Escape Room (2017, dir. Peter Dukes) offers a distinctive-looking killer and a refreshing take on the old "it's a game... but if you lose, you DIE" trope, even within the sub-genre of escape room horror. I won't spoil what makes it special, but it keeps the threat dynamic over time. Unfortunately, despite those good aspects, it was a bad film overall and I didn't like it.
Why is the movie so frustrating? Simple: it's because all of the escape room participants are constantly oblivious and/or panicking. You have to watch them waste their time freaking out and trying to give each other pep talks, all while none of them can figure out the exceptionally obvious clues and puzzles until at least five minutes or so after you noticed and solved them.
Additionally, the first scene, which takes just above EIGHT MINUTES (a.k.a. Over a tenth of the total runtime), is entirely unnecessary background for the inane mechanism of evil that is supposed to drive the killer. It's enough to have the Mysterious Antique Store Owner tell the Desperate Escape Room Owner that the box carved to look like a skull is cursed and not a good choice for decor in his attraction. We get it. It's not an especially clever writing choice, but it would work fine if we weren't subjected to so much empty screen time surrounding it.
I do not recommend watching this film, but if you're a horror fan, do yourself a favor and look up "stitch face escape room" and then read the plot summary for this film (but be careful- this wasn't the only film titled Escape Room released in 2017).
