Starring Yu Sichu, Xu Dongmei, Wu Youxuan, Chen Yichen and Huang Zhenghao, written by Lu Yunfei and Liang Zhongfan, directed by Lu Yunfei. Produced by Chang Bin, Yao Ling, Fu Juan, Wang Lin and Hu Nan.
Three foxy mercenary women are tasked with acting as bodyguards for young Dr Harwin, who is being sent on a mission, as part of a Special Emergency Response Team, to an underground base called Deep Pit located within the western Gobi Desert. This bunker-building, run by OHM Technologies and the military, is a centre for nuclear materials research, but there’s been a gamma ray leak at the bottom of the base, causing the place to be locked down, trapping many researchers inside. After entering the subterranean building it all gets messy when Colonel Krumbach, the leader of the Special Emergency Response Team, orders his troops to start shooting any scientists still surviving in the base, because he doesn’t want witnesses as he prepares to unleash a plan for world domination that relies on the use of giant, mutated scorpions!
NO WAY TO ESCAPE seems to be set in some unspecified country that has a diverse ethnic mix within its military, though the good guys do tend to be the Chinese characters. Some of the acting, especially the western dudes playing the obnoxious grunts, is not likely to win any awards. There’s an occasional naff FX shot of helicopters at the start (why do helicopters often look ropey in these sort of films?), but the movie has better production values and art direction compared to similar US flicks made by The Asylum and their ilk. This movie also delivers more on-screen CGI monster action compared to its American counterparts. An added bonus is the fact that NO WAY TO ESCAPE (like other recent Chinese genre flicks) is a commendably short film. It’s definitely no time-waster.
When the soldiers, devoid of empathy, murder every researcher they encounter, you find yourself hoping they will get fragged by the massive scorpions at some point, which does, indeed, start to happen. Yay! The svelte and heroic she-soldiers, called Bijiao, Baizhi & Guiche, obviously end up battling these killer arachnids too, but they’re far more skilled and able to deal with these stinger-tailed buggers!
There’s definitely stuff to enjoy in NO WAY TO ESCAPE. I kinda liked one of the bigger scorpions, which was a CGI creation, of course, but it had a neat, stop-motion jerkiness to its movements sometimes. There’s also a nice behavioural touch given to Dr Harwin, who always plays with lego or jigsaws as he works things out, hinting that, perhaps, he’s on the spectrum.
Creature-wise, there are several giant scorpions that differ slightly size-wise, plus the occasional swarm of normal-looking, small scorpions that are actually capable of boring their way through human bodies.
The script is forgettable, but a film with action scenes involving Asian Lara Croft wannabes armed with daggers, skirmishing with giant scorpions, is not to be sniffed at, right?
These gals are so tough they never seem to consider using guns against these arthropods, they just wanna start slashing the big bugs with their blades! There’s one extended fight between these three female furies and a scorpion, deep down in the bunker, that is really rather exciting, as the lethal ladies take turns to jump atop the scorpion to skewer it. They then get in some wirework practice as they’re hurled across the chamber by the angry beast!
This promotional art doesn’t even bother showing the monster scorpions, it just focuses of the deadly female protagonists…
Let’s end this review of one more shot of a giant, six-eyed scorpion…
Monster Zone 