Watched it because I like the escape room-concept. Wouldn't recommend this one. Quite boring, not a lot of suspense. Weird plot twist at the end.
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evelyn-arfeuille29 July 2019
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eliinite17 May 2019Well, was expecting something much more decent. we have seen quite a lot of movies of this genre to ask filmmakers to be original. A couple of months back was released Escape Room movie. That's much better than this one, at least some originality. Some, not a lot. Play or die is very very simple escape movie, with no original rooms or tasks. we have seen all of it in the saw and other classics. then, the very ending with some revelations of one players life+
- i dont really understand what it has to do with the game. All the movie so seemed a trial of a first year filmmaking student to
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nethy-nho23 November 2020The beginning is not so bad, but after some scape rooms, start to be slow and boring, and from nowhere the plot twist comes up but is very confusing and hard to believe. At least the movie have some good deaths and nice puzzles.
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carlos-pires20 July 2019Terrible movie. You can always tell a movie is going to be awful when the director manages to botch a sex scene right away, during the first 5 minutes. To sum it up: this movie is built on an utterly idiotic plot, filled with paper-thin characters played by lousy actors with terrible accents. Avoid at all costs.
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abortamir29 April 2021This is pure garbage, it's not frightening, scary and even gory. That stupid twist is the dumbest thing ever. Escape room meet Saw lmao, how do you even dare to advertise that in your poster. The director should be sued for plagiarism.
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goirak29 July 2019This movie is really stupid and doesn't respect the viewers, we are not as stupid as they think, a movie with a few gore scene badly made and a none sense scenario is not going to be enought, the ending is the so disapointing, Avoid at all cost. Not even one smart idea or good scene, but i think the scenario is really the worst part.
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Cryonicus4 October 2021I'm writing my first review ever, feeling slightly compelled by the fact that I still don't know what this movie was about. Or why it was made
We have our main character, someone carrying the look of perpetual confusion and his girlfiend(?). Both whom through a series of mundane events find themselves at the premise of the movie. A sort of "escape room" building, designed to test your intelligence. Sound familiar? I'm sorry to say, This movie won't be testing your intelligence, it'll be testing your patience until the final act where the biggest test comes along.
Unfortunately, you're not going to get what you went into this movie hoping for. It has some Escape Room esque stuff in it, but you'll probably be too distracted by your wallpaper to notice. And you as the viewer don't get to be involved or immersed as to whats going on. I suspect the same was true for the actors because they look as confused as we do
Then came the moment when an executive said "We needed a twist and my son just solved all our problems" introducing his toddler son and by now I hope that you've realised everyone warning you to stay away from this movie were right.
So what am I trying to say with this somewhat disjointed review? That my review is 100x more coherent than the movie and your time is better spent arguing with strangers on Twitter. If you still want to watch it, know that it isn't one of those "so bad it's good". It's just bad and your time is more valuable than this
Hope you liked this review, I think I'll write more in the future. -
markusibbetson1 May 2020This film doesn't quite know what sub-genre it wants to be. It starts out okay with the two main characters solving clues to find the location of the escape room called Paranoia. Paranoia starts out as a series of escape rooms mixed with a bit of saw, but they soon add in plain old murders with screwdrivers, which doesn't fit in with the escape room theme. We eventually discover that Lucas was chained up in the basement, as a child, by his mother with punishment as a way to increase his brainpower or intelligence or something like that. He escapes from his imprisonment and kills his mother with a screwdriver. We then find out that Lucas set up Paranoia himself, in the old mental hospital where he was a patient, and killed the other participants (though its not clear if the escape room was just in his head and he just murdered them). This film would have been better if there had not been a mixture of sub-genre, though I don't know if that's the fault of the screenwriter or the guy who wrote the novel (I'd never heard of it, let alone read it). In short there are better escape room and slasher horrors (with a twist) out there.
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suerigby-0106018 August 2020I hate it when my husband records a film without looking at the reviews first. Rarely, I'm pleasantly surprised, but this was not one of those occasions. I love this genre and really enjoyed Escape room, The Platform (awesome Spanish movie) and other films of this type. But unfortunately, this is just awful on every front... The only plus is that I was so bored that I drank more wine and watched the ending drunk... That helped!!! But that's literally all I can think of that was positive from this film watching experience!!!!!
