A novel idea while still somewhat flawed overall
Trying to enjoy the good life, a group of friends living in a small town find a game that forces them to kill a specific number of people around them and set out on a rampage to fulfill the quest given to them or be forced into a deadly situation and must stop themselves before it ends.On the whole, there's plenty to go on here that makes it a lot of fun. One of the big positives to the film is that this one starts off with the kind of effort it really wants to be which gives this one some really big action. Right from the get-go, the lifestyle montage of the friends hanging out together drinking, doing drugs and trying to simply get by before immediately launching into the game is quite fun. The concept of the game being on a timer and forcing it to occur whether they like it or not really makes this one work well here for that brings along a lot of rather fun action scenes as the consequences of the game makes for a fun time overall. There's a swarm of bloodshed throughout here from the multitude of gunshot-wounds, and the scenes of them mutilating the corpses in order to fulfill their curse from the roadside ambush that knocks off several victims at once, the different random scenes of them going around town trying to whittle the numbers down and ending up at the big action-packed rampage in the hospital where it really ramps up the bloodshed provides this with some nice bits as well. The fear of knowing that the game is willing them to commit murder gives them a nice sense of suspense as to when the clock is coming up and their next target needs to be taken out, and a twisted sense of black humor in the absurdity of the situation while delivering some solid gore effects works as well and keep the film moving along rather nicely without all that much of a down-period overall. These here give this a lot to like even though it does have some problems. While the film attempts to address some big issues about how far people will go in order to question their own humanity, ultimately the film fails remarkably in that aspect. In regards to how easy it is for them to buy into the concept of the game, there's nothing special this does as the film doesn't do anything with this golden material as it just goes on with little regard to the commentary this had set up. Mainly by going all in on the concept of the killing rather than debating what will happen to the group as they carry out their rampage, it doesn't provide this one with the kind of needed social commentary it's trying for with this storyline as the characters don't have the necessary weight to get this one done. Being annoying millennials who don't have any real connection here which really undoes the message about violence it's trying to convey. However, this doesn't prevent the film from being really fun as the positives are a lot more impactful.
Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence Graphic Language Brief Nudity and drug use.
score 7/10
kannibalcorpsegrinder 21 July 2017
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3759784/35958
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