Main cast: Natalia Dyer (Billie Fletcher), Asa Butterfield (Marcus Fletcher), Benjamin Evan Ainsworth (Jonah Fletcher), Laurel Marsden (Sophie Fletcher), Kolton Stewart (Pete), and Annabeth Gish (Kathy Fletcher)
Directors: Ari Costa and Eren Celeboglu
All Fun and Games opens with the rest of the Fletcher family watching in despair as the eldest kid Marcus is arrested and taken away by the cops for what is described as “the crime of the century”. Whatever Marcus did was attributed to a “psychotic episode” but this is not true.
In other words, Marcus was possessed, but good luck explaining that to the judge and jury.
The movie then goes back in time to reveal what really happened that time when Marcus has his “psychotic episode”…
Hmm, Asa Butterfield is losing his creepy-cute looks as he ages, and he is starting to look like a healthier Edward Furlong. I guess that’s what not really breaking out as a teen heartthrob does to a person. He plays the brooding, rebellious eldest brat that constantly clashes with his mother Kathy and his siblings without a cause.
Then there is the more outgoing sister Billie that is the polar opposite of the studious Sophie, who announces to the audience as soon as she can that she’s a lesbian, because present day. The older siblings are not pleased whenever their single mother Kathy has to work and make them look after Jonah, and Jonah isn’t too happy at having them babysit him either.
The whole fun and games start when Jonah finds a cursed knife and gets possessed by what seems like the spirit of a whackjob killer from the past. I know from the opening scene that the demon or spirit eventually moves on to Marcus, and conveniently enough, there is a party with all the annoying teens in the neighborhood congregating to be sitting ducks for this spooky villain.
This movie has some hype attached to it because the Russo brothers are involved in the production. I’m also sure it’s no coincidence that Mr Butterfield also appeared in a horror film released by the other production folks of this thing; he probably signed a two-movie contract as he has plenty of free time these days.
However, this one feels very by the numbers. The characters are familiar, the scares feel rote and mechanical, and the whole thing just feels tired and uninspired. It’s a safe movie that doesn’t dare to deviate from standard horror movie tropes, perhaps because it doesn’t want to offend anyone by being too scary or inventive.
The movie is also sadly made obsolete by the release of Evil Dead Rise, which has far stronger horror elements while retaining the whole “family ruined by a haunted relic, oops” premise. The sight of Mr Butterfield running around chasing people with a knife doesn’t feel as scary or threatening as it should be.
The movie tries to spook me with the usual array of loud noises and lazy jump scares, but this only once again underscores how Evil Dead Rise has most of the elements in this movie only to execute them all in a so much better manner.
One more thing: the demon thing makes its victims play games—hence the title of this movie—but that aspect feels like a half-baked gimmick inserted as an effort to distinguish this movie from those oh-so-many horror flicks that utilize the same tropes. The games appear unnecessarily tortuous and serve only to prolong already boring “scary” moments. I’m sure this aspect of the premise can be interesting, but like the rest of this movie, it is handled in a forgettable manner.
On the bright side, the cast members deliver serviceable performances. Sadly, this only means that their efforts wasted on this movie.
At the end of the day, this one is a predictable movie that tries hard to be as generic as possible. Hence, there aren’t many surprises to be had here.
