Deadly Games

source: Deadly Games

My review was written in September 1983 after watching the movie on Cinemax. Filmed with the title"Who Fell Asleep?" during the horror production boom at the end of 1979, "Deadly Games" is an unsuccessful thriller marginally released last year and currently getting pay tv exposure and available on video cassette. Filmmaker Scott Mansfield has piloted a good cast in okay performances, but failed to provide the requisite thrills. Routine story, frequently undercut by knowing horror buff references, has Keegan (Jo Ann Harris), a writer for a music magazine, returning to her sleepy hometown where a rash of murders (detailed in usual stalk-and-slash, heavy breathing on the soundtrack fashion) has broken out. Though laid-back cop on the case Roger Lane (Sam Groom) doesn't acknowledge it, the chief suspect is his scarred, Vietnam Wa pal Billy Owens (Steve Railsback), whom the camera virtually indicts in the opening reels. While Keegan is meeting her mom (June Lockhart in a very small role) and old chums, picture drifts into old-fashioned romantic idylls, touch football games and other diversions, dissipating the atmosphere of danger. Harris gives a fun, personable performance as the independent heroine who can take care of herself, but the rest of the cast is relegated to stock roles. Fil's release title refers to a horror movie board game Groom and Railsback play parallel to the real-life killings. Railsback works as a projectionist in a horror movie theatre (star trio watch the 1932 "The Monster Walks" after-hours there one night), setting up many genre notations in the script. Ultimately, the fairly-predictable killer turns out to be merely seeking some excitement in a too-dull community, leading to a wholly unsatisfying, convenient freeze-frame ending. Tech credits are okay.

It's hard to tell what the intent behind Deadly Games was. At its best, it works as a small town mystery/romance/soap opera, but most of the scenes meant to be suspenseful or scary come across as undercooked and like the filmmakers didn't have their heart in it.

No pun intended - though a horror movie that is more about stopping your victims from breathing rather than slashing them, probably can't be called a slasher, right? Well I'll leave that technicality up to you to decide. The movie is not for everyone, not just because of the lack of blood (it does contain some nudity though, if that is something that makes it "better" for you). But just how it is told, the way it is actually resolved (or is it?) ... and generally trying to be way too clever for its own good. Leaving us mostly without any explanation ... not satisfying ones that is. Weird choices, like talking with the audience at one point - at least that's how it feels, unless he is auditioning or rehearsing ... but for what? Again, a very weird and confused movie. But still has a lot of influences - well very likely had. Like on Scream - and it is not just the phone call thing at the beginning but other things that Scream sort of adapted. If it was on purpose or not is another things alltogether of course.

This is a pretty messy movie. I saw it on cable when I was young and new slashers appeared every week on cable. It appealed to me at the time because the character who played "Keegan" was spunky and interesting, and the premise was, if I understand it correctly (somehow hinging on a gay subtext...?) unique for its time. There was also little else to watch back then. The story, such that it is, involves the murders of young women in a town, and the solving of those murders by the spirited Keegan, who has just moved there, and at least starts OUT as a character that isn't an empty-headed cliché. But who can tell what's going on? This movie just flaps along, presenting one disjointed scene after another, and characters you're never encouraged to care about in scenes that fall flat and look drab and ugly. The presence of the dynamic and almost always insanely fun Steve Railsback (soon to appear in "The Devil's Rejects") is barely noticed. It all becomes dull as a white color crayon very quickly with no gore, no tension, no logic and no story to speak of. This is why God invented the fast forward button. Or better yet, the "Stop" button. Put in another movie--any other movie--and enjoy a good evening's entertainment. I have a feeling this was cobbled together from the remains of several other movies somehow, like how Roger Corman's "Hollywood Blvd," which this resembles in a weird way, was assembled. I hadn't seen this for years, saw it for a buck on VHS and promptly recorded Scooby-Doo cartoons over it so it would have SOME value anyway...

Lest we forget that 1982 was still part of the Golden Age of slasher flicks, thus making this dull turd of a movie all that much more inexcusable. As others have mentioned, the film starts out OK, at which point we are introduced to the main character who is annoying as hell, subjecting the viewer to some of the most insipid female chit-chat and annoying attempts at wittiness this side of Gilmore Girls for no reason at all, as it adds nothing and only detracts from this tepid attempt at a slasher flick. You already know one or both of the clowns she is hanging around with are either doing the killings or at least in on it, so the whole boring mess just drags out until you get to one of the most retarded endings I've seen since Master Blaster, only with Master Blaster there is actually a resolution. It works good as a sleep aid, though--I could barely keep my eyes open and probably shouldn't have.

