The 100 Candles Game (2020) User Reviews

Of Two Parts, Good & Bad.

[heratyplant · 5/10 · 23 January 2021]

A classic horror anthology, where people tell each other ghost stories.

The ghost stories themselves are pretty great, the cinematography is excellent & the performances are good, there's even a few surprising twists.

Where it falls down badly is the 100 Candles part itself, 4 people in a candle circle, telling the stories. This part makes no sense, the actors can't act & it's all just horribly wrong.

If you can ignore this part, the anthologies are worth the watch; if I'd made one of the ghost stories, I'd be pretty p*ssed to see what was supposedly holding it all together.

A Good Anthology, but a bit soulless.

[fatfil-414-451797 · 5/10 · 26 January 2021]

I don't mind the odd horror anthology, it's a bit of a lucky dip, but for the most part this one is okay. Some of the acting is questionable, particularly the 4 main characters, but sometimes it's hard to tell if it is the actor or the script. The sub stories are done fairly well, with pretty good acting throughout, and interesting storylines. There is no back story as to where they were, and why they were doing it, and the characters are fairly bland. But for some reason I can't put my finger on, the whole thing just seems a little soulless. Whether it is the lack of empathy with the main characters, or the, at times, clumsy story telling I don't know. Worth a watch if your not expecting too much.

I don't like to be the bait

[nogodnomasters · 5/10 · 27 June 2021]

Four friends get together and play the 100 candles game. In turn you must take one of the 100 lit candles, tell a scary story and then go into a dimly lit room with a mirror and look into it. The stories they tell make up an anthology within the story, The stories are short. Some are clever with a twist. The ending of the movie ties everything together although it wasn't as clever as I was hoping it would be because there was zero character development.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Yeah, this is an anthology to give a wide berth...

[paul_haakonsen · 2/10 · 3 April 2021]

Wow, even for a horror anthology "The 100 Candles Game" was dubious.

But I am getting ahead of myself here. First of all, as I sat down to watch the 2020 movie "The 100 Candles Game" I didn't know it was an anthology. Sure, I hadn't read the movie's synopsis, so I didn't know what I was in for here, aside from it being a horror movie of sorts that I hadn't already seen. And it being in the horror genre, of course caught my interest. And it was the movie's cover that caught my interest to begin with. Who knew that the cover turned out to be the best part about the movie experience?

Now, what doesn't work in "The 100 Candles Game" is the total lack of a coherent red thread throughout the course of the stories. Everything seems random, chaotic and just tossed into the fray to take up space and time. And it didn't help much that most of the story segments were questionable, boring or just laughable. And without a proper narrative or red thread to tie the individual segments together, this just turned annoying real quick.

The narratives in a fair amount of the segments were just not properly constructed, which made it feel like it was just a rushed project, and that the individual directors weren't collaborating on a unified anthology. Whereas one segment might actually be interesting and good, you would delve right off of the deep end and into something cringeworthy in the next segment.

The quality of the segments were just too varied to be enjoyable, and with the majority of the segments being either boring or pointless, it was weighing down the overall feel to the anthology.

It should be said, though, that some of the segments actually had fair and interesting special effects, which to some extend made it bearable to sit through those segments. But of course special effects can only do so much in the larger picture.

As for the acting performances in "The 100 Candles Game", well they were as varied as the qualities of the segments. Some performances were good and structured, while others were clumsy and staggering.

If you enjoy the horror genre and have an interest in horror anthologies, trust me when I say that there are far better anthologies out there. "The 100 Candles Game" is not really worth the time, money or effort.

My rating of "The 100 Candles Game" lands on a generous two out of ten stars. This was boxed bored wrapped up and presented as a horror anthology.

Horrible

[rawanshawky · 1/10 · 21 December 2020]

What the heck did i just watch!!! Horrible horrible movie

So boring

[daphleung · 3/10 · 27 April 2021]

If only saw the poster or title of the movie, audiences might associate it with (Host)and (Ouija), and might expect what supernatural effects happened with 100 candles. The movie was fair in the first 15 minutes only, like a detailed introduction of candles game, the setting of a group of friends who gathered in a circle of candlelight.

