Review of The Game

The Game (1984)
Hello? Can anybody hear me out here?
28 April 2001
Wow. What a lonely page. It seems to me like nobody has seen this stinker. Well, I suppose I should say something, after all, the great Bill Rebane put so much work into this, it would be a shame to not raise my hand and say, "Yes, I am a loser who will rent anything with a bloody woman on the box cover."

Nine characters (Geez, that's a lot now that I think about it) are invited to a mansion where three screwloose millionares run a game involving deep fears, with a prize of 1,000,000 dollars.

There's actually a strange similarity between this concept and the current reality-TV boom, but beyond that The Game is pieced together hackwork, although it is admittedly better than some or Rebane's other films such as The Giant Spider Invasion (which I suppose one could enjoy as a lark) or Invasion from Inner Earth (where red light represented alien life). The Game still has that feel of the producers just making a movie tailored to fit whatever props and settings they had at their disposal. Which in the case of this film, would include a cabin, the live rig from some motel lounge band, a prop gun, a card table, and a monster hand puppet.

During the last fifteen minutes the "plot" gives way entirely, and the whole thing almost turns freeform, with the folksy narrator admitting that even he doesn't know what's going on. To prevent being deluged by letters and E-mail from millions of fans about the meaning of it all, the movie concludes with no end credits. But hey, at least the movie ended.
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