The Game

This is one strange hacked together film, you get the feeling that the bond company had to come in on this one, I'm not surprised there's no credits on it, who would want to be associated with this film. The Acting of all involved is terribly stilted and the plot jumps around all over, it all makes very little sense. As I said before it looks like the bond company had to come in because it seems like there was alot of footage that wasn't shot that needed to be, and all the music was very ill-fitting library music (cheap I guess). Very, very odd. I might actually buy a DVD of it though, if it could let me in on what the hell was going on, and what happened to this movie.

Three bored millionaires gather nine people in an old mansion, and give them a proposition--if they can meet and conquer their biggest fears, they'll get one million dollars in cash.

All the reviews are correct -- this is one weirdo movie.

It's sort of like House on the Haunted Hill in terms of plot. But it's even weirder. The first whacko scene is a girl swimming in a chlorine filled fresh water indoor pool and what appears to be a shark starts following her!!!!! Only it looks as rubber as can be.

Crazy, right?

This movie was made on the cheap. The sound echos through out. It's very disjointed cutting from a whirlpool scene for example to some hippie singing combo. Many scenes don't even look like they are filmed in the same house or even the same location! And some of it appears to have been filmed at a cheapo hotel!!

There's one scene where a guy says he can't flush the toilet and suddenly the music goes all creepy for no reason whatsoever.

The movie is so bloody strange that I wish there was more information about it available. I'm not even sure the same actors are in it throughout!!! That's how bizarre it is.

There's also a girl in it who very strongly resembles Sarah Holcolmb who was Maggie in Caddyshack and then disappeared off the face of the earth!

Look for the guy in the sauna with the woody! It's that weird a movie. I also am pretty sure there is a former porn star or two cast in it. No nudity. Just a couple babes in bra and panties here and there.

And then there are the scenes peppered with silent movie music...why?

I was really hoping this movie would be bad-good but alas, I can't recommend it. It doesn't cross the line into camp. It's just weird.

A real head scratcher of a film by Bill Rebane who appeared to be getting worse in his trade throughout the eighties. Three crackpot millionaires invite nine people to a remote hotel to compete in a last person standing contest in which the final contestant will be given $1 million provided he or she makes it that far. A series of lame pranks are pulled on some of the guests while the others engage in what most adults would do under the circumstances namely get shatfaced at the hotel bar. Most scenes are merely an excuse to focus the camera on various female body parts including an opening dance number that is a crossover of American Bandstand meets geriatric aerobics complete with hookers. If there was any hesitation that white people can't dance this scene hammers the final nail in that coffin. Pay close attention for the nipple slip. This continues on for about forty-five minutes until Bill Rebane begins throwing darts at various plot twists and whatever he hits becomes the inspiration for the next scene making this one incoherent mess. It's a game until it's not a game. The three old coots are in complete control until they're not. The hotel is possessed by a supernatural force until it becomes just props. They're dead until they're not. Even the narrator at the end replies that he doesn't know what the hell happened. I defy anyone to reason where Rebane was going on this one. The acting is dinner theater caliber minus the dinner. Most of the actors probably went back to their day jobs at the local Stuckey's. I give it a few points for the scene where the yuppie broad opens the closet and a skeleton is inside skull humping himself. Let's see Gone With the Wind do that! This Chilling Classics collection is really becoming the bane of me. Bane, Get it! Like Rebane! I hate myself.

Well this was certainly a weird little film. Very low budget, very bad actors, very 80's...very strange!

The plot is basically just a confusing rehash of House on Haunted Hill. 3 eccentric millionaires invite a group of people to stay at their mansion to face their greatest fears. The last one gets a million dollars. Pretty straight forward, but they still manage to make it a jumbled, confusing mess. At one point near the end, the narrator even admits he doesn't have a clue what's happening!

The actors are exactly what you'd expect to see in a low budget 80's horror flick, which is to say that they couldn't act their way out of a wet paper bag. They do have some amusing lines, including the best pick-up line ever "I had a vasectomy!".

Really though, this isn't an awful film considering. It's interesting to watch, because you really have no idea what's going to happen from one scene to the next. Really odd and poorly made film, but still entertaining in it's own way.

5.5/10

Wow. What a lonely page. It seems to me like nobody has seen this stinker. Well, I suppose I should say something, after all, the great Bill Rebane put so much work into this, it would be a shame to not raise my hand and say, "Yes, I am a loser who will rent anything with a bloody woman on the box cover."

Nine characters (Geez, that's a lot now that I think about it) are invited to a mansion where three screwloose millionares run a game involving deep fears, with a prize of 1,000,000 dollars.

There's actually a strange similarity between this concept and the current reality-TV boom, but beyond that The Game is pieced together hackwork, although it is admittedly better than some or Rebane's other films such as The Giant Spider Invasion (which I suppose one could enjoy as a lark) or Invasion from Inner Earth (where red light represented alien life). The Game still has that feel of the producers just making a movie tailored to fit whatever props and settings they had at their disposal. Which in the case of this film, would include a cabin, the live rig from some motel lounge band, a prop gun, a card table, and a monster hand puppet.

During the last fifteen minutes the "plot" gives way entirely, and the whole thing almost turns freeform, with the folksy narrator admitting that even he doesn't know what's going on. To prevent being deluged by letters and E-mail from millions of fans about the meaning of it all, the movie concludes with no end credits. But hey, at least the movie ended.