All Fun and Games

It's hard to take this wannabe horror flick serious: it's just so totally lame and unscary! The story is chaotic, the writing is lazy, the direction and editing thrive on cheap effects like flashing images and constant sudden sound-bursts, and the goings-on got rather repetitive and with that even tedious.

Asa Butterfield plays the lead character, I hold him in high regard since Sex Education, but his appearance here is a serious lapse of judgement. They gave him a weird hairdo, made him talk with a heavy American accent, and worst of all: let him walk through most of the movie like a robotic zombie, with piercing eyes and a develish grin, trying very hard to look like someone possessed by a 17th century Salem-witches curse. To no avail, the effect was just ludicrous. Maybe it all would have been reasonably palatable, if they had made it into a horror comedy, but alas, it was all meant to be dead serious. I'm sorry for Natalia Dyer, who did a fine job. And as far as Butterfield is concerned: let's quickly forget this unfortunate mishap.

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.

Rather boring and predictable. I suppose it's worth a watch if you're really bored and can't find anything else to watch. Not much else to say other than that.. Around 3/4 in I was ready to switch it off and find something else to watch but figured I've gotten this far so I might as well watch the rest. Pretty difficult nowadays to find good horror movies so I guess I'm not surprised. Too bad though I think this could have been a much better movie if it had been given a little more effort. It feels kind of rushed and more like a goosebumps episode designed for teenagers rather than an actual horror movie.

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.

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.