Review: Game of Death

1980’s horror-violence makes a comeback in Game of Death. Unfortunately, the genre’s weak plot aspects tag along too. With gruesome death sequences, dark humor, and a unique style, it may just be the 2020 horror film you’ve been looking for, so long as you can get past its shallower characteristics. Oh and the blood… lots of blood. 

A group of friends proceed to get properly trashed while partying with their friends Ashley (Emelia Hellman) and Matt (Thomas Vallieres) at his family’s house. As Mary-Ann (Catherine Saindon) and Kenny (Nick Serino) enjoy the pool, Beth (Victoria Diamond) invites her brother, Tom (Samuel Earle), over to join them just as Ashley’s drug dealer, Tyler (Erniel Baez Duenas), shows up. Pretty soon after, they stumble upon an old board game from the 80’s. The only goal is to kill 24 people or die trying before the timer runs out. Thinking it’s just a game, they decide to play. But, when nothing happens, they quickly move on. However, they soon discover that those rules don’t apply to cards and dice; the game wants them to take 24 people’s lives. The penalty if they don’t? Their heads will explode. 

Game of Death‘s defining characteristic is style. It wants to be stylish maybe above all else. Oftentimes, when the word “stylish” is applied to an indie movie, what I really hear is “music video”. We’ve all seen movies like this. Not only is there no substance, but their so-called style is a collection of half-ass music video concepts executed with neither the technical nuance to be interesting nor the budget to reach their already generic goals. It’s visually masturbatory, and much like actual masturbation, it’s a lot of pomp and circumstance for a brief flash of minor enjoyment and a much longer, ever-lingering disappointment afterwards as you sit in a room by yourself. Or, perhaps quarantine has made me far too reflective. If so, apologies for the analogy. Luckily, Game of Death isn’t quite so vulgar and has a distinct and realized style of its own. 

The movie side-steps many issues that plague flashy indies, while still falling into a fair share of problems. After a fun 8-bit opening credit sequence, there’s an ominous scene of Tom’s bedroom. With a gun beside him, Tom is masturbating (Hey! We’re back on this. Sorry.) It’s subtly unnerving, and a good opener. After this nice establishment of tone and technical prowess, we get into a lengthy montage, which was neat in theory until it wasn’t. The mixed media structure of the montage was cool. It would cut between small scenes, slow motion sequences, and social media posts recorded on the characters phones. However, it lasts quite a long time and overstays its welcome. We get a sense of the characters through this, but unfortunately, it’s pretty shallow. The rest of the movie is playing catch up in this regard. It would have been so much more satisfying to know who our characters are before they start playing the game. We would care about them when they were in danger, and feel surprised when they fall into killing so easily. 

The movie doesn’t have much plot to speak of, as it doesn’t really add any wrinkles beyond the premise. So, what is left is the characters and the decisions they make. The results are mixed. By far, the most interesting turn comes from Tom and Beth. They end up as a couple of incestuous siblings who embrace mass murder whole-heartedly. They do this fairly quickly too. It was an interesting place to take them and resulted in the most exciting sequence in the film. There is a montage towards the end that involves them working their way through a hospital. I won’t explain it really, because it would spoil what it is, but it’s pretty fantastic and nearly worth a recommendation on its own. 

Unfortunately, as the movie goes along the rest of the characters decisions are all over the place, and largely serve the script. We don’t know these people at all really, and when the character’s decisions bounce back and forth abruptly, it’s jarring and feels like they are constantly changing who they are foundationally. I’m thinking specifically of the character Ashley, who’s stance on everything is ever-changing. She is our de facto protagonist with a perceived moral high ground. However, she comes to this realization after murdering a stranger in cold blood, so it’s safe to say that her position is weak at best. This isn’t an intentional or affective bit of irony either. It’s rather clunky.

The movie takes a lot of inspiration from and is reminiscent of other movies. Tom is straight up cosplaying as the third member of the malevolent Funny Games duo. Its well-executed, extreme gore was right out of a Friday the 13th entry, and it’s all-too-real subject matter is played darkly funny ala Man Bites Dog. It is pulling from interesting places with an overtly 80’s aesthetic, and perhaps this allows the movie to escape being just another group of horned up, intoxicated young people getting mowed down. The premise alone negates that I suppose. But, there is a darkness to this movie that makes it stand out. Rather than have horrible violence befall our cast, they are asked to perpetrate the violence in question, with two of the characters really sinking their teeth into the whole affair. It’s good stuff, and I wish the movie did more with this. I can’t fault the movie for not filling things out, as it is very clearly going for a mean, lean, and visceral experience. But, the potential is there, especially with Tom and Beth. A longer run-time isn’t even necessary. The movie has this dark satirical voice, but not much in the way of anything to say. It doesn’t have to; 1980’s exploitation horror is a perfectly valid goal. It just might have had more to give, should they have chosen to go that direction. 

Speaking of the effects and gore though, they are pretty damn wonderful. The amount of practical blood spilled all over the locations and talent was surprising. There were several inventive set pieces that were genuinely gross. As I stated earlier, they also used different media formats to a pretty successful degree. One of the deaths in the film is shot on a GoPro from the victim’s perspective. It’s pretty upsetting and a really bold choice that pays off. These scenes feel like what the movie is trying its hardest to get right, and for the most part, it really does.

Conclusion

In a sea of low-budget horror films making attempts at flash, Game of Death stands out as one that succeeds in that respect. It falls into the genre pitfalls that have troubled many a party-gone-awry horror flick, but it also provides an underbelly of darkness and gore that is enticing. At the end of the day, it’s a lively, stylish, and lean horror movie that clocks in at 73 minutes. If you don’t have a weak stomach and an aversion to dark subject matter, you may want to give this movie a shot.