Immersive horror experiences and escape rooms are certainly part of the zeitgeist at the movies of late with the likes of The Houses October Built or Haunt being prime examples of how films revolving around these themes should be executed. And then of course, there’s the entire Saw franchise, especially now with all the buzz flying around Darren Lynn Bousman’s impending sequel/spin-off, Spiral.
But before that one comes around, another project horror audiences can file under the immersive horror sub-genre is Will Wernick’s No Escape (previously titled Follow Me). No stranger to this particular realm, having directed 2017’s Escape Room, Wernick’s latest outing blends immersive horror attractions with the perils of social media to shocking effect. Audiences are taken on a trip to Moscow as an influencer heads there with his closest friends to experience what’s “supposedly” the most intense escape room that exists. The lengths many influencers will go to to cater for their audiences never ceases to amaze us and No Escape is a shocking reminder of exactly that as their line between real life and social media becomes blurred.
With the film about to hit Digital and On Demand on September 18th, we hopped onto ZOOM with one of the film’s stars, Holland Roden who revealed how she felt the premise could have been something ripped right out of a newspaper, just how far she went to immerse herself in the escape room aspects of the movie and how she’s been working on a Ted Bundy movie during lockdown…