Sportkill

My reviews in IMDb usually follow a pattern: I begin with a brief summary of the plot and then I give my opinion about the movie. I have just seen this "Sportkill" and I confess that I have had troubles to write the summary of the plot, since there is no story, only pretexts for a sequence of sadism. The mortician Rachel (Donna Wood) is kidnapped and forced to participate in a sick contest against other victims for her own survival in a private club hosted by Ivan (David C. Hayes) for an audience of gamblers that bet high stakes. Each player that denies participating in the sick game shall choose between the wooden structure, meaning to be buried alive; or The Assassin, meaning to be murdered by a killer.

The shameful and gruesome "Sportkill" is a total crap: there is no story, the characters are not developed and the acting is awful, associated to an amateurish camera, terrible lighting and cinematography and an annoying soundtrack. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Sportkill, O Clube da Morte" ("Sportkill, the Death Club")

What the heck... the only thing "Sportkill" has going is that it could surf the "torture porn" wave. Basically thats what the movie revolves around in the center... a sadistic club of rich guys who abduct people and make them kill each other. If they don't they get killed by a fat guy with a latex mask.

The movie doesn't even make a hassle to get to the hows and wheres. You see a female mortician working, then abducted, then being "dressed up" by a strange hillbilly and off we go to the happy killing fun where guys have to drink their girlfriends blood, people have to stab and amputate and if they don't they end up in the "labyrinth of horror" which is basically just a set of wood boxes.

What do you get... paper thin plot, ridiculous acting, little gore that is even funny (I laughed when a chick gets sown in half, then has her friend come in to kill her by choking her while her lower body is missing. The effect was really bad) and a mix of kills or a "Haze"-style claustrophobia in the "labyrinth of horror" which is neither claustrophobic nor creepy, just plain silly.

Basically this is what you get when one person does directing, editing and score. The soundtrack is just a series of low synthie noises appearing all throughout the movie. Like the movie itself there are now ups and downs, no dynamic, no development and even when the finale could have had something to it Mr. Producer spoils it with real bad editing. This movie makes no sense whatsoever, so better ignore it.

Like others have complained stories pretty thin. I really enjoyed the practical effects (for low budget), some of the scenes had really good suspenseful moments and David C. Hayes really made the film. the only part of the movie I personally didn't like was the ending.

I found this stinker at a horror convention. But by seeing that it was made in 2007 and had almost none reviews you know immediately that there is something wrong.

Overall, it delivers on the gory parts and even on the red stuff but it fails completely storywise. Nothing is explained, you just don't know who the viewers are and why they play the game 'sport kills'. How the victims are chosen isn't explained either but at the end you see Rachel going to play the game again but then it suddenly stops. Again you are left with so many questions.

The best acting was for me David C. Hayes. The rest was all mediocre, the Assassin was believable too but the others failed. To end, not good on story but it deliver once they are playing the game.

Gore 3/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5