The Maze Runner films are another installment of the overwhelming amount of dystopian series for the teenage population, but unlike most of these movies such as the Hunger Games, Divergent, The Giver, the Scorch Trials have a sense of horror and perplexment to them.

The beginning of the film is a straight continuation of the first film, starting with our heroes of the glade- Thomas, Newt, Minho, Teresa, Frypan, and Winston – landing in the middle of a desert and being herded into a metal fallout shelter as a disbanded army of what could basically be called zombies begins to swarm. They begin a new life in the shelter, but something seems off. After finding the secrets of the facility and escaping to the Scorch, a desert filled with the ruins of a familiar city, they are sent to find a haven somewhere away from the world that have just discovered, in the midst of horrifying creatures.

One thing that fully sets this film apart is the use of the zombies, or creepers as they are called in the movie, as a device for cheap scares. There are multiple scenes that are identical: a hero finds his or herself in a dark, crumbling structure far away from their teammates. Suddenly a creeper screams straight at the camera making the audience and the hero jump. This makes for an unpleasant time for the anxious, but exhilarating for the brave.

These swarms of the undead are the first of multiple antagonists of the film; something that leads the film being convoluted with too many plots. The viewer is left with too many questions. Why are they running from a frightening central government institution? How do they finding refuge in a world full of monsters that could get them at any moment? How can they go about finding a secret organization of revolutionaries?

The movie as a whole was not terrible. The overall sense, though different from the original film, led to a sense of adventure and developed at least the main character Thomas into someone to follow. Unfortunately, with cheap scares and confusing long winded plots, The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials will never be the simple, relatable film its predecessor was.