Louisa Warren, the hardest working woman in modern British horror (16 feature films and counting) gives a low-budget, horror themed spin on Ready Player One (with an eye on the recent Jumanji movies too) with Virtual Death Match, in which several down on their luck peeps enter into a virtual reality world. There -for the delectation of a bunch of jaded, champagne drinking, eurotrash types- they fight against evil nuns, killer scarecrows (Warren really, really loves her killer scarecrows), and a psycho mime and chainsaw wielding clown double act (the latter played by Warren herself). Virtual Death Match (or Virtual Death Day, as the version I saw was called) captures Warren at her most silliest and liveliest. Despite this being one of Warren's longest films- nearly two hours- it is positively hyperactive by her standards, with few dull spots. On the down side the over reliance on CGI gore brings things down a few notches, and hopefully won't become a regular trend in her films, but Warren does demonstrate a far greater flair for action scenes here, which has been a weak spot in some of her earlier films. Characters who initially come across as one dimensional and grating, become surprisingly more endearing, human and understandable as the film progresses, especially when their motives for competing in the death match are revealed. As the venal, back stabbing VR player, Richard Myers makes for a great scumbag though. Tiffany-Ellen Robinson is cute and adorable, and wins your sympathy for the leather boots they've outfitted her in alone, which are clearly causing her problems in all those running around scenes, even Kate Milner Evans' wonky American accent and face pulling are starting to become amusing. Virtual Death Match also gives a feisty, asskicking lead role to Sarah T Cohen, who Brit horror wise has been really knocking it out of the park recently with standout roles in Cupid and Clowndoll/Joker Clown. Maybe on account of this and the upcoming HellKat (in which she plays a character who descends into hell to battle werewolves and demons in MMA matches) she'll become Nu-Brit horror's answer to Gina Carano. If you watch many of the recent British horror films, you'll propably be familiar with Sarah T Cohen, but this is the first film I've seen to show her off in an action heroine capacity, something which I guess will continue over into HellKat, and something she does appear to have a flair for, although if you've only seen her in non-action roles, like playing a pregnant lady in Clowndoll, it does take you aback to see her fighting with nuns here..these are evil nuns...but I suppose nuns being violently beaten up is itself something you don't see in movies everyday. Incidentally the T in Sarah T Cohen apparently stands for Topchik, which does crack me up, I know that technically it's spelt TOPCHIK but on the basis of this and the HellKat trailer she more than earns the name Top Chick.
