Game of Death (I) (2017) User Reviews

I don't get the hate

[K_Rad88 · 6/10 · 26 March 2022]

When you read the synopsis, you know you're not getting A Grade horror.

It was entertaining, lots of blood, funny in parts and bust strange. I still don't get the wierd make out scene between brother and sister - I literally had to rewind the movie and watch the beginning again in case I was wrong about them being related... I was not.

Anyway, if you have time to kill definitely watch it. Teenagers are idiots.

Great Concept, Poor Execution

[gavin6942 · 4/10 · 15 July 2017]

Kill or be killed is the golden rule of the Game of Death. Unfortunately, seven millennials have ignored that rule. Now each one's head will explode unless they kill someone.

In the simplest terms, this film is "Jumanji" meets "Battle Royale". Others have said "Jumanji" meets "Natural Born Killers", which also works. Either way, it is the premise of "Jumanji" (a board game that takes on a life of its own) re-interpreted with a horror theme. In a sense, even "Jumanji" could be seen as a horror film with its spiders and snakes, but the creators never went that dark.

Giving credit where credit is due, "Game of Death" is an excellent concept, and it is actually shocking that it took someone this long to think of it and develop a script. The creators took the concept, and then added excellent filters and touchstones. There is some humorous splatter gore that will draw comparisons to "Dead Alive", for example.

The standout actor in the film is Erniel Baez Duenas, the proverbial pizza guy. Initially his character is rather obnoxious, but increasingly becomes the most human and someone audiences might be able to identify with. In a film with such shallow plot, it is a testament to his skill that we are able to go through a small range of emotions towards the character.

Another strong point of the film is how it will have audiences considering entry-level ethics questions. Is murder acceptable if the alternative is death? Would suicide be morally preferable to murder? Are some lives more valuable than others? And it throws in the interesting math that eight players must kill 24 people – does this suggest the moral answer is suicide, because eight deaths is better than 24? Unfortunately, despite some promising ideas, the film really suffers from a disappointing execution (no pun intended). We are treated to excessive padding on the running time with slo-mo shots that reveal nothing, cell phone footage of inane conversations and gratuitous party moments. These inclusions feel like an afterthought to stretch the picture from 45 minutes to (barely) feature-length. The script comes out feeling woefully underdeveloped, which may be due to the film's origins as a web series. I am unclear whether the series was remade into a film, or just edited together. Either way, it does not work in the longer format.

Although there is a surreal running gag of manatee nature documentary excerpts which were amusing for inexplicable reasons, the film as a whole is half-baked and would benefit greatly from a complete mulligan. Perhaps the picture is more interesting for a younger or drunker demographic than this reviewer is a part of, but even they would have to be disappointed on some level.

"Game of Death" is playing July 15 at the Fantasia International Film Festival. The picture is brought to us courtesy of production companies La Guerrilla (in Montreal), Rockzeline (in Paris) and Blackpills (in Paris).

Does okay but fails

[jmbovan-47-160173 · 5/10 · 20 March 2021]

Medicore film of obnoxious teens who find a game and then have to kill people or else they die. Tries to bring some ethical and moral aspects to the situation, but given the plastic and superficial nature of the characters, the moral aspects of the film fall flat. Excessive gore in the beginning, sexual behavior that is pointless, and then other odd elements that bring nothing to the script. Ho hum.

Jus seeing watermelons exploding without any suspense or tension aint the definition of a horror film.

[Fella_shibby · 4/10 · 18 July 2020]

A bunch of youngsters play a mysterious game in which u either have to kill a person every one hour or the player's head will explode. Nothing new here. Even the kills aint inventive. When it comes to the screenplay, nothing new. At least the makers shud have focused on creating some tension or suspense. Apart from the watermelons exploding scenes n some pretty faces, this film is a total time waster. It has some lousy shaky cam stuff n pov shot scenes.

Seems like a film written by a 15 year old boy having an existential crisis & weird sister fantasies

[sian_b_badger · 1/10 · 26 November 2020]

The synopsis of the film states it is a group of millennials. As a millennial, I do not want to be associated with such tripe. Actually used the phrase "Death is the bonus level." No idea why the hell it kept showing clips of manatees...but these were probably the most entertaining bits of the film if I'm honest. At one stage, honestly expected the sister to get stuck in something & shout "STEP BROTHER!".

So bad.... it's good

[coflorida · 5/10 · 17 July 2022]

I'll give it a 5 for laughing throughout this entire movie 😂 Between the dialogue .........the acting...... and storyline 😂😂

Funniest thing I've watched in awhile.....

Off with their heads!

[Coventry · 6/10 · 19 April 2018]

Make no mistake, the plot for "Game of Death" is nonsensical, implausible and even downright imbecilic. On the other hand, it's also the most original, refreshing and straightforwardly efficient plot for a gory horror flick that I've seen in a few years. Lately, I admit, I've been whining and complaining that practically all gritty/gory horror films nowadays are about repulsive cannibalistic & inbred families entrapping a bunch of wayward teenagers and submitting them to extreme torture. The idea behind "Game of Death" is refreshingly different and I feel obliged to give it some extra appreciation for that reason. The style and vision of the directors' duo (Sebastien Landry and Laurence Morais-Lagace) is also very energetic and tinsel, with flashy opening credits and entire sequences/montages that look like footage from a typically 80s video game. The film starts with a group of young Millennial teenagers doing their thing: drinking by the pool and surrendering to their hormonal lusts. They stumble upon a seemingly harmless and vintage board game called "Game of Death" and naturally don't resist to play. After "donating" drops of their own blood via the finger, the game determines that they must murder 24 people, or else they'll die themselves. Obviously they laugh away the concept at first, but things get dead serious when heads start exploding out of the blue. The script doesn't bother to explain, so I won't either, but somehow the game registers the murders they are committing and counts down until the next head-explosion. Some members of the group turn into psychopaths with brutal survival instinct, whereas others become philosophical martyrs. I've read about comparisons between this film and "Scanners" or "Battle Royale", but that's only because heads are exploding. The simple truth is that "Game of Death" is a fun & undemanding stand-alone horror quickie. The film is extremely gore, with lots of fake blood and mediocre CGI-effects, fast-paced and blackly comical. The girls look yummy and the whole thing is finished after barely 75 minutes, what could you possibly expect more from a silly B-movie?

Omg

[astridhaeder-73287 · 2/10 · 13 May 2020]

This was a total waste of money. I am not even gonna go into details, because that would be too much energy wasted on such garbage. Bad acting, bad script, bad score, boring, stupid teenagers, Long and cringeworthy shots of stupid teenagers and probably directed by stupid teenagers. Sooooo bad!!!

Solid Premise, but Unlikable Characters

[Reviews_of_the_Dead · 7/10 · 13 July 2022]

This was a movie that I heard about a few years ago when it was making its festival rounds. I wanted to see it, but from everything I was gathering it was tough going finding distribution. Marknado talked about seeing it last year when it hit VOD so I knew that when I got a chance, I could finally see this. I was glad to see this was picked up by Shudder where I watched it.

Synopsis: 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 or let the game win?

I believe that synopsis does a solid job in giving the premise of this movie. To delve a bit more into this, we start with a cool title sequence that is done in the vein of a game you would see on Sega Genesis or the Super Nintendo. It then takes us to see the room of Tom (Sam Earle). I think we get a good idea that he's intelligent, but odd from what we see there. The last images are that he has an inhaler for asthma, a gun and he's sitting on his bed masturbating. From what we learn he does this a lot.

We then shift over to his friends who are hanging out by the pool. There is his sister of Beth (Victoria Diamond) who is messaging him to come over. There is Ashley (Emelia Hellman) who is dating Matthew (Thomas Vallieres). There is also Mary-Ann (Catherine Saindon) and Kenny (Nick Serino). They are your typical millennials who are drinking, smoking and partying without a care in the world. Joining them a bit later is Tyler (Erniel Baez) who has a drug kit and he's a pizza delivery driver. Tom also joins them.

Something else I want to point out here is the movie establishes that they like to play different games. The focal one of the movie is discovered by Ashley while she is messing around with Matt. It is called the Game of Death. It is set up similar to a board game, but it has an electronic screen that would see with older school hand-held games. They bring it out to play. The instructions are the same that begin the movie and give the basic premise. To start, they all put a finger on a skull and press start. It pricks their finger, taking a bit of their blood that goes into the centerpiece. They're then told they need to kill 24 people to end the game or everyone who is playing has to die. A timer then starts.

Tyler freaks out about it poking his finger and see that he's a bit of a conspiracy theorist. They go back to partying and things take a turn when Matt's head explodes. The others that see it think that someone shot him. They flee into the house to call the police. Their screaming draws their creepy, old neighbor, Steve Godin. Tom takes him at gunpoint, thinking he killed Matt. The problem is that he doesn't have a gun.

While they figure out what to do with this old man, Kenny's head explodes. Tom realizes what the game is forcing them to do. He then shoots the old man and the number goes down again. The surviving members need to make a choice, kill or be killed. Tom has made his decision and Beth seems to agree with him. This starts a killing spree that will change the lives of everyone they encounter.

That should get you up to speed while expanding on the synopsis given. I'll be honest, I wanted to see this movie, but wasn't necessarily sure how it would be. It is better than I was expecting. That isn't to say that it isn't problematic still. To start with the positives, I love the opening sequence with the old school looking video game. When I started to be a gamer, this was the era. I have a soft spot still for games like this. There is also a cool montage in the middle where they incorporate this along with other types of animation that worked for me as well. It is safe to say, I dig the premise with this game that feels like Jumanji. It is an adult version of that with a simpler concept in theory of kill or be killed.

To get into what I find problematic, I don't like any of the characters. Tom is a psychopath, which makes a lot of sense and that actually works for me. We aren't supposed to like him. Beth and him have a weird relationship, which also works for what the movie needs. Ashley and Tyler start off as typical millennials, but they have this change about halfway through. Mary-Ann and Kenny seem like nice people. Matt is the only one who doesn't have any redemption in my eyes. Regardless, I don't care about any of them in the end and it almost seems like that is what the movie wants us to feel for Ashley and Tyler which is fine. The problem is that I feel like this for the rest of the group as well.

Going along with this idea is where they end up. During the buildup, I thought what I would do. My idea was a retirement home. I know how bad it sounds, but if I decided to survive, I would go somewhere like that. This movie doesn't do that but goes somewhere similar. The logic that Tom uses makes sense. There is a character they encounter there that makes me feel bad. This did build tension for me in an odd way and was effective if I'm going to be honest.

Where I think I'll go next would then be the acting. I've started to lay out my thoughts on the characters. I think the acting is solid. Earle fits this character of Tom where I believe he could be him. The same could be said for Diamond. Hellman, Saindon, Baez, Serino and Vallieres are all much of the same. I had no issues with the acting and think it is believable for who they are plus the rest of the cast rounded this movie out for what was needed in my opinion.

Next I want to go to the effects. This was something I was impressed with that they went practical for a lot of it. I think that the blood has a good color and consistency. The gore we get looks solid as well. There is a bit of CGI when it comes to the some of the splatter. Not enough to ruin this movie for me, but I noticed it. The cinematography also looks good and I'll give credit once more to the animated sequences we get. I love there are a few styles blended together and they work well in my opinion.

Then last the thing would be the soundtrack. I enjoyed what they were doing here as well. I thought it fit the scenes, especially in helping to ramp up the tension. This would be another one that I'm going to see if I can pick up. The party sequences are fine, but it is mostly during the climax. There is also this French song that is used. At first it didn't fit, but seeing this is a co-production with France, that makes sense why it is here. I thought this works well with what the movie needed.

