“Escape Room” filmmaker Adam Robitel has carved out a funny little niche for himself as the director of the first wide-release movie of the new year, two years running. Robitel rang in 2018 with “Insidious: The Last Key,” a functional but forgettable shocker in the “Insidious” franchise. Which was, in retrospect, perfectly fitting for a disturbing year, one that we somehow managed to collectively get through but which many of us would prefer never to talk about again. Maybe he was onto something.
Here’s the good news: “Escape Room,” Robitel’s latest New Year’s gift to the world, is a definite improvement. This gimmicky William Castle-inspired thriller is 10 pounds of silly in a five-pound bag, but you know that going in. It’s a movie about escape rooms that literally kill you, and if you’re willing to buy into that premise, it’s about as good as a movie with that premise could probably be. So, hey, 2019 is looking up.
“Escape Room” stars an eclectic cast of characters, each of whom receives a mysterious invitation to try out a brand-new, “escape room” experience. For those who don’t know, the movie will explain it to you (probably more than necessary), but suffice it to say “escape rooms” are a group activity where you and a group of other people are locked in a room, and you can’t get out unless you solve a puzzle by searching your surroundings for clues, which range from simple to clever to frustratingly esoteric.
The contestants, who are promised $10,000 if they win the game, include a shy math wizard (Taylor Russell, “Lost in Space”), a frustrated burnout (Logan Miller, “Love, Simon”), a cheerful trucker (Tyler Labine, “New Amsterdam”), an alpha-male businessman (Jay Ellis, “Insecure”), a scarred war veteran (Deborah Ann Woll, “Daredevil”) and an escape-room expert (Nik Dodani, “Murphy Brown”) who’s mostly just here for exposition.
Once they’re in the escape room, and once they realize their lives are at stake, they frantically search for clues, make disturbing realizations about one another, and generally follow the same overall structure from Vincenzo Natali’s low-budget 1997 sci-fi thriller “Cube.” Survive one deadly room, go to the next, lose a member of your team every 10 minutes or so in a tragic but awesome kill sequence, rinse, repeat.
It’s a formula, but it works if you can keep the audience’s interest. The makers of “Escape Room” deserve a lot of credit for making all the actual escape rooms varied and intriguing. The cast ventures from a chamber that’s built like a giant oven to an indoor mountain range where they’re going to freeze to death. Another room is built like an upside-down pool hall, forcing them to solve puzzles while hanging on for dear life and listening to Petula Clark’s “Downtown” at full blast, which is skipping on the jukebox. (It’s one thing to die in a cruel and deadly game, but the thought of dying while annoyed is, admittedly, genuinely scary.) Every set piece is visually distinctive and filled with detail, and it almost — almost — makes you want to play along.
The spry script by Bragi Schut (“Threshold”) and Maria Melnik (“American Gods”) keeps the action moving fast enough that you hardly notice just how cookie-cutter the characters are and how utterly absurd the premise is. And all the credit in the world goes to the film’s cast for fully committing to the reality of a fundamentally unrealistic motion picture. It doesn’t matter that it would take billions of dollars and a massive workforce to make this totally secret experiment even half this good; what matters is that we’re in the thick of it, right now, so we might as well accept the situation and make the most of it.
“Escape Room” is gimmicky and simplistic, but there’s no sense in complaining about that. That is, after all, why we bought our tickets. (The experience brings to mind Bill Watterson’s childhood id personified, Calvin, running up to his television set, turning it on and cheerfully demanding, “Pander to me!”) We asked to sit in this room with 100 minutes of escapism, and “Escape Room,” in an impressive display of truth in advertising, gives it to us, with a little bit more panache than we were probably expecting.
In other words, Adam Robitel’s film makes the most of a bad setup and emerges mostly victorious by the end. So, if The Robitel Theorem holds, this may just mean that 2019 is going to turn out, if not necessarily great, then at least a little better than it started. Happy New Year, indeed.
Pennywise, Joker and Wrinkles: 12 Best Scary Clowns in Movies and TV (Photos)
What was once a symbol of silly circus fun has been turned into one of the most ubiquitous images in horror. So if you're in the mood for a circus from hell, here's a look at some of the scariest clowns from film and TV.
