All Fun and Games

We visit Salom again in yet another low budget horror fling.

This time our young star of the film Jo, finds a knife made from a human bone after breaking into an old eerie shack. Oh he finds a book of chants and spell like things aswell.

Well you get the drift of it all then. Lights flicker and spooky voices are heard after he takes them home. It's all very predictable from there. Someone gets possessed and chases everyone whilst pulling funny faces and walking like he's shat himself. Ghosts of witches past make the odd appearance to add to the atmosphere and people die All very predictable.

Hard-core horror fans may find something to like,but it was all a bit samey for me.

When I sat down to watch the 2023 horror movie "All Fun and Games" here in 2024, I had never actually heard about it. But I was drawn to it, given its cover. And of course with it being a horror movie that I hadn't seen, then I would take the time to sit down and watch it.

Writers J. J. Braider, Eren Celeboglu add Ari Costa put together a fair enough script. It certainly was an entertaining enough movie, though I have to say that it wasn't really a script that brought much of anything new to the horror genre. Now, that doesn't make "All Fun and Games" a poor movie, far from it, but it just was contents that has been seen and done before in other movies. But I will say that "All Fun and Games" was entertaining enough for what it turned out to be.

Of the entire cast ensemble in the movie, I was only familiar with actress Annabeth Gish. It should be noted, however, that the acting performances in the movie were good. And they did have a great cast ensemble put together for the various roles and characters.

The effects in the movie are fairly good. It wasn't a movie that relied heavily on special effects though, for better or worse. So you're not in for 76 minutes of extraordinary special effects galore, if that is your thing.

While "All Fun and Games" was a watchable movie, it is hardly a movie that I will return to watch a second time. I will say, though, that the movie is worth sitting down and watching if you are a hardcore horror fan.

My rating of "All Fun and Games" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Kathy Fletcher (Annabeth Gish) is a single mom to Jo, Billie (Natalia Dyer), and Marcus (Asa Butterfield). Their father had sobered up and left the family. They live in their longtime home in Salem. Jo finds a cursed knife. One night, he demands that the group play a game.

This is basically just Asa Butterfield cutting up people with that knife. It's not actually scary or compelling at all. It rather boring. Eren Celeboglu and Ari Costa are the writing/directing team. This seems to be their first full length feature. Everybody has to start somewhere. Not everyone can hit the first pitch out of the park. Let's hope that they do better next time.

Why did I even press play? Who let Asa Butterfield star in a horror movie? Why did I even finish this? Are some of the questions I have in my mind after finishing "All Fun and Games". Incredibly disappointed, even though I went in with low expectations. Full of cliches and cringeworthy moments. This movie made me question if these actors were actually good in the first place. I loved Benjamin Evan Ainsworth in Bly Manor, but he definitely wasn't up to par here. Also, Annabeth Gish, you're amazing, what are you doing here? I'm not even going to start on Asa Butterfield. Spare your time, hell, watch a romantic comedy, even they're less predictable. I'd highly recommend you skip this one and watch something worthy of your time instead.

The plot of this film is incredibly infantile.

Adolescent finds knife haunted by demonic children.

Demonic children use knife to possess his brother.

Brother forces his acquaintances to play games, in which the only winner is the one who survives.

The target market here seems to be somewhere between kids and young teenagers.

But it's too violent for young children.

And too childish for teenagers.

So it fits into that medium where no one is bound to like it.

Being a Canadian...I wanted to enjoy this, if only because it has the kid from Son Of A Critch in it.

But the plot is way too bad.

The character development is lackluster.

And there's too much lead up before the action kicks in.

Which ends as abruptly as it begins.

And they can't even get through a damn game ffs.

There's really nothing to like about it, to be honest.

Other than it being relatively short.

So you don't have to waste too much of your life indulging in it.

But that's about all it has going for it.

Other than decent production quality.

2.5 out of 10.