Tag: The Assassination Game

The first thing I notice when I watch "TAG" is that the film seems to have been made on TV tape....it has that feel. Sound and lighting are basic, and it's clear from the outset that this movie was made on a shoestring budget.

It is the acting that brings this film through. Linda Hamilton studied Lauren Bacall very closely, and makes a credible run at a "To Have and Have Not" moment, and Robert Carradine hams it up as a budding ace reporter. Bruce Abbott is darkly psychotic as the bad guy. Hard to believe that Linda married this guy!

Worth a look at least once, if you can find it.

Considering that every bad 80's slasher movie ever made seems to have a cult following these days (including, God help us all, the Sleepaway Camp trilogy), I find it highly ironic that a well-made, suspenseful, and entertaining film like this is now virtually forgotten. TAG has a great premise. It has some great b-movie talent including Robert Carradine, Bruce Abbot, erstwhile porn starlet Kristine DeBell, and a young Linda Hamilton. It was even directed by Nick Kastle, the man who played the Shape in the original Halloween. The problem with this movie, no doubt, was that, much like the original Halloween, it contained little blood and gore. After Friday the 13th in 1980 this was just not permissible (Halloween itself probably would have sunk like a stone had it been released five years later). So this great little movie is forgotten today while pointless dreck like Sleepaway Camp lingers like an unflushed turd in a poorly ventilated bathroom. There's just no justice in the world.

At a college campus the latest craze is a game where people are given targets to chase after with fake guns loaded with plastic darts. However, the reigning champion so upset over losing decides to use real bullets instead and continue on with the game. Fast paced film with an appealing cast and a fair amount of suspense, style and humor. Also proves tons of violence is not necessary to make a good horror / thriller.

Rated PG; Violence.

A group of students in college are playing a game called TAG:The Assassination Game with plastic dart guns.A college newspaper reporter played by Robert Carradine decides to write the story about TAG after one of the players beautiful Linda Hamilton hides out in his room.Gersh(Bruce Abbot)becomes angry after failing the game,so he starts to use gun with a real bullets and the hunt begins..."Tag:The Assassination Game" was directed by Nick Castle who played Michael Myers in John Carpenter's "Halloween".It's also worth checking out for fantastic actors including Linda Hamilton,Bruce Abbot,Robert Carradine,Xander Berkley,Michael Winslow and Forest Whitaker.The score is excellent,the pace is fast and there is a bit of violence but no gore and nudity.7 deadly dart guns out of 10.

OK, all one really needs to say is "This is a film about college kids shooting each other with rubber tipped dart guns." If you are looking into a movie with that premise for anything other than breezy entertainment, you need to raise your standards.

That being said, this is a pretty good film. Linda Hamilton, as another commenter said, was really honing her craft here, and many of the skills that she demonstrated in Terminator were beginning to be displayed. Her simultaneous edginess and softness with occasional sultry looks are well worth a view. Carradine is passable as a lead as a wannabe "front page", but like all the Carradines, not very memorable.

Finally, it is worth noting that Michael Winslow has some enjoyable scenes as a TAG contestant who entertains himself and others with his very commendable skills as a sound effects specialist. He would eventually go on to great fame in the Police Academy movies 2 years later.

Not much in the way of technical expertise displayed here by Nick Castle, who played the Shape in Halloween (though he probably had no budget to work with). Most enjoyable for me was the boom mike that appeared in a classroom scene above Linda Hamilton's head. This however was his first directing role, and it had moments of greatness in it that showed his potential.