In a secluded area of American suburbia, a group of bored teenagers decided to create a new way to pass time through something they like to refer to as “the murder game.” It is a slightly more sinister form of hide and seek. It begins with the participants drawing cards, the person who draws the queen of spades card is dubbed as “the killer,” and their job is to eliminate all the other players. It is no surprise that this form of entertainment is met with backlash from the parents, so the kids are left without their favorite pastime.
Eric, who has always had a particular fondness for the game, decides to host a night long storage facility murder party. A value that the game has had in Eric’s life is now conclusively see through in a storage facility. The gang seems disinterested at first but ends up agreeing. At first, the children are ecstatic and it seems like a fun filled night. Until, as is the custom in slasher movies, people start getting murdered and the situation escalates quickly.
The indie sector continues to grow. I apologize for avoiding yet another rant on my views on independent filmmaking where I talk about how every quack with enough money to purchase a DV cam has become some self-proclaimed horror director. Instead, let me say that The Murder Game is the most skillfully done independent project I have come across so far. Obviously not satisfied with just putting out his name in the rental shelves, director Robert Harari did an impressive patch up job here – The Murder Game looks, acts, feels and even smells like a genuine motion picture and not some backyard “dude, let’s make a scary movie.”
Even though I am not a big fan of slasher films, this kept my attention. I didn’t find it too difficult sitting through the entire 90 minutes of the film. (What can I say? Usually I find this challenging.) Contino, the co-producer and director of photography, along with Harari, the director, apply a sense of polish to their effort making it look as if it is his first feature length film. It’s easy for Indiehounds to spot poor directorship, shatty editing, and cheap props, but not here — The Murder Game is virtually flawless in these aspects. Contino deserves special mention, as very few people allow this to be known as a shot on DV effort. He managed to achieve that through some incredibly decent lighting and, for the skill level on display, inventive setups. The editing by Harari and David A. Cross is also major league work. The gap is also filled by the FX folks with some rather realistic murder sets. A couple of stabs, slashes and even a beheading are all observed within the runtime of this amazing piece.
The actors have graciously stepped up to the task as well. Steve Polites, Katie Sirk, and Samuel Klein form the main cast of nine and each performs solidly. The majority of the good lines go to the lead trio, who, it must be said, are very convincing (Klein looks a dead ringer for Ian Astbury, better known as the lead vocalist for The Cult), but there is some spark in the other parts too – I enjoyed Julia Pickens as Lucy, the Ripley like female, while Vince Eustace and Erik Soulliard are a couple of stoners who are fun. While Ariana Almajan and Christina Marchand do look good, they perfectly fit the parts of ‘omigosh we’re gonna get KILLLLLLLLED!!!!’ and as such, there just is not enough of meat to their parts. Likewise, Max Hambleton is all but a glorified bit part himself. Even so, at least them are less annoying (if at all) when set against the usual bill of fares.
Plot might be simple, but it does the trick. Essentially, this is an uncomplicated film and the filmmaker, for reasons best known to him, kept it uncomplicated as well, preferring the traditional slasher film with a twist towards the end, which was also dealt with interestingly. Not being overly lavish certainly helps the cause which is good to see after the normal “look, we are horror icons” nonsense. I also appreciated two references to modern horror. First, there is a sequence where Klein’s character dismisses theories that the killer has some ulterior motive for targeting them stating rather candidly that the killer is very crazy. Here, I felt Harari was dealing with the retroactive horror trend where every deranged individual has to have a reason for being deranged (like in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning or Rob Zombie’s Halloween) and was asking for a return of straight “psycho” psychos. Another reference is in fact towards the very end, but I will not reveal it in it’s complete form as it would ruin the ending – I will only mention that it has to do with a Stephen King novel, that was adapted successfully in the 70’s.
There are a few issues that did hamper the film which could be considered important. For one, Harari and Contino pulled a Bull Durham on us where they cast a bunch of twenty-somethings as high school kids. We are willing to give this a pass, it being a labor of love; however, if they actually had money to work with, they would have figured this out. There is a weak spot which is also a vague shot of the warehouse when the thunderstorm is doing its magic outside. Quite frankly, it looks like they slapped together a LEGO set and added some CG for the storm. It just looks bad and should have been left on the floor with other unused scenes. Or better yet, in Harari’s mind under, “maybe this ain’t such a great idea”.
What is in store for Harari, Contino and the rest of 500 Pieces production co? No idea, but if this is any indication, it might be good. Whatever it is, they should leave the extended intermezzo thunderstorm shots out.
To watch more movies like HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: THE MURDER GAME (2006) visit hurawatch.
To watch more movies like HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: THE MURDER GAME (2006) visit hurawatch.