Death Game (1977)


Death Game was a movie no one was happy with.  It was made in 1974 but not released until 1977, and the only reason for that was because Sondra Locke had a starring role in The Outlaw Josey Wales and this low budget exploitation film just happened to be sitting around.  The stars of it were a bit surprised when it did surface as director Peter S. Traynor had made some questionable deals to get it made and clashed with both the cast and crew throughout.  Still, the movie, a remake of a 1973 film called Teenage Innocence, managed to have enough surreal scenes and decent performances to gather a cult following.

George Manning (Seymour Cassel) is a well-off businessman with a loving wife (Beth Brickell) and children.  While he and his wife are enjoying some time together with the kids at their grandparents' Karen Manning has to suddenly leave as one of the kids has appendicitis.  Manning is enjoying some time alone when two girls, Donna (Colleen Camp) and Jackson (Locke) show up at his door looking for a party they are going to.  Since they are soaked from a storm he lets them in to dry off and wait for their ride.  However, the girls seduce him, and he thinks that will be the end of it. 

The next morning Manning awakes to find the girls still there and making a mess of his kitchen.  He demands they leave and threatens to call the police, and they in turn claim to be underage and that they will tell the police he raped them.  He manages to take them into San Francisco and drop them off, but they make their way back and tie him up before proceeding to trash his house and ruin his life. 

Anyone who has scene Eli Roth's Knock Knock has pretty much seen this movie.  Roth's film received funding from Locke and Camp, with the former hoping to get a better version of the movie made.  While Roth failed on that end I can understand why she was eager to do so.  From reading about her experience making Death Game it sounds like one of the most miserable points in her career.  Peter S. Traynor was a first-time director who had no idea what he was doing, with the original director being fired before shooting started.  There were constant fights on the set and cinematographer David Worth pretty much ended up directing the film. 

Because of that it is a surprise that anything good came out of it.  Unfortunately, Cassel's performance isn't great, and part of it is because Worth had to dub him as he refused to come back to do A&R due to his conflict with Traynor.  Locke and Camp carry the film despite the lack of direction they received and turn in fantastical performances that happen to rise above the pedestrian material.  At one point the movie seems like a porno, with the stereotypical '70s music to go with it, while other times it feels like total chaos.  

At no point, though, does this become a good movie.  A watchable one, an interesting trainwreck, but never any good.  The ending is abrupt and stupid, feeling like something imposed by the then-defunct Hays Code.  It doesn't even bother to end with the kind of dark humor Knock Knock managed, even if that was one of the few good scenes in the remake.  

Death Game (1977)
Time: 91 minutes
Starring: Sondra Locke, Colleen Camp, Seymour Cassel
Director: Peter S. Traynor

 

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