Review: 'Escape The Field' a 'Squid Game'-Style Survival Story

Emerson Moore co-wrote and directed the suspense thriller "Escape the Field," a "Squid Game"-like contest for survival. Set almost exclusively in a corn field – a liminal American space containing fear and possibilities, as shown in "Field of Dreams" (the afterlife), "Children of the Corn" (cultism) and "Signs" (an alien playground) – six strangers join forces to figure out how and why they got there.

We first meet Sam (Jordan Claire Robbins), a healthcare worker in blue scrubs, who awakes next to a gun and a single bullet. She's soon joined by Tyler (Theo Rossi) in denim, who finds a circular container of matches in his pocket. Afghanistan veteran Ryan (Shane West) has PTSD issues (simmering under his tight military T-shirt) and a kerosene lantern. Denise (Elena Juatco, brilliant as the manager in the TV series "Jann") had been snatched on the way to her partner's place, so she's wearing a pink teddy under a trench coat, holding a gifted knife. Ethan (Julian Feder) is wearing his crested boarding school blazer and carries a compass. Cameron (Tahirah Sharif) complains a lot, while hiding a water flask.

The items might seem to come from a game of Clue, all possibly murder weapons, but they possess other functions, as the players find out while they attempt to navigate the endless maze of mature corn, rotting on the stalk. Under the random blare of mysterious sirens, the group becomes fractured (and suffers various injuries) as they circumvent tiger traps, blow darts and deal with a bifurcating wood rail fence. They find maps sewn into the clothes of the creepy scarecrows they encounter, which look like androids (and are also similar to "Squid Game" cyborgs).

The repurposing of these items – all stamped with a mysterious corporate mark – as clues and keys is the most interesting dynamic in this somewhat recycled, cryptic storyline.

"Escape the Field" shows in select theater, on digital and on demand starting May 6.