Upside down rooms, freezing and boiling temps, and a room where the walls keep closing in on you are just a few of the hazardous spaces that occupied the movie Escape Room. Centered around six completely different people, the players of the seemingly safe game are coaxed to participate in an escape room with a prize of $10,000. However, things heat up right away as they realize that the lobby they entered in was indeed the first room of the game which they couldn’t voluntarily leave. Having to go along with the rules and finish out the rooms to the end, they began to look for clues. Sadly, they triggered the room which caused it to heat up as if they were in an oven. After finally finding a way out, they were immersed into a completely opposite and chilling room that froze them to the bone instead of scorching them. The rooms themselves were very cool and thought out.

I thought it was cool because there was one room that centered around each person. With a total of six rooms and six very different people, this caused some very different experiences and memories to resurface. Since the audience knew hardly anything about each player, the different rooms allowed viewers to connect more with the characters by telling us a hardship they had gone through. For example, Amanda seemed stuck up at first, but the revelation of the fiery first room brought to light that she was a soldier in the Iraq war who was badly burned and the only survivor of an attack.

While the rooms were cool, the acting wasn’t. Not going to lie, they were very bad and a lot of their reactions were very cheesy. Saundra Stodden claimed that, “In my opinion, I thought the movie was very intense and had a lot of action. However, the acting could have been better.” Everything seemed very forced. Using the participants hardships against them and seeing who is the lone survivor is a very creative and fun way to create a story and Stodden also claimed that, “The main characters could have showed more emotion and terror.” Another aspect that I was not a fan of was the end. The screen blacked out so many assumed that it was the end of the movie, but that was not the case. There were a total of four spots where they could have ended the film which caused the last 5-10 minutes to be dragged out and unnecessary. It would have been smarter if they had just finished the movie with a chilling bang instead of continuing it to explain what happened afterwards and lengthen out the end.

Overall, escape room was cool because the rooms were very different and well thought out. Julia Jarvi stated that, “The rooms in Escape Room were uniquely thought up during production. Using the participants hardships against them and seeing who is the lone survivor is a very creative and fun way to create a story.” All of the characters were eventually connected which also gave the film a better storyline, but the acting was a bit of a let down. Because of this, I wouldn’t recommend Escape Room. There are definitely better options out there, so escape and see a different movie.