Escape Room (II) (2017) User Reviews

How frustrated they must be....

[lat297 · 3/10 · 6 January 2019]

It's so frustrating when you have a good puzzle, and you just can't solve it. This is how everyone involved in making this movie must be feeling right now.

Also, the elephant in the room: how frustrating when there are two movies with the same name and a similar setup and you find yourself watching the wrong one... :(

There is some good here, some (but by no means all) of the acting, the sets, the basic premise of the movie... unfortunately all if that is quickly lost under all the bad things... yes, I'm going to list some of them, don't worry ;)

First, the two biggest: all of the characters are almost immediately detestable. They're the kind of people that if they sat next to you in a bar or restaurant, you'd be annoyed. If you had relatives like this, you'd avoid them. If you worked with people like this, you'd be on Monster.com. This isn't helped by the script. At one point early on, during the dinner 'party' scene, I actually started to wonder if they were making it up as they went along...

The Escape Room itself is actually pretty cool. I've done a few, and this one had some cool puzzles that would definitely work well.

Aaaaaaand then people start dying. Cool? No. Not cool. Very uncool in fact. Plothole number one is 'what was stopping everyone going into the same room to solve the crossword puzzle'? Would have been a short movie, I guess that's the answer. As the totally hatable people start to get picked off, you're left wondering why. Aside from the first death, nobody actually has to die, yet the final 'puzzle' relies on only one person making it to that stage... there is a highly contrived feel to all of the deaths, almost like the puzzles in a real escape room, oddly.

And when Natasha is left with her hand in the bear (suitably vague to avoid spoiling it), you're left wondering why they didn't use the cuffs to pull the lever, or indeed if such an injury could or did kill her...

Finally, the ending. Some confusing scenes edited together in a hurry, Odd flashbacks of sex games that aren't connected to the rest of he story (or are they?), and our 'protagonist' (was she? Can we call her that?) being set free because 'nobody will believe her story'...

I sense that the budget was short a few thousand and we're left with half a movie.

They tease a sequel here. They absolutely shouldn't do that.

The Master plot of..... Jigsaw's stupid brother.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 3/10 · 7 January 2019]

In a parallel world, Jigsaw has a brother, but sadly he was none too bright, and instead of coming up with a plan to punish, he has half an idea, it's not a bad concept, but it's obscured by ideas elsewhere, and poorly executed.

The idea is actually rather good, but it simply fails to satisfy on so many levels. First of all, I didn't really like any of the characters, so to be honest I couldn't care less when their numbers started dwindling. Many of the threads simply didn't hang together, it was almost all utterly nonsensical, so hard to believe in about 90% of what was going on.

The masked figure waiting in the wings...is lame!!!! It's so overdone it's unreal.

Nice ideas, but too flawed. 3/10

Utterly despicable characters die, so what.

[stevelomas-69401 · 4/10 · 6 January 2019]

Horrendous characters can't die quick enough in this awfully scripted and delivered mess.

Lacks.....everything

[trelloskilos-1 · 1/10 · 8 May 2018]

Interesting premise, and yes, this is a rip-off of Saw/Jigsaw, but not very well-executed.

Firstly, there is very little character development. The puzzles themselves are fairly clever, but not really explained and no-trial and error, the villain is almost non-existent, and the acting is gruelling.

Starts off with a completely unrelated character dying at the hands of a puzzle. No rationale at all as to what he was supposed to do, or why.

Next, a bunch of pretentious 'hipster' friends are introduced at a birthday party in a swanky restaurant. 6 characters go to the escape room, one character goes off and does something else....and that is her only role in the movie. Not one of the remaining characters gives the viewer any reason to root for them. They all appear to be uppity and plastic. Not one has any good or even bad quality. They're all just lame.

Fast forward to the actual escape room. There are a few neat puzzles that probably would be good in a real escape room, but some too far-fetched or impossible. A few puzzles are solved by some crazy leaps of logic by the group (padlock combination 'HEAD"? really?), and while the viewer is partly engaged on some level in the solving process, but the solutions are glossed over, with zero exposition. The movie ambles along like this until the final 20 minutes, then it seems to actually realise it needs to end. Everything is rushed, and loads of loose ends are left.

