Teenager Karen (Jeni Ross) and her dad, Michael (Mark Ghanimé of Slasher), see their plans altered when they have car trouble. Stuck in a small town with nothing much else to do, they come across an escape game and, with the encouragement of their waitress, give it a go. Once they are in, there's--you guessed it--no escape. This one is a SyFy original, but there are no 3-headed sharks or giant snakes to be found--no, this is one of a handful of films to have come out cashing in on the popularity of escape games. If you're not familiar with escape games, the basic idea is you are locked into a room or series of rooms and must use clues throughout said room or rooms to escape. You are given a certain amount of time (generally an hour) to do this. My girlfriend and I have done a couple of them, and have had fun each time, so they come with a high personal recommendation.
Once Karen and Michael make it to the spooky house where the game is located, a pretty cool scenario is laid out--we get the backstory of the game/house, complete with a projector displaying grisly and troubling images to accompany the tale. The game starts, and watching the characters come across the clues is fun. Unfortunately, as the game progresses, the story flattens out a bit. The acting is what you would expect from a SyFy flick, with Ghanimé's performance being even worse than what you may picture. The character is fairly sympathetic, but Ghanimé does little to make him likable--Karen, the other protagonist, is a character you will dislike from the start. This being a TV movie, there's not a ton of gore, but there's a scene or two that may surprise you. The events happening in the house are never fully explained, but there is a certain Triangle feel to it. The ending may be a discussion point with whomever you watched the movie with--if you make it that far, as there is a long stretch of little happening, and it is during this time you may decide to check out. As SyFy movies go, this is a little above what is standard--as horror movies in general are concerned, No Escape Room is rather average.
On A Scale Of One To Ten: 5
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