Editorials
Why ‘Escape Room’ Can, Should and Probably Will Spawn the Next Hit Horror Franchise
Adam Robitel‘s terrifying debut The Taking of Deborah Logan never received a theatrical release (we’ll forever be scratching our heads over that one), but Robitel subsequently kicked off Hollywood’s big screen horror offerings in both 2018 and 2019, with Insidious: The Last Key opening last January and Escape Room arriving in theaters this past weekend.
The former film, of course, saw Robitel taking over the reins of an established franchise, but this year’s Escape Room gave Robitel the chance to create a hit horror franchise of his very own. And with an opening weekend domestic box office take of $18 million, double the film’s production budget, it’s safe to say that Robitel hit another home run with his third feature.
Sony has a profitable horror hit on their hands with Escape Room, a super fun offering that had “franchise starter” written all over it even before the numbers came in. The concept, based on the current room escape craze (which itself was largely inspired by the Saw franchise that Escape Room cribs from) was more or less guaranteed to appeal to all the most important demographics, so it should probably come as no big surprise to anyone that audiences turned out in droves to see it. Nor should it come as any surprise to anyone reading this right now when we’re writing about Escape Room 4 in a few years, as the premise laid out by Robitel and company all but ensured that if Escape Room was a success, sequels would follow.
Blending the provocative elements of the Saw (rooms as traps), Final Destination (sole survivors) and even Hostel (murder as entertainment for the rich) franchises, Escape Room sets up limitless potential for what is likely to become the next annual horror franchise that studios are always not-so-secretly hoping to launch. In the film’s final act, we learn that a well-funded organization is behind the horror, one that appeals to rich consumers who shell out good money to watch captured victims try and survive deadly escape rooms. The victims in the film are all connected due to being sole survivors of past tragedies, but the film’s “Game Master” notes in the final act that they’re far from the first group to be captured.
It’s revealed in the Game Master’s info dump that the organization’s customers have previously bet on games featuring college athletes and savants as the players, hinting at the endless potential for the Escape Room franchise. If Sony is so inclined, and as long as audiences remain interested, sequels to this year’s first horror hit could center on all kinds of unique character groupings, allowing for each film in the franchise to have a unique twist on it. As for the actual escape rooms, well, the sky is clearly the limit when it comes to their design.
As Escape Room‘s (admittedly unnecessary) final moments show, the organization is even able to replicate the experience of being trapped on a plane that’s going down – and let’s not forget that they literally turned a room in an office building into an outdoor winter environment! – so the groundwork has needlessly to say been laid for the franchise to get as crazy and “high concept” as it wants. Upside down rooms may seem like child’s play in a few years.
Though Escape Room may not be as unique or even as good as the first installments in the Saw and Final Destination franchises, it possesses literally all of the ingredients necessary to become the next big modern horror franchise. By aping what has worked for the genre’s most recent hit franchises, there’s a damn good chance that Escape Room just joined that list.
Speaking with Daily Dead recently, before the release of Escape Room, Adam Robitel touched upon his film’s franchise potential, making it clear that he’d love to direct a sequel.
“We have a lot of ideas,” Robitel the site. “I always felt like it was more important to tease the world and create the mystery. If we had explained everything away, I think ultimately it just wouldn’t be that interesting.”
He continued, “But to answer your question, we would love to do [a sequel]. We’re not so arrogant as to think that this is a sure thing, and I think ultimately the audience will decide what will happen. Unfortunately, moviemaking is still a business, and so it would have to make financial sense to make another one. I do think there are innumerable storylines and there are so many styles of escape rooms out there, that we could definitely keep coming up with cool ideas.”
Audiences have proven they’re on board. Now it’s up to Sony to make this baby a franchise.
It’s been 75 years since The Thing From Another World first warned us to “watch the skies”, and filmgoers have done just that by showing up to multiple instances of extraterrestrial contact on the big screen. This makes sense, as a recent CBS news poll estimated that 63% of Americans believe in intelligent life on other planets, and the ongoing disclosure movement aims to raise that number with each passing day.
With Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leaving many genre fans hungry for more alien footage (preferably of the spooky variety), today I’d like to share a list recommending six underrated alien invasion thrillers for your viewing pleasure. After all, regardless of whether or not you believe that we’re alone in the universe, it can be fun to dream about the worst-case scenario if our cosmic neighbors ever decide to visit.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing on lesser-known invasion stories rather than the popular extraterrestrials of franchises like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third (or even Fourth) Kind. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own alien favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling movie.
While it won’t be featured in this article, I’d highly recommend checking out Dean Alioto’s UFO Abduction/The McPherson Tape if you’re up for some ufology-inspired found footage thrills.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. The Arrival (1996)
Not to be confused with Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning Amy Adams vehicle about learning to communicate peacefully with extraterrestrial life, David Twohy’s The Arrival is a much more straightforward (but no less entertaining) genre romp where Charlie Sheen faces a global conspiracy involving hostile alien invaders.
It’s not exactly up there with Close Encounters or even Independence Day, but Twohy’s conspiratorial thriller plays out like an exceptionally fun episode of The X-Files that I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror fans who don’t mind a little bit of wonky CGI and 90s excess alongside their alien thrills.
5. Extraterrestrial (2014)
The Vicious Brothers made a name for themselves with the success of 2011’s Grave Encounters, but that was far from the Canadian duo’s only collaboration. And while it’s not exactly a fan favorite, I always point out 2014’s Extraterrestrial as one of their most underrated projects simply because I agree with the filmmakers’ opinion that there aren’t enough ‘cool alien abduction movies’ out there.
Admittedly, the majority of the picture functions like a run-of-the-mill creature feature with paper-thin characters and familiar horror tropes, but I’d argue that the cosmically-terrifying final act elevates the experience to new and memorable heights. The movie also boasts great performances by both Michael Ironside and Emily Perkins – a combination that more than makes up for the occasionally janky CGI.
4. Alien Raiders (2008)
Director Ben Rock has gone on record lamenting how his John-Carpenter-inspired creature feature was forcefully renamed from Supermarket to the painfully obvious Alien Raiders (a change which likely resulted in many potential viewers skipping out on the experience), but the new title doesn’t change the fact that this single-location thriller is something of a hidden gem.
Taking place entirely within a supermarket, Alien Raiders tells the story of an ensemble of customers and employees who are taken hostage by a group of armed men looking for something far more dangerous than an easy payout. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but I’d highly recommend this criminally underseen flick to fans of John Carpenter and the Resident Evil games.
3. Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
You’d think that a Ridley-Scott-produced retelling of one of the most infamous real-life UFO sightings of all time would have a bigger following, but I rarely see Justin Barber’s Found Footage period piece brought up during discussions about extraterrestrial-focused horror movies.
This is a huge shame, as Phoenix Forgotten is just as spooky as it is convincing, with this well-researched dive into the Phoenix Lights incident benefiting from surprisingly believable special effects as well as an appropriately horrific finale.
2. Communion (1989)
I wouldn’t blame you for disregarding Whitley Strieber’s controversial book about his alleged close encounter as sensationalist slop, but I’d argue that Phillipe Mora’s 1989 adaptation of these events is much better than the source material. After all, the movie works as a standalone piece of speculative fiction while also benefiting from an incredible performance by the one and only Christopher Walken!
Mora’s take on Communion may not be particularly scary, but the film is still an unforgettable character study regardless of whether or not the abduction really happened. Not only that, but the flick also paved the way for plenty of future sci-fi stories where the extraterrestrial invaders aren’t as evil as they initially appear.
1. Altered (2006)
Originally envisioned as a Sam Raimi-style horror-comedy titled Probed, Eduardo Sánchez (of The Blair Witch Project fame) eventually realized that it would be much more interesting to turn the film into a serious exploration of the emotional aftermath of a traumatic abduction incident.
That’s how we got Altered, a clever inversion of the standard abduction narrative that follows a group of troubled friends as they capture and experiment on an alien in order to enact revenge for their own abduction years prior.
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