The Friendship Game

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source: The Friendship Game

As I stumbled upon this 2022 sci-fi horror movie "The Friendship Game" in 2023, I opted to watch it because it was a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, and also because it had Peyton List on the cast list. I had not actually heard about this movie prior to watching it, so I didn't know what I was in for. So writer Damien Ober and director Scooter Corkle had every chance to impress and bedazzle me. And they both failed to do so. Sure, "The Friendship Game" was sort of watchable I suppose, but it wasn't really a movie that appealed much to me. The storyline was just not really all that interesting, and as the narrative proceded at a rather slow and dull pace, it was getting more and more difficult to maintain interest in the storyline. The acting performances in "The Friendship Game" were fair enough, though I wasn't really impressed with it. And as for Peyton List, well then she was much better in "Cobra Kai" than she was here in "The Friendship Game". For a horror movie then "The Friendship Game" just didn't cut it for me. Having grown up watching horror movies for about 40 plus some years, then this movie just didn't really had the contents that mattered. I am sure that newcomers to the horror genre might get a kick out of this movie. My rating of "The Friendship Game" lands on a four out of ten stars.

This is a low budget sci-fi thriller that over does the flashback scenes to attempt to entertain the viewer. It is shot with a nostalgic tinge & shot intentionally to "try" & give it that "edgy" feel. This fails in all the important areas that make a good film. The characters are very bland and one dimensional. This makes it hard for the viewer to relate and emphasise with what happens to them. The story is jarring and boarder line boring. The story hinges on the notion of if this group of "friends" can survive the ultimate supernatural friendship test. However, the bigger test is for the viewer to fight the urge to quit watching until the very end. I lost count on the numbers I fought this urge. If only the writers had fought harder and wrote a better film they would be proud of!

A confusing, teen angst movie that makes a terrible attempt at trying to be clever and when that fails tries to cover it up with what can only be described as 1970's artsy fartsy poor horror/scifi movie effects that don't hide anything I was honestly expecting the hurdy gurdy man song to start playing for most of this nonsense that in the end amounted to absolutely amounted to a nothing in a nothing movie, about four nothing teens doing nothing but being miserable in a horror movie that isn't a horror movie but a teenage angst movie that is as dull as watching paint dry on growing grass in the middle of winter.

Having been sorely disappointed by 2022's Hellraiser reboot, I was admittedly drawn in my the contraption shown in the trailer. Eerily reminiscent of the puzzle box seen in the aforementioned film, I decided to give this film a chance where I normally wouldn't have even bothered (horror movies starring teenagers get an automatic, "No, thanks!" in my house). Man, I really should have listened to my intuition. This movie is what happens when you have a cool concept, make it for the lamest audience possible, and call it a day. Seriously, what were the people responsible for this thinking and how were they given a budget to make it reality? The biggest problem this movie has are the wholly unlikable characters. You have the moppy depressed one, the drug user, the typical insufferable teenage girl, and the lame male best friend, each one more awful than the next. All of them are drug users and alcohol drinkers, so that was an huge put-off for me. But then the movie wants you to constantly jump time frames and locations, so that you're wondering if what you just watched was happening in real time, a version of the past, a version of the future, or none of the above? If it weren't for their acting, which was actually really well done, these characters would have sealed what was an already unwatchable film. But you know what they say about people with unnaturally colored hair? Yeah, that's what you're going to be seeing for an hour and a half. I should have turned it off as soon as I saw it. The only reason I'm giving this movie any stars are; A. The acting- talent is talent, and despite how much I disliked every single character, they actually did a great job with the trash script they were given. B. The "game" itself is actually really dope looking, and when the center sphere starts rotating it actually looks really slick. DO NOT waste your time on this movie. It is not even recommended to the most forgiving of horror movie fan, let alone the general public. It has almost no redeemable qualities. Luckily, it's the type of movie that will be ignored and forgotten by most people. I can't in good conscious recommend this movie to anyone.

