Escape Room

This film tells the story of four friends who go to an escape game where they have to solve a series of puzzles to get out of a room.

"Escape Room" is a low budget horror film, but it does the job of delivering a lot of thrills and scares. I can imagine how scary it must have been to be in the room and not being able to get out! The danger increases with time, and therefore thrill and urgency increase too. I enjoyed watching it, as it is more engaging than the average low budget horror film.

Escape Room (2017, dir. Peter Dukes) offers a distinctive-looking killer and a refreshing take on the old "it's a game... but if you lose, you DIE" trope, even within the sub-genre of escape room horror. I won't spoil what makes it special, but it keeps the threat dynamic over time. Unfortunately, despite those good aspects, it was a bad film overall and I didn't like it.

Why is the movie so frustrating? Simple: it's because all of the escape room participants are constantly oblivious and/or panicking. You have to watch them waste their time freaking out and trying to give each other pep talks, all while none of them can figure out the exceptionally obvious clues and puzzles until at least five minutes or so after you noticed and solved them.

Additionally, the first scene, which takes just above EIGHT MINUTES (a.k.a. Over a tenth of the total runtime), is entirely unnecessary background for the inane mechanism of evil that is supposed to drive the killer. It's enough to have the Mysterious Antique Store Owner tell the Desperate Escape Room Owner that the box carved to look like a skull is cursed and not a good choice for decor in his attraction. We get it. It's not an especially clever writing choice, but it would work fine if we weren't subjected to so much empty screen time surrounding it.

I do not recommend watching this film, but if you're a horror fan, do yourself a favor and look up "stitch face escape room" and then read the plot summary for this film (but be careful- this wasn't the only film titled Escape Room released in 2017).

The biggest positive about this one was the concept. You have seen the "it's a game, surprise it's not a game" many times, but this one has an interesting and seemingly original twist that made it feel fresh. Unfortunately that about all it had going for it.

The plot really went nowhere. Not much of a story to be had here. Felt a bit more like an undercooked proof of concept than anything. It wasn't super scary although I quite liked the aesthetic of the bad guy, nothing wildly innovative but he looked spooky. The acting from everyone involved was below mediocre here, particularly the participants... although scruffy guy with the blonde girlfriend was alright.

There was definitely some potential to be had with the concept/plot but unfortunately it was squandered with some poor writing and some poor acting that provided for a kind of generally boring movie. Probably wouldn't recommend.

I don't really pay attention to reviews for movies. I regret listening to all the awful reviews and giving this a shot. It was one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. I rented it for 5 dollars and I'm more upset about the 2 hours I wasted with this than the money I spent. It consists of some of the worst acting I've ever seen. The only reason I kept watching it was because I thought the ending would kind of explain all the crap I've watched but it doesn't. It just simply ends. I don't even want to give this movie any more of my time with a bad review because 1 star is still doing it justice.

It's not even bad. It's one of the worst horror movies i've seen in my life. Total waste of time