If you’ve seen one escape room movie, you’ve seen them all. Right? Right, well, here at Mother of Movies, I am less than a closet addict of these types of films. I was happy with the title change from No Escape to Follow Me. Someone, somewhere, must have realized just how many horror movies share the same moniker. Led by a social media influencer, the narrative has the same setup as all the others. Follow Me comes as Cole introduces his story as a vlogger and begins a spate of fan-suggested trips to escape rooms in an attempt to be ‘scared.’
Of course, always wanting to grow and impress his burgeoning social media audience, when one of his friends organizes a trip to Moscow to visit an elite, invitation-only escape room, he doesn’t hesitate. Joined by his girlfriend and three others, they head out to meet a wealthy individual with connections.
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“They pay to watch people like you get torn apart.”
— Follow Me (2020) Movie Quote
Follow Me Is Another Escape Room Movie
I’m not going to deny the generic nature of the first three-quarters of the Follow Me horror movie. Everything is familiar, right down to the suspicious driver who slips Cole and his girlfriend some money. The rolled-up cash just happens to contain a weird red scrap of paper that doesn’t make sense until the final quarter. The escape room puzzles commence in an underground jail with sectioned partitions of different types. For an elite form of the game, it wasn’t particularly fancy or inventive.
In a quick change, things descend rather suddenly into Hostel territory. I was pleased to see one of my favorite bad guys take charge of the carnage with a character called Andrei. Played by Pasha D. Lychnikoff, this guy has been in everything. I love seeing his face appear, but most people will know him as Yvon from Shameless. The rest of the cast was an enjoyable mix of solid performances. In addition, none of the cast annoyed me, so bonus points for that.
Social Media Influencer Horror Movies
Will Wernick has directed an Escape Room movie before, appropriately titled “No Escape Room.” Mother of Movies did a double review of two films with the same name released in the same year. Wernick has come leaps and bounds since his sophomore feature. There is much more meat to the story here in Follow Me. This film is such a mystery box of mash-ups that I can’t help but be impressed.
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Found Footage
Starring: Keegan Allen, Holland Roden, Ronen Rubinstein
Director: Will Wernick
Release Year: 2020
Runtime: 88 minutes
Where to Watch: Digital platforms (region-dependent); some regions under No Escape
Rated: MA15+ (strong threat, torture sequences)
Verdict
“Follow Me” plays like an influencer’s worst nightmare. Blending found footage with escape-room horror, it asks: What if your audience never stopped watching, even when the blood is real?
Mother of Movies Rating: 3.5 / 5, Cleverly cruel in concept, though not for the faint-hearted or logic lovers.
Satirical Jabs, at Influencer Culture
No Escape begins as a daredevil stream and transforms into a commentary on how easily identity, safety, and trust can be stripped away in pursuit of fame.
As online horror evolves, Follow Me taps into something timely: the illusion of safety behind screens. If you’ve ever watched a YouTuber prank gone too far and asked yourself, “What if this wasn’t staged?”, this film has your answer.
Follow Me was released in Australian theaters in mid-July 2020. It offers a unique blend of suspense and mystery. The film tells the story of a group of individuals who embark on a dangerous journey filled with deadly puzzles and hidden dangers. With its digital and on-demand release on September 18th, 2020, Follow Me was met with mixed reviews from both moviegoers and critics. Some have compared it to the popular “Saw franchise”, highlighting the film’s exploration of the deadly consequences of puzzles. However, it should be noted that Follow Me takes a different approach, with the body count not primarily attributed to the games themselves.
All Your Questions Answered
What is the movie Follow Me about?
Follow Me (also released as No Escape) is a psychological thriller that follows a vlogger and his friends lured into a deadly escape room experience in Moscow. The film blends real-world influencer culture with horror tropes and social satire.
Is Follow Me based on a true story?
No. While the story mirrors urban legends and real-world escape room horror scenarios, Follow Me is a fictional narrative designed to play on paranoia and digital age voyeurism.
Where can I watch Follow Me aka No Escape?
The film was released theatrically in Australia in 2020 and made available digitally and on-demand worldwide. It’s often listed under No Escape depending on region and streaming platform.
Why was Follow Me also called No Escape?
The title was changed in some regions for marketing clarity. “No Escape” was used in the U.S. to distinguish it from similarly titled films and possibly to emphasize the horror/survival aspects more overtly.
Is Follow Me connected to the 2015 No Escape movie?
No. The 2015 No Escape is an entirely different film starring Owen Wilson. The 2020 Follow Me (No Escape) has no connection and is a standalone horror-thriller.
Are There Any Other Films With a Similar Ending? (Spoiler)
Not only does this film about escape rooms have attributes similar to others of the same kind, but No Escape gets an ending that rivals the 1977 title The Game. Watch the trailer for more information. If you’ve never seen it, it stars Michael Douglas. Watch it immediately.
Follow Me, aka No Escape 2020 Movie Trailer
With social media horror taking center stage in recent years, Follow Me (aka No Escape) taps into the modern influencer’s worst nightmare, when curated content becomes a real-world trap. For fans of tech-anxiety thrillers, films like Spree and Cam, and the voyeuristic edge of Hostel, this movie fits into a growing subgenre that explores how far people are willing to go for views, and what happens when the algorithm bites back.
