Kill Game

You know the saying "What goes around, comes around" ? That really applies to seven friends who graduated together and share a terrible secret with each other. Until the group of friends slowly starts to shrink, because they are murdered one by one. Now, when hearing the stories of these annoying bullies, you're inclined to think they had it coming. Because the tricks they played upon their fellow students (and even teachers), wasn't something to be taken lightly. Those jokes were so radical, a fellow student got killed. And now there appears to be someone who wants to take revenge on this gang of clowns. And the way they are killed, is linked to a particular joke they've pulled.

"Kill Game" isn't an unbelievable good horror. But it tries to honour the traditions of the better hacker / slasher films from the 70s (for instance "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th"). So this means that a group of stupid and arrogant teenagers is gathered again to serve as cattle for slaughter. And the mysterious serial killer wears a grim mask, of course. In this case, it's a Marilyn Monroe mask. Also a list of all candidate murderers is needed. This list may turn out to be exceptionally long. After counting all fellow students and teachers who were victims of a malicious prank, you'll get a significant number of candidates. And as a highlight, the twin brother of the poor devil who didn't survive a joke appears.

But beyond these few similarities with older slasher films, this is a film that effortlessly will sink into oblivion. Anyhow, the lousy acting (inherent to this kind of films) and the not so original story-line are also present. What remains is a typical game of guessing who's the perpetrator, what's the motive and who'll eventually survive. And there's also someone whose profile complies with the characteristics of the perpetrator. Obviously that's a wrong assumption. How surprising! Indeed, a stack of known clichés. The only thing that remains is how the victims were killed. So, it isn't exactly breathtaking cinema. The only thing I've learned out of this movie, is that it isn't very smart to bully others.

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Loved the idea for 'Kill Game', which for recent modest to low budget film viewings was one that was really quite creative. Executed right, 'Kill Game' had potential to be quite decent. The cover/poster/advertising was attention grabbing and does make one want to see the film. Really admire any film that includes and tackles the topical subject of bullying, an everyday issue that's far too frequent and nowhere near enough is done to stop it.

'Kill Game' could have done so much more with such a great concept and is not necessarily a great film, or even particularly good. There are a fair few problematic elements here, including deciding early on whether to continue watching. That said, it is watchable enough, just about worth sticking with and the potential is not completely wasted. There are plus points, and fortunately in 'Fear Clinic's' case those plus points are quite big. It's all been summed up very well, so don't have an awful lot to add other than my own (fairly similar) thoughts.

Starting with the plus points, the acting is better than average and in the lead cast quite good. The secondary parts are a little ropy sure but even then it could have been far worse.

Mostly, 'Kill Game' looks reasonable, it's atmospherically shot and the effects for the budget were much better than expected, not incredible but not amateurish.

It does handle the bullying angle with intelligence and in a way that's easy to identify with. 'Kill Game' starts off really well, where one can see where what happens for much of the film originates from and why it happens. There is suspense and creepiness here and there and the sound isn't too obvious or intrusive.

However, it has been said that 'Kill Game' was primarily let down by the script. Have to completely agree with this. It doesn't flow enough, can be cheesy and lacks tautness. Worse is that it does try to do far too much with far too many elements and not doing enough with any of them. A shame, because there were some great ideas here.

A problem that also badly affects the story, which becomes muddled and confusing from jumping from one thing to the next with little refinement or proper exploration. There are pacing problems in the middle act and from the halfway point onwards, parts are rushed and it also feels like too much is being stretched to sustain the overlong running time, some of it not needed.

Much of the second half is ridiculous and weird, again because of the lack of clarity in the story and over-ambition of the script. The finesse also goes and it becomes cheap visually, the surgery sequence looks awful. The twists and turns mostly are obvious and don't make sense, the red herrings just convolute the story even more and the identity of the killer and motivation didn't really surprise all that much. The film gets unintentionally silly in the third act, where the tension and suspense captured well in the first half dissipates, and it all becomes far too coincidental and over-convenient.

Concluding, a great concept and some good elements but suffers from too cooks spoil the under-seasoned broth. 5/10 Bethany Cox

So good idea, some truly gross scenes, but the movie falls short in the mystery department. The plot doesn't come together well. Acting is meager. Production is okay. Nothing special. Could have been much more, but I'm guessing budgetary concerns left much to be imagined.

A graduating class decides to prank a classmate at the beach which ends up in tragedy. What really happened is covered up. Sometime later the classmates are starting to die one by one. Who knows what they did last summer and who is going to die next? As you can guess this has been done a few times before but what is a little different is a creepy Marilyn Monroe mask and personally catered deaths. The way you died reflected what you did.

It wasn't gory but a couple of scenes had you cringing. The effects were pretty good but the cast however was awful. What was well done was you were always wondering who was under the mask. You think you knew who it was but then alas.

I was amazed at how awful these kids were to everybody. You here all the cruel jokes they played on people as they try and figure out who it might be which makes you feel no remorse for them(You also wonder why they aren't dead already).

A couple of cool scenes is all you get in this one. It just feels like a been there done that kind of film. Avoid this one or maybe just watch the last 6 minutes.

I want to know who that man behind the mysterious mask is. I didn't understand the outcome of the movie. Who's the one who killed that person returned?