The twist at the end was a bit surprising.

Everyone who ever held and shot a real gun (military personel for example) must realize though, that this would never work in real life.

a) Gunshots make a very distinct and next to unfakable sound
b) Bullets hitting their target also make sounds - especially when its a skull.

b) A Gun pressed to the head is EXTREMLY dangerous, even when it fires a blank - NEVER!!! do that!!!
c) A gun fired in close quarters is extremly loud (they are actually always VERY loud) - without protection you should be deaf for a second or two

There are other points, but those were the first I thought of.

Even if we forget about all of that.
What idiot had the idea to let Cole be welcomed by the one person he must hold responsible for all of this?
Of course he is going to immediately attack him - and it was pretty obvious who would win a fight between those two even without Cole being superhigh on adrenaline...

Any of the people he thought were dead would have been a good idea - so he immediately realizes it was fake.

---

It could still have been pretty entertaining if the characters were likeable at all.
Cole is unsympathetic from the getgo, Thomas and Sam seemed to be only in there so it wouldn't be all but one white people - I mean really what purpouse did they serve storywise?
Dash seemed to be reckless and responsible until the twist. (And even more reckless afterwards - but then he at least shared it...)

The only one who was likeable out of all of them was Erin. That was until the twist - people doing shit like that are just plain assholes - sry for the language...
After she "died" I literally was only interested in the ending, since I didn't give a f*** about any of the other characters...

What an experience going into this film blind. Truly awful, an actually bad movie. I normally am pretty forgiving to movies, as long as I have a good time I don't rate it this low.

This is a movie about vlogger Cole, who is celebrating 10 years of vlogging and 1 million followers. His friends take him on a trip to Moscow, Russia as a surprise to do an escape room like nothing he has experienced ever before(!).

My first point is the story, I thought it was a good idea but all of it felt really formulaic and nothing was really that revolutionary. There are sections of the story that remind me of "video game logic" - like when Cole throws a pipe to distract the enemy. I thought the traps were interesting and the first set of puzzles for Cole to solve to rescue his friends were really stressful and scary. I loved that a lot. I liked the unusual setting (who sets a movie in Russia!), and I liked the integration with modern culture - online streaming. HOWEVER, the streaming effects were not that great - the hearts and thumbs up are reflective of Facebook live streaming - and they do that thing where they pop text up on the screen for a second and play clips - but it's a live stream so IDK how they do that. It was all a bit cheesy.

The characters are pretty racially diverse but not very well developed. Even less developed for a horror movie than expected. Cole's friend is a massive douche and every moment on screen made me hate him more. Cole is a childish and extroverted streamer. His friend Thomas and girlfriend Erin have almost no development, and the black chick also has no development at all. This means none of the deaths are impactful or upsetting, they aren't really even that graphic because you only see them from afar. Cole takes it very hard and sits down to cry a few times. Felt like a waste when he could've been trying to rescue the other people instead.

The effects are all around pretty awful and so is the continuity. In one particular scene they spliced clips and the blood changes on the character's face between shots. It was not believable or real-looking. I guess this can play into the story more rather than just be chalked up to poor effects. I did like the twist ending. I think that was the only reason I gave this 3 stars. Not worth a watch. Sucked.

Really good watch, would watch again, and can recommend.

Sort of a "Hostel" meets "The Game", this low production, dark and gritty survival thriller really amps up the intensity well in stages.

Really, it's everything you would think of when you think "crazy Russian escape room", the cast does a good job, but I feel like the premise restricts the movie a bit.

Because it keeps you guessing, it has to restrict certain aspects. This means that no one is going to get everything they want from this.

I understand that you can't make everyone happy, but at a certain point you leave more people unhappy than you should.

There are some great psychological aspects to the movie, but it would be a much clearer analysis in a second watch, and I don't know if the movie really would have a lot to offer in a second watch.

While I do think this is worth a watch, especially for escape room ARG fans, either "Escape Room" or "The Game" should be higher on your to watch list.