Escape Room (2019)

Elevator Pitch: A group of people, from a variety of backgrounds, are collected in what seems to be a waiting room. They are to participate in an Escape Room game, where the survivors will receive a prize of $10,000. They find that the room they are in is the first from which they are required to escape and as the heat in the space increases they are forced to use their ingenuity to get out. The next space is a facimile of an arctic environment and one if their number dies when he falls through the ice. Will he be the only casualty?

Content: There is no sex, nudity, drinking or drug taking. We see the participants receiving their invitations to participate in the game – boxes requiring some ingenuity to access them. Then in the rooms they are forced into extreme actions to survive and we are surprised when they begin to be picked off. There are flashbacks which are a bit meaningless until all is revealed.

A View: This is one of those films which made its production costs back on its first weekend, and went on to make a lot of money. The critics were divided on it, but all seemed to agree that it was formulaic. It was ambitious, saving the three aspects of such movies for the reveal. How had the contestants been chosen? Would any of them survive, and what was the actual purpose of the game? Because of this we do not really get to know the characters, and therefore don’t care much when they die, but still, if you are into this sort of movie probably a watch for the cost of a download.

Additional Info: The creator of an escape room in Poland was charged with deliberately creating a dangerous situation when five teenagers died in a fire. This resulted in the release date of this film being put back by a few months in some countries out of respect for those who died.