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| Images courtesy of Vinegar Syndrome |
Not long after the splash of the 80s slasher horror film
craze ignited by Halloween and Friday the 13th with
regional independent filmmakers having a go at the increasingly popular genre
film coming out of the woodwork, a crossover of the high-school sports team on
its way to the Olympics with the slasher flick came about in the form of Herb
Green’s Graduation Day mixing the two disparate ingredients
together. A few years later in Juan
López Moctezuma (Alucarda) screenwriter Michael Elliot’s one and only
feature film as a writer-director Fatal Games it only doubled
down on the mixture of sports and slayings even further with a slasher horror
that’s equal parts Graduation Day with just a hint of Sleepaway Camp lurking
in its high-school locker rooms.
Falcon Athletic Academy, Massachusetts and its seven-member
team of young sportsmen and sportswomen working everything from gymnastics to
track, field or swimming are up for a Nationals competition. However, one by one each member of the group
starts dropping like flies, leaving the doctors pumping their athletes with
steroids perplexed. However, slithering
like a snake in their midst is a masked tracksuit-adorned serial killer armed
with a javelin and a bloody axe to grind with the competitors who appear to be
on the murderer’s hitlist. Everywhere
from the track field out in the open to the locker room to the swimming pool or
fitness rooms become proving grounds for the killer to deliver some astounding
if not absurd slayings that have to be seen to be believed and a grand finale you
couldn’t get away with today.
A distinct product of its time that languished in VHS Hell
for decades before recently unearthed dupe 35mm film elements were found by
Vinegar Syndrome’s archival team, Fatal Games (shot as The Killing
Touch) while rife with the stock trade elements of the slasher film
including but not limited to over-the-top kills and plentifully gratuitous nudity
as well as some now politically incorrect plot developments is a delightful
little beer-and-pizza flick. Sporting
Academy Award nominee Sally Kirkland as the film’s chief sports coach, Halloween
Ends actor Michael O’Leary, Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart actor
Nicholas Love and Wag the Dog actor Sean Masterson, the ensemble
sports/sex high-school comedy turned slasher thriller for being a regional cheapie
isn’t poorly shot or acted. Incidentally
also during a nude scene actress Lynne Banashek didn’t want to do, scream queen
Linnea Quiqley of The Return of the Living Dead fame doubled for her.
Co-written by Rafael Bunuel (yes son of the Luis Bunuel), Elliot
and character actor Christopher Mankiewicz (yes Mank related), Fatal Games has
some surprising amount of writing talent attached considering their relations
to some of the greatest film people who ever worked in the profession. Shot handsomely by Killer Klowns from
Outer Space cinematographer Alfred Taylor, Fatal Games despite the
roughness of the only surviving elements located by Vinegar Syndrome looks nice
though a good number of darker scenes in closed locker rooms and swimming pools
render some of the kills difficult to decipher.
The electronic soundtrack by future The Real Ghostbusters and Mighty
Morphin Power Rangers composer Shuki Levy is off the charts and in its own
right evokes a certain amount of dread and unease. You could play the music during a memorable
girl’s locker room shower stalking sequence and feel your hair standing on
end. It’s that creepy!
While receiving largely negative reviews and invariable
comparisons to Graduation Day preceding it, Fatal Games went in
and out of theaters while critics dunked on the perceived campiness of the film
including one who referred to Shuki Levy’s soundtrack as ‘farting synth’. Despite this, the film gradually attained the
VHS driven cult status of a beloved little slasher flick. No, not all of its outlandish developments
will go over well today upon further revision but for fans of Vinegar Syndrome’s
dedication to archiving bonkers videotape horror favorites in beautifully
restored special editions as well as longtime fans waiting with baited breath
for this disc release will find more than enough to enjoy here. Unlike the more popular Graduation Day which
definitely paved the way for this, Fatal Games in spite of the
absurdities and outlandishness is somehow scarier.
--Andrew Kotwicki