In conclusion, I think this movie has an interesting concept. It isn't completely original, but I do think this does well in doing something a bit different with it. Setting it with the group of characters we get helps. Many of them don't have redeemable qualities and for the ones that do, we don't get that until later in the movie. I think this is a bit problematic for me though. The acting is good aside from that. I only have slight issues with some of the CGI. The practical effects are good along with the soundtrack. With that said, I think I would rate this as an above average film. Not great, but I think if you have Shudder it is worth a viewing.

My Rating: 7 out of 10.

Dumb movie at least having gory fun with a stupid concept

[youngcollind · 4/10 · 15 May 2021]

If you've seen the trailer or read the synopsis, it should already be pretty obvious why this movie is inherently bad. The premise, while somewhat original, is preposterous, the lines and performances are frequently cringe worthy, and its overall vibe is just dumb. However, it does look surprisingly good given an obvious low budget, and it manages to walk a fine between not taking itself too seriously and intentionally being bad. Overall, it just feels like a bunch of kids got together and had a great time pouring fake blood on each other, and if you have an appreciation for a gratuitous bloodbath, it's not impossible to enjoy that on some level.

Dont Understand the bad reviews here

[pacotille10 · 8/10 · 18 July 2022]

This movie is just Pure Fun! Those who low rate this i don't understand what is there point.... yes teens are stupid in the movie so what? There supid all the time in all horror movie... This is a Good Popcorn gore flick and again its just pure fun from star to finish .Special effect are really great considering the budget! Il Give it a Solid 8 and i would love to see a prequel story. That's an Original Idea too and it was a fun ride!

A carryon bag of horror

[robnero · 6/10 · 20 July 2020]

The good: the director has influences that are evident, sporadically. Carpenter, King and Cameron maybe even some Tarantino type style can be seen here and there. Mixed with some animation that makes for humor, intentional or not. The bad: the script is horrible. The acting is sub to the point that you wonder if that is intentional too. The idea has been done before with most horror movies involving youth. There's a message to be unpacked, but the delivery of the movie is so bad...do you want to unpack it?

Dumb

[Spin97 · 2/10 · 23 September 2021]

Play a game kill people and have no idea what you can win. So these dumb 30+ year olds play 18+ charaters that find a game. They play the game and it says they have to take 24 lifes. I believe if you kill 24 bugs you get the same result but this incest couple start to kill people. If you dont kill then your head explodes, randomly. Then you get a dumb ass sheriff who sings a pizza song and doesnt question people who are covered in blood actually nobody ever questions why they are covered in blood. Then dumb chick 3 kills the sheriff and says to dumb guy 2 that they have to kill the insane incest people cause they cant kill innocent people after she smashes tge sheriffs skull in with a crowbar. In minuut 51 you get a stupid song and a montage of how they kill people and the movie is filled with stoner flashbacks. Like somebody said its like a 12 year old wrote this crap.

Literal

[kosmasp · 3/10 · 12 February 2018]

A one joke/idea kind of movie with a lot of bad CGI ... that would be blood if you are wondering. So the title can be taken literally and the movie does not make a big deal about what it does. So it does have a couple of funny moments here and there. Some nice effects, but the characters have to get on with the concept and roll with the game.

A bit of humor is missing (apart from before the game "starts") and you could not accuse any of the "actors" involved of acting on the job. All kidding aside, when it comes to movies like this, you don't watch them for the performances, you watch them for the splatter and fun factor ... and unfortunately it does fail more often than not in those categories. Can be a past time or not ...

Widely diaappointing movie

[bruno2810 · 3/10 · 31 August 2021]

Game of Death uses a frequently used movie concept but makes, possibly by far, the worst out of it. Huge negatives are the first 15 minutes and the weird ass story combined with the lame ending. Definitely not worth to watch.

A film of two halves

[habakukofice · 5/10 · 30 July 2020]

In a horror movie you often get a setup where a group of sexy teenagers go to a cabin in the woods, where they encounter some horrible monster and all die. This is the budget version. A group of bland twenty somethings go to a house in a field and find a board game. Then they all decide to play the game, even though some of them are complaining about it, and the game is cursed. Now they have to kill people or their heads explode.

