Saw meets Hunger Games in a deadly game of acid rain and lasers

on today May 21, 2023 Netflix gets the sequel after the first movie Escape Room 2: No Way Out into the program. That’s cause for celebration for horror fans, as there’s a lot more to the creative lineup than just clever killing methods.

Escape Room 2 on Netflix: Welcome to the second death games

The escape room as a leisure activity (and even as a board game *) is now known worldwide: you can be locked in a room as a group and try to get out by solving puzzles. The 2019 horror film Escape Room turned it into a spooky scenario in which six strangers to each other were held captive against their will and fought for survival in deadly traps: Hunger Games meets Saw. The sequel on Netflix, again directed by Adam Robitel, follows this basic principle.

Part 2 brings back protagonists Zoey (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller) for another round of room roulette. In the English original, Escape Room 2 has the additional title “Tournament of Champions” and thus sums up the fact that the sequel is now raising the bar: This time, the imprisoned are all the people who have survived their first involuntary exit game. So it is a duel of the winners (as in The Hunger Games – Catching Fire) and so the horror traps are becoming more challenging.

Escape Room 2 brings creative horror back to Netflix

What sets Escape Room 2 apart, just like its predecessor, are first of all the extremely imaginative kill rooms, which has to be mastered: There is an almost idyllic beach setting, but also a laser room that will make Cube fans rejoice. On the other hand, in a replica New York street, it rains acid, which only a plastic umbrella can protect against.

Escape Room 2 is not just an imaginative battle plate on Netflix: unlike many other genre representatives, the film shows that it has its own characters are emotionally important despite the horror setting. It hurts all the more to see intelligently acting favorites die in this deadly obstacle course.

As a sequel, Escape Room 2 faces the task of not just repeating the first part. That’s why the Mythology of the franchise expanded at the end, instead of just delivering another bloody game. The logic of the ending is debatable, but not the fun that the sequel brings. After all, part 2 also delivers the successful mixture of creativity, brutality and puzzles, which is a very fast paced horror series worth watching produces.

Podcast: Why are horror and survival series with teenagers so popular?

From The 100 to The Society, from The Wilds to Panic: Teen series in which young people struggle to survive are extremely popular on Netflix, Amazon and Co. There seems to be a new series coming out of this genre every week.

That’s why teen series addict Lisa Ludwig and skeptic Jenny Jecke talk about the phenomenon in this episode. Where is the trend coming from? Why are the series so popular with young and old? And what are the recurring problems of young adult film adaptations and the like?

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