"Poltergeist" (1982) --
One of the most famous frights from this messed-up classic is the clown doll. The camera keeps showing it, so you know it's going to attack soon... and even with the warning it still manages to shock everyone.
"Killer Klowns From Outer Space" (1988) --
This movie is... indescribable. It's not scary in the truest sense. It's just macabre and deliberately so-bad-its-good, and it features a final boss monster called Jojo The Klownzilla. It's one of the most famous cult movies ever made, and a sequel had been planned by 20th Century Fox...until Disney killed it after acquiring the studio in March 2019.
Pennywise, "IT" (1990) --
The most famous evil clown ever first appeared on screen in the original 1990 movie based on Stephen King's story. For some, Tim Curry's portrayal of a killer clown that only kids from Maine can see is the height of creepiness. For others, Curry's "Rocky Horror" levels of camp make Pennywise more amusing than frightening. In both instances, Tim Curry commands attention.
Krusty Doll, "The Simpsons" (1992) --
This killer clown is low on the horror scale but high on the laughs. In one of the most famous "Treehouse of Horror" sequences, "Clown Without Pity," Homer buys Bart a Krusty the Klown doll that tries to kill him. The store where Homer gets the doll and the resolution to the plot are some of the most famous gags "The Simpsons" have ever produced.
Fox
Sweet Tooth, "Twisted Metal" (1995) --
There's nothing funny about this clown. Needles Kane, a.k.a. Sweet Tooth, is a serial killer cursed to feel the pain of having his scalp engulfed in unquenchable flames. Toothie and his ice cream truck have become the icons of the "Twisted Metal" video game series, particularly after he was given his current, nightmarish design in the 2001 PS2 game "Twisted Metal Black."
Sony
"Killjoy" (2000) --
This film and clown have a special place in the cult horror pantheon. The "Killjoy" series is one of the most infamously panned franchises in the genre. It currently has a 2.5/10 rating on IMDB. Yet it has become a must-watch for masochists looking to plow their way through the most infamous bad movies of all time.
Capt. Spaulding, "House of 1000 Corpses" (2003) --
The most memorable character in Rob Zombie's critically panned but secretly beloved cult slasher flick. Played by the late Sid Haig, Spaulding sports gross makeup and disgusting teeth as he leads the movie's protagonists to their doom. In the sequel, "The Devil's Rejects," he eventually abandons the clown schtick and becomes even more evil.
For all the criticisms surrounding season 4 of "AHS," it created a modern day horror icon with this disfigured clown that has come to be the unofficial mascot of the entire series. That Twisty was able to leave a mark in the psyches of "AHS" fans everywhere in a scene filmed in broad daylight is a testament to the show's reliance on actors rather than gimmicks to create its finest moments.
FX
"31" (2016) --
After the reception towards Capt. Spaulding, Rob Zombie decided to make a film focused around killer clowns. Zombie's wife, Sheri Moon, plays the leader of a group of carnival workers forced to play a deadly game where they are the prey of a troupe of evil clowns.
Pennywise (Again), "It" (2017) and "It: Chapter Two" (2019) --
Creepy Clown Mania got even crazier with the return of Pennywise in a new "It" adaptation from Andy Muschietti. Played this time by Bill Skarsgard, the new Pennywise is a vicious, hateful bully who delights in seeing the terrified looks of his victims before he devours them. And that makes his demise at the hands of the Losers Club all the more satisfying.
Warner Bros.
Joker (2019) --
Your mileage may vary on whether Joaquin Phoenix's take on the most infamous villain in Gotham City is the creepiest of them all, but it's certainly a contender. Perhaps what makes Arthur Fleck the most disturbing is that he is tangibly human, a person left behind by a decaying society to suffer until he becomes its worst nightmare.
Warner Bros.
Wrinkles the Clown (2019) --
Let's conclude with a real-life creepy clown. In 2015, reports surfaced of an anonymous man in Florida who began offering his services to parents of misbehaving children as a decrepit clown named Wrinkles, who would show up and terrify the daylights out of the young'uns. His status as an internet legend became so big that a documentary about his exploits, was released in 2019.
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There’s no clowning around here
What was once a symbol of silly circus fun has been turned into one of the most ubiquitous images in horror. So if you're in the mood for a circus from hell, here's a look at some of the scariest clowns from film and TV.