The Bottom Shelf #131

Directed by: Robert Harari

Starring: Samuel Klein, Katie Sirk

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When I was a kid, I didn’t notice when a movie was made for a paltry sum. I couldn’t tell the difference between something that cost 16 thousand bucks or 16 million. Especially when it came to horror films. My parents were never big fans of them, so while I was rather young when I was first exposed to stuff like RISKY BUSINESS and REVENGE OF THE NERDS, it wouldn’t be until I was 18 that I would watch some of the more famous blood and guts pictures. I was over 21 when I watched the original HALLOWEEN for the first time. Yes, I know… poor, deprived Zara. My point is that whatever horror movies I watched when I was younger were the ones that I would sneak viewing of at a friend’s sleepover or in the middle of the night on a HBO free preview weekend. Blood has always been blood to me and the acting in horror movies has always seemed to be of the strained soap opera variety. So big budgets or the lack thereof don’t impress me one way or the other.

Which is a good thing for THE MURDER GAME. This is a movie with a solidly traditional horror plot line, one which features a group of high school friends plodding around a month-to-month storage center, playing a demented game of – you guessed it! – murder. They get locked in and everything is as hunky dory as it is when they play at mom and pop’s place until the story has to produce something substantial and then the bodies begin to pile up. As the friends try to make it through to the morning when they can escape the storage facility, questions about the identity of the killer arise. Fingers are pointed, people are accused and a somewhat obvious suspect is revealed.

The acting here sways between forced (I don’t understand why they would have contemporary teenagers say that they should “stop with the Abbott & Costello act” when I doubt any of them would know who Abbott & Costello are) and satisfyingly plausible. The best of which comes from Samuel Klein as the transplanted “misfit” cousin of one of the group members. His character’s look is a little too Hot Topic-middle class-suburban-angst-ridden-Dashboard Confessional for me, but look past that and you’ve got yourself a more than decent actor with a intriguing future. The most interesting thing about this entire affair for me is that if this movie had been given a moderate budget and a fanboy-chic director (say… Eli *gag* Roth), it would have gotten mass distribution and could have pulled in a healthy sum if released during this time of year. If that had been the case, I probably wouldn’t have watched it. What I really liked about the film is that it was made with heartfelt intensity, even if the dialog is clunky. Not many movies, especially those with obscene financing, can say that these days.

Favorite Scene:

I’m going with the smoking at the school scene but only because the guy who’s the teacher looks a lot like someone who taught at my high school.

Favorite Line:

“I’m not gonna sit here sniffin’ this doobie all night…”

Trivia Tidbit:

Frankly, I watched this because my buddy Lauren recommended it in a Myspazz bulletin. That’s where I get all of my most pertinent information in life. Bulletins have never steered me wrong. Well, aside from the ones about the dead babies under my bed. I’m still waiting for them to deliver on those.

See if you liked:

CRY WOLF, STAY ALIVE, THE HOLE

ORGASMO, CLASS OF NUKE ‘EM HIGH, THE TOXIC AVENGER

It was a challenge, sitting through all of these flicks. I’d like to projectile vomit in the direction of my buddy Paul Gagne who had a major hand in helping me wade my way through the best, worst and most indecent of the low-budget flicks. Thanks to him, I’ll never be the same. Bastard.