Customer Reviews

The Murder Game

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It doesn't have the slickness of a Hollywood movie. But, for a little low-budget film, it works. Fun, gory, entertaining, just what it should be. A fine effort.

What is with the harsh reviews for this film? I do not get it. This movie is one of my personal faves. Why you ask? Well it is so comforting I know its a slasher but on a rainy day this movie is perfect. It takes no brains and the movie is never boring. The acting is a mixed bag but the main characters do a very good job. The best thing about this film is how good of a job they do of hiding the killer. Bravo filmakers. Overall a fun ride.

This movie was a bit low budget, but it doesn't do too bad overall. The actors, for the most part, stink. The twist is pretty neat and there are some really cool and different style kills. There's certainly an element of gore and the movie kept my attention for the most part. I guess if you could find this DVD for 5.00 or under it'd be a justified slasher movie to own.

Gotta love independent horror! The Murder Game is a pretty bloody brilliant low budget slasher flick that is twice as entertaining as most recent Hollywood offerings.

Kids will do the darndest things. A group of high school friends have invented a fun new way to pass the time--Murder! Pretend killings, of course. It's like hide and seek, but instead of tagging your victims you viciously bludgeon them with a toy hammer, plastic knife, etc... Nothing seems to bond boys and girls like a little simulated violence.

Late one night they all sneak into a storage warehouse to play. Well, it's all fun and games until several of them start spewing blood and getting decapitated. Dang, playtime is over!

This has some fairly gruesome kills to accompany the horrid acting. Some of the students do look like they're pushing thirty, but oh well. There are some hot chicks with a little bit of sex transpiring but no nudity (sigh). Plot twists ensue as this doesn't totally overcome the stereotypes of the genre. Still a good time.

Reccomended for slasher and low budget horror fans. 3.5 stars.

I was very disappointed with this movie, and very sorry that I wasted 15 bucks on it. I had read a couple of reviews (that I am thinking must have been written by the producers or directors) that stated it was "gripping" and "full of twists". Excuse me? Not sure we were watching the same movie! Murder Game is all stuff we horror fans have seen before, and it's not even done well. I can put up with watching a movie that is similar in plot or feel to a previous one, but it at least has to keep me interested, or offer something new. This was just plain stupid (and that's being polite). The acting was atrocious....and the characters decisions were just plain dumb. Very disappointed, I am all over independent, low-budge horror, but it has to be worth my time. This, my friends, was not. NOT recommended.

Most who have played the game hide and seek, have experienced the "thrill of the hunt", either as the hunter or the hunted. Some who enjoy that particular rush, have taken the game to a new level, where for fun the hunted are supposed to be killed. The Murder Game (2006) is a horror thriller centered on such a game, where one of the players takes the role of "the killer" much too seriously. The film features a major plot twist, so this review will attempt to comment on the film, without spoiling it for new viewers.

That being said, co-writer/director Robert Harari's movie does have decent production values, with a look similar to a made for TV movie. The focus is on a group of nine high school kids who like to spend their time playing a game where one person designated as the killer, hunts down the others and "kills" them, using various prop weapons. Looking for a new place to play their game, the group sneaks into a self storage business. The location is a multi-floor warehouse, where the exterior doors are locked shut from closing time until 6am, by the building's security system.

The game begins with an unexpected tenth player, and the group scatters into the facility, which mostly consists of corridors with storage rooms and bays, constructed from formed sheet metal. People start to die in some rather messy ways, causing panic among the remaining players, who suspect each other, as well as a stranger who is apparently somewhere in the warehouse. When only a handful are alive, the killer's identity is revealed, and the movie shifts into a manic hunt and destroy mode, where the killer tries to quickly finish off the remaining survivors.

The blood and gore in The Murder Game, are probably the only reasons to see the movie. To keep the killer's identity hidden, much of the violence is not seen onscreen, but there are a couple of interesting gore scenes, and a flashback reveal. Putting that aside, there isn't much else to recommend about the film. The writing is poor, the dialog is dreadful, and the actions and behavior of the characters is annoying, and rarely makes any logical sense. The acting is not very impressive, but still probably does justice to what is simply a very unpolished screenplay where the general believability is close to zero from start to finish.

One of the extras is a commentary by director/writer Robert Harari, and members of the cast and production staff, that is mostly a yuckfest that provides little hard information about the film that was mostly a labor of love, by those involved. It does appear that the humor produced by the ridiculous plot, was apparently completely unintentional. That this film managed to garner some critical awards, is quite a remarkable achievement, as it does not seem to be intended for the discriminating horror or slasher fan.