...and at no point do we get to see the protagonist, or have a good reason for the murderous setup. At least in Saw, we had a villain, a few people who we either rooted for, or despised, some gruesomely cunning contraptions and a few twists, no matter how hokey or contrived they might have been. This film has very dreary lackluster characters with little interplay between them, and an almost-absent villain, with no raison d'etre.

There are several better ways to have dealt with this movie, or how to end effectively. For a start, at the beginning of the 'Game' itself, the main guy tries the exit door. It opens. He flicks a switch on, and suddenly the door is locked. How about having a revelation later on that he could have unlocked the door again simply by switching off the light? - What about making more of a statement about the hipsters' derision of the homeless, or the caged girl being revealed as the 'protagonist', because her boyfriend cheated on her....clued in to the line of "I never cheat' while they are in the limo?

Unfulfilling more than puzzling

[chris-h-3 · 2/10 · 25 February 2018]

I can only guess they didn't have enough money to shoot everything in the script as it felt like watching one of these kind of films with a dozen or so scenes edited out.

The production values, photography and sets were pretty good for this but largely it seemed the writing let this film down.

I watched all the way through expecting a plot of some kind to develop but it never really did.

Early on a character is introduced and a big thing is made of them leaving, we never see or hear from them again, okay a red herring perhaps, but what spend five minutes of the film on it. Things go along pretty much in this fashion until the end credits.

The puzzles were mostly not very puzzle like and the fact that the characters guessed and solved what some of them were at all didn't seem very realistic at all other than it being the only way to move the film along.

The ending left several loose ends and was ultimately completely unfulfilling.

Watching paint dry is more exciting

[Honestdutchrater · 1/10 · 22 March 2019]

This movie is one of the worst I have ever seen. I was watching this film with about 7 friends, we honestly thought it was a parody at one point due to the ridiciously bad acting and storyline. The first 15 minutes of the film takes place in a restaurant with conversations between the main characters which can best be described as interesting as putting 5 Instagram influencers in a room and making them debate politics. Although, that's probably more interesting than what was spoken about in the film.

During the film almost everything was predictable, the acting was bad, the music was RANDOM and really added nothing at all but rather distracted from what the characters were doing and the nudity really also had no real benefit to the film.

Near the end we all expected some kind of plot twist where we would go "aha!" where we would understand the reason why this film even was added to Netflix but this revelation did not come.

Please, save yourself 1 hour and 30 minutes and go do something useful and enjoyable

This cast makes you appreciate average and good casts

[joenetv · 1/10 · 5 December 2018]

(Anderson) Dan J Johnson, i have never seen such poor acting in my life. While (Natascha) Annabelle Stephenson comes pretty close though.

The movie itself has a lot of loose ends, no plot twists or what so ever.

i still don't know who or why the person locked them up. The ending with the phone call ? Did i miss something ?

This does not count as a movie

[mitchel1986 · 1/10 · 27 November 2018]

So there actually is a group of people, producers/actors/writers, who consider this movie to be ok? Why in God's name would anyone attach his or her name to this production?

• What actually counts as an accomplishment is that the start of this movie, the dialogue, is so incredibly boring...as if the production teams does not want you to view further
• Random LA B-actor casting agency did it's job by selecting pretty, stupid, empty 'actors'
• Nothing is fun in this movie; the puzzles are stupid, you never feel involved as a viewer; no scares, no gore...just an empty shell
• There is no clue WHY things happen as they happen, no explanation, no satisfaction, terrible ending

This list can go on and on

I keep wondering why these movies are allowed to be made. Who gives money for this? How come people involved in this production set the bar so, so low. Shame on you!

This movie is an insult to viewers and MUST be avoided at all costs

An escape room with no closure

[michaeljadamson · 15 February 2019]

This film has precious little to offer. If you enjoyed Saw, you'll probably like the traps in the room, but everything else is pretty garbage (and I mean pretty, because the sets, visual effects and cinematography are all fairly slick).

What's wrong with this film is a lack of likeable characters, any depth in their backstories, and any explanation of what it was all in aid of. The motives of the guy behind the escape room are never explained: the main protagonists are presumably being "punished" but we're never told why.

I enjoy a good trashy horror B-movie, but this is definitely not one of them. It's like they spent the whole budget on visuals, forgot they needed to hire a writer, and just let the actors run with a loose idea.

And not one of the actors gives a memorable performance at all.

