This is a slasher who-dun-it. Jimmy (Nathan Ross Murphy) is the first to die. A small group of close friends attend his funeral, friends who all share a secret of a student who died from a prank. They soon realize that they too may become targets but they don't know who it targeting them as they have prank'd so many people, they have no idea who is getting revenge against them. To top it all off, the deceased had a twin brother who lived out of town and is now visiting attempting to discover what happened to his brother.
The film was all over the place with killing and clues. The killer wore a mask, but no one alive knew that. When a mask is found, how was it associated with the killer? I liked the fact we had numerous suspects, but they should have developed the characters better.
There is a scene where they close the trunk and we see an upside down Illinois license plate: A16 W732 which would read selm or 5ELM 9TV. I don't know if that was meant to be a clue, a message, or they just did it because they didn't have any way to pixilate it due to the budget. But the camera did land on it for a few seconds, I assume the director wanted us to see it. Your thoughts?
Guide: F-bomb. Brief sex and nudity (Sari Sanchez)
Kill Game
2016
Action / Crime / Horror / Mystery / Thriller
Kill Game
2016
Action / Crime / Horror / Mystery / Thriller
Plot summary
In Grace Arbor the answers are never clear. Who is underneath the mask? This is the story of a group of high school kids - all popular, good looking, "most likely to succeed" types - who amuse themselves by pulling pranks on unsuspecting students and teachers. At their core lies a cruelty and shallowness which comes with the territory of privilege. One night, a prank goes horribly wrong, a teenager is killed, and the gang covers it up as a drowning accident but five years later, their lives are turned upside down when a local is killed by a serial killer wearing a haunting Marilyn Monroe mask. Soon, the gang are killed one by one in manners mirroring the pranks they pulled in high school. Is it revenge? Is it karma?
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
January 09, 2016 at 11:35 PM
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
IT WASN'T HIM
The fatal consequences of pranking
Loved the idea for 'Kill Game', which for recent modest to low budget film viewings was one that was really quite creative. Executed right, 'Kill Game' had potential to be quite decent. The cover/poster/advertising was attention grabbing and does make one want to see the film. Really admire any film that includes and tackles the topical subject of bullying, an everyday issue that's far too frequent and nowhere near enough is done to stop it.
'Kill Game' could have done so much more with such a great concept and is not necessarily a great film, or even particularly good. There are a fair few problematic elements here, including deciding early on whether to continue watching. That said, it is watchable enough, just about worth sticking with and the potential is not completely wasted. There are plus points, and fortunately in 'Fear Clinic's' case those plus points are quite big. It's all been summed up very well, so don't have an awful lot to add other than my own (fairly similar) thoughts.
Starting with the plus points, the acting is better than average and in the lead cast quite good. The secondary parts are a little ropy sure but even then it could have been far worse.
Mostly, 'Kill Game' looks reasonable, it's atmospherically shot and the effects for the budget were much better than expected, not incredible but not amateurish.
It does handle the bullying angle with intelligence and in a way that's easy to identify with. 'Kill Game' starts off really well, where one can see where what happens for much of the film originates from and why it happens. There is suspense and creepiness here and there and the sound isn't too obvious or intrusive.
However, it has been said that 'Kill Game' was primarily let down by the script. Have to completely agree with this. It doesn't flow enough, can be cheesy and lacks tautness. Worse is that it does try to do far too much with far too many elements and not doing enough with any of them. A shame, because there were some great ideas here.
A problem that also badly affects the story, which becomes muddled and confusing from jumping from one thing to the next with little refinement or proper exploration. There are pacing problems in the middle act and from the halfway point onwards, parts are rushed and it also feels like too much is being stretched to sustain the overlong running time, some of it not needed.
Much of the second half is ridiculous and weird, again because of the lack of clarity in the story and over-ambition of the script. The finesse also goes and it becomes cheap visually, the surgery sequence looks awful. The twists and turns mostly are obvious and don't make sense, the red herrings just convolute the story even more and the identity of the killer and motivation didn't really surprise all that much. The film gets unintentionally silly in the third act, where the tension and suspense captured well in the first half dissipates, and it all becomes far too coincidental and over-convenient.
Concluding, a great concept and some good elements but suffers from too cooks spoil the under-seasoned broth. 5/10 Bethany Cox
Just another slasher movie with a serial killer wearing a Marilyn Monroe mask.
You know the saying "What goes around, comes around" ? That really
applies to seven friends who graduated together and share a terrible
secret with each other. Until the group of friends slowly starts to
shrink, because they are murdered one by one. Now, when hearing the
stories of these annoying bullies, you're inclined to think they had it
coming. Because the tricks they played upon their fellow students (and
even teachers), wasn't something to be taken lightly. Those jokes were
so radical, a fellow student got killed. And now there appears to be
someone who wants to take revenge on this gang of clowns. And the way
they are killed, is linked to a particular joke they've pulled.
"Kill Game" isn't an unbelievable good horror. But it tries to honour
the traditions of the better hacker / slasher films from the 70s (for
instance "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th"). So this means that a group
of stupid and arrogant teenagers is gathered again to serve as cattle
for slaughter. And the mysterious serial killer wears a grim mask, of
course. In this case, it's a Marilyn Monroe mask. Also a list of all
candidate murderers is needed. This list may turn out to be
exceptionally long. After counting all fellow students and teachers who
were victims of a malicious prank, you'll get a significant number of
candidates. And as a highlight, the twin brother of the poor devil who
didn't survive a joke appears.
But beyond these few similarities with older slasher films, this is a
film that effortlessly will sink into oblivion. Anyhow, the lousy
acting (inherent to this kind of films) and the not so original
story-line are also present. What remains is a typical game of guessing
who's the perpetrator, what's the motive and who'll eventually survive.
And there's also someone whose profile complies with the
characteristics of the perpetrator. Obviously that's a wrong
assumption. How surprising! Indeed, a stack of known clichés. The only
thing that remains is how the victims were killed. So, it isn't exactly
breathtaking cinema. The only thing I've learned out of this movie, is
that it isn't very smart to bully others.
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