Follow Me (2020)

Directed by: Will Wernick | 92 minutes | adventure, horror | Actors: Keegan Allen, Holland Roden, Denzel Whitaker, Ronen Rubinstein, Pasha D. Lychnikoff, George Janko, Siya, Daniyar, Dimiter D. Marinov, Emilia Ares, Yevgeniy Kartashov, Andrei Runtso, Inja Zalta, Kimberly Quinn, Ravil Isyanov, Caleb Dolden, Sebastian L Hunt, Tristan Lee Griffin

The immensely popular vlogger Cole is surprised by friends with a sweet trip to the Russian metropolis of Moscow. The goal: to play in one of the most exclusive escape rooms in the world. Right up the alley for Cole, who has a penchant for extreme challenges. Despite having slight doubts about the adventure, Cole is up for the challenge. Once on Russian soil, he and his friends meet Alexei, the wealthy owner of the escape room and someone who is apparently so influential that even the customs officers at the Moscow airport cringe in fear when he addresses the officials admonishing.

Once inside the escape room, which looks like an abandoned Soviet-era prison, the quest for adrenaline-pumping craziness quickly turns into a hair-raising ordeal, complete with puzzle rooms filled with archaic, terrifying torture devices and sadistic executioners. Although Alexei assures his American guests in advance that they ‘will always be safe’, despite the high level of reality of the trials that await them, that message disappears like snow in the sun.

‘Follow Me’ is a film that thematically follows on from ‘Escape Room’ (2019, Adam Robitel) and ‘Hostel’, two films within the horror genre that have garnered a surprising amount of commercial success. Add a touch of ‘Saw’ to that and you know what kind of meat you have in the tub. Still, ‘Follow Me’ falls a bit behind its cinematic examples. The puzzles aren’t as ingenious as those in ‘Saw’, the characters are weaker and less sympathetic than the main protagonists in ‘Escape Room’ and the torture horror is less graphic than the sick excesses of the human mind that ‘Hostel’ presents to the viewer. Moreover, ‘Follow Me’ starts too slowly for a horror film that isn’t overly long. The introductory part could have been a bit shorter, especially because little character development is done. The main characters are mainly concerned with stroking their egos and feverishly keeping track of the number of followers.

Towards the end, the film gains in suspense and momentum, which even ends in a nice twist and entertaining finale. Overall, though, that’s not enough to make ‘Follow Me’ a truly memorable horror experience.