Escape Room (2017)

Brice is looking for something to set his escape room apart from the others.  He sees a box resembling a skull in an antique store and asks the price. The owner says it’s not for sale.  Brice tries to convince her to sell it, but she says it’s one of the most cursed objects in the world. If you open it, a demon comes out. So she keeps it where it’s securely shut, overlooking she could keep it in the back so people aren’t asking to buy it. 

When she goes to answer the phone, Brice takes the box and leaves a wad of cash in its place.  When the owner discovers it’s gone, she shrugs and says good luck with the demon.

Meanwhile Jeff, who writes about horror, is going to the escape room to do a review.  He’s going with girlfriend Angie, best friend Ben, and Ben’s girlfriend Jess. Once inside the escape room, they wander around and seem unable to figure anything out.  Jeff and Ben keep getting into arguments about horror movies instead of trying to solve the puzzles. Let’s face it. These guys can barely figure out there are any puzzles in the room. They are terrible at this. Angie is a dud who whines the whole time. She sounds fun to date.

The weird part about this escape room is that one side is dark. When they hear a noise on that side of the room, they discover there is a guy with a burlap bag over his head who is chained to the wall. Every five minutes the chain let’s out a little further and if they don’t solve the puzzle, he’s going to get them.

Unfortunately, the box Brice stole is in this room and when they open it, the demon possesses the actor in the burlap sack. So now he really is going to kill them if they can’t get out before the time is up.  He’s also ripped the cameras out of the wall so Brice can’t monitor what’s going on and doesn’t know people are dying. And as mentioned, this group is not skilled at figuring out where the puzzles are, let alone solving them.

This isn’t the worst escape room movie I’ve ever seen, but there are too many questions:

1. Why didn’t Brice open the box before putting it in a room? Wouldn’t he be curious?.
2. Why doesn’t the store owner try to get the box back before the demon can be released? He told her where he worked.
3. Why was the escape room locked? The escape rooms I’ve been to are not locked due to fire codes or   someone needing to use the restroom.
4. Why did they bring Angie, the biggest drag in the world? She is no fun and complains the whole time.
5. Why does Brice think the way to increase business is to add a props? Wouldn’t it be more effective to change the rooms and/or come up with new puzzles to solve?

Skull box. Not gonna lie, I’d buy it other than the demon.