GAME OF DEATH (2017)

Studio:       Cleopatra Entertainment
Director:    Sebastien Landry, Laurence Baz Morais
Writer:       Sebastien Landry, Laurence Baz Morais, Edouard Bond
Producer:  Pierre-Alexandre Bouchard, Mathias Bernard, Philip Kalin-Hajdu
Stars:     Sam Earle, Victoria Diamond, Emelia Hellman, Catherine Saindon, Erniel Baez D, Nick Serino, Thomas Vallieres

Review Score:

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Summary:

A cursed board game forces seven teenagers to commit 24 murders with the penalty that their heads will explode if they don’t.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Episode 1 – After a sexually-charged day of partying together, teenagers Tom, Tom’s sister Beth, Ashley, Ashley’s boyfriend Matt, Kenny, Mary-Ann, and their pizza deliveryman friend Tyler find a board game called ‘Game of Death’ and decide to play.

Episode 2 – The seven friends put their index fingers on plastic skulls circling the game board. The game unexpectedly pierces everyone’s fingers and funnels their blood into the board. The game sets its counter to the number 24 and the instructions tell everyone that they must kill that many people. If they do not kill anyone during each countdown period, the game will execute a player. The game ends when the counter reaches zero or all of the players die. The friends assume the game is a joke until Matt’s head suddenly explodes a short time later.

Episode 3 – Thinking that the man might be responsible for Matt’s death, Tom pulls a handgun on a sleazy neighbor who comes over to check on the commotion. Kenny’s head suddenly begins ballooning and explodes, leading Tom to believe the game is real. Tyler tries destroying the game, but only breaks a baseball bat. Tom shoots the neighbor and the game’s counter decreases by one, confirming that the game is real. Beth grabs the game and the group flees the house in Tyler’s delivery car.

Episode 4 – Tom tries convincing everyone that they need to kill 21 more people to survive. The others counter that the idea is insane. Tom puts his gun to Tyler’s head and forces him to run over a jogger. Tom tries to have Beth shoot a second jogger, but Tom does it for her when Beth cannot pull the trigger.

Episode 5 – Park ranger Marilyn finds Tom, Beth, Tyler, and Ashley covered in blood by the side of the road while Mary-Ann remains in their car with the game board. While stalling the confrontation with Marilyn, Mary-Ann’s head suddenly explodes, prompting Marilyn to draw her shotgun. Tom puts his gun to Ashley’s head in order to get back to the car and escape with Beth. Since they refuse to participate in more murders, Tom leaves Tyler and Ashley held at gunpoint by Marilyn.

Episode 6 – On the roadside, Tyler’s head begins ballooning. Ashley reluctantly grabs a crowbar and clubs Marilyn to death to save Tyler. Afterward, Ashley concludes that killing is not in their nature, deciding that they must stop Tom and Beth, as all four of them have to die to save other lives. They take the ranger’s vehicle to go after Tom and Beth. Meanwhile, Tom and Beth conclude that they should kill terminally ill people about to die anyway and head to a Palliative Care Center.

Episode 7 – After making out by their car, Tom and Beth head inside the hospital and go on a killing spree until the game’s counter ticks down to three. Tyler and Ashley arrive to find the facility turned into a massacre site.

Episode 8 – Ashley has Nurse Olivia call the police. Beth hesitates while preparing to shoot a little girl named Samantha. Ashley interrupts with Marilyn’s shotgun, confronts Beth, and shoots her in the head before Beth can kill the little girl. Tom has a breakdown when he finds Beth’s body. Tyler confronts Tom and the two of them fight until Tyler kills Tom by puncturing Tom’s throat with his thumbs. With the counter down to one, Ashley muses about what death means before ultimately shooting and killing Tyler. Ashley wins the game. Cops swarm the hallway and take Ashley into custody. At the police station that Christmas, an officer acting as Santa gives out gifts of old evidence. Officer Crampton receives the Game of Death and asks if anyone wants to play.

