All Fun and Games

I had great expectations about this movie. Asa Butterfield has always been a great actor since he was kid, so I was excited to see him on a horror movie, but his acting is one of the only things that saves this movie. Overrall, "All fun and games" is a mix of "Evil Dead", "The Conjuring 3" and "Supernatural". It would not surprise me if there was a post credits scene showing The Winchester Brothers arriving on Salem to investigate the case... Not to mention the fact that the movie itself begins with a huge spoiler that breaks all the tension that could fright the spectator... Not so much fun, almost no Games...

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The plot of this film is incredibly infantile. Adolescent finds knife haunted by demonic children. Demonic children use knife to possess his brother. Brother forces his acquaintances to play games, in which the only winner is the one who survives. The target market here seems to be somewhere between kids and young teenagers. But it's too violent for young children. And too childish for teenagers. So it fits into that medium where no one is bound to like it. Being a Canadian...I wanted to enjoy this, if only because it has the kid from Son Of A Critch in it. But the plot is way too bad. The character development is lackluster. And there's too much lead up before the action kicks in. Which ends as abruptly as it begins. And they can't even get through a damn game ffs. There's really nothing to like about it, to be honest. Other than it being relatively short. So you don't have to waste too much of your life indulging in it. But that's about all it has going for it. Other than decent production quality. 2.5 out of 10.

Regardless of how weak the story is. The sound for me made it almost unwatchable I have a state of the art sound system a sony bravia oled tv And while it looked great the mix made Me have to adjust volume constantly Even with dialoge enhancement on .or off i tried it all the levels were so bad I thought the acting was good considering what they had to do or say I so wanted to like this A rather interesting idea for a horror movie. Not the same 4 friends in a remote cabin, or found footage garbage. The premise had promise but alas did not live up to the movie i had in my head Oh well. They tried.

So, quick run down: disgruntled family without a dad, struggles with misfit kids who find a knife that is curses by a demon and so the possessesd one kills people. Whew! I wish that summary was difficult to do, but it wasn't. That is all the plotting that happens in this film. They try to make it seem scary, with dread filled narration. But as soon as the characters start to talk, we can see 1 trope, 2 trope, 3 tropes galore! Every bad decision made in horror movies is made. And the biggest egregious mistake they make is that no time is spent to establish characters that matter or that we care about, so everything that happens in the movie is "Eh, Who cares." Poor acting that leads to over the top moments that don't go anywhere. Nothing follows logical sense for a person making choices, but the film simple builds based upon what they need to have happen. Contrived. Oh, they start with some historical fact and from this we are to believe that this is the reason. No. They use this historical fact as a lazy way to establish what they wanted to be scary. They failed. The film looks nice if a bit dark.

A literary pace and some Salem-witch lore defined "All Fun and Games" which felt like a clichéd but curious campfire fable. I liked how they mentioned some stories being lost along the flow of history. One such loss was alluded to be a curse, passed down through an ensorcelled blade. The Fletcher family experienced the blade's dark mischief, which later saw Marcus Fletcher (played by Asa Butterfield) committing murder and more. He, Natalia Dyer as Billie Fletcher, Laurel Marsden as Sophie Fletcher, and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Jonah Fletcher shone in the movie, which didn't exactly give any of them enough room to stretch their acting tendons. But they boasted great chemistry in every scene they were in. The folk-tale flair with which the movie progressed made it seem worth watching, though just once. I liked how they built up the demon activity. Even though the plot picked up pace it grew predictable, a fact that removed much of the story's intrigue. Jonah unwittingly found a strange bone blade and innocently began experimenting with dark witchcraft without fully realizing what he was getting into - rather, losing himself in. What later happened to his older brother Marcus made more sense in retrospect. The knife essentially held the demon-corrupted soul of Daniel Good (played by Shylo Molina) who 'passed on' from one person to the next by making them It (like the game), which progressed to Hangman (another game), and so on. But the 'devil made me do it' trope has been done to death, so this plot-element soon wore out its welcome. The historical flashbacks and 'possessed realm' scenes were remarkable. They evoked a 90s vibe and, moreover, weren't mundane. Maclean Fish as the fanatic puritan had good screen presence. But the screenplay barely gave him the time of day, so it was interesting but also disappointing to see sporadic flashes of his original deeds. The way they minimally showcased supernatural activity was okay. Because not all paranormal dangers in real life are readily visible, let alone describable. The focus soon fell on the ritualistic bone knife, which held plenty of curiosity value. From its whispering blade to its creepy etchings, I liked its design and use in the movie. The diary of a persecuted woman (Joanna Good, played by Marina Stephenson Kerr) from that era equally captivated. She apparently chronicled her being accused of witchcraft and how they killed her son Daniel as well. She wanted revenge and so, ironically, turned to witchcraft to claim it, starting with making a cursed bone blade using one of Daniel's bones. The 'games' angle tied up neatly with this lore, but the whole affair felt heavily contrived and overly rushed. Though the family dynamics were on point, the plot itself lacked depth and nuance. It was also far from scary. However, a few eerie elements managed to make the movie passably intriguing. All in all, "All Fun and Games" did not quite live up to its name, but it stoked my curiosity nevertheless and made me watch it till the end just to see how things would pan out.

This was... fine enough for what it was. It overwhelmingly possessed the vibe of a horror made for a younger demographic, yet had language and conversational subject matter that was pretty mature. So in that way it seemed a bit confused. The acting was surprisingly decent and I was particularly impressed with the youngest brother. The story was pretty basic but still had some very light intrigue to it. They had some decent sfx at times that were cool. I am partial to a folk horror, a period horror and anything witchy... and this had aspects of all three. So in that way I am a bit biased. 4.5 rounding up to a 5, for most I would probably say a 4. Most likely wouldn't recommend unless you have similar preferences as I.