The Movies

This review could be titled “Revisiting The Movies” or “How to turn a good room into a top room”.  To explain this, I must go back in time, almost exactly two years ago, when I was planning our first Belgium tour. Back then we were invited by an unknown owner from an unknown company to play his games.  I discussed it with Heiner and we decided to go for it. So, Tanja, Heiner and I met Anthony there and got to know his games, including The Movies in a first version, which was a positive surprise of the trip.

Time passed and we heard other player’s enthusiastic comments about The Movies. The room made it into the Terpeca’s Top 100 and climbed the escapetalk.nl ladder. We were also surprised about the length of the game, that was much longer than when we played it. I was curious, because even though The Movies was in its original version a really nice game, I would not have expected it to mingle among the very best.

I am not a big fan of playing games again and the very few times I have done it was in order to accompany other players and even that is something I prefer to avoid unless absolutely necessary, but in this case, I was looking forward to see how it was possible that the room we played in its very beginning had become such a success.

The answer to this question was apparent after playing the game. I could not stop admiring the substantial number of changes from that first version to what the room is today. If something can be criticized is that at certain moments there is too much guidance (considerably less than before and done in a much better way) and that most of the tasks are rather do-tasks and less complex logical thinking riddles, but lingering on such criticism is not fair to the room, which in a very justified manner, is considered among the best of what Belgium has to offer.

The overall experience is great and makes a fantastic use of light and other effects. The set is beautiful and the game has also everything else a top escape room needs, a solid satisfying storyline, elements of surprise and a very good game flow. Not to mention an attractive original and well-implemented theme, full of nice props, which would make the delight of any geek, and movie references for those who, like myself, love the cinema.

While this room is located further away from the typical playing regions in Belgium (the Northern region close to the Dutch border and Brussels and surroundings), this room is a mandatory stop for people travelling to Belgium for escape rooms. Do not let high expectations from its number one position in escapetalk ruin your experience, but go with an open mind and prepare to enjoy the show, which I am sure you will.