No Escape Room

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Alex Merkin directs. Pascal Combes-Knoke behind the camera. Bobby Tahouri scores. Don Money cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 186 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 2Released 8 years ago.
• 3Directed by Alex Merkin, shot by Pascal Combes-Knoke. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 4Original score by Bobby Tahouri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 5Editor Don Money shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 6Jeni Ross and Mark Ghanimé and Hamza Haq carry the top of the cast.
• 7Marketing tagline: "Solve to survive.".
• 8IMDB entry: tt9099102 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 9Classified under 8 themes, including "key", "haunting", "diner", "ghost".

The technical file

Cinematography

Pascal Combes-Knoke

Original score

Bobby Tahouri

Editing

Don Money

Production design

Shane Boucher

VFX supervisor

Dustin Solomon

Stunt coordinator

Alain Moussi

Runtime

86 min · 1h 26m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Original language

EN

IMDB

No Escape Room (2018) ↗

Also by

Alex Merkin

• 
  The Art of Murder

  2018 · ★ 6.2
• 
  Across the Hall

  2005 · ★ 6.0
• 
  Across the Hall

  2009 · ★ 6.0
• 
  Pups Alone

  2021 · ★ 5.8
• 
  House of Bodies

  2013 · ★ 4.9
• 
  Altitude

  2017 · ★ 4.9

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Official Trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Kamurai2020-10-10
  ★ 3/10

  Decent watch, probably won't watch again, but can recommend if you're looking for another "escape room movie". This is a weird movie, just what it is. I'm down with the premise and I went in thinking it was going to be a "House of 1000 Corpses" version of "Escape Room", and it's really neither. It's closer to "Amityville Horror", "1408", or "Thirteen Ghosts" with an escape room element (but not nearly as good) than either of those movies. I also went in thinking Jeni Ross was Debbi Ryan ("Insatiable"), of whom I'm not a big fan, but has proven she can carry a movie. Jeni Ross does a great job here, showing a lot of range and is very expressive. The rest of the cast is acceptable, if forgettable. This is a classic symptom of random and sudden deaths in characters in poor productions: the studio doesn't want to invest in a character just to kill them off, but they forget that the audience is the one that needs to be invested in the character for its death to mean anything, so the kills are a little disappointing in this. There is good in this movie, and fans of the genres it shares: escape rooms, haunted house, and time loops will have some fun. It just tries to be too much ending as too little.

  Read full review ↓
• Rando2021-03-13
  ★ 6/10

  Watched this with friends. Thankfully this was not my pick. Though this was not a bad movie it wasn't the greatest either. It starts out really well but then you start to rake up questions and theories throughout only for the ending to give you no answers on your questions or theories. This starts out with a father (Michael) and daughter (Karen) going out for the weekend to bond but they run into car trouble and are stranded. Instead of taking this as a loss they decide to do an escape room and thats where they meet the other characters in the movie. Tyler (who is on his phone the whole) and Melanie (Tyler's Gf) who are here because its Melanie's birthday and she likes escape room. Andrew who is basically there because apparently his therapist told him to interact with more people. Josie is the host of the Escape room and the inventor is apparently the man that built the mansion for some reasons .... This is basically all you find out about the characters. You are given no backstory and no history. You see no character development and no character relationships being built or getting stronger. There is this weird attraction/tension between Andrew and Karen which is totally weird since she's in high school and he's clearly been out of HS for a while. The acting isn't great but I honesty don't think that its the actors fault. I think its the script. The script could have been so much better. There was great ideas (like Melanie's phone call, the painting, the morgue and the time loops) but nothing is explained or connected in a way to make this good. It just felt like random scenes and ideas put together but nothing to tie them together. I was waiting for the ending to make it all make sense (those are my favorite types of movies or shows) and in the end nothing made sense. There was also a couple of great scare scenes too. Effects in the movie were also good. Overall, this was an okay watch. If you need a movie that requires minimal brain activity and a couple of scary scenes then you can get enjoyment out of this. If you don't go in with great expectations then it will be a great watch. Just remember you will get no answers so be prepared for confusion.

  Read full review ↓
• Alunauwie2025-09-18
  ★ 5/10

  No Escape Room tries to tap into the once-viral escape room trend but falls short with a slow pace, weak character development, and many unanswered plot questions. Despite intriguing moments of tension, the film struggles with clarity—failing to establish the origins of its eerie setting or justify the characters’ involvement. Still, it reminds viewers to be cautious when entering unknown places and to always question what seems too strange to be safe. Read the full review here: (Indonesian version : alunauwie.com)

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  MarVista Entertainment

  US

Key crew

• Art DirectionGarren Dunbar
• EditorDon Money
• Executive ProducerArnie Zipursky
• Executive ProducerNeil Elman
• Co-Executive ProducerJosh Van Houdt
• Executive ProducerFernando Szew
• ProducerShane Boucher
• Production DesignShane Boucher
• EditorAlex Gans
• Production ManagerCaitlin Delaney
• Second Assistant DirectorTaralee Gerhard
• Production CoordinatorCaitlin Delaney
• Stunt CoordinatorAlain Moussi
• Additional Director of PhotographyThomas L. Callaway
• Property MasterTim Winchester
• Set DecorationPaul Pellerin
• Costume DesignerJennifer Stroud
• GafferJonathan Olts
• Script SupervisorJacqueline Elizabeth Davis
• Location ManagerNina Bains
• Sound MixerLaszlo Szijarto
• Additional EditingAlex Merkin
• Post Production SupervisorMarly Reed
• Color GradingMila Patriki

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• key
• haunting
• diner
• ghost
• locked door
• escape room
• father daughter relationship
• hidden clues

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2018-10-06
• TV2018-10-06

Also known as

International titles

• Смертельний квестUA