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radityanugraha-785698 July 2019Really bad acting except for the lead but still so boring, avoid at all costs.
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As a fan of horror films I have felt a big let down in many movies in past years as they fail to give deapth to a movie and give you the "after' feeling of a horror movie when you keep thinking of it. So...I've seen alot of bad reviews on the this movie and when I watched it I was suprised. The movie it self is pretty fun to watch, once the action kicks off you really are captivated, espcially when questions rise up. First of all, what I love about the movie is its direct approach to many question that arise while watching the film. The characters do not ignore but rather ask them and say what they think. Thats a very good sign of a horror movie in my opinion, because while most of the horror films ignore the obivios and logical question, either not asking them or just accepting vague answer, these characters put the hard question on the line and give you a satisfication that the characters aren't making stupid desicions like in most horror films. Moreover, this movie has great actors, the main actor had me get the feels when he was angry, or sad or even scared. Many people belive that horror films "need" to be as good as old ones, but the truth is that originality isn't just taking a new idea and making a movie about it, you can see many movies that failed to do it, originality is taking the movie to a different place, by using or not using the same idea, just having a different narrative. In other words, making a movie that doesn't end with the death of everyone and the killer is loose, this is an exampe of a lack of originality, but rather making a film with a big twist that you didn't see coming, either if its fitting for a horror film or not. I believe that this film does it really well, putting together alot of mestries throughout and finishing with a answering a few and adding alot more depth to the main character (which many horror films fail to do! adding depth is number 1 biggest fail of many horror films that just have broad and shallow characters, and there is many, many horror films today that are considered "Good" but fail to do all of the above).
A big downfall of this movie is that the characthers seem to be really smart, they solve the riddles too quickly and it doesn't feel like its much of challenge. In addition it is very hard to understand sometimes how they solved the riddle, but the movie does a very good job explaining it. It could be either an advantage or disadvantage of the movie depends how you see it.
Lastly, a TL;DR - if you are looking for a well put medium gore/horror story this one is pretty nice, with great actors and a different storyline that usuall with major twists :) -
bitbucketchip30 September 2021This is standard twenty dollar budget Darwin-in-action escape room absurdist fantasy nonsense. An unseen person or persons dupes monumentally stupid yet somehow capable puzzle solvers into a series of escape rooms, each involving freeing themselves from Batman TV show style traps. I was waiting for a giant snow cone. The difference with this movie is while the cast is disposable on every level, the puzzles are clever enough to keep you watching.
Seven stars for the puzzles. If this had even one character who you were actually invested in (you know, a real person with any backstory or personality) this would have been a nine. For a twenty dollar production budget movie. -
So one thing I've learnt is "Avoid at all costs!" And "Do not watch!" Reviews are basically like telling me not to press that big red button...
Having said that... Don't waste your time! Total tripe from start to finish. The plot is flimsy. The acting is terrible. Just not at all worth your time. -
rjsleigh22 May 2020I've watched some junk in my time, however this takes the biscuit.
The spoiler isn't even that much of a twist, as we've seen it before. The main character is the killer. Well shock!!!!!
Save yourself the effort and watch the other option that you were considering. -
stelladellar25 August 2020Started out so well... I wish I'd read the other reviews.
Two star because the gore and jump scares were good.
Disappointing ending and feel slightly confused!! -
momster6418 February 2022I am left very confused after watching this, as there is so much left unanswered. Halfway through I had to check if this was a sequel or part two of something as it felt like we were just dropped into the middle of a story that was already underway..
Characters would manifest injuries throughout with no explanation, suddenly "come to" shackled somewhere; who transported them..? Were they unconscious and how did that come about..? Someone turns up dead, before you know it the body turns up in a totally different room.
And of course, the problem with so many escape room plotlines, the riddles and problems are breezed through so quickly and smoothly that the audience is left grasping for any idea on how they came to that solution.
