MY CALL: This ranks among the most boring horror I’ve endured. MORE MOVIES LIKE The Game: Much better movies to watch about deadly games instead include Red Room (1999), Would You Rather (2012), Cheap Thrills (2013) or Truth or Dare (2018).
Gathered together in a mansion by three bored eccentric millionaires, nine people compete in ‘The Game’ for one million dollars. To win this game, the players must not leave the mansion as they face their greatest fears. While the game transpires, the wealthy game-runners are watching remotely and communicating by intercom.
The presence of a creeping mist implies that weird things are about to happen. And most nefarious goings on seem to be accompanied by the presence of a weirdo who looks like a hunchbacked Gru. Both of these elements are resolved with dumb twist-revelations in the end.
The gags endured by the players of The Game include sudden cold temperatures, a shark in the swimming pool, displaying a hanged contestant on TV, a woman is attacked by a vomiting rubber demon puppet, and some forced Russian roulette. But despite the attempts at diversity, all of the effects are of the lowest possible phoned-in quality, and somehow even worse execution. The acting and writing are likewise excruciating. This is awful. Like, truly destitute. I’m ranking this waaaay at the bottom dregs with Boardinghouse (1982). And to quote that review: “I’ve written nearly 1000 reviews for this website. And this, truly and honestly, may very well be the most devastatingly boring thing I’ve watched and reviewed. Spare yourselves. Avoid this at all costs.” Well, now I’m beyond 1200 reviews and those sentiments now apply to The Game just the same. We could probably lump Fatal Exam (1988) in there for good measure.
The filmmaking is pretty clunky at every level. When someone is swimming laps in a pool, the sound editing/mixing produces the sounds of lightly splashing water in a sink or bathtub. The sound just doesn’t match what we’re watching and it’s uncomfortably noticeable. And when our wealthy masterminds wander the hotel, they play almost comedic Vaudeville-esque piano tunes. This music shouldn’t exist in this movie, which is not at all a horror comedy.
Everything about this movie is horrible. Director Bill Rebane (The Demons of Ludlow, The Alpha Incident, Invasion from Inner Earth, Rana) has put together a real stinker for us here. It may be fun to mock among friends. But there is nothing inherently fun about this movie, not even in a “bad movie” way, by its own merits. Just bad.