70. Escape Room; movie review

ESCAPE ROOM
Cert 15
100 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong threat, violence

A few weeks ago, Mrs W and I joined a gang of friends at the Escape Room in Coventry for what we hoped would be a fun evening of solving clues.
Thank goodness we weren't in Adam Robitel's version of the game, otherwise we would have been dead after the first five minutes.
In common with our game, there is a group of folk who have to solve cryptic clues to move on to the next room and potential glory.
There the similarity ends because failure can lead to one or more being killed.
Robitel's film stars Taylor Russell as a brilliant student who has confidence issues and is sent a 'present' of an invitation to an escape room.
There she is joined by a grocer store backroom-staffer (Logan Miller), city high-flyer (Jay Ellis), former miner (Tyler Labine), army veteran (Deborah Ann Woll) and Escape Room devotee (Nik Dodani).
At first, they believe that they have been invited to the game with the prospect of a $10,000 first prize.
But it pretty soon becomes clear that this set-up is more elaborate than the average escape room and much more sinister.
Just as I was arriving at Burton Cineworld to watch this movie, I heard Mark Kermode's brief summary on Radio Five Live.
And I agree with him. It wasn't nearly as bad as I feared.
I had expected bloody horror akin to Hostel but it has much more in common with thrillers such as Fermat's Room.
There are also plenty of twists to keep the audience engaged.
Ok, the acting isn't top-notch but I can certainly see why a $9m-budget movie has made nearly $100m.

Reasons to watch: An engaging thriller
Reasons to avoid: Silly finale

Laughs: Non
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 7.5/10

Did you know? In January 2019, 13 escape rooms were closed in Poland after a fire in one of the venues killed five teenage girls.

The final word. Deborah Ann Woll: "We really are leaping around. You don’t have to do a lot of acting. You do your thing. At moments you feel bad ass and that’s okay. And other moments you’re terrified, and that’s okay. I don’t get to do that a lot.”

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