David Gilleand

RATING: 75/100 January films are tricky. A lot of people may say January is the month that films go to die, but I argue that sometimes, just sometimes, you can find a film or two released in the first month that’s actually worth watching, and I think Escape Room can ultimately be put into that category. If you’re a fan of the Saw and Cube franchises like I am, you’ll probably love this film, regardless of the fact that its PG-13 limitation systematically means no gore. It has that same level of intrigue, fascination, and mystery that the aforementioned films contain that just make the movies a fun experience overall. Sometimes, I feel like I would be a better horror/thriller writer than most out there right now purely because of my understanding with how important people are for these films. This category is extremely important for any film, sure, but especially horror and thriller, because how else will you CARE about the characters when they ultimately die or are put in immediate danger? Folks over in the movie business focus a lot on the scares or elements of danger, but the people on screen are so throwaway, it’s honestly sad. The acting is the first thing you will notice out of the gate. It’s bad. Really, really bad, specifically when it needs to be good. These characters work well when they’re goofing around or not trying to be scared, but given how this is a horror/thriller film, we need believably scared individuals, which we simply don’t have here. The characters are very, very interchangeable, but they all at least have a purpose for being here that relate to each other – similar to certain films in the Saw franchise, which makes them slightly better than your typical range of characters. The casting is fine, but nobody feels born to play their roles. Importance wise, they’re all fine, but like I said, they are all interchangeable, and the chemistry is fine…but because it’s not exactly a chemistry-centric film, there’s not really much of it to be found overall. Now, believe it or not, I think the writing in this film was somewhat smart. Even though it is a horror/thriller film, it did at least attempt to come up with a complex story line that is very comparable to the mysteries and riddles you find in real escape rooms – and because there are multiple rooms, it never really stops impressing you there. When it comes to dialogue, you can tell they thought extra hard on making riddles that weren’t impossible to solve, but are still pretty clever – and this is true throughout the film, so dialogue is central to the plot in this way. The most prominent aspect of what looked so great with this film was the visuals when it came to production design. Production design, at least for me, is when the setting of the film feels like a main character, and the sets of all of these escape rooms are actually really well thought out, especially with the upside-down room. The upside-down room was so, so clever, and the way it was ultimately shot helped the cinematography also stand out as a whole. This is the type of film that knows it’s not going to win awards, and never even tries to because it’s too busy trying to have fun – that is where it succeeds. You’ll have a good time with this one, you’ll want to watch it again, and if you’re like me, you wouldn’t mind owning it, either.