Escape rooms have become all the rage across the country. Therefore, it should surprise no one that a film centered around the thrilling/horrific activity has arrived. Escape Room is a surprisingly fun ride that finds a group of players culled together in mysterious ways to compete for a chance to win $10,000 if they manage to survive. Thing is, that whole “manage to survive” part was never thought to be literal by those folks who entered a Chicago office building on fateful day and almost immediately find themselves battling for their collective lives.
Escape Room is a true ensemble piece from director Adam Robitel (Insidious: The Last Key).
What grabs us immediately is this group of wounded souls—for various reasons—somehow have found one another on this Thanksgiving holiday weekend. They each received an invite in the form of a box. Not just any box, but a complex one that compelled every soul to become engulfed with intrigue. This group needed to figure out a way to open this thing and eventually work their way to a business card size invite that pops out at the end. After going through all that work to discover what is at the root of this mysterious arrival on each of their doorstops, who is going to say no to the invite to attend an Escape Room?
Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll) is a veteran of the war in Iraq and is haunted by something that becomes evident as the ensemble makes their way through one “room” after another. That works brilliantly as a what could be a predictable plot device to divulge to the audience why each of these folks were chosen for this Escape Room. Zoey (Taylor Russell) is a timid, quiet genius, whose professor challenges her to do something that “scares her” over the holiday weekend. Not sure if trying to avoid death was exactly what he meant. Mike (Tyler Labine) is a middle-aged man who himself is haunted by something in his past that will wreak havoc on him throughout this battle royale.
Ben (Logan Miller) fits right in with our wounded soul collective and is the least likely player to chip in due to his less than satisfactory attitude. For many, that is a tell-tale sign that he will wind up playing a big role in this affair—something telegraphed a mile away. Danny (Nik Dodani) is a self-professed expert on escape rooms and early on is seen as the group’s most valuable player… or is he?!
Jason (Jay Ellis) is what could have been a stereotypical yuppie trope. His character becomes otherwise defined over the course of the Escape Room and therefore, delivers a fascinating evolution of character. In in the hands of Ellis, it is a truly believable… instead of a stereotype.
The key to keeping the audience’s attention, on one hand, is having each room be simultaneously unique, frightening and filled to the brim with mystery.
Screenwriters Bragi F. Schut and Maria Melnik provide plenty of originality in that department, while dishing out the exposition in a way that never feels forced. There is a moment, much later in the film, where the characters open themselves up deeply. It’s a fascinating scene. Most flicks, particularly thrillers or horror movies, tend to get their character build-up out of the way early on in order to focus on the thrills and/or chills. Escape Room tosses in this ensemble defining moment so late in the game, that it keeps the answers to all our questions hanging over the entire scope of the film. It’s a rare move, storytelling-wise, and one that pays off for the viewer.
Another element that is truly unique is that, over the course of the average horror/thriller story, a single character steps up and serves as the one true hero or the one whose past catapults them to the forefront. That does not happen in Escape Room and it is all the better for it. There is an equality of terror spread around to everyone. Each one will have their heroic moment and each individual will have at least one scene where they must face their fears.
Delving deeply into a film, that most would probably take at face value, I find it a storytelling effort that required a great amount of thought, planning, outlines and every other screenwriting device that keeps all these balls in the air throughout the running time of the film. It feels strange to heap loads of praise on a film that lands the first weekend in January. See, the first month of the year is normally a Hollywood dumping ground. Movies “like this” tend to not give too much thought to anything. Frequently, in fact, they tend take their audience for granted.
Escape Room never does that. Pardon the play on one of the words with the film’s moniker, but Robitel’s work is pure escapism. Whether entering an escape room or a film about an escape room, that is all you can ask from the experience.
Grade: B