

This post contains mild spoilers for Escape Room.
