Game of Death Review: Unoriginal and unexciting | Sydney Film Festival Review

No good can be derived from anyone in a movie suggesting everyone play the creepy board game they just found. It didn’t even work in ‘Jumanji’, and that was a family film!

Fresh off the bus from SXSW we have ‘Game of Death’. When a group of sex-crazed, drug-addled teenagers hanging by the pool one day decide to indulge in the Game of Death, they soon discover that they’re not playing the game, the game is playing them. With a surprise little prick of the finger, the game divulges an arbitrary number and a countdown. It’s kill or be killed until the number reaches zero, and the clock it ticking.

‘Game of Death’ starts a little slowly and becomes particularly icky once incest is on the table, but it definitely picks up once the game starts and heads literally start exploding.

'GAME OF DEATH' TRAILER

At only 75 minutes long, with nothing scary, no shocks and little to no tension, even an hour can drag on. It’s not exactly an original concept either, but the retro game and the film’s overall indie feel does give it a certain amount of charm. Although when the film randomly splinters into phone footage, video game graphics and even animation, you know that even the filmmakers struggled to stay interested.

‘Game of Death’ could have seriously benefited from a few laughs or even a satirical approach, but alas it relies solely on its splatterfest...ness. With not a single recognisable face in the cast, this one is for the horror junkies and those who don’t mind spending a little time with girls in bikinis covered (and I mean covered) in blood.