ESCAPE ROOM (2019)

It was only a matter of time before we got a horror version of the popular social outings known as ESCAPE ROOMS. Escape rooms have grown in popularity over the years in that you and your friends choose to be ‘locked’ in a room and are given clues and a limited amount of time to solve them in order to ‘escape.’ If you solve the clues before the time expires, you essentially win the game. These have grown more elaborate over the last few years in some essentially are a single room, and others have multi-rooms layered among each other as part of the game. And the themes range from tv shows, superheroes, movies, really almost anything. If you weren’t familiar with the games, you’d be forgiven for thinking this movie is just a variation of the Saw flicks and while there are definitely comparisons, the theme of the movie is pretty faithful to the real games themselves. A group of strangers are invited to take part in a ‘game’ and winning the game will result in a cash prize. Upon arrival, the game begins as the ‘waiting’ room is similar to an oven in that it heats up significantly so after escaping this room we have officially begun. The rooms themselves as we move along are entertaining and creative; and the cast is decent with no one too annoying. We get a fair amount of thrills and mystery in terms of who is behind this but I’ll say the ending will probably make or break it for most people. Supposedly there is a sequel on the way and if the sequel explains the ending set-up in this one, it would make this that much better. If we are left hanging with answers, then points subtracted. As it stands now, a decent horror ride especially for fans of the games themselves…but still waiting on some of those ending scenes to be explained in more detail. If fans of the real games, you'll prob get a kick out of this one.

SLASH SCENE: BILLIARDS ROOM

SLASH SCORE: 3.5/5