Originally released in 1982, Arrow Video is set to release a fully restored version of the film Deadly Games. Written and directed by Scott Mansfield, the film takes place within a village where a spate of murders are happening. Journalist Keegan (Jo Ann Harris) returns home after the death of the first victim, who happened to be her close friend. As she reconnects with the world that she left behind, she finds herself in the killer’s cross-hairs.
Deadly Games begins well, the opening ten minutes offers some pleasing moments of dread. It is here that we get our first murder. Mansfield stretches out the intensity, shooting it from the killer’s voyueristic perspective. Once our victim has succumbed, it takes a long time for any further action to happen. In fact, it’s close to an hour later. The build up to this next murder is almost non-existent. The synopsis suggests that the town is being terrorised by this killer, and yet with so much breathing space, the residents barely batter an eyelid. Any tension created from the start fizzles out and from there on, everything is just a little drab.
Tonally, Deadly Games is all over the place. There’s the eerie build up to the murder at the begining, but then it becomes an uninspired drama. Many people of the town appear to be getting it on with people who aren’t their significant others, everyone gossiping about one another. Then we randomly get a rom com worthy extended montage of Keegan going on a series of dates with a new love interest. Eventually Mansfield remembers that Deadly Games is meant to be some kind of slasher / thriller and Keegan finds herself in harm’s way. With so much downtime in between kills, it’s impossible to keep horror fans sustained, Deadly Games simply peters out.
Lots of meandering between murders, and few kills to speak of, Deadly Games just gets dull and uninteresting fairly quickly. A definite ugly sister in the eighties vault, beyond the initial moments there’s little horror to grasp onto, and what is there is hardly worth the effort.
Deadly Games
Summary
An identity confused slice of yesteryear horror, Deadly Games starts with good intentions but fails to follow-through on its initial promise.
Deadly Games was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest 2021.
