Film Review: Paintball

About Paintball (2009) Low-budget horror. A team of eight adrenaline junkies applies to participate in the ultimate paintball game. On arrival they are blindfolded and taken deep into a remote forest, and the game begins. But the game soon plunges its players into the realms of nightmare as one team member is hit with a real bullet, and what began as a thrill-seeking sport becomes a desperate struggle for survival.

Starring: Brendan Mackey, Jennifer Matter, Neil Maskell

Directed by: Daniel Benmayor

Runtime: 87 minutes

Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO

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Review: Paintball

A group of action enthusiasts take part in a game of extreme paintball which begins with them, worryingly, blindfolded in the back of a truck before being released at an unspecified location. Their instructions are to make for a series of flags while keeping an eye out for a rival team. What should be a weekend of excitement soon turns into a nightmare when they realize they are being hunted by a lone soldier who isn’t firing paint but real bullets. Whenever the group reach a flag they find a box containing a different item but it is unclear at the start what these discoveries are for. Only later do they realize they are being given parts to a gun that will enable them to fight back.

The lone gunman that hunts our eight hapless enthusiasts isn’t content to just shoot them from afar. He prefers to wound and execute them in a series of brutal ways. The violence of these acts is minimised somewhat as our view of the atrocities are through the hunter’s eyes and he wears a pair of goggles to help him pick out his prey in all conditions, even at night. As the numbers are wilted down we have David (Brendan Mackey) who becomes something of a rogue, turning on his companions to aid his own survival, while Anna (Jennifer Matter) is one of the last survivors, seemingly weak to begin with but growing stronger as the weekend grows old. The question is why are they being hunted for real? Who is behind it? Does anyone survive?

The premise behind Paintball is quite interesting but after that the film falls apart quite badly. We have group of characters we never get to know so it’s hard to keep track of who is who and to be honest you won’t care that much. Even the narrative of David turning into a selfish bad ass disintegrates as quickly as it begins. The camera has trouble keeping up with the action at times and appears somewhat clumsy. I’ve never been paintballing but I imagine shouting and grumbling very loudly is not the way to avoid detection. Sadly this is what our group of would be soldiers resort to. I appreciate they’re scared at being hunted for real but surely silence would be more preferable. There is a development to the story in the latter stages and questions are answered but as the final credits appear you’ll feel sorry at the 90 minutes of life you have now lost.

Paintball had the potential to be good but the execution is poor. A group of uninteresting characters with no depth, a weak story and little in the way of drama make this one to forget. I’ve been in two minds about trying paintballing but if it’s as lousy an experience as this film is then I may choose to give it a miss.

Verdict: 1/5

(Film source: reviewer’s own copy)

About the Author:

I was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England and have always been a bookworm and enjoyed creative writing at school. In 1999 I created the Elencheran Chronicles and have been writing ever since. My first novel, Fezariu's Epiphany, was published in May 2011. When not writing I'm a lover of films, games, books and blogging. I now live in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, with my wife, Donna, and our six cats - Kain, Razz, Buggles, Charlie, Bilbo and Frodo.

David M. Brown – who has written 784 posts on Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave.

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