Director: Sebastien Landry, Laurence Morais-Lagace
Writer: Sebastien Landry, Laurence Morais-Lagace, Edouard H Bond, Philip Kalin-Hajdu (Screenplay)
Starring: Sam Earle, Victoria Diamond, Emelia Hellman, Catherine Saindon, Erniel Baez, Nick Serino
Plot: Kill or be killed is the golden rule of the Game of Death. Sucks for seven millennials who ignored that rule. Now each one’s head will explode unless they kill someone. Will they turn on each other to survive, or will this sunny day be the last for the innocent people of their middle-of-nowhere town?
Tagline – Game of Death, it’ll blow your mind
Runtime: 1 Hour 13 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Game of Death starts as we meet the seven millennial stoners, Tom (Earle), Beth (Diamond), Ashley (Hellman), Mary-Ann (Saindon), Tyler (Baez), Kenny (Serino) and Matthew (Vallieres) who are involved in their latest party of drug filled fun. The friends find a board game, called The Game of Death and decide to play it.
The game requires the players to kill to make the counter of 24 down to zero, or the players will be executed, when the friends don’t look to commit the murders, they start to learn the consequences, when their heads start to explode, leading to Tom going on a killing spree.
Thoughts on Game of Death
Characters – Tom is the one that takes control of the situation, he doesn’t hold back to try and save the woman he loves, he will kill anyone to make sure the numbers on the game decrease and they can be together. Beth follows Tom in completing the kills, even if she doesn’t want to be the one to pull the trigger, until she starts seeing the friends die. Ashley and Tyler look to become the voice of reasons during everything, only killing if they are about to be the ones killed, looking to stop the violence when it isn’t needed. With these being the main group of friends, they whole group doesn’t seem overly redeemable or interesting.
Performances – The performances in the film are mixed with Sam Earle hitting the psychotic level easily, while Victoria Diamond and Emelia Hellman branching on to both sides of the characters mindsets. Nobody becomes truly great, but they do end up letting us see just how far they will make their characters go.
Story – The story here follows seven friends who think they are playing a simple board game only for it to turn into a game that requires them to go on a killing spree or be killed by the game. This does show us how the young people will need to make a difficult decisions about survival, when they get caught up in the game of death, will they pull the trigger on a stranger or accept the fate which is coming towards them. It does have style to how the kills play out, with the number getting cruised over during one animated sequence.
Horror – The horror comes from first seeing what will happen to the friends if they don’t complete the kills, along with how they start completing the kills.
Settings – The film starts in what would be a normal family home for a party, before going to a location which would make sense if you were thrown into this game.
Special Effects – The effects do look very good, with the head explosions being the standout moments in the film.
Scene of the Movie – The first head explosion, that comes from nowhere.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Glosses over certain parts of the kills.
Final Thoughts – Game of Death is a stylish horror that makes Jumanji look like a children’s game.
Game of Death will be available on Digital Download from 26th November and can be bought here
