The latest horror release from Lionsgate, Escape the Field follows in the vein of movies like Escape Room, Saw, and Cabin in the Woods. The movie stars our favorite teen heartthrob all grown up – Shane West, along with Jordan Claire Robbins, Theo Rossi, Julian Feder, Elena Juatco, and Tahirah Sharif. The scariest part of the movie might be the opening title, with on-point music that creates tension and an eery atmosphere. Once the movie gets going, however, you’re in for one and a half hours of mostly misses.
The horror thriller tells the story of six complete strangers who wake up in a seemingly never-ending cornfield, with no memory of how they got there. Each person wakes up with one mysterious item, ranging from a gun with a single bullet to a flask of water. As the group works together to try and find their way out of the field (I wonder how they came up with the title?), tensions rise among the group, with members casting blame on one another and paranoia coming to the surface.
There is one thread of hope here with a storyline that’s unfortunately not fully realized. Spoiler alert ahead: as paranoia spreads throughout the group, talk of government experiments arise, but the subject is quickly dropped, only to finally be alluded to in the film’s final scenes. What could have been a clever new take on a Cabin in the Woods-type film unfortunately didn’t quite hit the mark. I wish this was explored further.
Spoiler over. Quickly the group realizes that their seemingly random items they woke up with have more than one use. Using these items to solve puzzles, the group thinks that they are slowly making their escape from the cornfield. Will they succeed? I won’t give that nugget away, but I will leave you with this. The movie does include classic horror tropes from other movies – from a couple jump scares to an unknown evil, to a few too many wannabe scary elements. But apart from that, the movie itself is entertaining. Is it scary? No. Is it amusing? At times. Would I say it’s a must-see? Absolutely not. But I didn’t hate it. I just laughed at it.
Watch the trailer here:
