Death Game

1977 "The object is to stay alive."
5.6| 1h27m| R| en| More Info
Released: 01 May 1977 Released
Producted By: First American Films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

George Manning is a well-to-do businessman, husband, and father. While his family is away on his birthday, he invites a pair of rain-soaked young women into his house to wait out an evening thunderstorm. The two girls seduce Manning and ultimately kidnap and torture him in his own home.

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Reviews

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks
Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
asgbeat IMDb contributer johnmorghen does a scholarly job of breaking down the cinematic nuts-n-jolts of "Death Game" (a.k.a. "Mr. Manning's Weekend"), so I'll just share my memories of watching it.Like my IMDb sister rachelcronin, I saw this for the first time late one night on L.A.'s early '80s SelecTV subscription system. The set-up definitely grabbed my pubescent attention: Man minding own business in his San Francisco home...slightly lonely and sincerely blue because The Wife and kid are unable to return home in time to celebrate his 40th birthday. Clearly cultured and successful, Man makes due during a dark and stormy night with a roaring fire and a high-end Marantz stereo to reacquaint himself with an old familiar jazz chanteuse (Maxine Weldon then who would be Sade today). Suddenly, there's a bustling at the door which Man opens to find two shivering young girls begging for reprieve from the rain. With decency at heart, Man takes pity and allows the soaked-through strangers into his plush abode. One thing leads to another and Man makes the mistake of giving in to a temptation even someone happily married might be hard-pressed to resist: a menage a trois with all the amenities of home (hot tub, mellow groove on the box, top-shelf cognac, favorite neighborhood pizza and the PERFECT excuse of The Wife being away on YOUR "special day" - the nerve). Like all that is overly idyllic in nature, this scenario proves too good to be true. For his fleeting hour of fantasy bliss, Man is subjected to 48 more hours of tandem temper tantrum torture at the whims of some psycho nookie from Hell - wicked "women-chiles" who begin to reveal their true colors at the breakfast table the morning after.When I was 15, this was WAY lurid and riveting. Years later, viewing a VHS rental, I found the second half to drag. "Death Game" could have been much better if the girls weren't just demented for crazy's sake and had a specific "she-woman man haters" motivation for what they wind up doing to poor "George" (Seymour Cassel with an uncredited actor dubbing his voice, giving the movie that "imported" schlock foreign feel). The Man just helped himself to some birthday ass, for chrissake! For thrillers like this, I like things twisted and gratuitous, but director Peter Traynor only hints at undertones of incestuousness as a possibility for what made these chicks 'set it off' on a dude old enough to be their "Good Old Dad" (thus the vaudevillian ditty that recurs ad nauseum). One wonders whether writers Anthony Overman and Michael Ronald Ross couldn't decide whether to play this out as a comedy or a suspense thriller, were intentionally shooting for some strange hybrid of both, or just coke'd out of their minds when they hatched this plot fresh out of some sordid fever dream. I must confess that all was forgiven when that out-of-left-field ending smacked me upside the head, though. Let's just say every dog has his day and these bitches received their comeuppance in spades. While much has been written here about how annoying the "Good Old Dad" song is (which it really is but, I believe, to the director's desired effect), I found the other moody jazz piece "We're Home," arranged by Jimmie Haskell, to be quite exceptional. The line "The sky tells us..." haunted me long after the film had finished. To this day, I imagine pulling that treasured Maxine Weldon 78 down from a shelf, blowing the dust off, gingerly setting the needle down and having it comfort me in the throes of some dark and stormy night...a night I'd gaze longingly into the fireplace, nursing a Makers Mark until - suddenly - there's a knock at my door, which I open to find a '70s-era Pam Grier (in the ringleader Sondra Locke role) and Vonetta McGee (in the doe-eyed Colleen Camp role) - inexplicably in halters, hot pants and flip-flops - shivering and in need of shelter from the storm.Men...
The_Void It's actually a real shame that this film wasn't better, as it features a story line that does a good job of turning the tables on the common exploitation theme of men brutalising women, and it's also quite scary if you put yourself in the position of the lead character! The basic plot revolves around George; a 'happily married' man who picks up two young girls and seduces them at his house. However, after giving him some information that he REALLY didn't want to hear, George finds himself at the girls' mercy. The film has just three central performers, and while many other films work well from this sort of base; this one doesn't, or at least; not really. Director Peter S. Traynor doesn't really have enough ideas to keep the film entertaining throughout; but luckily, The Seducers does have its moments. The majority of the film is suitably sick and twisted, and the two central women are nasty enough to make the film a nightmare for most men. The Seducers is nowhere near as malicious as many similar seventies thrillers; but its decent enough entertainment for fans of this sort of thing. Unfortunately, the stretched plot ultimately lets it down - but it's an interesting film at least, and I somewhat enjoyed it. Just a word of warning, though – you'll have trouble getting the theme song out of your head!
Snowygooner ...Imagine this. On one dark, rainy night, two sexy young blonde girls show up on your doorstep, soaked to the skin. They feed you some sob story about being lost and, being the trusting gentleman that you are, you invite them in. Once inside, the flirtatious girls waste no time striping seductively to their underwear. One thing leads to another and before you know it, the three of you are in your hot tub.... This might sound like every red-blooded man's fantasy but the next morning things turn nasty. Those sweet girls turn "psycho girl" on you. They tie you up, slap on some freakish make-up and proceed to inflict their sickening mind games on you. Will you live to regret your night of three-way nookie? That is basically what this film is about. It is no masterpiece of drive-in cinema but well worth seeing if you enjoy those kinds of low-budget movies. Fans of Nikos Nikoladis' 'Singapore Sling' might also want to give this a look. Both films have the same basic premise and some might come to realise that 'Sling' is not so original after all. Although do not go expecting the same amount of sleaze as 'Sling'. Also, look out for one of the best 'what-the-hell' endings you will ever see.
lazarillo A middle-aged husband and father left alone on his 40th birthday decides to celebrate it with two 20-year-old hitch-hikers he lets in his house on a stormy night. After a steamy, delirious three-way sex scene in a bathtub, the two girls claim that they are both underage and reveal themselves to be obviously psychotic as they destroy his house and torment him with increasing violence. You have to hand it to the movies. In real life it is almost always the older men abusing young women, but in movies like this of course it's always the opposite. Someone once described this as "a middle-aged male sex fantasy gone wrong". That seems like a pretty accurate description. On the plus side the story is never COMPLETELY unbelievable, although if it had been based on true story, you definitely would have heard the story. The acting is good. Seymour Cassell is always good even if he's rarely the lead. Colleen Camp brightened up both small roles in many big-budget movies and larger roles in many low-budget movies in the '70's. She's good here as always and has a few surprising nude scenes. Even Sondra Locke is pretty good (ironically, years later Locke would sue ex-husband Clint Eastwood for ruining her career--well, this is the kind of stuff she was doing before she met him).On the negative side this story is still pretty unbelievable. The antics of the two girls are often more annoying (for both the protagonist and the viewer) than truly frightening. There's some gratuitous animal cruelty (and delivery boy cruelty). Worst of all, is the song "Good Old Dad", which as annoying as it is, is ironically appropriate to the movie at least, but the filmmakers insist on playing it at length again and again and again. It reminded me of the similar Umberto Lenzi-Carroll Baker film "Paranoia" where the villains try to drive the heroine insane by playing one annoying song repeatedly, except that it's not part of the plot here--the filmmakers are doing it to the viewers. I wonder if there is a soundtrack to this movie available. If so it probably a double LP of this one song playing over and over and over. The movie also features one of the most ridiculous deus ex machina endings since "The Bad Seed" (and it is also surprisingly similar to the ending of the English-language version of "Paranoia"). And look what's written on the side of the truck in the last scene. I guess they didn't didn't think too much of that thing with the cat.