ProSieben is showing a thrilling horror film as a TV premiere today. The sequel to the horror hit Escape Room is extremely entertaining – but makes no sense at all.
After the surprise success of Escape Room, the sequel followed two years later. Escape Room 2: No Way Out also thrills as a light variant of Saw with creative and death games and plenty of suspense. Today it is shown for the first time on German free TV. Read here why the horror fun lacks any sense and is still absolutely worthwhile.
The biggest horror of Escape Room 2 is the lack of logic
The sequel to Escape Room picks up seamlessly from its predecessor and brings back survivors Zoey (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller). They actually want to travel to New York to put a stop to the organisation behind the deadly Escape Room puzzles. Once there, they find themselves in the middle of a new game by Minos: the Tournament of Champions.
From this moment on, the entire logic of the film falls apart with each passing minute. For Zoey and Ben, the game begins when, through clever manipulation, they are led directly into an underground car containing other survivors of earlier trap games.
Watch the trailer for Escape Room 2 here:
If the two main characters had arrived in New York just minutes or even seconds later, they would have missed their fateful underground ride. A single red light would have ruined the entire game plan. And this is only the first of many contrived coincidences that run through the film until the twisty finale and spoil the horror fun.
The problem of both Escape Room films becomes clearly apparent here: the mysterious antagonist Minos is almost godlike. Every moment seems staged and planned. For the characters this means: they have no free will. So why should we sympathise with them when their every decision has been predetermined by Minos? The solution: turn off your head and have fun.
Escape Room 2 may be illogical, but it’s damn entertaining
Like its predecessor, Escape Room 2 once again relies on merciless suspense and shocking twists. The highlight is once again the incredibly detailed and impressively designed death puzzles. However, the nerve-racking trap game doesn’t leave you any time to marvel at them at length.
Without pausing for breath, you go from one puzzle room to the next. Time is always on the back of the characters’ necks as they have to solve tricky tasks amidst deadly power surges, lasers, quicksand, acid rain and flooding rooms. Almost always, the players only escape with their lives at the last second (if at all).
The brazen logic errors are certainly annoying. But those who can overlook them will be rewarded with 90 minutes of escapist horror fun. Because like almost every horror film, Escape Room 2 isn’t about second-guessing all the characters’ decisions. It’s about the thrill.
