This is one of those movies I watched while I was in jail, so I saw it then, but I wanted to watch it again when I didn't have to watch it through bars, so I was excited to check it out today. The very idea of an escape room gives me anxiety. Trapped in a room where you have to figure out a riddle before you can escape? Who thinks that sounds fun? I don't want to do that even if you're not going to kill me if I don't escape in time. Uh-uh, no way, count me out. But this movie manages to take the idea and run with it, because in this escape room, if you don't figure it out in time, you DO die. Great, way to make my nightmares come true.
In this movie, six strangers, two women and four men, answer a mysterious invitation that leads them to an escape room, where they compete to see who can figure out the series of puzzles in time in order to win a $10,000 cash prize. What starts out as seemingly innocent fun soon turns deadly, however, as they realize each room is an elaborate trap that is part of a sadistic game of life or death. If they don't figure it out in time, they die for real. Gee, that sounds like so much fun, sign me up NEVER.
The movie doesn't spend too much time introducing us to the characters before putting them in mortal peril. It's just like "wham, bam, thank you ma'am," aaaannnd they're dying. it kind of reminds me of one of the Saw movies, where they don't figure out until way too late that they're supposed to work together to escape the trap or they all die. At least these people start out working together to escape the PG13 Saw trap they've found themselves in. Lest you think this movie is going to be an easy watch because it's PG13 instead of R, the traps are very sadistic. There's not much gore but there is a lot of violence against these poor characters. I feel bad for them.
I suspect that whether you feel sorry for the characters or not will determine whether you like this movie or not, or at least whether you're invested in what happens to them. Not all of the characters are likeable of course, but I felt bad for them just in general because of the horrifying situation they found themselves in. As one character says at one point, "that is the second time this floor has tried to kill me!" What do you do when the floor is trying to kill you? When everything you've taken for granted your entire life is just turned on its head and you can't trust the floor not to kill you. And my comparison to Saw wasn't exactly accurate, because in this movie the people watching behind the scenes don't want them to work together to solve the puzzle. As their numbers dwindle, it becomes increasingly clear that they want the people in the puzzles to fight each other in order to survive. As if this escape room weren't already messed up enough. This movie is trippy and it messes with my head, but I really enjoyed it. Not bad for a PG13 Saw knockoff. Give this one a chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment