The promising premise it squanders is six strangers receive mysterious invitations to participate in an exclusive and highly competitive Minos escape room. It doesn’t take long for them to realize that this is no game. The consequences are deadly, and the clues have deeply personal significance to various members of the group. Put on the trail of finding a mysterious “Dr. Yutang Wu,” the half-dozen characters fight for their lives, reckon with their pasts, and try to keep from killing one another. Some, like veteran escape room player Danny (Nike Dodani, Alex Strangelove) and savant physics student Zoey (Taylor Russell of Lost in Space) are helpful; veteran Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll, True Blood, Daredevil) is an asset to the group but has her own secrets; and friendly dad-type Mike (Tyler Labine, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil) tries to keep spirits high. Meanwhile, hgh-achieving finance bro Jason (Jay Ellis, Insecure) refuses to fail while burnout Ben (Logan Miller, Love, Simon) is just trying to keep it together. The setup of escape rooms tailored to the individual fears of the people trying to escape them is an intriguing one. But it’s deployed intermittently, with some details, like Mike’s childhood dog, Amanda, appearing as taxidermy stuffing yet never actually shown in the same scene as her owner. Only some of the characters are made to face their fears. Others we barely learn anything about in spite of lengthy screen-time. further reading: The Must See Movies of 2019 It’s the uneven quality that makes Escape Room feel most like a rough draft; there are good elements here that could be salvaged, and others that could be improved with some TLC, but as-is, it’s a bumpy ride. Some of the deaths are genuinely effecting, especially one involving a billiard room, but others are rushed and don’t follow the movie’s and the escape rooms’ own internal logic, like a late in the movie puzzle room with no discernible connection to anyone’s past. Escape Room occupies the bloodless, plenty of jokes, will-they-make-it, puzzle box thriller corner of the horror genre. It’s the kind of movie a person might watch at a friend’s house in high school, but even then, there are better movies on Netflix if you’re hoping for an edge of your seat thrill ride. Only the second act will really get any blood pumping, as the first spends a lot of time on exposition that largely does not pay off, and the third is when the conceit of the escape rooms falls apart and the movie itself doesn’t know quite how (or when) to end. And about that ending: it is thoroughly unsatisfying and makes Escape Room feel cheaper and goofier, like a chintzy grab for a sequel before it’s even bothered to impress its first audience. There are a few better moments where the movie could have ended, but where it does conclude plays as if this is a test screening trying out multiple endings, and not a polished final product. further reading: Best Modern Horror Movies