Less-than-stellar acting, silly dialogue, I'm left waiting for too many answers that never come. -
TheLittleSongbird19 September 2019What 'Play or Die' had going for it was its premise. It was hardly original, it is one that most would undoubtedly have seen before more than once beforehand, but it was certainly a decent one that makes one interested in watching. It interested me without a shadow of a doubt and with the right execution it could have been at least a decent watch that questions of it being derivative wouldn't have mattered so much.
'Play or Die' unfortunately is yet another one of those films, of which there have been too many recently of my recent viewings that it's becoming tiring, with a premise that draws one right in but the execution is completely unfulfilling and severely wanting. What it easily could have been, even with limitations, turned out to be the opposite, so it was yet another potential waste. Am not disliking 'Play or Die' with malice, actually sort of wanted to like it even if it didn't entirely work.
The setting was quite eerie but that is pretty much it for any minor redeeming merits. The drabness, erratic filming and effects that looked like they were made as an afterthought squander it though, that does annoy me because if the visuals overall were good my score may have been a solid 3 or a borderline 4.
All the cast give lousy performances, a lot of histrionics and just as much going through the motions. The characters are neither interesting or ones to endear to, there is very little development other than simplistic stereotypical character traits and almost all of them were annoying or without personality.
Dialogue is really quite painful to listen to, it reeks of cheese, has a complete lack of momentum, instead coming over as the dampest of squibs, and fails to flow. The direction is lethargic throughout but it's the story that sinks 'Play or Die', starting off worse than unpromisingly with a scene that will make even those who aren't easily squeamish squirm in their seats with embarrassed discomfort. It's sluggishly paced with everything telegraphed too obviously and too early and there is no tension, suspense or creepiness at all. It all feels bland and there is plenty to make one cringe in its far-fetched ridiculousness and lack of logic in events and character behaviours. There is nothing creative and it all feels too tame.
In conclusion, very poor. 1/10 -
o-asoon-o7 July 2019Its really the worst movie of this year only rhe leader he was good and perfect but the other woman whith she is hill worst thing
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nogodnomasters29 August 2019Chloe (Roxane Mesquida) discovers a new clue to the on-line game Paranoia. She is willing to share it with her ex-boyfriend Lucus (Charley Palmer Rothwell) who was also good at the game. They solve the clues and end up playing the game with some other people at a remote mental hospital. They discover they are solving escape rooms that have deadly consequences for getting things wrong.
It is starting to get hard to keep track of deadly escape room films. This one wasn't the best. What messed it was the concentration on one character, and the surprise ending that created plot holes.
Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity in my Redbox copy. -
andybyrne7911 August 2019This reminds me of a high school students attempt at writing a story after watching a few movies that are clearly borrowed from. I only watched it because I thought it was something else and slipped through the last 25mins.
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gemgemmma17 February 2022I don't know what film the people who rated this so badly were watching but it certainly wasn't this one! It's a good plot for a horror film and cleverly put together. The ending could have maybe shown some flashbacks of the deaths to show that it was him the whole time but other than that, I liked it! If you're a horror fan it is worth a watch.
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pattiffany56 July 2023The first 45 minutes were so captivating and easy to follow. The characters felt like real people and I was intrigued to learn about their relationships. The following 30 minutes were filled with your typical jumpscares, unsensical twists and unstable world bending to fit an ending that makes absolutely no sense. So, the last 20 minutes were literally spent trying to clean up loose ends they created to fit a twist ending regardless of if it created many plot holes. The reason I gave it a semi decent rating is because it was shot well, the acting was good, it didn't look cheaply made and the main characters had decent chemistry.
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natcalgary23 August 2019Ll i can say about this one is pick something else to watch...
4 for some gore.... -
livin_the_weekend26 October 2019*NON-SPOILER*
A decent concept with some small thrills and jump scares validate the 4 stars. The downside is there are too many hurried scenarios in the film that nobody watching will realistically be able to comprehend with the outcomes. -
judemarshall21 April 2020Just dont bother waste of time pointless rubbish good job I was in lockdown and have nothing else to do with my life