Having survived their first ordeal Zoey (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller) go to New York in search of Minos, the company responsible for the deadly escape rooms that nearly killed them. Of course they are only walking into a trap and soon face another series of deadly challenges with four more survivors of Minos’ evil machinations. 

This is the sequel to 2019’s Escape Room, a film I described as a “relatively interesting, if hugely generic “horror” film”. This direct sequel picks up immediately from the end of the first and even gives a summary of what happened in the original if you have either not seen or completely forgotten the storyline. 

This sequel improves upon the original in that it knows its strength are in its fiendish puzzles and not so much the introduction of characters we know are cannon fodder. It moves as quickly as possible into the first escape room and whilst it stays in them it’s pretty tense and interesting stuff. It even provides enough breathing space around the clues for you to have some chance to guess the solutions to the puzzles as well. 

As per the original film it leans heavily into the set up for a sequel in a highly predictable ending and struggles to maintain interest when we are not puzzling over life and death. 

At a very brisk 88 minutes it is a throw away suspense thriller (I refuse to believe this is a horror film) that will be enjoyable whilst it lasts and forgettable once you leave the cinema.