15 Best Escape Room Movies of All Time
Have you ever imagined finding yourself trapped in a closed room and not being able to get out? Even if the answer is yes, we bet none of us can even think about the horrors of not being allowed to leave any time we want. Movies about various types of escape rooms have always been a hit and the audience has always liked watching them.
Maybe it is because of the tension and fear they make us feel or the drive we experience when we speculate with the protagonists and try to help them. There is something about these movies that makes them watch them over and over again, even if we are scared to death. They are mostly horrors and include a room, but we have put some here that are not necessarily filmed inside a particular room, but any place that the protagonists can’t get out of. This is the list of the 15 best escape room movies of all time.
Fermat’s Room (2007)
This Spanish mystery thriller is one of the best examples of an escape room movie. Four mathematicians who don’t know each other are invited to a house under the pretext of solving an enigma. Their mysterious host leaves them in a small room and that’s when their survival mission begins.
They realise the room is shrinking and the only way to get out is to find out what connects them and why someone is trying to kill them. If they don’t make it in time the room will simply crush them. This movie is an excellent example of a good thriller where every second counts.
Cube (1997)
This movie became an instant hit when it got out. Strange and bizarre at some point, with a chilling atmosphere that gives you the feeling of claustrophobia and panic. It is about someone’s biggest nightmare, being locked in and not being able to get out of it. This time it is a giant cube with thousands of possible rooms.
Six people wake up trapped in this cube and need to find a way to make it out. They will soon realise that all of them have certain skills needed to figure out how to leave the cube and find the answers to why they are inside. If they want to survive, they must play the game and cooperate.
We meet a cop, a math prodigy, a building designer, a disabled man, a doctor and an escape master. It is obvious that no one of them is going to react in the same way and that there will be less and less time to manage and solve this vicious problem.
Identity (2003)
One of the most disturbing escape movies doesn’t take place in an escape room, but in a shady motel where a group of people take shelter on a stormy night. They are an ex-policeman and now a driver Ed and his client Caroline who was once a famous actress, adolescent Timmy with his mother Alice and stepfather George, prostitute Paris, newlyweds Ginny and Lou and Police Officer Rhodes,
None of them can leave the motel because the roads are all washed-out and soon one by one is murdered. The game of cat and mouse begins. And at the same time, we follow the story of a convict Malcolm Rivers who is facing his death sentence but due to some new evidence, there is talk about whether the verdict should be overturned.
Exam (2009)
This is an intriguing mystery thriller where we follow eight talented candidates who have entered the final stage of a job competition to join a powerful corporation they don’t know much about. They are in a room where they are given 80 minutes to solve a problem written on their paper.
They simply need to obey three rules: don’t leave the room, don’t spoil the papers and don’t talk to the armed man by the door. But their papers are blank and they need to figure out how to solve the question. They will start working together since they can talk to each other, but they will also begin to uncover their backgrounds and hidden agendas.
Devil (2010)
This horror thriller with undoubtedly give you chills and make you think of using a lift in the near future. Claustrophobic and extremely eerie, it is the story of a group of people who get stuck in a lift and slowly realise the Devil is among them.
Five strangers are trapped in a lift of a building where there has been a suicide. The communication radio in the lift is broken, but the cameras are working so the guards can observe the people inside. They start noticing that tensions are running high among them and decide to figure out who they are. But he can find information about only four of them.
Saw (2004)
This creepy horror is one of the best escape movies ever and it gained a cult status soon after its release. It also received numerous sequels, but none of them is as intriguing and creative as the first one. Two men wake up chained in a bathroom and discover they have been captured by the dangerous serial killer named Jigsaw Killer.
Adam and Dr. Lawrence Gordon have to escape before time runs out or they will have to face deadly consequences. But there is so much more to everything here and the plot starts thickening when we learn that they are not locked in there as two completely innocent individuals.
Escape Room (2019)
In this mysterious horror, six strangers find themselves locked in a labyrinth of deadly rooms and have to use all their wits to save their lives. They were given an opportunity to earn loads of money if they entered an immersive escape room. They were handed mysterious black boxes with tickets to go inside.
