Review: Deadly Games
Blu-ray: Deadly Games (1982)
A masked killer with more than a passing interest in a horror-themed board game is playing his own real life version of it and killing people in a small American town.
Returning to the town after the murder of her sister, “Keegan” (Jo Ann Harris) meets up with local cop Roger (Sam Groom) and cinema projectionist Billy (Steve Railsback), but soon discovers that she is now part of the killers deadly game, with Roger and Billy being prime suspects.
Keegan then devises a plan to find out who the killer really is.
If you go into this expecting the usual 80’s slasher fare of numerous inventive killings followed by blood gushing everywhere, then you’ll probably be disappointed. Deadly Games plays out like a slow paced drama about a town full of swingers, with lots of dialogue heavy scenes involving characters that didn’t particularly grab my attention too much.
There are decent performances and a wild musical score that accompanies everything, along with a final freeze frame that may well leave you finishing the movie with a puzzled expression on your face, but in-between that there wasn’t a lot that kept me invested in what happened to the characters.
The special features entertained me more than the movie, especially the commentary track by The Hysteria Continues which made the viewing experience far less tedious than watching without it.
Available for the first time ever on disc, this is a great release for horror/slasher completists, though it may not win over anyone else.
Special Edition Contents:
- Brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative
- Original uncompressed mono audio – Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary with The Hysteria Continues
- Sooty’s a Sh*t – a brand new interview with actor Jere Rae-Mansfield
- Practical Magic – a brand new interview with special effects and stunt co-ordinator John Eggett
- Extensive image gallery featuring never-before-seen production photos and promotional material
- Original Trailer
- Original screenplay under the title Who Fell Asleep [BD-ROM content]
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork by Ralf Krause
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by film historian/author Amanda Reyes
Review by Dave from a disc kindly supplied by Arrow Films via Fetch Publicity.
