{"id":24347,"date":"2022-02-23T00:40:20","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T08:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=24347"},"modified":"2022-02-23T00:40:20","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T08:40:20","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-deadly-games-1982","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=24347","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: DEADLY GAMES (1982)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This film is currently available as a Blu-ray Special Edition from Arrow Video.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As anyone who reads these Blasts from the Past! articles already\nknows, the late 1970s and early 1980s marked an incredibly busy period for\nhorror movies\u2026 and in particular, slasher features. You would seemingly find one\nof these titles opening every week at cinemas and even more appearing on video\nstore shelves. There were so many, in fact, that even genre fans had a hard\ntime keeping up with them all. Even with the genre being incredibly popular, flicks\nwould still manage to fall through the cracks. One of those flicks was Deadly\nGames<\/em>, which received a spotty release at theaters before appearing on VHS\nand Betamax. While the feature has gone out-of-print and been hard to locate\nover the years, it has slowly built a following. Many have written that its growing\npopularity might be because of the story\u2019s focus on its female characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this is certainly true to an extent, what is unusual about\nthis tale is that the leads are all considerably older than in other genre flicks.\nThis isn\u2019t a film about college students being sliced and diced after sneaking\noff for a romantic encounter with another student. These characters are much\nolder and, in between the killings, viewers see these adults deal with failing\nmarriages and unfaithful spouses. It\u2019s an eccentric movie that changes tone\nfrom comedy to melodrama and finally horror, but one that is completely unique.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrow Video have decided to help preserve Deadly Games<\/em>\nand are presenting it on Blu-ray with a 2K restoration from the original camera\nnegative. As with all of their other releases, the disc itself is excellent.\nThe flick looks better than it ever has before and arrives with plenty of informative\nextras that detail the movie\u2019s production history and present some analysis of\nthe story\u2019s quirkier aspects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plot involves music journalist Keegan Lawrence (Jo Ann Haris), who returns home after learning that her sister has died under strange circumstances. While Keegan states that she was never particularly close with her sibling, she still feels compelled to find out what happened. The protagonist talks with Detective Roger Lane (Sam Groom) about the case and reconnects with old acquaintances. They are naturally sympathetic and disturbed by what happened, but also seem preoccupied with their own personal problems. Most of them suspect the town\u2019s creepy projectionist and Vietnam war veteran Billy Owens (Steve Railsback) as the man behind the crime. But as it turns out, Roger is very close with the oddball and immediately dismisses him as a suspect. Soon the entire female population finds their lives at risk from a masked figure and the bodies pile up. Even Keegan\u2019s investigation stalls as she finds herself drawn closer and closer to married detective Roger and his pal, Billy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The film\u2019s lead is an interesting character, a reporter who\nis chatty to a fault and curious to get whatever information she can out of people.\nSome of the dialogue is oddly written and, at times, her behavior does come\nacross as difficult to believe (whether it\u2019s her absence of grief over her sister\u2019s\nbrutal death or indifference to the lack of progress Billy is making in the\ninvestigation). Still, the movie does have a unique voice and the eccentric protagonist\nis more distinctive than the heroes of similarly-themed genre efforts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As mentioned, a lot of the movie is preoccupied with the lives\nof the townspeople and the secrets they are hiding from one another. This\naspect also isn\u2019t as well developed as it could be, but does at least add a bit\nof dramatic spice to the proceedings. A board game is also a significant plot\nelement, suggesting that each roll and turn is influencing who the next victim will\nbe. It is underutilized and the filmmakers definitely don\u2019t really take the\ntime to explain the game and how it specifically connects with who or why people\nare being slain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But on the plus side, there are some elaborate and impressively\nstaged murder sequences. These killings aren\u2019t particularly graphic, but they are\ndistinctive (and include a victim being pursued through a house, another drowned\nin a pool and one who is attacked in a cemetery). There is some impressive photography\nin the movie too. This includes a setup of Billy watching a football game with the\ncharacters reflected in the lenses of his sunglasses, a nicely lit fireside\nchat at the beach, as well as creepier background elements inside the town\nmovie theater. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In all, this movie contains a lot of plot holes and the\ncharacters make some bizarre choices, but the movie is well-paced, unusual and it\ndoesn\u2019t feel like a typical slasher. It\u2019s a decent horror picture and the film\u2019s\nuniqueness is certainly addressed in the bonus features on the disc. The first extra\nis a commentary track with The Hysteria Continues (a group of horror movie experts\nfrom various parts of the world). The trio of critics discuss all of the strange,\nsometimes disparate elements that make up the picture and also note some subtle\nthematic undercurrents. They detail the plot similarities to the 1996 feature Scream<\/em>\nand also address an underlying gay subtext with a couple of the characters that\nmight pass some viewers by. You\u2019ll also get tidbits about the various cast members\nand their other credits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, this Blu-ray includes an interview with co-star\nJere Rae-Mansfield (who married the director of this film). She explains her\nexperience and delivers some behind-the-scenes tidbits about the production.\nApparently, the film was shot in 1979 and did have some trouble finding a\nproper distributor. When it was picked up and released in 1982, the movie had\nbeen recut and shortened, frustrating the director and the interviewee \u2013 this fact\nmay also explain some of the unclear and underdeveloped story elements. And for\nthose interested to know what the original intent was, the full and complete\nscreenplay is included as BD-ROM content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is also an interview with special effects and stunt coordinator\nJohn Eggett. He explains how he got involved in the film business and how, during\nthis era, special effects and stunts were often supervised by the same person\nand not separate departments. He discusses some of the tricks and dangerous\nstunts used in the film to shock viewers. There is also a detailed, extensive\npromotional image gallery with just about every still and poster ever created\nfor the title. It also comes with the original trailer for the film.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Deadly Games<\/em> is another fascinating little genre title that will appeal to fans looking for a movie that takes a different spin on the slasher movie formula. And Arrow Video have once again done an excellent job in transferring the picture to Blu-ray, providing not only great image quality but as much background details about the film’s production as could be located. Slasher movie enthusiasts are advised to check it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This film is currently available as a Blu-ray Special Edition from Arrow Video. As anyone who reads these Blasts from the Past! articles already knows, the late 1970s and early 1980s marked an incredibly busy period for horror movies\u2026 and in particular, slasher features. You would seemingly find one of these titles opening every week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":24348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[114,1832,1836,2933,2949,3075,5425,5426,5427,9319,10733,14523,17554,18515,19092,22825],"class_list":["post-24347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-114","tag-arrow","tag-arrow-video","tag-blasts-from-the-past-2","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-reviews","tag-blu-ray-reviews","tag-deadly-games","tag-deadly-games-blu-ray-review","tag-deadly-games-review","tag-horror","tag-jo-ann-haris","tag-mystery","tag-sam-groom","tag-slasher","tag-steve-railsback","tag-thriller"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}