Now, being locked in several rooms with dreadful conditions, they need to figure out the way to get out. After finding out what is behind all this, they must find the strength to survive and leave.
The Method (2005)
A somewhat different escape room movie, a psychological thriller about seven Spanish top corporate job candidates who are left in a room and need to perform as instructed. They are given tasks they have to perform and are informed that one of them is an observer.
They soon find out that the tests are dirty mind games and that they have to eliminate the one who might be the mole. Their characteristics, secrets and priorities will soon be revealed and their sense of ethics and loyalty put through the tests.
The Platform (2019)
This is an excellent movie that doesn’t only show what people are capable of when put in certain situations, but also how soon they forget about the things that happened to them just a while ago. A mysterious place, a deep vertical hole and a terrifying prison where hundreds of people are locked.
There is an unknown number of levels and two prisoners live on each level. A descending platform contains food for all of them and they need to find a way to get a hold of that food. It becomes more difficult for the prisoners on lower levels since the ones on top eat as much as they can and don’t think about the ones underneath.
But the residents change positions every 30 days and learn what it’s like to be on both sides of the pyramid. And during these days we get an insight into all the good and bad sides of humanity.
Panic Room (2002)
This movie does not have a classic escape room premise, but it definitely makes us uncomfortable and uneasy while we watch the two main protagonists locked in a hidden room that provides them with shelter and some kind of security.
When Meg moves with her daughter Sarah to a new home, they are given a tour of the house and shown an important room, one that can’t be entered upon being locked from the inside. That room is going to be essential for them when three burglars break and enter one night. But what they don’t know is that what they are looking for is in the panic room where Meg and Sarah are hiding.
Unknown (2006)
This is a typical movie about people who find themselves trapped inside a room and need to figure out who is good or bad in order to get out. It is a very good crime thriller where we meet five men who wake up in an abandoned warehouse with no memory of who they are.
They will soon figure out that some of them are kidnapped and some are kidnappers. They will have to work together, completely unaware of everything and try to escape before the gang who trapped them comes back.
Enter Nowhere (2011)
Three strangers arrive one by one at a hidden cabin in the woods in the middle of nowhere. All three of them have recently gone through some personal situations and this might be the reason why they are here together now.
They are frustrated, tired and angry and are trying to find a way out of the woods. While doing that, they discover what the connection between them is and figure out what they have to do in order to stay alive and find their way home.
Infinity Chamber (2016)
This intriguing Sci-Fi drama is something a bit different and not your usual escape room movie. Frank is a normal guy who after a coffee break at the cafe finds himself trapped in an automated prison. The only thing present there beside him is an AI present, whose name is Howard and who acts as his Life Support Officer.
Frank wants answers but Howard can’t provide him with them. It turns out that Frank is guilty of creating a virus that stopped the fascist regime and now Howard has to find out where Frank hid the thumb drive containing the virus. He will make him go back (by probing his memory) to the coffee shop and its owner Gabby. And Frank will have to outsmart Howard in order to escape this claustrophobic prison.
Vacancy (2007)
This disturbing thriller starring Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson tells the story of a married couple who find themselves in the middle of nowhere after their car breaks down. They find a motel nearby, with a TV to keep them entertained during the night. But the only movies being broadcast are the slashers that seem very familiar.
David and Amy realise that the movies are filmed in the very room they are staying the night and that the room is full of cameras to track their every move. They will have to find a way out, but the doors are locked and there are only crawlspaces and underground tunnels they can try. If they don’t succeed they will become the new protagonists of a snuff movie directed by someone’s sick mind.
The Hole (2001)
Another claustrophobic and dark thriller, this time set in England, among rich kids of a boarding school. Three of them don’t want to go on a field trip to Wales and Martin, one of the school nerds, allows them to stay in an empty war bunker for the next three days. But on one condition. His friend Liz has to join them.
They accept his offer and enter the bunker, ready for three days of partying and fun. It all starts as it should until they realise that Martin isn’t going to return and that no one knows where they are. They will have to wait and pray that someone comes back and saves them. Slowly, the tensions among the teens are beginning to rise and their differences and grudges will come to light. No one is innocent.
