All Fun and Games

This movie makes me ask one question: HOW? How are the Russo Brothers - respectable filmmakers- Executive Producers on this dud? How did someone get Natalie Dyer, Asa Butterfield, AND Annabeth Gish to sign on to this lame project? How did a script this bad ever get greenlit? How did it somehow gross over a million dollars globally when it should have never been anywhere near a theater? We will never know the answers to these questions. What we DO know is this is a first rate turd of a movie with zero redeeming qualities other than it is mercifully short. Even the sound stinks in this trash. Stay away.

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.

Regardless of how weak the story is. The sound for me made it almost unwatchable I have a state of the art sound system a sony bravia oled tv And while it looked great the mix made Me have to adjust volume constantly Even with dialoge enhancement on .or off i tried it all the levels were so bad I thought the acting was good considering what they had to do or say I so wanted to like this A rather interesting idea for a horror movie. Not the same 4 friends in a remote cabin, or found footage garbage. The premise had promise but alas did not live up to the movie i had in my head Oh well. They tried.

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.

On paper, All fun and Games has what should make up a good horror film; a cast of young rising star actors, a setting seeped with supernatural history and an interesting curse. However it ultimately falls flat.

The whole length of the film is only an hour and 15 minutes, barely constituting an actual film. The characters are introduced in a quick narration that basically should have been the opening 15 minutes if it hadn't been rushed. The dialogue from the possessed individuals is more silly than terrifying and the whole "I will play, I won't quit" doesn't really sound like something they'd say in the 1600s.

Trying to fit the kills into the form of some disturbed games just takes away their potential to be violent or original. It also binds the evil spirit in rules that are ultimately completely ridiculous. The only reason it's even getting a 3/10 is because I like the cast and this was not exactly their best work.