Deadly Games may have been sold as a slasher, but it's more of a murder mystery. Sure, the killings are pretty intense - a long drowning, burying a victim alive - but it's maybe even less a murder mystery and more a late 70s, early 80s small town romantic drama where lots of people swing and one of them - either a cop or Vietname vet - is a masked killer. It's interesting how little this movie cares about fitting into any neat and clean box. Clarissa Jane Louise "Keegan" Lawrence (Jo Anne Harris) is a rock journalist back home after the death of her sister, a murder that she's out to solve. After all, her sister didn't jump out of a window like that, right? She had to have been thrown. Dick Butkis, the Chicago Bears linebacker legend that had such a long career after that as a kid I just thought he was an actor, owns a coffee shop in town. That's where a lot of the exposition happens, like how strange Billy Owens (Steve Railsback) is, a Vietnam soldier not back home all in one mental piece who is obsessed with monster movies and his horror-themed game of Chutes and Ladders and oh yeah, he also lives in an old movie theater and sounds like someone I'd go out of my way to be friends with. That said, it's set up that he has to be the masked killer. Certainly the killer can't be Sheriff Roger Lane (Sam Groom), because he's nice and plays on the swings and romances Keegan. Director and writer Scott Mansfield seems out to make a movie that makes you believe it's a slasher and then pulls the rug out from under you with an ending that completely predates Scream - without spoilers, but man, that does feel like a spoiler. The board hame in this is Universal monsters inspired and I love that Roger and Billy have been playing it for decades, as well as the killer somehow knowing way too much about it. I can only wish I still had friends ready to play a board game that often. Coleen Camp and June Lockhart are in this as well, so my casting brain was quite impressed by who Mansfield got to be in this movie. It's not perfect, it's probably too long and too talky, but I enjoyed the laid back vibe of Deadly Games. The last ten minutes are worth the time that it takes to get there and I was pretty surprised by the leap that the film makes.

While not a bad movie, the only memorable parts were the deaths and the ending. The bright spot, however, was Colleen Camp's performance. While not the best ever, it was nice to see that she was acting as well as she was. Unfortunately, the movie was confusing and a lot of it made no sense for a while and even until the end... that's what I get for falling asleep through it, huh? It was pretty boring...

I got the Blu-ray today, so at least I can finally see the film as it was meant to be seen. First, let me say I would watch anything Jo Ann Harris is in, and she sparkles here and the rest of the cast is quite good as well. You can't lay the blame on the actors. The problem is that the script is fuzzy; not tight or cohesive. Sometimes with a film that doesn't quite work such as this, the film editor is to blame, but ultimately who is accepting the final product? Other times, someone with an idea for a film has found a great set location (here a beautiful vintage theater) and haphazardly writes a script around it. Again, the cast had a good pedigree, and performed well, but without a tight script, the audience is left less than satisfied. The killer gives a halfhearted speech near the climax describing his motivation, but it's too little, too late, the script failed to show us this throughout the previous scenes. Some may be turned off by the Vietnam veteran gone-bad implications. Mostly for Jo Ann Harris fans; others will be unsatisfied.

"Deadly Games" a.k.a Who Fell Asleep, which to be honest I did as it just dragged mostly for me. It started off well with a young woman getting disturbing phone calls and then getting attacked by a man in a ski mask, which was quite tense and exciting, but the outcome was rather tame. The aspect that I did like about it was the characters, especially the core female cast which I did find rather interesting and blossoming romance between the female lead and the cop, which was actually kind of sweet and they had decent chemistry together. But after a while it did get rather tedious, like for a start none of the other murders had any real spark or tension to them. But the lead actress Jo Ann Harris was rather likable as the female lead, and quite refreshing to have someone real and plucky in the role. It's just everything else in this movie just lacks, for a start the killer was just too easy to figure out and when it came down to the final scenes, it was just well dull and total lack of proper motive, just made everything that came before it rather disappointing. All in all there are glimmers here and there of a decent slasher movie, but sadly not enough of anything special with a mystery element that just doesn't work, despite good performances, this movie was just way too boring to keep me that interested.