Game of Death

When you read the synopsis, you know you're not getting A Grade horror.

It was entertaining, lots of blood, funny in parts and bust strange. I still don't get the wierd make out scene between brother and sister - I literally had to rewind the movie and watch the beginning again in case I was wrong about them being related... I was not.

Anyway, if you have time to kill definitely watch it. Teenagers are idiots.

Medicore film of obnoxious teens who find a game and then have to kill people or else they die. Tries to bring some ethical and moral aspects to the situation, but given the plastic and superficial nature of the characters, the moral aspects of the film fall flat. Excessive gore in the beginning, sexual behavior that is pointless, and then other odd elements that bring nothing to the script. Ho hum.

If you've seen the trailer or read the synopsis, it should already be pretty obvious why this movie is inherently bad. The premise, while somewhat original, is preposterous, the lines and performances are frequently cringe worthy, and its overall vibe is just dumb. However, it does look surprisingly good given an obvious low budget, and it manages to walk a fine between not taking itself too seriously and intentionally being bad. Overall, it just feels like a bunch of kids got together and had a great time pouring fake blood on each other, and if you have an appreciation for a gratuitous bloodbath, it's not impossible to enjoy that on some level.

Interesting premise and I liked the retro design of the game itself, but they just didn't have the budget or the writing to pull this off effectively. The characters are painfully unlikable in the beginning, but get more tolerable once the story actually starts. There are some acceptable effects occasionally, but nothing particularly noteworthy.

Mostly it just seems like they didn't know what to do past the premise. It gets repetitive, starts to drag on, and really falls apart at the end. I've seen much, much worse, and I don't think this is so bad that I'd say "avoid it at all costs", but I wouldn't recommend that anyone go out of their way to see it either. It's a 4 or 5 out of 10 at best.

Also, you'd think at least one person involved in this production would have known that shotguns don't shoot rifle bullets. Who the hell doesn't know how shotguns work??

Make no mistake, the plot for "Game of Death" is nonsensical, implausible and even downright imbecilic. On the other hand, it's also the most original, refreshing and straightforwardly efficient plot for a gory horror flick that I've seen in a few years. Lately, I admit, I've been whining and complaining that practically all gritty/gory horror films nowadays are about repulsive cannibalistic & inbred families entrapping a bunch of wayward teenagers and submitting them to extreme torture. The idea behind "Game of Death" is refreshingly different and I feel obliged to give it some extra appreciation for that reason. The style and vision of the directors' duo (Sebastien Landry and Laurence Morais-Lagace) is also very energetic and tinsel, with flashy opening credits and entire sequences/montages that look like footage from a typically 80s video game. The film starts with a group of young Millennial teenagers doing their thing: drinking by the pool and surrendering to their hormonal lusts. They stumble upon a seemingly harmless and vintage board game called "Game of Death" and naturally don't resist to play. After "donating" drops of their own blood via the finger, the game determines that they must murder 24 people, or else they'll die themselves. Obviously they laugh away the concept at first, but things get dead serious when heads start exploding out of the blue. The script doesn't bother to explain, so I won't either, but somehow the game registers the murders they are committing and counts down until the next head-explosion. Some members of the group turn into psychopaths with brutal survival instinct, whereas others become philosophical martyrs. I've read about comparisons between this film and "Scanners" or "Battle Royale", but that's only because heads are exploding. The simple truth is that "Game of Death" is a fun & undemanding stand-alone horror quickie. The film is extremely gore, with lots of fake blood and mediocre CGI-effects, fast-paced and blackly comical. The girls look yummy and the whole thing is finished after barely 75 minutes, what could you possibly expect more from a silly B-movie?