Ever been in an escape room you couldn’t best?
Escape rooms have been a past time for a while now; you probably know how they work. You’re locked in a room for a certain amount of time and you need to pick up on clues left behind that will answer riddles—the answers of which should lead you to a combination, a key, a way out of the enclosed space.
But when the time runs out, the nice people behind the escape room let you out. That’s the deal. You’ll feel defeated (maybe even dumb), but at least you’ll be free.
Escape Room, which premieres on February 27, plays on this idea. Except, of course, there’s no way out (unless you count death, that is).
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In the film, six strangers are invited to the ultimate escape experience. Each one is drawn in for their own reasons, some needing to open new doors and others needing a way out of their normal lives and is further enticed by a $10,000 cash prize for whoever wins.
But once they enter the waiting room, it quickly becomes clear that the game has started. As promised, everything is realistic AF yet they refuse to believe they’re in any real danger. But when one of them falls into icy cold water and drowns in the second room, the real deal becomes clear: They aren’t just playing for money, they’re playing for their lives.
What follows is a series of riddles and circumstances that will draw you into the film. Throughout the watch, you learn more about the players and their pasts as they try to outwit the makers of the escape room.
It’s an effective mix of human interest and action, of mystery and human despicableness that the movie leaves you with enough room to guess, be surprised and awe at the rare moments of man’s heroic tendencies. I mean, would you sacrifice your last moments to give strangers a chance at their lives?
Something to think about.
Images via Columbia Pictures
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Escape Room shines in aspects that matter: its character development, its pacing and its storytelling that has just the right amount of cynicism mixed in. You’ll enjoy the first 90 minutes if you watch movies for the sheer enjoyment of it, but it does fall victim to what many other films before it had.
We’re talking about the setup to a sequel that sometimes feels unnecessary.
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Nevertheless, Escape Room is a pleasant watch that you can turn into a game of your own. Just do the rest of the theater a favor and keep your answers to yourself, okay? The rest of us are trying to figure things out, too.
Escape Room premieres on February 27.
Art Alexandra Lara