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Review:

“Game of Death” is immediately alienating.  The film’s first line comes from sunbathing teen Beth in big sunglasses sending her brother the video message, “hey bro, Ashley wants to f*ck you, get the f*ck over here.”  Cut to Beth’s brother Tom buck naked, masturbating on his bed.

Then it’s back poolside as Ashley finishes up her round of ‘F*ck, Marry, Kill’ by telling Mary-Ann she’d marry Kenny.  Kenny, a skinny white kid with enough gold chains on his neck to rival any rapper, introduces himself with a hand puppet who says, “I smoke crack.  I’m metro with the homeless people.”

Matt is pissed when his new tattoo gets wets in the pool, though the inconvenience is inconsequential after Matt tells Ashley, “sit on my face” and she does.  In the meantime, pizza delivery boy Tyler shows up with a tackle box full of drugs while a perverted neighbor watering his lawn puts a finger on either side of his lips and flicks his tongue in Beth’s direction.

I can’t come up with a concrete conclusion as to what directors Sebastien Landry and Laurence Baz Morais intend to establish with this millennial madness, which culminates in Beth giving her brother Tom a seductive lap dance.  Maybe this sleazy septet is supposed to be seen as an insufferable circle late on payment for the crimes of privilege and ennui, in which case their mission is more than accomplished.

It’s too bad the movie, an eight-episode digital series cut into a breezy 70-minute feature, spends nine of those minutes having irritating introductions taint the first bite with a bad taste.  Because once “Game of Death” finally gets its premise off the ground, it turns into a wickedly gruesome ride that is miles more entertaining than its obnoxious opening.

Under a pile of old toys in a closet, the seven friends find a dusty board game and decide to play.  Each person places a finger on one of eight skulls around the ‘Game of Death’ board and they are unexpectedly pricked.  Blood collects somewhere in the center as Matt reads instructions aloud.  The players have committed to killing 24 people.  If a countdown expires without a murder, one of them dies.  The game can only end if all seven of them are executed or the counter reaches zero.

Everyone thinks the “kill or be killed” claim is a crock until one of their heads suddenly explodes.  The timer resets and it isn’t much longer before a second player’s skull balloons and blows.  Now the group realizes ‘Game of Death’ is the real deal and they must decide what they are willing to do to survive.

The film’s official synopsis describes it as “Jumanji” meets “Natural Born Killers.”  I’ll second that while adding “Game of Death” is reminiscent of “Beyond the Gates” (review here) mixed with the absurdist bloodletting of “Turbo Kid” (review here) and then given an irreverent makeover with an arthouse crime thriller tone.

“Game of Death” tries hard to have an artful edge.  Its cinematographer goes by ‘SPG.’  Its editor is credited as ‘OG.’  Production design decorates sets with vintage VHS tapes, retro game consoles, and Trivial Pursuit boxes, even though establishing a specific era doesn’t appear to be on the agenda.  All of this effort to fabricate style is largely overshot when the setup and crazy death FX amp up atmosphere organically.

“Game of Death’s” signature is its outrageous gore.  After the first head explodes, characters are covered in crimson through the end credits and insanity only increases from there.

Much of the movie is played straight, with the teens existing in a slightly sideways reality.  The young actors embody caricature personalities, but that’s the only thing making them funny in and of themselves.  Other than a park ranger providing comic relief, and inherent silliness of certain situations, the people aren’t really presented for overt laughs, which purposefully positions exaggerated explosions of suddenly bursting bodies to play as blackly comic shocks.

Seven out of ten stars errs on the generous side of scoring for a movie that doesn’t hit a consistent vibe, is largely juvenile, and often appears rough around the edges.  Yet after an awkward start, enough of the shock entertainment spirit bubbles up for a fun factor in keeping with “Game of Death’s” drunken midnight movie aesthetic.  The film might not be technically impressive, aside from its juiced effects of course, but its unapologetic attitude about extreme gore takes a walk on the wild side that satisfies in a slightly sick way.

Review Score:  70

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