Movies
Escape rooms are hot property for horror films, Robitel's attempt ups the stakes. With serious nods to Saw and Cube, this film aspires to be something more than simple B-filler. It's a fun and ambitious film, though the ending could've been more adventurous. Entertaining and by far the best escape room film yet.
A neat little faux documentary style horror film from the heydays of the genre. Not quite sure why I missed out on it back when it was released, I was (and still am) quite fond of this niche. It's never too late to catch up on these films of course, certainly not now that the hype has died down. The setup is pretty creepy, Jill Larson puts in an impressive performance, there are a couple of truly tense scenes during the second half and the finale, though predictable, is effective. There's not quite enough here to distinguish is from other films in the genre, but if you're looking for some solid horror and you can stand the faux doc approach, be sure to give this one a shot.Read all
Insidious: Chapter 4
There hasn't been a lack of escape room films these past years, but few were decent enough to receive a sequel. Robitel's film turned out to be the exception, though looking at the result, you have to wonder if it was worth it. At least it's not a lazy sequel, quite the contrary. Tournament of Champions is grossly overreaching here. There's an entire overarching plot that's way too convoluted for a film like this. It takes away a lot of time from the traps, which means that these scenes are just an endless barrage of quickly solved clues and false tension. Escape Room 2 would've been a lot better as a simple sequel, at least the film had a decent enough budget to dish out some impressive traps. Not really looking forward to the third part though, unless it goes back to basics.Read all