Escape rooms are an immersive adventure like none other. They give thrill-seekers looking to spice up their free time a choose-your-own-adventure-esque activity in only 60 minutes or less.
Escape Room the movie is a 2019 horror thrill ride with a similar (but deadlier) premise. What if a group of six strangers were invited to take part in the most immersive escape room experience ever? Winner takes home a million dollars — Bwa ha ha ha. There’s just one teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy catch: The game room designer has an evil, sadistic mind, and every choice the individuals encounter is meant to mess with their psyche with potentially lethal consequences. Phew, that was a mouthful.
Sounds great, am I right? Right?? Then why did Escape Room earn a measly three-and-a-half-star rating on Rotten Tomatoes?
In this post, we’re going to break it down for you just a bit. That is, here’s the good, the bad and the ugly about the 2019 thriller Escape Room.
The Good — Fun Twists and Turns
As every escape room enthusiast knows, a great escape room needs some great twists and turns. After all, what fun is an escape room if you figure out how to escape the moment the clock starts ticking? That’s where the Escape Room movie has it right.
Each room the strangers encounter is filled to the brim with sadistic little details designed to mess with their minds. Now, real escape rooms aren’t going to kill you or make you go crazy. However, as you find the clues and solve the puzzles, you and your associates will gain a thrilling sense of accomplishment.
If you love a good puzzle, you’ll love the imaginative escape room concepts in this movie. Around every turn, the temperature can crank up, or the walls can close in, or the floor can open up, leaving people to plummet to their doom. If only we could incorporate some of these features into our own escape rooms…that is, without the blood and death.
The Bad — Corporate Bad Guys
Spoiler alert! Okay, now that you’ve been warned, here’s something we didn’t care so much for about Escape Room the movie. In the end, it turns out that this highly imaginative, winner-takes-all game is just a ploy. There’s not supposed to be a winner. In fact, the escape room is designed to be unwinnable, and all the players are supposed to die. Why? Because some corporate hotshots want to impress a few rich folks with a lethal reality show.
Now, as an escape room owner, I take real offense to this concept. Escape rooms aren’t supposed to be unwinnable. Sure, they’re meant to be tricky and puzzling — but that’s so you can test your wits in a race against the clock. When we design an escape room, you can rest assured that there’s a way out — pinky promise.
The Ugly — Escape Rooms Aren’t the Bad Guy
While we love that this movie makes the escape room experience the star, we wish it didn’t paint them in a bad light. After all, escape rooms aren’t supposed to scare the poop out of you. They’re designed as a fun adventure for you and your cohorts. So, after watching Escape Room the movie, here’s a few promises from us here at Exit Strategy Games:
- Nothing in our rooms is designed to kill you — even in The Torture Chamber.
- The owners aren’t sadistic masterminds bent on messing with you psychologically before we kill you.
- Each room is intended to be 100% winnable.
Be the Star of Your Own Escape Room Adventure
If you’re ready to star in your own escape room escapade, it’s time to book your private experience at Exit Strategy Games. We have three distinct, entertaining and challenging rooms to choose from. Whether it’s kidnapped puppies, Soviet espionage or escaping a heinous murderer, don’t wait.
We look forward to trapping and releasing you soon!
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