The highly anticipated new film GAME OF DEATH has a very intriguing premise that borrows heavily from several other films such as JUMANJI, BATTLE ROYALE and NATURAL BORN KILLERS. Montreal based writer/directors Laurence “Baz” Morais and Sebastien Landry deliver an intriguing premise. However this and a quality music design do little to save the film from being an unfortunate disappointment.
Five friends are enjoying a pool party at their friend Matthew’s house. Matthew’s girlfriend Ashley finds an old electronic board game called Game of Death. The six friends and their pizza delivering/drug dealer friend Tyler decide to play the game. The instructions tell them to each put a finger on one the eight skulls on the game board. To their surprise, the game pricks their fingers, taking a bit blood from each. The number of kills needed (24) appears and an audible timer begins playing. The instructions tell them that the need to kill one person before the timer runs out or the game will kill one of them instead. Frustrated at the lack of further directions they scoff and walk away. But when the timer expires they decide they need to take the game more seriously.
The film begins with a great opening sequence in the style of an old 16-bit video game but the drops off immediately as introduces us to the main characters. These people are all so irritating and unlikable that it made me hope they would be quickly killed off and the real characters could enter. Sadly, this didn’t happen. The only somewhat interesting characters were Beth and Tom as the strange potentially incestuous siblings. Both felt as if they were out some more interesting film or maybe their friends were from a less interesting one. It’s tough to really criticize the performances here because I believe the characters are written so inconsistently that actors were only doing what they could with them.
The inconsistency carries over to the rest of the film as well. It seems as if the film runs in difficulty at time trying to decide its look and tone. It appears to be unable to decide if it is intending to be straight and scary or dark and satirical. Often the film shifts suddenly from the intensity of panic and terror to over the top gore and silliness. At one point it turns into an animated music video. At another, a POV shot feels like it’s covering for an actress that was not able to make it the set.
I did really like one stylized shot of Beth and Tom near the climax of the film. However the shot goes on for way too long. A weird sequence about a Forrest Ranger and her cone wearing dog also goes on way too long and adds nothing. It feels like padding to help stretch the film to its short running time of 72mins. An area where the film succeeds is in the music design. Both the score and song choices were good but do little to compensate for the rest of the films flaws.
Overall the film feels like a rushed production. Which is a shame because I think the foundation is there for highly exciting film. The design of the game board was one of highlights of GAME OF DEATH. If only more thought could have been given to making the game itself more demanding on the characters. It certainly would have made it more fascinating for the audience.
