Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Well, Thomas Cocquerel, Holland Roden, Indya Moore, Carlito Olivero, Matt Esof, Jamie-Lee Money, Wayne Harrison, Lucy Newman-Williams, Isabelle Fuhrman, James Frain.
A sequel to a surprise cinematic hit does not always guarantee further success. In an age of marketing paranoia, where every precaution is taken to ensure that the box office does not bomb under the weight of expectancy, under the rampant lights of cost effectiveness and a post-Covid world, to find that a sequel that is worthy of the limited budget offered, one in which every last cent and dime, pound and pence has projected the idea from the page to screen without missing a heartbeat, is to find solace in recognition, in admiring the art with pride.
The original Escape Room should not be thought of a surprise hit, the psychological horror that is brutishly and expertly weaved together sits in the pantheon of the genre alongside that of the likes of Saw with ease; yes, it might not have the same audience gravitas afforded the Saw franchise, but it nonetheless captures the spirit of its larger scale cinematic sister.
If the original is in a different class to many of its genre, so then its sequel ramps it up another notch, especially in its additional material that bookends the film and by design finds it opening up the avenue of expression found in Tobin Bell’s Jigsaw, just from a more psychotically arranged perspective. Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions is as challenging as its predecessor was aiming for, rampant in its design, chilling in its pursuit of exacting the cold blood of fear from an imaginative mind.
It is the game itself that is the real star, the actors, all decently presented to the audience as specimens of intellect and various emotions and character filled illustrations of survival are arguably secondary to the overall strength of the madness that the game supplies, from acid rain to quicksand, nothing is off limits to the creator and the twist that follows.
A genuinely enjoyable psychological horror, one that has the watcher following the clues as much as the action. Taut, edgy, unflinching, Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions is one to feel the beauty of stress and anxiety to its fullest.
Ian D. Hall