Save me

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 25 October 2017]

There are two films out with the same title. The other film is directed by Peter Dukes and involves a more traditional "escape room." Three couples who know each other very well decide they are going to enjoy an upscale escape room. Christen (Elizabeth Hower) is separated from the group who are having fun solving puzzles that tended to be tougher than most escape rooms. And then the fun and games stop and they realize they are risking their lives.

The film had some interesting moments watching them solve the puzzles. The production needed another scene or two to establish character and introduce multiple motives and decent back story. DVD includes bloopers, deleted scenes, director commentary.

Guide F-word and Nudity (Elizabeth Hower)

You have a choice of 3 movies

[cbnewham · 1/10 · 4 February 2019]

You have a choice of three movies, each called "Escape Room". There are two from 2017 and one from 2019. Choose wisely, because only one of them (which I haven't seen) is a good film.

If you chose this one then sorry, you don't escape and die a horrible painful death by boredom and wondering what the hell you just watched and how you can ever reclaim the lost time.

A pointless plot. Meaningless characters (the girl at the start who just leaves the others - what was her purpose? The CCTV views at the end showing other people - purpose?). Puzzles that take no thought by the characters to solve.

Pretty awful.

escape room 2017 ending explained

[rayanemaalouf · 9/10 · 11 April 2020]

I UNDERSTOOD THE ENDING: AS WE KNOW ONE OF THE FRIEND DIDN'T JOIN THEM AND WENT TO A PARTY (the party in the end) AND THIS GIRL KNOWS THAT KRISTEN TOOK THEM TO THE ESCAPE ROOM... IN THE PHONE CALL THE GUY TELLS KRISTEN "they won't believe you" HE'S PROBABLY MENTIONING THE FACT THAT THE GIRL WHO DIDN'T GO IS GOING TO BLAME KRISTEN (the only survivor) FOR THE DEATH OF HER FRIENDS.. AND KRISTEN WASN'T WITH THEM SHE WAS IN A TRUCK LOOKING AT EVERYTHING THEREFORE IT IS BELIEVABLE THAT SHE IS TO BLAME... THAT'S WHY THE GUY ON THE PHONE TOLD KRISTEN: "DID YOU ESCAPE OR DID THEY?" IT REFERS TO THE FACT THAT SHE'LL PROBABLY GO TO PRISON

Speechless, and not for a good reason.

[lilacrosecambridge · 1/10 · 22 March 2019]

One of, ok maybe THE worst film I've ever seen...Absolutely pointless.

Awful

[MooWoolf1 · 2/10 · 16 June 2018]

Like everyone else said before..

Ok trailer. Interesting story line "Four friends test their intelligence in a game that takes a dark turn." Starts out with a nonsense scene, then comes the actual opening title which is VERY BORING and EVEN MORE BORING. Then comes the actual story which starts out ok.. Not good but ok and a little later everything goes total crazy, pointles and nonsense.

Really. One of the worst movies I've ever seen. The acting was ok. Everything else was basicly ok. But that script. Dude. That script is a nightmare. It is like almost the worst ever. How can they pay for it? But for real? I can't really think that anybody actually read the script before shooting.

And when they realized what a piece of ***** it was it was already too late.

Huge lead up to NOTHING

[jaklawrence · 1/10 · 19 January 2019]

You literally watch people escape a legit escape room for a whole hour before anything happens, then theres about 10 minutes of bad events and then it ends. No explanation what so ever. Dreadful

Very predicatble and buckles under the weight of its own formula

[thekarmicnomad · 3/10 · 6 January 2019]

Some people go to an escape room but soon it becomes apparent that it is a tad more deadly than the brochure made out.

This starts off quite well with the characters working through the puzzles whilst some relationship issues simmer in the background.

This I found interesting and good fun.

Then the Saw type traps get sprung.

From here on in it is just boring.

The previous issues between the characters lose all their currency as now people are just trying to avoid a grizzly death.

There are still puzzles to solve but now the women are all hysterical and weepy, the men are all aggressive and irrational - yawn - yawn -yawn.

The ending is just odd and made very little sense.

Seemingly as an after thought there is some nudity in the end of the film that was again just odd.

I am never one to sniff at a beautiful woman running around naked but even I found myself asking why?

I think this would have been better if it had toned down the slasher element and gone with something a little less bloody but more restrained.