The theme of 100 candles game was good to surprise audiences, it came from Japan, which called Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai. In this movie, eight stories were told, and very disappointing. Some stories' settings were time-wasting and boring; some stories lacked for creative and scary ideas. To be honest, it was hard to make a good ending for telling one hundred of stories.

Woeful

[TomatoesareRotten · 1/10 · 4 February 2021]

Would be doing it a favour. If you last more than 10 minutes, I'd be surprised. The guy with the thick beard, at the start, is an actor ?

Wanted to leave the theatre right after the very first story ......

[mforme-75168 · 1/10 · 1 May 2021]

So boring, not scary at all.

The not understood some of the stories at all.

The ending was so predict.

Just some pretty good short stories in a row.

[Sir_watch_alot · 6/10 · 21 March 2021]

That's what this is. What dissapoints me, is that one of the stories, 'The Visitant (2014)', was also a short movie among others in 'Patient Seven (2016)'. If you make a movie like this, at least put original, newly made, shorts in your movie. Don't use existing ones. That's so cheap. Watch this for the shorts. The rest is just luggage.

disjointed

[amymay-69916 · 3/10 · 19 September 2023]

As it was an anthology,none of the stories connected to each other, aside from being a "horror" tale told, which is too loose a tie to make any cohesion. The ONLY two stories that were actually fully fleshed out were--ironically the one NOT in english --(my subtitles worked perfectly,so i knew what was going on. Apparently some others weren't so lucky,and were lost as to what was goung on). And even that had two giant plot holes--one being that all cell phones can dial 911--even defunct bricks from the 90's,and two--where was that "companion" the entire time?!? And the pregnant girl story. That one was really well acted with great effects. Too bad it ended up in thus dumpster fire of a movie,it's a real gem! And these friends?!? Russian goth hooker, mousy blonde, weirdo jersey boy hipster whose accent fades in and out and other russian guy,who also cannot maintain an accent. It has been stated in a more eloquent review that this movie could have been so much more, but the disjointed nature really took it's toll on my enjoyment. And final story was interesting,but all i ultimately came away with from this movie were 2.5 decent stories,and actors with failing accents.

Entertaining

[ddesbrow · 8/10 · 27 March 2021]

Loved it! Unique and entertaining. I was bummed I couldn't understand one of the tales which was all in Spanish, but for the most part each tale was exciting.

Better than expected

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 29 May 2021]

The game of 100 Candles has trapped a group of friends, who find themselves forced to tell one another horror stories in front of a magical mirror. One story must be shared for every candle and the group cant't leave until all of the candles have been extinguished. If they do, they will fall to a witch's curse.

100 Candles uses this storytelling engine to enter into the anthology conceit while taking content from several other shorts, including The Visitant, Blight, When Demons Die, Black Eyed Child and A Little Taste. No, there are not a hundred stories in this movie.

Of these stories, The VIsitant has the most star power, as it features Amy Smart (The Butterfly Effect, Road Trip) as a mother trying to protect her children from a demon played by Doug Jones. It was directed by Nicholas Peterson, who has made several music videos for bands like Bad Wolves, Sixx AM and Five Finger Death Punch.

Buried Alive has one of my most fearful themes. Obviously, it's being buried alive, but since this story is all in Spanish, it loses some of its power with Western audiences.

As usual with anthologies, not every story works, but those that do are pretty powerful. The framing sequence is well-filmed and sets things up quite well. Of the modern portmanteaus that have been released, this is one of the better I've seen.

Good shorts but bad wraps

[juliandroa · 4/10 · 10 January 2022]

The whole anthology is fine, many of the short stories are great but the red string that ties them together is weak and ridiculously bad, from the effects to the acting cast. Thumbs up for the cat, the best actor of them.

Plagiarism pure and simple.

[sicklittlebunny · 1/10 · 10 January 2023]

I watched Patient Seven last night so immediately recognised the story at 40:40 as being from that.

The connections for this compilation are the short films that were "edited"/used in their entirety to make this. Each of the stories told and shown in this film is taken from somewhere else and re-released as if it was original.

The stories themselves were a bit bit and miss, like the curator went through the horror film bargain bin and just threw together the first few they came to. The small part of this film that actually was almost original was so predictable it was boring. Basically, the characters are stolen too, they're lazily written stereotypes from every low budget horror film out there. They don't even have enough personality to make you care if they live or die, let alone make an interesting film.

100 Tealights

[jeroduptown · 4/10 · 25 June 2021]

I'm down with a collection of horror stories - but this one is a wee bit boring. The mini tales were predictable for the most part, as was the ending of the short stories.

Very weak

[Gordon-11 · 4 June 2021]

I thought the film was very weak. The plot is unconvincing. Those stories they tell just aren't scary. By the third story about the child who can't leave home, I was already disappointed. The following story of the woman in an oxygen mask is just boring. And the ending is so abrupt that I literally gasped - not from horror but from exasperation.

Why can't they make good anthologies anymore.

[kjjames81 · 2/10 · 21 April 2021]

I love anthology films, in fact I have seen so many and most of them fall into three categories, awful, not bad and good.

Now this one has a mixture.

The story of the pregnant girl could have been made into a full film, also the one with the boy and his dad living in a field, both would have made good films.

But the rest were awful, like what was the point of the first story?

But I have to ask, why can't film makers these days go and look at the Amicus films which were anthologies and they were good.

The stories were also good and made sense.

I wait for a good anthology film to come out.

The MOST Super Boring Movie

[minicacshow · 1/10 · 22 April 2021]

4 girls watched this movie In CINEMA No Horror criteria!!

Super Super Super Boring.

Don't waste your money to watch this film in cinema.

Those are...

[sira10-68-634802 · 1/10 · 29 May 2021]

... 100 minutes of my life noone can give me back.

An unremarkable if still watchable effort

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 6/10 · 18 May 2021]

Sitting in a circle surrounded by candles, a group of friends is forced to tell scary stories in front of a mirror in order to escape a witch's curse.

On the whole, this is a serviceable if unremarkable anthology. The initial setup here, involving the friends sitting in the darkened room surrounded by the candles and forced to tell scary stories is highly enjoyable and serves this well as an excuse to launch into this type of film. The atmosphere is effective and there's some tension with the involvement of the mirror calling the rules of the game into play, making for an overall workable format to get going. When it comes to the stories, it's hit-or-miss but generally above average. The first one involving the girl in the woods is pretty solid and has a fun final twist to capitalize on, while the second story has some atmospheric images and ideas undone by the lack of action or context about the setup involving the two living together or weird twist ending which leaves the segment fun but wholly mismatched and out-of-place in this type of film. The middle parts of the film, namely the segments involving the mischievous children tormenting the woman in her house or the mother confronting the demonic entity threatening her children, are where this one shines. Bringing forth some fun, fast-paced efforts with plenty of atmosphere and graphic kills mixed alongside the chilling action, while the period pieces involve a rather enjoyable condensed take on the demonically-possessed to be a great segment. This does have its fair share of misses as well. The buried alive segment is an unoriginal tale with a lame finale undermined by tons of stupidity packed into a brief running time, the lone woman in the apartment has some creepy imagery and it's hard to tell what's going on or why we should care because of that, and the wraparound in the room feels repetitive with the same type of scares we're constantly told mean nothing anyway, making for some pointless segments here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.

Huff And Puff And Blow This Game In.

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 5/10 · 25 November 2022]

Greetings, salutations, and welcome to my considerations and recommendation of The 100 Candles Game.

