DeadlyGames

Deadly Games (1982)

Have you ever watched a movie and asked yourself, “What were they thinking?”. Well Deadly Games is one of those kinds of movies. The plot starts off with a woman coming home late from something and finds a stalker creeping around her house. She eventually goes out the window and dies. The next day her sister shows up and is poking around while the cops are still investigating. Not only does she not seem to be that upset, but is happy when one of the cops hits on her! It must be something in the water because no one seems that upset at all, about the sister or later victims. Mores bodies pile up and the identity of the killer is revealed (though it was obvious for most of the way thru). Then we get one of those WTF endings tacked on at the end to really screw things up…

I’ve seen some really bad slasher movies come out in the ‘80s. In fact I sort have made it my “job” to track these movies down and watch them. I suppose I’m a glutton for punishment, but Deadly Games was almost too much. The plot is all over the place and makes very little sense. Just to reinforce that the characters show little if any reaction to the things going on around them. In spite of the bodies showing up no one seems to be upset. In fact they keep wandering off by themselves in dark parking garages. Even the main character stays in her sister’s house, which has no front door anymore because the killer broke it down! Her instinct is to immediately jump in the shower. Sorry but when the characters are this inexplicably stupid I just can’t get into the movie at all.

Even when the movie does start to make a little bit of sense they manage to ruin it. We find out who the killer is and for no reason he tells an empty room why he did it. He is quickly dispatched because someone has a gun that they magically find and pick up right before he charges them. Then some weird stuff happens and the movie ends with a maniac sliding down a rope. I don’t know who wrote this thing, but they should be ashamed of themselves.

We don't even get good kills, which of course is a staple of the slasher genre. There is a girl going out of a window, a strangling, and some lame bit with a swimming pool. So in addition to not having a script they apparently had no money for effects work either. This might explain why the movie is dark as well, since lights and a lighting director costs money. Though to be fair this might have just been my copy of the movie. That said I'm in no big hurry to find a better copy.

This is a terrible movie that I have to say everyone should pass on. The story is terrible; the kills are lame, and the killer uninteresting. They managed to misfire on everything that makes a slasher movie worth watching.

½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer