by Scott Batchelor, Contributing Writer
All Fun and Games has a catchy idea, one that has been executed to success by other films. Truth or Dare played around with the idea of playing the titular sleepover game, and featured kills with some interesting twists. Ready or Not received rave reviews and was a breakout role for Samara Weaving. So when the description of All Fun and Games includes, “a cursed knife that unleashes a demon that forces them to play gruesome, deadly versions of childhood games,” you’d just think that the filmmakers are trying to continue a new subgenre. But I don’t see any real craft here. This is a 75-minute film that doesn’t seem to be really doing anything for anyone.
The first line of All Fun and Games is an I-know-what-you’re-thinking cliché. We are then treated to the worst trope of storytelling: showing us the ending at the beginning to try and hook us. Future writers: Please stop. If you think you need to hook us in this way, you’ve lost me. I am already going on this journey with you. Two lazy bits of storytelling right after another is not promising.
During this quick glimpse into what is to come, Billie (Natalia Dyer) provides exposition that we won’t get elsewhere, or even really talk about. Dad left the family because he wanted to. Mom and her brother now take care of the kids. Billie also provides a small recap of the history of Salem, but not enough to insult your intelligence. She goes on to tell us that there were some stories that were never shared, and maybe if they were, “my brother would have left that knife where he found it.”
We then waste no time. We jump right into Jo (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) finding the previously mentioned knife with his brother Marcus (Asa Butterfield). As they are walking home, a couple of bullies make fun of them by making lewd comments about their sister and their abandoned father. This leads to an offscreen fight that I guess Marcus won, because he is still walking home. These bullies exist merely for body count, and to cause a fight within the family. The siblings have what I think is supposed to be a more advanced sibling rivalry about who is having sex with who, and they dive into declarations of hating the house and family before Mom grounds everyone from their phones, setting up the lack of 911 calls when it pops off. All the while, Jo is hearing a voice seemingly coming from the knife. We are given what amounts to a throwaway line about Billie and Marcus being twins, and that Billie received a kidney from Marcus when they were babies, which I am not sure is even a thing that can happen. It is so oddly stated that I have no idea what it is supposed to do for the audience. This movie is way too short to be caring about characters, and it makes no attempt to tell us anything about anyone else.
To try and learn more about why he is hearing voices, Jo cleans the knife and makes the fatal error of reading the inscription off a dark, mystical object. This brings the curse on him and his family. Billie’s best friend and boyfriend stop by to go to the party, while Uncle Bob (Erik Athavale) joins them to share in the drinking and drugs, and now our victims are in place for Jo to be taken over by the demon who blackmails the teens into playing. Just kidding! Everyone leaves the game, the demon possession is forced onto Marcus, and it just gets less interesting.
A child forcing teens into children’s games is interesting; I was on board. Marcus being the demon, though, does nothing for me, but that also may be because the acting does nothing for me. The performances feel choppy. Almost like they rushed through the shooting. It is not quite B-level bad, but it only barely misses that mark. The established star powers help keep the film out of camp territory, but I don’t know if that is a good thing. Maybe a little camp could have at least made it worth a recommendation. Actually, it would need a lot of camp.
Characters are heavily sacrificed for the story, but the story is incredibly uninteresting. The film slowly tries to build lore, but nothing is actually gripping. A demon was wronged a long time ago. Now it is getting revenge. There is not a long enough time spent on anything to make me care. The lore the film begins to build sounds like it could be worth exploring, but it’s glossed over to get to the gore. Or what they think is gore. The whole setup just leads to boring executions. The life-and-death games being played are Hangman, which ends after only two letters being guessed, hide and seek (which had its own horror movie of itself a few years ago), and flashlight tag. Nothing about these games are actually that twisted — they’re a lot more of a letdown.
I wish there was something that really stood out, but I can’t think of any reason you should watch this film. This script feels like it was written 20 years ago, and the demons feel uninspired — their movements resemble something that maybe used to be creepy, but it passes as low effort now. I enjoy a short movie every now and then, but something has to be going for it. All Fun and Games is neither good enough to recommend, or bad enough to be considered fun. Ultimately, I am left experiencing no fun, and the only game being played is at the audience’s expense.
Rating: Didn’t Like It
All Fun and Games is currently available on VOD
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