''Have your friendships survived?'' WOW! That was one stupid movie! Where is Pinhead and the Cenobites btw? Lol. This movie has one of the most ridiculous names and concepts I've ever seen. IMDB says this movie is science fiction, I don't really see the ''sci-fi'' anywhere in this film. Its more like horror/thriller/fantasy. We basically have a magic box/cube, that's the best way to describe it I think, that tests the friendship of 4 teenagers. After talking to the box/cube about their deepest desires we see that one teenager vanishes and their friendship starts falling apart, also somehow the box grants their wishes? The characters start hallucinating, having nightmarish visions. Is this box an entity? A demon? A genie, is it haunted by John Wick's evil spirit? I don't get it, and why is it so obsessed with people's friendships? We don't get any explanation about why or how the box was created. Also what's up with this creepy middle-aged woman who gives the box to the teenagers? Is she some kind of witch or demon? Why would she put these teenagers in this kind of awful situation? We never get an answer, it's dumb. Also we got a kid, I don't know how old he is, he seems to be 10 or 12. He is basically a stalker and a hacker, he has no friends and all he does all day long is watching people through their cameras and he has a really huge collection of private videos he records. He is also able to mess with people's phones. How the hell a kid can be such an advanced hacker? Only the writers know. We see that the cube is also able to mess with their memories, their computers, their phones, their minds, their actions, their vision, their faces and even take the form of a human like it did with Kyle. Is this box God himself? And why is everybody glitching all the time? What's up with that? Is this box a PC virus or something? The closer we get to the end of the movie the more confusing and convoluted it gets. The box possesses teenagers, it has a voice and a will and it wants souls, this box is definitely Pinhead in disguise, damn this plot is atrocious. The last 30 minutes of the movie are a badly written bad trip, it's insufferable, nothing makes sense. And the movie ends where it started.. everybody is safe? Was it all a dream? Did they pass the test? Someone else gets the box? The middle-aged woman is back at it again? What? What? What? I'll be kind and I'll give it a 3/10 because the first hour of the movie was kind of decent. Don't waste your time!

Cotton (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) picks up the Friendship Game at a yard sale. It didn't have the original box, but it was still $10.00. The rules are simple. You place one finger on the octagon and say out loud your inner most desire. If you survive the game, you will be friends forever. If not you die. The teens play the game and they are placed in various settings and various outcomes testing their friendship. The first setting has them at a party drinking. Zooza (Peyton List) and Robbie (Brendan Meyer) hook-up while drunk and this was overseen by Cotton who runs out. Cotton is now missing while the others try to solve the mystery as to what happened, sometimes watching themselves on the computer. They play the game and begin to wonder if there is a universe where they don't die. It was a semi-interesting film which seemed to be more science Fiction than horror. Four good characters. Guide: F-word. Sex. No nudity.

I really tried to like this movie and give it a good try, I think the concept was good and I was excited to see this put together especially with Peyton List, to see her take on horror and see what she could show us. However, the main motives of the movie were never solved which has been a major problem for most, the characters were meant to be challenged and it's easy to say the characters haven't been challenged very much, with the switching back and forth of characters making it a confusing way of conveying the story too. Could have been a short episode to bring some interest but definitely not good as a whole movie Again, really tried with this one to make it make sense and add theory but there's not enough given there.

Cotton (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) picks up the Friendship Game at a yard sale. It didn't have the original box, but it was still $10.00. The rules are simple. You place one finger on the octagon and say out loud your inner most desire. If you survive the game, you will be friends forever. If not you die. The teens play the game and they are placed in various settings and various outcomes testing their friendship. The first setting has them at a party drinking. Zooza (Peyton List) and Robbie (Brendan Meyer) hook-up while drunk and this was overseen by Cotton who runs out. Cotton is now missing while the others try to solve the mystery as to what happened, sometimes watching themselves on the computer. They play the game and begin to wonder if there is a universe where they don't die. It was a semi-interesting film which seemed to be more science Fiction than horror. Four good characters. Guide: F-word. Sex. No nudity.