Story: 0.50/2 - Direction and Pace: 2.50/4 - Performances: 1.25/2 - Enjoyment: 1.25/2

Total 5.50/10

The 100 Candles Game would be great as a TV Series; are any Amazon or Netflix executives listening out there(?) But sadly, it fails to fully entertain in its movie form. For one thing, the notion that four people possess twenty-five ghost-come-horror stories is a little far-fetched. Let alone that they're happy to sit in an uncomfortable environment while they tell them. And let's not forget about the length of the stories themselves. To recite a 100, as fast as these guys and galls are going, would take around a week to get through them, but somehow they manage it in a single night. I'm sorry, but I don't believe I'm the only one who'd quickly get bored if the stories were only a few sentences long. Which they'd need to be for the group to complete their task before dawn. So this niggled at me throughout the picture. As for the stories they told their congregation of four; well, they weren't too bad. A couple were a little rudimentary and easy to guess the outcome. It also relied on the directors' skills to create an atmosphere. The opening tale is about two girls playing on a see-saw in a forest clearing, and there may or may not be a creature stalking one or both of them. The trouble is that the story is too simple, and the simplicity stretches its horrid hands to the young women's dialogue. Because not much is happening on-screen, we, the audience, require more from the characters other than mere mumbles. We need to relate to them quickly. This audience-to-character relationship doesn't work, which can be said for most of the stories to follow. If the audience doesn't care about the characters on the screen, why should they keep watching? And even though the director attempts to add creepiness to the atmosphere, the poorly written dialogue and narrative destroy their attempts to entertain. Sadly, there are too many similar tales in the movie, and even when the performances are more potent, the awful writing hinders the film.

I'd recommend The 100 Candles Game to horror anthology fans who've completed their watchlists, and only if they couldn't find something else to view. Should you be a horror fan who's yet to enjoy an anthology flick, I suggest you check out some from the 60s and 70s pictures, as they are so much better than this. Most of those period films knew how to write an anthology and every story possesses a beginning, middle, and end, which is more than what's on offer from the newer compilations that appear to rush things. So, should you have a short attention span - you wouldn't have read this consideration - The 100 Candles Game could be your movie(?)

Please check my Absolute Horror list to see where I ranked the movie.

Take Care, Stay Well, And Merry Christmas.

This was a cool movie to watch with friends.

[dlmyst-29813 · 8/10 · 4 September 2021]

Some of the stories were a hit and miss but the ones that were a hit were really good. Given you could figure out the ending as the game goes on. However, knowing the ending and seeing it play out is two different things. I wish they make a part 2 just to have more short horror stories. Sadly it wouldn't work with the lore.

I liked it

[mommycutestbabyever · 7/10 · 29 January 2021]

I feel like this movie is underrated and didnt get much publicity. It keeps your attention with the short stories and i thought each story was different and interesting. The effects werent super low budget and the acting wasnt terrible. Ive seen worse. Also its hard to find much to watch right now with theaters being closed and all. I liked it and would recommend it

Sort of decent horror anthology

[kyleallencole9 · 4/10 · 1 June 2021]

I'm giving this a 4 because I liked the main four kids in this one who were telling the stories.

Plus I liked the shorts The Visitant, Blight, and Drip.

The only thing that confused me was the very end. It makes me think maybe Erica was the witch and she was collecting the other three souls. Mostly because all 3 of them mysteriously vanish at the end, leaving the blonde girl to see the old woman's ghost, so they must of been in that old woman's house where the crime took place. I thought they were in some type of hospital, but it did not explain the purpose of the mirror at all either.

Decent horror short stories, but the wrap around tale was bizarre because of the abrupt ending.

Good concept. Bad outcome

[africe · 2/10 · 20 September 2021]

This movie had potential but the acting was subpar and please....if you are basing the movie on the stories they tell then stick to one language!!! I lost total interest when they told the story with the girl in the coffin in Spanish I believe. This could have been a good story but how the heck would I know???? What happened to good old horror?