‘It isn’t a game anymore’
No Escape aka Follow Me is a 2020 American horror film about a vlogger and his friends who visit an intense escape room in Moscow.
Written and directed by Will Wernick (Escape Room), the movie stars Holland Roden, Ronen Rubinstein, Pasha D. Lychnikoff and Keegan Allen.
Plot:
A social media star travels with his friends to Moscow to capture new content for his successful vlog. Always pushing the limits and catering to a growing audience, he and his friends enter a cold world of mystery, excess and danger. As the line between real life and social media is blurred, the group must fight to escape and survive…
Reviews:
“No Escape is a cookie-cutter horror movie. Taking together elements of better films from the genre, it comes across as little more than a copy. Fear of Russia, unnecessarily intricate death traps, and torture […] all make their way into the story. On the plus side, the plot never loses sight of what it is trying to do.” AITP
“No Escape wants to be a serious horror film, yet it stumbles out of the gate with obnoxious twenty-somethings you’d hope would fail and move back into their parent’s basement. Wernick has the talent for a long, fruitful career, but No Escape fails more than it works. It has its moments, but that’s not enough to salvage the rest.” Arrow in the Head
“It’s easy to hate on No Escape. Borderline insufferable personalities dot the roster. The film also kills two “not another one of these” birds with one stone by being both a Saw clone and themed around social media celebrity. Anyone prone to complaining about horror movies that “bring nothing new” shouldn’t even be here.” Culture Crypt
“No Escape is another clone in a sea of more memorable attempts with actual tension, horror, and characters who are immensely more likeable and engaging. It had the elements to be more intense, but unfortunately, it’s a pretty tame affair.” HNN
” …Follow Me is a fun little riff on social media by letting us imagine an annoying vlogger going through hell. It feels like it would have fit in better around the early 2000’s when it’s obvious influences were the big thing at the box office, but it still manages to have a few good moments, particularly towards the end. This is an average movie with a fantastic ending…” Movie Meister Reviews
“While its premise may attempt to make fun of modern-day “influencers” and “YouTubers”, its frights and tone are distinctly “old school”, with manacles, maiming and more than a little misogyny present and correct. If the main male characters come across as narcissistic or empathy free, then it’s the females who suffer the worst privations (be it dreary dialogue to deliver, or near-drowning).” Stuff
“For a movie like this to work, you need to care about the characters or at least some of them, and that is simply not the case. I didn’t care about Cole and his need always to get that #Content […] Because of this lack of character, I found the rest of the film honestly quite dull instead of tense as the film hopes.” TL; DR Reviews
Release:
No Escape was released in the USA On-Demand and Digital on September 18, 2020, via Vertical Entertainment.
Cast and characters:
Holland Roden … Erin; Ronen Rubinstein … Alexei; Pasha D. Lychnikoff … Andrei; Keegan Allen … Cole; Kimberly Quinn … Laura; Denzel Whitaker … Thomas; Emilia Ares … Viktoria; Ravil Isyanov … The Waiter; Dominic Pace … Henchman; Emily Hinkler … Alina; George Janko … Dash; Dimiter D. Marinov … Igor; Elizabeth Hinkler … Alisa; Inja Zalta … Mina
Daniyar … Lev
Filming locations:
Downtown, Los Angeles, California
Filming began on August 29, 2018, and concluded on October 1, 2018.
Technical details:
1 hour 31 minutes
Notes:
Not be confused with the 2018 British vlogging horror film #FollowMe
