Score: 3/5

Let the 2019 movie season begin!

Escape Room is very much what you’d expect from the title. It’s a movie about Escape Rooms with a Saw-lite mentality for murder and some science fiction wizardry to make the rooms more interesting than what you’d find out in a mall.

The big question most people will probably want answered is “Are the escape rooms good?” They were decent. My personal favorite was a bar that was upside down, with many fixtures denying the laws of gravity. It felt though that after the first three rooms they kind of ran out of interesting ideas. In terms of the puzzling nature, damn are these people much better at escape rooms than I am. I get it though, it would be a super boring movie if we were stuck watching actors get frustrated and unable to solve a puzzle.

Now the big sticking point I have in this movie is where the plot takes us. The answer to the big why is this happening question, and who is doing it, it’s unsatisfying. With how off-the-wall bonkers the movie was up to that point to finish so flat was a bit disappointing to me. As I was watching the movie I felt how much more interesting it would have been if it had more of a Cabin in the Woods like back and forth giving the puppet masters a little more life. Also in regards to the characters, the beats felt very familiar, you could tell pretty quickly who would do what and pretty much when. The one thing that threw me a curveball was the super-heavy setup for a sequel.

Even though the characters were loosely drawn I did enjoy the cast. They were fun to watch and they added some good humor to balance out the horror beats. It was great to see Deborah Ann Woll on the big screen now that most of her TV shows are getting the Netflix axe. It was Logan Miller’s Ben that kept me the most interested. The kind of a dick guy that just points out how crazy the whole situation is will always shine in these kinds of movies for me.

Overall, Escape Room is a PG-13 Saw-with-puzzles with a fun cast that falls into predictable horror movie storytelling.