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Escape Room - Movie Review

Fortunately, the Tide Pods Challenge went untouched by Hollywood. The same can’t be said about the escape room craze however, as Sony’s latest, called Escape Room is a clever little high-concept psychological horror film that plays off the raging escape room phenomenon, and in the process provides enough fiendishly conceived traps, puzzles, conundrums, kills and excitement to keep us on the edge of our seats. It is more white-knuckle thriller than it is horror, but regardless, it is pretty good at what it sets out to do. And for a cheap little horror film released in the dead of the January dumping season, Escape Room is a whole lot of fun to watch.

Most know the concept of an escape room: several people are locked in a room with no windows and only one door. Players then search around the room for clues that will help them escape before the clock ticks down. But what if the final tick of that clock meant death to one of the players? Now you’re talking! That’s the main conceit of Escape Room in which six seemingly random people, each experiencing a varying level of accomplishments, phobias, obsession, or anguish, are invited to participate in an exciting new rendition of an escape room. The first one out goes home with the $10,000 prize.

"bucks the typical tropes of a low-budget PG-13 horror by taking focus away from trying to scare us at every turn and, instead, putting it on the elaborately staged puzzles and booby-trapped rooms"


Of course, we know going in that the stakes are actually much higher than that and it is during the first room challenge that the characters begin to realize it as well when a series of hellish space heaters buried within the walls and ceiling begin to slowly heat up the room to dangerous levels. As the players scramble to solve the puzzle, they begin to discover that there is a much larger and much more important puzzle to solve. Who are these strangers, and what sinister mystery links them all together? The traps get more and more menacing as the players’ personal lives are revealed.

As the story – written by Bragi F. Schut and Maria Melnik – carries forward from room to room, the back story of each individual is slowly spooled out behind it. We don’t get a whole lot of exposition however as most are standard, paper-thin horror characters. But there is a quite satisfying and convincing answer to most of our questions as to why each character is there. There’s apprehensive science student Zoey (Taylor Russell), drunken grocery stockboy Ben (Logan Miller), wounded-in-action Army veteran Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll), egocentric finance businessman Jason (Jay Ellis), nerdy gamer Danny (Nic Dodani), and redneck trucker Mike (Tyler Labine). Despite the fact that none of the cast is a big star, it never feels stilted or forced as they argue and squabble over game strategy and resource use. Particularly memorable is Russell, who we will undoubtedly see more of very soon. She's really good here. {googleads}

Director Adam Robitel (Insidious: The Last Key) bucks the typical tropes of a low-budget PG-13 horror by taking focus away from trying to scare us at every turn and, instead, putting it on the elaborately staged puzzles and booby-trapped rooms – and what a great decision.

One particularly satisfying scene takes place in an empty bar. The players are forced to jump around the room, grabbing onto furniture, pool tables, or bar stools as they try to solve a sliding tile puzzle while the floor (or ceiling – the room is upside down) crumbles away at regular intervals into an elevator shaft beneath them. Much of the scene’s enjoyment comes from feeling as if we are playing a living board game ourselves. And that is largely thanks to the production design by Edward Thomas which is absolutely spectacular in this scene as well as in most of the others.

Escape Room - Movie Review

Think what you will about how much legs the real-life escape room fad has left, but this clever little play on the concept certainly gives it a gusto-filled run with whatever remains in the tank. There is some clunky dialogue throughout, and it could have used an additional twenty minutes to fully flesh out some of the characters, but the fact remains that for what it is, Escape Room is a legitimately viable answer to the post-holiday malaise. And don’t be surprised if this thing goes on to huge success at the box office. I get the distinct feeling that this just might be the birth of a new Final Destination-like universe.

3 stars

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Escape Room - Movie Review

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for terror/perilous action, violence, some suggestive material and language.
Runtime:
110 mins
Director
: Adam Robitel
Writer:
Bragi F. Schut, Maria Melnik
Cast:
Deborah Ann Woll, Taylor Russell, Tyler Labine
Genre
: Horror | Thriller | Mystery
Tagline:
Solve the Puzzle. Escape the Room. Find the clues or die.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Try doing one thing that scares you over break, OK?"
Theatrical Distributor:
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Official Site: https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/escaperoom/
Release Date:
January 4, 2019
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
No details available.
Synopsis: Six strangers find themselves in circumstances beyond their control, and must use their wits to survive.

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Escape Room - Movie Review

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Home Video Distributor: Sony Pictures
Available on Blu-ray
- April 23, 2019
Screen Formats: 2.39:1
Subtitles
: English; English SDH; French; Spanish
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit); English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set; DVD copy Movies Anywhere digital code included
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

Columbia/Sony Pictures does this surprising little gem right with a glorious 1080p 2.39:1 blu-ray transfer that looks and sounds great with a well-rounded out experience of deleted scenes, making-of featurettes, and alternate opening and ending sequences.

The experience begins with a splendid blu-ray menu interface that, appropriately, resembles a computer game with bright colors and digital graphics for moving about the menu.

Visually, the film is actually quite stunning with rich textures and bold, deep colors throughout. The film's many interior scenes feature bright colors that populate the dimly-lit sets. There is an intentional film grain effect that is, upon first glance, slightly annoying, however we soon enough fail to even notice it. Not completely sold that the effect is absolutely necessary (or even serves a genuine purpose) but it is certainly not distracting enough to ding the transfer's production value.

Scenes are otherwise clear and bright and handled to perfection with little to no artifacting, blooming, or, digital noise. This is a tricky one too as it is a quite dark film with most of it taking place inside dark rooms and on dimly-lit sets.

There is pre-credit puzzle sequence that gives us a sobering idea of what we are in for. As one of the film's main characters attempts to solve a puzzle, the room around him begins slowly shrinking as the walls close in. The crunching and grinding of the collapsing room hits us from behind, above, and from the sides as the DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track works its way around the room.

The outstanding effect continues throughout the remaining puzzles. This is a great film to exercise your home theater's greatest features (or expose its weaknesses) as it is relatively light on dialogue and heavy in loud noises and rambunctious foley effects.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • None

Special Features:

The experience is rounded out with a relative abundance of special features, deleted scenes, an alternate opening, an alternate ending and a couple of featurettes.

Game, Sets, Match (04:55) Production designer Edward Thomas (who stands to be commended for his wonderful set designs) speaks to the process and difficulties the crew encountered building the films' elaborate sets. The film's special effects supervisor also joins the conversation to chime in about needing the cast to perform many of their own stunts.

  • The Lone Survivors (04:19) - A short piece on each fo the film's characters. Cast members speak to what it was like working on the set as well as learning to work together. They also speak about what it was like to do many of their own stunts.
  • Will You Ever Part 1 (01:03) - A useless piece in which some of the film's actors tell us whether or not they have ever done an actual escape room in real life.
  • Will You Ever Part 2 (01:02) - A useless piece in which some of the film's actors tell us whether or not they will ever do an actual escape room in real life.

Deleted Scenes

Oddly, the Alternate Opening and Alternate Ending sequences are included within the Deleted Scenes section

  • Alternate Opening (5:21) - A rather confusing piece in which a Spanish-speaking soccer team attempts to solve the film's first puzzle in the oven room. Not sure if they were originally going to be the original cast or what. Regardless, the sequence makes no sense and was rightfully requisitioned to the cutting room floor.
  • Ben Liquor Store
  • Jason Motorcycle
  • Mirror Flashback
  • Jason Office
  • Technician and Zoey
  • Gaslight
  • Alternate Ending (02:31) - A very different ending to the film which would have certainly been an even bigger twist than the one actually used in the film.

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Escape Room - Movie Review

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