Interesting, intense, off the wall little obscurity plays as if it could have been written for the stage, involving three main characters and sticking to mostly one set. Seymour Cassel is George Manning, a man whose wife and children are away for his 40th birthday. He makes what will turn out to be a fateful decision: letting two strangers, attractive young women, into his home. They start out as friendly and seemingly normal, and before too long George and the gals - Jackson (Sondra Locke) and Donna (Colleen Camp) - are having a threesome. Soon after that the girls reveal their true colours, making themselves at home, refusing to leave, and playing all sorts of twisted games - psychological and sexual - with the hapless George. Reportedly Cassel, ordinarily a very reliable actor, was so unhappy making this that he declined participating in the post production process, so his dialogue is dubbed by another actor - all too obviously. Still, by the end of this thing, you can't help but *really* feel sorry for this guy. The story turns into an unrelenting streak of insanity, mean-spiritedness, and kinkiness that will undoubtedly turn some viewers off while intriguing others. When it's all over, it's hard to be sure what the point of it all is, but helping to keep it watchable are two very vivid performances by Locke and Camp, who make for a memorable pair of crazed antagonists, playing dress up, helping themselves to Georges' wifes' wardrobe (not to mention the food in the house), tying George up, dumping food on him, engaging in some carnal relations, etc. Director Peter Traynors' direction isn't the most skillful - overall, this is pretty crude - but "Death Game" still has an odd fascination about it that prevents it from being a waste of time; it doesn't hurt that Locke and Camp are so uninhibited and show off the goods regularly. (They claim at one point to be no more than 17 and 15 years old, but one senses that this is all just part of the game.) But people shouldn't worry that there's no consequences for the gals in the end; the last second resolution is so shocking, yet so silly, that it's likely to make a fair amount of people burst out laughing. Repeated use of one very goofy ditty titled "Dear Old Dad" (music by Jimmie Haskell) is likewise good for some chuckles. Trivia item: the production design is by Jack Fisk, and two of the set dressers are none other than Sissy Spacek (Fisks' wife) and Bill Paxton! Six out of 10.

It's the end of a hot day. I'm tired, ran my six miles in ninety degree heat, threw down a couple of cold ones and figure I'll knock off another flick from my Mill Creek Mystery Collection. At an hour and a half I figure I can get through this without falling asleep and still have the stamina to do a review here. Usually I'll read a few other posts, positive and negative, and then offer my own thoughts. By the way, 'johnmorghen' and 'asgbeat' are the ones to read on this board, I'm only offering my paltry two cents.That song - please pry me off the ceiling. Every time it came on I wanted to groan and correct the lyrics - it should be 'DEAR old Dad', not 'good old Dad'. A bit of a misnomer though, George (Seymour Cassell) didn't seem all that dear or good to me. But gosh, how was he going to explain all this to the wife and kids when they got home? Especially the delivery guy in the fish tank. George probably should have taken his lumps calling the cops, no fifteen or sixteen year old would have had the street smarts to pull this one off. But it wasn't their first time if you can believe the script. Jackson (Sondra Locke) says to Donna (Colleen Camp) after George's first getaway - "They always take the bait don't they?" All the while I'm waiting for George to do the manly thing and take out the pair of bimbos, but it was just too maddening. Which is why I take exception to some other reviewer comments disappointed with the ending. For what Donna did to the cat, it was poetic justice to be taken out by the SPCA truck. And a whole lot more satisfying than the end of "No Country For Old Men", if you know what I mean.

What to do when you're a happily married man but your beloved wife is out of town on the night of your fortieth birthday, yet two sexy young girls show up at your doorstep, literally throw themselves at you and invite you for a threesome in your own sauna? You kick them right back out on the street, of course! That'll teach them to interfere with a perfectly happy family! Well, that is what you should do in order to prevent guaranteed catastrophes to happen the next morning, but admittedly very few male individuals are likely to respond like this. Neither does the handsome George Manning in "Death Game", so he's stuck up with two obtrusive chicks in his house. Their behavior gets more psychotic with each hour that passes, until they even set up a fake trial against poor tied up George. "Death Game" is not a very good movie, but that's merely because there was too little money available for the execution and because Peter S. Traynor has no clue how to direct a suspense movie. The basic premise is quite unusual for a 70's exploitation movie (usually slavering hillbillies terrorize poor young girls instead of vice versa) and the whole concept is actually very much ahead of its time! Especially nowadays, the horror genre brings forward a lot of movies revolving on brutal home-invasions. People are subjected to fear and torture in their own houses and it's a very popular and money-making concept at the moment, like for example in "Funny Games" and "The Strangers", but this crazed little movie already did something similar in the 70's! The 40 first minutes of "Death Game" provide silly entertainment (Sondra Loncke at the breakfast table) and irresistible trashy goodness (that soundtrack!!), but unfortunately the second half of the film is incomprehensibly boring and unexciting. It shouldn't be, since the girls get more deranged and all, but it suddenly feels as if the writers' inspiration had vanished and only padding remained. There are still two fantastic highlights to experience near the end, though! One involves a pussycat (did you know glass windows aren't cat-proof?) and the other is a stupendously laugh-out-loud hysterical ending. Even a threesome wouldn't have such a fantastic climax! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to search for that awesomely catchy "Good Old Daddy" theme song on YouTube!

It's a bad movie from the 70s about killer lesbian hippies taking on the establishment. Sort of like a "Thelma & Louise" without any feminism. Both painful and compelling, the film had tense and giddy, while also wishing it would just end.And then the end came and I was utterly baffled and amused. The final 10 seconds of the movie over, I blurted over and over, "What the hell was that?" I backed up, watched it again.Then I forced my girlfriend (who had not seen the movie) to watch it."That is pretty weird," she said.Pretty weird? It makes no sense at all! Wow! If you enjoy odd, bad film, I think you'll love this movie. Even when it's at its worst, it's fun. There's the 1970's moustache "wakka-chikka" aspect. Then there's the campy screaming semi-naked young women. And then there's the goofy, straight-faced, comical horror movie aspect.Given the ending, I assume the people making this film knew they were joking. They had to know. Or else they thought the ending was deep. I don't know. But I am forced to admit that I really, really enjoyed this film a lot.