Bingers, who among you have tried undergoing escape rooms? They are practically everywhere in Metro Manila! My most recent experience was in Makati and it had a creepy theme. Well, most escape rooms have themes and backstories to make the experience more fun! Apart from reveling in the plot, the design or the overall aesthetic of each room adds to the tension or, better yet, pressure of winning the game by escaping before the time runs out. Okay, let’s take it up a notch and make things lifelike. That’s the idea behind the movie Escape Room. Columbia Pictures recently invited The Little Binger to a very exclusive screening and I may have just found my new guilty pleasure! Bingers, let me share with you four reasons why it will be yours too!
- Be In The Game
What fun is watching a film adaptation of a series of escape rooms if you will just be at your seat and wait for things to happen, right? Well, in the movie, while it is not as interactive as I hoped it would be (technology!! lol), it was written as if we were solving it with the characters. Their search for clues and items to help them progress to the next room was executed in such a way that we were as if tagging along with them. In Escape Room, the characters have to go through hyper-realistic rooms. Each of them has their themes, namely: Waiting Room, Cozy Cabin, Ice Room, Billiard Room, Tile Room, and Hospital Room. Similarly to a real escape room, the rooms in the movie felt like a character of their own. They are rich with clues and even personality! Watching the characters escape through them sparked joy! With twists and surprises waiting at every corner, it is an understatement that I had a blast!
Crazy ideas and crazy characters! Escape Room is a blast! | Credit: Columbia Pictures | The Little Binger - Full-Bodied Characters
It is very rare for a thriller/ horror movie to have characters that you would root for. Most of the time, I would not bat an eyelash should a character meet a grim fate aka death. Surprisingly, in Escape Room, the main characters are as rich as the rooms they had to escape from. We have an orphan, a veteran, a business man, a nerd, a retiree, and a grocery shop employee. The variety in background and personality created a widely amusing ride. Have them clash with one another, add some pressure, and the game for survival raises to an enjoyable intensity. The vagueness of their morality added to the puzzling nature of the film.
Test your wit in the Escape Room! | Credit: Columbia Pictures | The Little Binger - The Future
Okay, Bingers. If you have been obsessed with Saw movies such as I am, well Escape Room will be such a treat! There is gore, there are rich characters, and yes, there are twists that will look you gasping for air. The third act of the movie opened up possibilities for a sequel and even more movies in the franchise. As long as Wootan Yu is around, the escape rooms will exist!
Escape Room is undeniably a wild ride from start to finish! Well, sort of. It began with a series of puzzles that will leave the audiences looking around the frame for clues to win the game but it fizzled down like a rocket come the third act. But that does not make the movie bad. Sure, it is ridiculous to a point and that’s unapologetically part of the fun! If you are craving for a movie that will have you racking your brain, leave your heart pounding, and laughing out of excitement, Escape Room is for you. This hybrid of Saw and Cube is my new guilty-pleasure!
Director: Adam Robitel
Cast: Deborah Ann Woll, Logan Miller, Jay Ellis, Taylor Russell
Binge-level: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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