Rating: ***
Starring: Miles Buchanan, Marcus Graham and Steven Grives
When a computer expert and his buddies decide to rob a department store one night just for the kick of it, they weren't expecting a disturbed policeman, who's recently taken out of the force thanks to their shenanigans, would be stalking them inside to get even. With a damaged security system locking them inside, the kids will soon have no choice but to fight back or die trying.
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| Psyche flushed down the toilet here |
While it resembles familiar shopping mall slashers such as Chopping Mall (1986), The Initiation (1984) and Hide and Go Shriek (1988), Dangerous Games (1987) is actually low on the bodycount, making up for its lack of murders with hard-hitting action and intense chase scenes. Often labeled as the Ozzie version of Die Hard (1988), it has its fare number of gun fights, vehicular action and ambitious scenes (such as a ledge walk all too familiar to The Ledge segment of Cat's Eye (1985)), any horror tropes left are pushed a tad bit to the side and given a fair twist. For one, the film's villain, Officer Murphy, didn't start out completely homicidal. He's disturbed, but not enough to actually want the teens dead and his presence in the mall is more on scaring them in revenge. It wasn't until he accidentally threw a throwing knife to a kid's heart that he goes ape shit crazy - schizophrenic spinning, hot flashes and all.
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| I'm the disease. You're my victims |
The moment he dons the army suit and a mean set of crossbows is also the moment he starts hunting them down. Sadly, as badass as this is, he never really get to kill another victims. Instead, he plans to rid of them and the evidence of his man slaughter altogether through your typical action movie cliché of blowing things up. Not very slasher-like, but the plentiful, beautifully shot stalk-and-chase scenes before this last act are, so the film still has its worth among bodycount fans.
All in all, Dangerous Games (1987) is a nice simple thriller despite the low-brow direction and too low of a kill count. Guess some things are better off easy and straight forward, and I definitely recommend this as a rental!
Bodycount:
1 male gets a thrown knife to the chest
Total: 1
Simple can be good, as long as it doesn't commit the cardinal movie sin: being boring!
ReplyDeletewell, it depends. it starts pretty slow, but it gets more interesting when he starts batting mannequins.
DeleteGod, I barely remember this film now. That Stephen Hopkins also directed Elm Street 5 is all that remains in my head.
ReplyDeleteHud
Well, saw this film a few days before Christmas, and I got to hand it, it was fun! Thanks again!
Delete