Stupid Games 2024 (Sandaled Kid Productions) Review
Stupid Games is an interesting take on the board game horror genre. Directed by Nicolas Wendl and Dani Abraham, the film is about a game night which goes horribly wrong. The film starts off well, establishing the two sides of the party, the bros and the girls, by focusing on them before the party. Saad Rolando and Gage Robinson both play off each other well and deliver that bro energy. Cass Huckabay, Alyssa Tortomasi and Ashwini Ganpule also are pretty good actress and deliver an entertaining performance.
The Poster Art is pretty awesome! Always enjoy when they do a hand drawn style.
If there is one drawback to the film, it does take a while to get started with the actual board game. There’s quite of a bit of visiting and wine and dining which takes place before any real conflict or mystery enters the movie. This mostly feels like filler to pad the runtime. Once the gameplay starts however, the film does pick up and there are enough strange moments and drama happening which keeps you guessing as what is happening.
The cinematography by Christan Klein is serviceable and does its job. There is one really cool shot at the dinner table where the dinner conversations have been divided into couples and the camera slowly pans back which stood out to me and was very neat. But otherwise Christan Klein is limited by the nature of the script itself. As the story mostly takes place in this apartment and is lit by candles for a majority of it’s run time. So the film is cast in a dim orange hue and can’t offer much variety.
The film pretty much looks like this for a majority of it’s run time
One thing I applaud the filmmakers, is wanting to stay true to the practical effects. The filmmakers used magnets, make up and wires for the effects in the film instead of green screens or digital effects. This makes for some cool shots as we see the game pieces move across the board by themselves. The creepy ghost also has lit up eyes which make for some spooky shots as well when we see it in the background. The custom made board game also adds to the production value. Even if the board game itself just feels like Scrabble mixed with Truth or Dare.
The story for the most part works despite a few kinks and ends with a bit of a fun twist as how the scenario came to be. Although once you know there is a malevolent force involved, you can pretty predict how it’s going to end. Overall, Stupid Games lives up the phase “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes”. It’s a production that plays things faithfully to the horror and drama tropes, but doesn’t try to push the envelope.
