All Fun and Games

When I sat down to watch the 2023 horror movie "All Fun and Games" here in 2024, I had never actually heard about it. But I was drawn to it, given its cover. And of course with it being a horror movie that I hadn't seen, then I would take the time to sit down and watch it.

Writers J. J. Braider, Eren Celeboglu add Ari Costa put together a fair enough script. It certainly was an entertaining enough movie, though I have to say that it wasn't really a script that brought much of anything new to the horror genre. Now, that doesn't make "All Fun and Games" a poor movie, far from it, but it just was contents that has been seen and done before in other movies. But I will say that "All Fun and Games" was entertaining enough for what it turned out to be.

Of the entire cast ensemble in the movie, I was only familiar with actress Annabeth Gish. It should be noted, however, that the acting performances in the movie were good. And they did have a great cast ensemble put together for the various roles and characters.

The effects in the movie are fairly good. It wasn't a movie that relied heavily on special effects though, for better or worse. So you're not in for 76 minutes of extraordinary special effects galore, if that is your thing.

While "All Fun and Games" was a watchable movie, it is hardly a movie that I will return to watch a second time. I will say, though, that the movie is worth sitting down and watching if you are a hardcore horror fan.

My rating of "All Fun and Games" lands on a five out of ten stars.

On paper, All fun and Games has what should make up a good horror film; a cast of young rising star actors, a setting seeped with supernatural history and an interesting curse. However it ultimately falls flat.

The whole length of the film is only an hour and 15 minutes, barely constituting an actual film. The characters are introduced in a quick narration that basically should have been the opening 15 minutes if it hadn't been rushed. The dialogue from the possessed individuals is more silly than terrifying and the whole "I will play, I won't quit" doesn't really sound like something they'd say in the 1600s.

Trying to fit the kills into the form of some disturbed games just takes away their potential to be violent or original. It also binds the evil spirit in rules that are ultimately completely ridiculous. The only reason it's even getting a 3/10 is because I like the cast and this was not exactly their best work.

Rather boring and predictable. I suppose it's worth a watch if you're really bored and can't find anything else to watch. Not much else to say other than that.. Around 3/4 in I was ready to switch it off and find something else to watch but figured I've gotten this far so I might as well watch the rest. Pretty difficult nowadays to find good horror movies so I guess I'm not surprised. Too bad though I think this could have been a much better movie if it had been given a little more effort. It feels kind of rushed and more like a goosebumps episode designed for teenagers rather than an actual horror movie.

In Salem Massachusetts, Siblings Billie (Natalia Dyer), Marcus (Asa Butterfield), and Jo (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) spend the night together as their mother works a night shift in the wake of their father having left their family. Jo finds a strange knife and journal in a ruined house as if it was beckoning him, and after clearing it off to reveal an inscription a sinister force takes hold of Jo who insists others play variations of children's games with deadly consequences.

All Fun and Games comes to us from producers the Russo Brothers through their company Gozie AGBO which co-produces the film with British company Anton (behind last years Choose or Die). The film is the feature debut for writing and directing duo Ari Costa and Eren Celeboglu following a handful of short films between the two of them and Costa having worked under the Russos in various capacities including Second Unit work on Avengers: Endgame and Extraction. All Fun and Games seems like it's the kind of horror film that serves as a small scale showcase of what relatively first time filmmakers can do, and unfortunately as a showcase it's not all that impressive and fails to elevate the rather underwhelming material.

All Fun and Games from the opening which has a flashforward to events at the end of the film has the feeling of something that might've been pared down from what it was initially supposed to be, especially since Natalia Dyer's character Billie feels like she's kind of been wedged into this forced narrator position that just feels really awkward and the movie runs at only about 69 minutes not including credits. While I can't say for certain, All Fun and Games has all the signs of a troubled production down to even Keith David having been announced as having a role in the film but does not appear in the final product. The actual material is very standard "cursed object" fare much in the same way as Anton's Choose or Die used the same format (and Asa Butterfiled) last year, but where Curse or Die wound up being in my opinion bad in a funny way, All Fun and Games is just bad in a unremarkable and tired way. The movie features a large number of flashy edits that call attention to themselves as well as jump scares involving screaming and "in your face laughing" which is when it hit me that the movie feels like a revisit to that late 90s early 2000s era of horror filmmaking with stuff like Feardotcom, Soul Survivors, or Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows that eschewed building horror or atmosphere in favor of aggressive editing that executives thought would cater to the "MTV Generation", so in a way All Fun and Games was a little like visiting an old friend (only to remember why you lost that friend's number in the first place). Most of the actors do what they can with the material, but there's so little to the very stock roles their given that there's very little any of them can do. Asa Butterfield unfortunately has to spend a good chunk of the runtime being the main antagonist and the voice he's been directed to do feels like he's doing a bad impression of Brad Dourif by way of Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance but at least it's more dignified than we he had to regurgitate Betamax tape in Choose or Die. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that Butterfield probably shouldn't make any more horror films with Anton.

All Fun and Games is a turgid and generic horror film that isn't scary or interesting in the slightest and feels like the kind of generic product that'll be destined to take up the back corners of streaming services alongside other mediocre and substandard horror offerings you've already forgotten about. If you must seen an Anton produced horror movie, just watch Choose or Die because at least it's unintentionally funny.

This movie makes me ask one question: HOW? How are the Russo Brothers - respectable filmmakers- Executive Producers on this dud? How did someone get Natalie Dyer, Asa Butterfield, AND Annabeth Gish to sign on to this lame project? How did a script this bad ever get greenlit? How did it somehow gross over a million dollars globally when it should have never been anywhere near a theater? We will never know the answers to these questions. What we DO know is this is a first rate turd of a movie with zero redeeming qualities other than it is mercifully short. Even the sound stinks in this trash. Stay away.