"Fatal Games" focuses on students at a sports academy who are training for a Nationals competition to become Olympic hopefuls. Unfortunately, someone is intent on dispatching them all with a javelin before they can make it.
This little-seen slasher from the mid-1980s is just about repetitive as it is charming. The film has an off-kilter sensibility almost from the very start, stemming from its hokey theme song. What ensues is a repetitious rinse-and-repeat of teenagers getting butchered in the halls of their sports academy after-hours.
While there is little connective tissue between the murder sequences to keep the proceeds particularly engaging, "Fatal Games" is wonky enough to be memorable and reasonably entertaining. The gritty cinematography and wide shots (the film tends to rarely use close-ups) give it a cheap-ish feel redolent of a number of films of its ilk.
Though its murder sequences tend to be repetitive, there are a handful of spooky shots of the cloaked killer (or their shadow) that are effective and ominous. Sally Kirkland appears here as a lead sports coach, while Nicholas Love (perhaps remembered by some genre fans for his role in "The Boogeyman") appears in a minor supporting part as a javelin player.
All in all, "Fatal Games" is a rote slasher offering that, despite its very visible flaws, is still enjoyable as both a relic of the '80s low-budget slasher market, as well as the sports culture of the period. Worth watching for genre fans who have a taste for the less refined. 7/10.
This little-seen slasher from the mid-1980s is just about repetitive as it is charming. The film has an off-kilter sensibility almost from the very start, stemming from its hokey theme song. What ensues is a repetitious rinse-and-repeat of teenagers getting butchered in the halls of their sports academy after-hours.
While there is little connective tissue between the murder sequences to keep the proceeds particularly engaging, "Fatal Games" is wonky enough to be memorable and reasonably entertaining. The gritty cinematography and wide shots (the film tends to rarely use close-ups) give it a cheap-ish feel redolent of a number of films of its ilk.
Though its murder sequences tend to be repetitive, there are a handful of spooky shots of the cloaked killer (or their shadow) that are effective and ominous. Sally Kirkland appears here as a lead sports coach, while Nicholas Love (perhaps remembered by some genre fans for his role in "The Boogeyman") appears in a minor supporting part as a javelin player.
All in all, "Fatal Games" is a rote slasher offering that, despite its very visible flaws, is still enjoyable as both a relic of the '80s low-budget slasher market, as well as the sports culture of the period. Worth watching for genre fans who have a taste for the less refined. 7/10.