Man, I love to see a head explode. People just get covered in blood and brain, and eventually they realise the game is real and set off to start killing people. And it's all just boring. The kills aren't any good, the film production isn't any good, and I just don't care about any of it. It's not bad enought o be interesting, it's just bland and lifeless.

Until it isn't any more. There is a specific shot. It's a long single shot, the camera moves through a working hospital, and it looks really good. That's the start of easily the best part of the movie. Two of the killers go to this hospital and start killing people and it finally feels like they're trying to make a movie. They're doing things with the camera, the kills are better, they do weird transitions involving video game footage, they just do things. \

The only misstep is that they didn't kill the kid. The girl in the couple at the hospital has a chance to save them all by killing a little kid, a terminally ill kid, and she doesn't do it. I know Hollywood doesn't like killing kids, but this is a low budget horror film where peoples head explode. You've got to kill that kid.

Then one of other kids playing the game arrives to kill her friends to save innocent people. The camera follows her in, it's an interesting shot, although not as good as the killing spree, but this character is awful. She succeeds in killing her friends, so only her and one of the others is left, and the game says they must kill one more person. She kills her friend to win the game. She gives a stupid speech about choosing life, and abandons all that stuff about saving innocent lives. She decides to kill to survive, just like the game wanted.

So a film that goes from boring to interesting halfway through, and has a frustrating ending.

MY problem with the film? Got to kill that kid.

For when you're in a less serious mood

[Sir_watch_alot · 7/10 · 5 May 2020]

Lots of awesome executed deaths with lots of blood splattering all around. Story is simple. Kill or die. Will watch again.

Nice try, but no

[horrorgasm · 4 August 2020]

Interesting premise and I liked the retro design of the game itself, but they just didn't have the budget or the writing to pull this off effectively. The characters are painfully unlikable in the beginning, but get more tolerable once the story actually starts. There are some acceptable effects occasionally, but nothing particularly noteworthy.

Mostly it just seems like they didn't know what to do past the premise. It gets repetitive, starts to drag on, and really falls apart at the end. I've seen much, much worse, and I don't think this is so bad that I'd say "avoid it at all costs", but I wouldn't recommend that anyone go out of their way to see it either. It's a 4 or 5 out of 10 at best.

Also, you'd think at least one person involved in this production would have known that shotguns don't shoot rifle bullets. Who the hell doesn't know how shotguns work??

OK GOOD YES

[zqxiick · 1/10 · 22 May 2022]

Ok good yes.

Ok good yes.

Ok good yes.

Ok good yes. Ok good yes. Ok good yes.

Ok good yes.

Ok good yes.

Ok good yes.

Ok good yes. Ok good yes. Ok good yes.

Ok good yes. Ok good yes. Ok good yes.

Ok good yes. Ok good yes. Ok good yes. Ok good yes.

It's varies wildly. But overall, it's fun.

[Otkon · 6/10 · 7 May 2020]

It starts off with this very amateur feel. Especially in the lighting and camera movement. Though it has actual actors and a very interesting premise. And within a few minutes, it gets zany. There are kooky characters, clever murders, bizarre plot points. Oh, and manatees.

Oddly, the cinematography gets more professional in the middle and climax of the film. The story also gets a bit surreal as well. But it made for a nice "what would you do" under the conditions and circumstances of the game.

The ending is kinda that cliche of the evil must pass on. But of course it is in a station full of cops....with the means to carry on the game brutal. So I thought that was a pretty nifty take on a standard horror movie ending.

There is lots of blood and gore but in a comical way. And manatees, but in a terrifyingly docile way.

Wow!

[timduncker · 1/10 · 23 September 2022]

This film is one big disaster. Pure waste of time. It looks like the film was a senior actingclass project. The winner is an incredibly bad actress! The rest at least had the decency to die in time. There were always some nice ideas. For example, everyone watched the same documentary. And some characters were so annoying that you were quite happy that they died. Splatter and Goer were quite okay. The film is similar to the idea of jumanji only for splatter and goer fans. What was not quite okay was the constant licking of the characters. And the constant video clips that had nothing to do with the plot.

