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| Teens end up playing the wrong game in Sebastien Landry and Laurence "Baz" Morais's insanely fun Game of Death (2017) |
I've seen a lot of films so far at the 2017 Fantasia Film Festival, so I can be excused for getting my circuits crossed and going to the wrong film once, right? Right? While my plan was to see the Russian alien invasion flick
Attraction (2016) at 1pm, I ended up (realizing too late to run across the street) attending Sebastien Landry and Laurence "Baz" Morais's nutso teen horror film
Game of Death (2017) completely by accident. To be frank, after watching the
trailer, I had absolutely no interest in this film, and I thought it was going to be pretty dumb. While the premise is ridiculous, it was so much FUN, that I have absolutely no regrets. In fact, it has renewed my faith in horror comedies, which had solidified into granite after the previous night's abysmal
Better Watch Out (2016), which I will not review for the sake of kindness.
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| The annoying Kenny is dispatched with truly awesome gore effects |
The film opens w/ Beth snapchatting, instagramming, or whatever the f*** teenagers do in order to snarkily snipe at each other through social media, and her sarcastic quip about screwing her brother sets the tone: these kids are all annoying and relatively unlikeable, and I'm already eager for some of them to die. They all gather together for a house/pool party on a nice sunny day, drinking and getting high, and what have you--parents who knows where. I honestly cannot tell how old any of them are, but almost anyone under the age of 25 seems impossibly young. They all think they are smarter than anyone, and are all dumb as stumps. Therefore, they decide to play some electronically-assisted retro board game called Game of Death, just because. As the trailer makes clear, the games rules are that they have to kill a set number of people (24) or they will all die. Just to make sure they take things seriously, the game starts killing off the kids, claiming "one down" and laughing maniacally after each death. Two of them die before the rest of the kids get a clue, and then homicidal impulses start to fly. Oh, and the kills. The Kills! Whether game induced or teen-perpetrated, the kills are just some of the most gory, ridiculous, and outright startling deaths I've seen in a while. Granted, I tend to shy away from gore, but in
Game of Death, you've got to revel in it. Several times I turned to Alice, who was sitting beside me, and just said "wow." Wow.
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| While Tyler and Ashley have reservations, brother and sister Tom and Beth enjoy the game a bit too much |
Game of Death wears the descriptor "gratuitous" like a badge of honor. Is there sex? Of course! A cross-cut scene of a woman experiencing oral sex while another woman gives an unnecessary-to-the-plot lapdance gets us started. An incestuous make-out scene goes on way, way too long, and ends in a romantic shot of the "lovers" silhouetted in front of a setting sun. The film features one of the most gorgeous and surprising animated sequences, stylizing the gore as a couple of characters go full-stop-massacre on a care home.
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| Some players, like Mary-ann, never quite accept that what is happening is real |
From the first 10 minutes onward, everyone, and I mean everyone, is covered in blood (as a nice touch, Baz, one of the co-directors, introduced the film covered in the red stuff). Just to be clear though, no dogs or little children were harmed during this film--which is a nice caveat; although, I did feel a loss at the murder of the lovely Marilyn, whose singing really added a nice touch to the overall tone. Oh, and you find out a surprising amount about manatees over the course of the film.
In sum, a film that I would normally not give the slightest glance became one of my favorites of the 2017 Fantasia Film Festival, and I do recommend it if you are up for something gaggingly gory and over the top. An IMDB reviewer claimed that the concept was great and the execution poor. I would switch it up and say that the concept is beyond dumb (shades of reading the Necromicon in
The Evil Dead--stupid kids), but the execution is witty, inventive, and that animation scene is a real standout. Be sure to check it out if you are in the mood for some gory surprises.
