Jason's machete, Freddy's glove, Michael's butcher knife, Leatherface's chainsaw...why not a killer with a javelin? They're so practical! This movie is so dead-serious and yet feels like a parody. A soft-core porn parody. And it's pretty hilarious, though I seriously doubt anyone involved meant it to be that way.My favorite example of "comedy" is two long shots in two separate locker rooms. The males are running around in whitey-tighties, including showering in them and then the film ventures into the female locker room where all the girls are completely nude, front, back and in almost every shot. Sure, I know I'm not the demographic for this film, but with careful editing, you could've given the illusion of the males naked without showing anything. It was just excuse #91 of showing fully naked chicks. I digress, I just finished this and the ending had the obligatory killer explaining his/her motives to the final girl...and I still don't know why the killer did all that killing. But, at least it's hilarious whenever the killer's onscreen: we just see this shadow of the killer with the javelin posed to be thrown at the victims and some crazy score. It's fantastic cheese.But...not as humorous as when they show the javelin travel through the air at the students. I imagine those scenes must be seen by someone high. Most...laughs...ever.Basically, there's an Olympic training academy run by four red herrings and students are getting, ah-hem, picked off one at a time. Oh, and they're being legally prescribed steroids because 1980s. Not sure if that's relevant because I still don't know the motives of JK, or Javelin Killer. And no, it's seriously not worth my time to go back and rewatch the ending. I really don't care that much. The movie was extremely hard to watch anyways: the budget was so low, they couldn't afford the electricity to keep the lights on for more than half the film.I award this movie one extra star for the unintentional comedy and I could see the actors, despite their terrible portrayals and dialogue, really trying. They did put their heart into it. But, more so for the downright, laugh-out-loud scenes. ***Final thoughts: I don't recall how exactly I learned of this movie - it was just a few days ago I first ever heard of this 1984 slasher film. But, what made me want to see it was the back cover of the VHS which read: "...Far too many people at the academy have motives. Dr. Jordan with his illegal use of drugs in training. Overly-demanding Coach Webber. Lesbian Coach Drew. Therapist Diane Paine, a maternal figure who takes her work into the bedroom..."Wait. Hold up, 1984. You are seriously lumping in a lesbian into that suspect bunch? And with nothing attached, just "Lesbian Coach Drew"? It's stated that one of the actresses who played a lesbian character took a filming break along with everyone else and came back to the shoot changed into a Born Again Christian and refused to kiss another woman, even for the sake of acting. Huh. Maybe we should've changed "Lesbian..." to "A Born Again Christian student" as a suspect. To me, that's just as offensive.

Yet another slasher movie from the 80's. This one is set in a sports academy and has the novelty of the killer using a somewhat unorthodox weapon - a javelin. But that novelty wears off after a while. There is not much suspense, no real clues to the "mystery" part, and the ending - especially the motivation of the killer - is absurd. There is also a rather laughable scene where the killer enters a pool in full scuba gear, javelin in hand, and his/her soon-to-be-victim fails to notice anything and keeps on swimming! On the plus side, there is ample nudity, a few well-done gore effects, the two main girls are cute, and most of the character interactions sound genuine. Enough good points to get this movie 4 stars out of 10.

Take some characters that look like they came out of the 'Fame' TV series, add a script ripped off from countless 'Friday the 13th' and 'Halloween' clones, throw in a Dario Argento type music theme from 'Demons 2' and you have the ideal makings of a grade B straight to video or in this case, DVD film.I too, bought this from a pound shop in the UK and that's about what it's worth. No more, no less. For 90 minutes of brainless fun, it's OK and quite enjoyable if you don't expect too much. And also can amuse oneself by spotting all the trappings of the 1980's, leg warmers, BIG hair and slang, i.e. 'making out, you're out of your gourd,'etc. No use trying to detect who the mystery killer is as the rhyme and reason for it is so far off the logic scale as to be unreadable! Even for slasher films, this one is mega-dumb and just shoe-horned into the plot in the final moments with a handy discarded newspaper with a convenient, 'this explains everything,' revelation.For lovers of kitsch horror movies only.

"Fatal Games" is standard slasher fluff only with a lower-than-usual production value. It's about a killer wielding a javelin who begins picking off the athletes at the Falcon Academy of Athletics one by one. Unfortunately, the low budget shines through on most occasions. The supposed "Academy" is obviously just some high school, and the acting is truly terrible. Slasher movies aren't known to have good scripts and excellent acting, but contrary to popular belief most of them were actually very well made with healthy budgets. "Fatal Games" obviously was not, which is probably the reason it never got a theatrical release. Of course the only exception is Sally Kirkland, an underrated actress who was nominated for an Oscar in 1987 but here has little to do.Another thing that sets "Fatal Games" apart from the other slashers in terms of quality is the sleaziness. The film has little gore, but TONS of nudity. I think almost every female cast member strips down to the bare at one point. (Though somewhat hilariously, in a desperate attempt not to show ANY male nudity, the guys wear jock straps while taking their showers!)That said and done, "Fatal Games" is actually minor fun if you catch it in the right mood. It's certainly better than junk like "Graduation Day" (which this film is often compared to since both slasher films have sports themes) There are plenty of cheesy moments -- most of the highlights occurring during the last twenty minutes when the killer is revealed. Obviously I wouldn't dream of giving it away but I will say that he/she has one of the dumbest, most unbelievable motives EVER!!!Oh, and there's also a cool theme song! :)