Deadly Games (1982)

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

"Deadly Games" a.k.a Who Fell Asleep, which to be honest I did as it just dragged mostly for me. It started off well with a young woman getting disturbing phone calls and then getting attacked by a man in a ski mask, which was quite tense and exciting, but the outcome was rather tame.The aspect that I did like about it was the characters, especially the core female cast which I did find rather interesting and blossoming romance between the female lead and the cop, which was actually kind of sweet and they had decent chemistry together. But after a while it did get rather tedious, like for a start none of the other murders had any real spark or tension to them. But the lead actress Jo Ann Harris was rather likable as the female lead, and quite refreshing to have someone real and plucky in the role.It's just everything else in this movie just lacks, for a start the killer was just too easy to figure out and when it came down to the final scenes, it was just well dull and total lack of proper motive, just made everything that came before it rather disappointing.All in all there are glimmers here and there of a decent slasher movie, but sadly not enough of anything special with a mystery element that just doesn't work, despite good performances, this movie was just way too boring to keep me that interested.

The film starts off as any proper slasher film should - with an opening scene murder. The quality of the VHS I have is poor, so I couldn't see everything that happened during it, but it was a good attempt at creating intensity. After the first kill, we get introduced to the police investigating the crime as well as the victim's sister Keegan (a reporter) who had left the town years prior. A lot of the middle portion of the film is Keegan seeing some old friends who still live in town and reconnecting with them. There are some scenes with a creepy theatre manager named Billy mixed in as well to create suspicion. The town's main police officer is also a suspect, and some of the movie is spent showing the female lead (Keegan) falling for him despite the fact that he is married. A few of the other women in the town are killed off leading to Keegan facing off against the murderer.Deadly Games could have been so much better. It has some great things going for it; a killer wearing a black ski mask, cool movie title, decent plot... but the makers of "Deadly Games" add so much unnecessary filler that it becomes quite a bore. We get scenes of the character's playing sports and having a party, which are really pointless by the end of it all. There is also one strange choice by the director of "Deadly Games", for some reason he has Keegan act as if she doesn't even care that her sister died. She just comes back to town and is all cheery with her friends and mother. Oh, there is this strange two minute musical montage of Keegan and the two suspects playing a board game, pretty much the only connection the film has to it's title next to the fact that we see the killer playing around with the board game on one or two occasions. They could have done so much more with it, but they didn't.Acting wasn't that bad, I like that the Keegan character is different from your regular/ordinary slasher film heroine. The ending was ridiculous and insulting in a way. You spend the whole hour and a half watching it for.. that? Anyways, I'd recommend this strictly to horror completests. It drags on way too much, and because of that you lose focus and lose interest.4/10

Not as bad as some reviewers will have you believe, but this isn't Don't Look in the Basement or Re-Animator either. This film centers on a plucky gal named Keegan (Jo Ann Harris) whose sister is murdered in the opening scene. She returns home to solve the case with help from Vietnam vet sheriff Sam Groom who is one of two suspects. One of the main flaws is that throughout the film, we, the viewers, know that the killer can either be one of two Vietnam vets: the surly, ladiesman sheriff who screws everything in site or his battle buddy Steve Railsback who operates the local theater. Needless to say, the suspense was lacking. The viewer has two suspects. Which Vietnam vet is killing off all the pretty things in town? VIOLENCE: $$$ (This won't disappoint gore hounds but what will disappoint them is the time between death scenes. There is far too much filler in the script--displayed as characterization--that will assuredly lead the less entranced viewer reaching for the fastforward button. The opening scene has Alexandra Morgan strangled. Later Colleen Camp gets hers in a pool, but it is a poorly filmed scene. Denise Galik gets throttled after a romp in bed. Other dames get attacked also).STORY: $$$ (The story starts off very promising: a sexy woman gets pushed out a window to her death. Shortly thereafter we are introduced to a unique character, Keegan, that isn't your ordinary screaming head but a wise acre. Keegan is fun for about half an hour, but once the story starts to sputter, Keegan's antics become less eccentric and more annoying. Also, the story deals with a board game but the screenwriter failed to mix that subplot into the story effectively).ACTING: $$ (Jo Ann Harris, although interestingly plucky at the beginning, will indeed get on your nerves. A character like that needs to be a co-star at best and they had that in the acid tongued waitress that Denise Galik masterfully played. The lead needn't be that off-putting. Sam Groom was alright as the sheriff but fans of Steve Railsback and Colleen Camp need not apply. Colleen has about ten minutes screen time and when she gets killed in the pool, you can hardly tell--given the poor lighting--that it was Colleen who even entered the water).SEXUALITY: $$$$$ (Here you won't be let down, unless this isn't your thing. The lovely Alexandra Morgan (I believe that's her name) has a lengthy topless scene in the opening scene of the film. She is well put together if you know what I mean. Jo Ann Harris has a brief topless scene before entering the shower and the heavenly Denise Galik goes threads free in bed with Sam Groom).

I somehow thought this movie would turn out to be an undiscovered treasure, but no such luck! Visually murky and poorly plotted, this is basically an oh-so-familiar retread of "Halloween", though the director shows some talent and tries to surpass the limitations of the script. The lousy ending does not help. (*1/2)