GUEST EDITORIAL: The "Escape Room" Movie

Image: https://unsplash.com/photos/OmaFZNYOy6E

The Escape Room Movie

by Kevin Gardner

Escape rooms are like an adventure game brought to life. When you play them, you and a team of people are placed in a themed room and have to complete a mission to "escape." It has become a popular activity for team building, family outings and friendly competition among friends. The Escape Room movie took that concept and turned it into a horror film. 

Escape Room Overview

In real life, popular escape room themes include prison escapes, detective stories, popular films, historical sets and even adult themes. These games can be played in the real world or in an online escape room. 

The 2019 movie turned the concept into a psychological horror film, reminiscent of the Saw series. Adam Robitel directs and Maria Melnik and Bragi F. Schut share writing duties. The film's stars include Deborah Ann Woll, Taylor Russell, Yorick van Wageningen, Tyler Labine, Jay Ellis, Logan Miller and Nik Dodani. The movie was filmed in South Africa in 2017 and 2018.

Escape Room Plot

Six people, who range from a physics student to a wealthy day trader and an Iraq War veteran, are presented with a puzzle cube. Solving the puzzle gets them an invite to solve an escape room for a $10,000 prize. However, the rooms are not what they expected. Rather than the safe, family fun, you'll find in most real-world escape rooms, these rooms are deadly. The group makes it through the first two rooms, but the cast starts getting picked off after that. 

Some of the rooms feature themes that remind the players of disasters they have survived in real life. Eventually, one of the cast figures out that the purpose of the game is to determine which of them is the luckiest. One of the characters makes it through the final room and finds the Gamemaster who has been controlling the puzzles, which were designed by the Puzzle Maker. The Gamemaster tells this character that they lure in players who have something in common to play the game every year. The Gamemaster then tries to kill the surviving player but is thwarted when a second survivor shows up and helps kill the Gamemaster.

They try to bring in the police, but the police do not believe them and all evidence of the escape rooms has vanished. One of the players spots the phrase, "No Way Out" and determines it is an anagram for "Wootan Yu," which indicates the game may not be over. 

The film concludes with a meeting between the two surviving players, where they look at news stories that paint the deaths of the other players as accidents. They follow clues to an unlisted building in Manhattan, where the Puzzle Maker is preparing to create a new game for them, presumably in the sequel. 

Escape Room Reception

The film raked in $57 million in the United States and Canada and an additional $98.7 million worldwide, for a total of $155.7 million. With the production budget only being $9 million, the film was a financial success, with the net profit being estimated at $46.6 million.

Critics were not as receptive to the film, giving it an average rating of 5.3 out of 10 and a 51% approval rating on the review site Rotten Tomatoes. Many critics felt the film failed to realize its potential, but did offer some thrills for fans of the genre. 

Escape Room Sequel

A sequel titled, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, was announced in 2019. Robitel will once again be directing, Schut writing and Moritz producing. Taylor Russell and Logan Miller will return as the two surviving cast members of the first film. The film is currently scheduled to be released on July 16, 2021.

Fans of the first film and the horror movie genre have something to look forward to in the soon-to-be-released sequel. Those looking for something a bit more wholesome and family-friendly might want to try out a real-life or virtual escape room instead.