Leaves you with so many questions

[benoshea · 1/10 · 15 January 2020]

The idea of the film is good with escape rooms being so trendy atm however the execution is all over the place, they try implementing a sub plot with two of the characters supposedly having some kind of affair but this was never made clear and really was never addressed, why are they being killed? You are led to believe it's because one of the characters knew about the affair and was out for revenge but once it was made clear that that was not the case the real reason was never addressed, the film just kind of ended??? And what on earth was that opening about? It was a good idea that was completely wasted.

The sooner I forget about this movie the better

[anastasiaantoniou-27422 · 1/10 · 22 February 2020]

Bad actors, bad ending I wish I never came across this film on Netflix the best part about the film is ready all the funny reviews

Escape Room: Fails to deliver

[Platypuschow · 5/10 · 6 January 2019]

For some reason Escape Rooms seem to be a thing, and I don't just mean out in the real world. The fad has inspired film makers and across 2 years we've had at least 4 movies with them at the core and 3 of them were simply called Escape Room. Original stuff huh!

This is the second of four that I've watched, the first being from the same year and starring Skeet Ulrich/Sean Young. That one was a tad better than this effort.

For those of you unfamiliar with an Escape Room it's a tourist attraction where a group of people are locked in a room (Or series of) and have to look at their surroundings solving puzzles in order to escape within an assigned time.

Here we see a group of friends participate in one for someones birthday and the experience gradually goes from fun to lethal. Whereas the Ulrich movie was supernatural this goes in more of a Saw (2004) direction.

Though the concept is sound the execution is rather lacking. Sure it looks the part but the delivery and the threat is poorly paced and the characters are simply not likeable. They range from obnoxious to blatantly bad folk that you can't exactly cheer on.

To make matters worse the movie fizzles out at the end. I believe a finale can make a terrible film suddenly great or a great film suddenly terrible. This made an average film, even more average.

The Good:

Solid concept

A few interesting puzzles

The Bad:

Naff deaths

Culminates in very little

7/10

[Evuukas · 10/10 · 9 June 2020]

Let's start with the fact that the film is about horror and mysticism. Ordinary is the interference of spirits, as in other films or at least most films. Sure, it didn't cause me any discomfort, but there was that sad feeling because with the spirits everyone has seen at least a few movies. Friends get to have fun and come up with a way to go to the escape room to play. It would seem an innocent game, because it is also quite popular in Lithuania, but it turns out that it can kill here as well. Then you would think: I will never go to an escape room in my life. It wasn't really very scary, at least it didn't seem that way to me.

It's not a bad movie like most people claim!

[loopinthoughts · 6/10 · 23 February 2018]

If you like puzzle movies with gore and mystery blend together, this is for you. This is similar to the "Cube" and other isolated escape from a confined place movies. We never get to know why it's happening to them. If this the start of a franchise, I'll skip my remarks about the lack of story. Movie got potential, I'd suggest it.

Wow....epic fail.

[mable-41403 · 2/10 · 12 October 2018]

Worst acting I've seen in a long time...worst screenplay aswell.....actually... worst everything.

Never felt so robbed of my time

[liamhunt1194 · 1/10 · 27 October 2019]

Never written a review on here before but feel the need to vent a little about this film. Appalling writing, zero character development and a ton of unanswered questions.

The audacity to write a film with such a clear expectation of a sequel, and to do it so lazily is shocking. I've left spoilers out of this but just read a review with spoilers in, it'll save you wasting an hour and a half watching this awful, saw knock off.

Not every movie gets tons of sequels like saw, someone should have probably warned the producers this before they made this film, Based on the other reviews on here, the questions I'm left with having watched it will never be answered because nobody will be funding another one of these.

Do yourself a favour and dont watch this.

[alexwillsinbox · 1/10 · 29 March 2020]

Terrible acting, completely wrong direction of plot line. And you have to wait an HOUR before anything happens. I love horrors, and enjoy the odd lower-rated films, but this seriously was a waste of time. Take heed from this review and the others you see and just dont bother.

Amateur work

[mzgraphics · 2/10 · 29 March 2018]

I'll give it 2 because the idea is good, however, execution is amateur work, acting is super bad, sometimes lifeless, sometimes over-overreacting. some of the overreacting is because of how the characters are written. Too many cliches too basic and expected story and characters.