Refreshing, unique and insanely nihilistic

[leonaustenla · 9/10 · 22 May 2022]

Demonstrates the true nihilism of life in a very create, new and uncomfortable way, all answering the question of how much worth a human life is. Especially when it's weighed in other human lifes. Not boring, very heavy on the gore, quickly paced and not boring for a second.

A novel idea while still somewhat flawed overall

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 21 July 2017]

Trying to enjoy the good life, a group of friends living in a small town find a game that forces them to kill a specific number of people around them and set out on a rampage to fulfill the quest given to them or be forced into a deadly situation and must stop themselves before it ends.

On the whole, there's plenty to go on here that makes it a lot of fun. One of the big positives to the film is that this one starts off with the kind of effort it really wants to be which gives this one some really big action. Right from the get-go, the lifestyle montage of the friends hanging out together drinking, doing drugs and trying to simply get by before immediately launching into the game is quite fun. The concept of the game being on a timer and forcing it to occur whether they like it or not really makes this one work well here for that brings along a lot of rather fun action scenes as the consequences of the game makes for a fun time overall. There's a swarm of bloodshed throughout here from the multitude of gunshot-wounds, and the scenes of them mutilating the corpses in order to fulfill their curse from the roadside ambush that knocks off several victims at once, the different random scenes of them going around town trying to whittle the numbers down and ending up at the big action-packed rampage in the hospital where it really ramps up the bloodshed provides this with some nice bits as well. The fear of knowing that the game is willing them to commit murder gives them a nice sense of suspense as to when the clock is coming up and their next target needs to be taken out, and a twisted sense of black humor in the absurdity of the situation while delivering some solid gore effects works as well and keep the film moving along rather nicely without all that much of a down-period overall. These here give this a lot to like even though it does have some problems. While the film attempts to address some big issues about how far people will go in order to question their own humanity, ultimately the film fails remarkably in that aspect. In regards to how easy it is for them to buy into the concept of the game, there's nothing special this does as the film doesn't do anything with this golden material as it just goes on with little regard to the commentary this had set up. Mainly by going all in on the concept of the killing rather than debating what will happen to the group as they carry out their rampage, it doesn't provide this one with the kind of needed social commentary it's trying for with this storyline as the characters don't have the necessary weight to get this one done. Being annoying millennials who don't have any real connection here which really undoes the message about violence it's trying to convey. However, this doesn't prevent the film from being really fun as the positives are a lot more impactful.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence Graphic Language Brief Nudity and drug use.

Mind-blowing fun!!

[scrappy-87331 · 7/10 · 2 May 2022]

Very well-made supernatural horror with an original modern twist. Lots of awesome digital AND practical special effects resulting in plenty of very realistic gore. No way it should b rated 5.1 (the horror-haters strike again GD it!!) Watch this movie.

A mixed bag

[lastsonnofkrypton · 6/10 · 22 May 2022]

This movie does some things right, but it also does a lot wrong. Its an interesting concept, with a mediocre execution.

Pros:

• Surprisingly decent cinematography at times
• The video game overlays are kinda cool, especially the very first opening sequence
• the gore effects are also surprisingly well-executed

Cons:

• The opening character sequence makes you not care about any of them
• More time should've been spent explaining the game's origin instead of our human characters since nearly all of them die anyway, and the game itself is easily the most interesting character in the film

Neithers:

• The acting isn't award-worthy, but it's also not the worst I've seen
• The music also isn't award-worthy, but it's also not jarring or out-of-place
• There's an odd recurring manatee "joke"...? I think? I don't know, there's a manatee documentary shown at several points throughout the film that contributes nothing to the story or plot.. unless I missed it. Maybe it's the director's favorite animal or something. Slightly funny, mostly confusing

Easter egg:

• The pizza delivery guy's car has a license plate that spells out a clue to who might survive the film

Conclusion: If you're a horror movie buff, there are definitely worse ways to spend about an hour and a half. On the other hand, if you've got an hour and a half to spend, there are also certainly better ways to spend that time.