Art imitates other art, and “Escape Room” is no different — but it may be one of the few instances where the imitation is better than the material it borrows from.
In this case, that material is the godawful “Saw” series. “Escape Room” is certainly more enjoyable than any of those gorefest gag-outs and has significantly less blood and guts — and a PG-13 rating to boot. Even if the standard of the “Saw” films is not a high bar to jump, this movie manages to beat them by a decent leap.
Directed by Adam Robitel, “Escape Room” is pretty straightforward with its premise. Six strangers are invited to try out an escape room: an elaborate, staged multiroom puzzle. With a cash incentive of $10,000 (which is only mentioned really as an afterthought) the cast of characters quickly realize the escape room they’ve been locked into is a massive, elaborate death trap of several different designs, and the “game master” running the operation is definitely out to kill them.
Let’s start with the positives. The set pieces are really well done. Each puzzle room has been carefully crafted with the amount of attention to detail and assembly you’d expect from a twisted phantom of a booby trap artist.
Along with a couple of solid characters played by Deborah Ann Woll (“True Blood,” Netflix’s recently canceled “Daredevil”) and Taylor Russell (Netflix’s “Lost in Space”), the room-solving and trap sequences are genuinely interesting and fun to watch, making it decent entertainment overall and worth checking out for horror/thriller enthusiasts. Though it also shamelessly sets itself up for one or more sequels, the resolutions and revelations of the third act could be explored further with some excellent social commentary if they do manage to make another.
But the film’s flaws may make the more particular movie-goers groan in mental anguish. There’s some significant stupidity here, both onscreen and regarding filmmaking decisions. It feels like a low-budget Hollywood thriller from the late ’90s or early 2000s that was made 15 to 20 years too late with a mediocre script, a few dumb characters, a budget cast of actors ranging from good to not good. The dialogue is so lousy that even the better performers can’t help but deliver lines terribly at times.
The backstories and introductions to each character range from interesting but vague to simplistic, especially that of Taylor Russell, who plays the lead character but has an entirely underdeveloped backstory and in how it relates to her place in the plot. Luckily, Russell’s acting and her character’s development through the rest of the film is far better.
Most notably bad in every way is Jay Ellis as smug stockbroker Jason, who is built up to be very successful and financially well off. While his backstory is interesting, the character doesn’t fit the scenario at all. You could argue he enjoys a challenge and is curious; but once he arrives, he couldn’t care less about solving puzzle rooms and openly mocks several other characters. He doesn’t even need the money. So why would this guy even be there? The reasoning behind this character doesn’t make sense, and he comes off as completely unlikable and annoying with Ellis’ barely mediocre acting.
There are a few other things that cause you to roll your eyes, like Nik Dodani’s obnoxiously cliché nerd character/escape room enthusiast, who is downright painful to watch, written as if he’s straight out of a jocks versus nerds ’80s comedy. This portrayal is downright lazy writing and stereotyping, and it’s insulting to people who enjoy a range of things that might be considered nerdy.
Aside from its few glaring problems, “Escape Room” still stands as a solid horror/thriller that is worth a rental or a stream, possibly even a budget ticket if you are feeling adventurous. For a movie about people perishing in horrible ways, the film itself is an escape worth taking just once.
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“Escape Room” is currently playing at the Riverside Cinemas, 1017 S. Boone St. in Aberdeen.
George Haerle holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing for media and lives in Cosmopolis.
