I remember being around the age of 16 and running to the local drug store on the weekend to pick up cheap horror film rentals at the great price of $3 for four movies, catalog only. Such greats as Basket Case, Dead Ringers, Phantasm, and Sleepaway Camp awaited my viewing and would shape my perspective of the world as “Girls Play Games” will for teens and séance connoisseurs around the globe in this increasingly popular weekly horror collection.
“Girls Play Games” is a new 6-minute feature in the Black Box TV horror serials corrupting the YouTube airwaves. Christian Ackerman directs a slick and sinister account straight out of Tales from the Darkside and Friday the 13th: The Series with blood splattered scalpel exactitude. The pacing, organic scares, and eerie color scheme create a new outline for the use of chilling brevity in the digital horror age. Eli Roth needs to keep an eye on the serious competition of writers Ackerman and Chuck Foster in this delivery of exquisite camp-horror with minimalist yet perfectly chosen production (the special effects are actually very cool in the episode).
So what’s the breakdown? Teenage empowerment meets a grisly backlash in modern/retro 1970’s unhappy tale fashion. Three teenage girls led by the talented Wendy McColm (reminiscent of a young Margot Kidder in Black Christmas) enter a séance by use of a rock to conjure and endure possession by sicko deceased neighborhood pedophile, William Stoddord. Multiple jolts and shocks ensue while the three actresses tear apart the stage in over the top dramatics that actually work. Stoddord’s evil spirit symbolizes the oppression teen girls endure every day in objectification and abuse by neighborhood creeps that slip through the cracks in everyone’s safe-community. A captivating brawl between sheer terror and gutsy retaliation fills the storyline. Bravo! Watch the short at the end here.
My personal video cemetery, aka drugstore, was about a 20 minute drive I made in my Dad’s ’86 Tercel hatchback, complete with FM radio and crisp trebly speakers. My brand new license enabled the excursion to fresh flesh and gruesome gore on the other side of town. On another note, on my first night of being a “certified” driver, I was pulled over with some strange dinner wine in small discreet bottles all over the car after playing a gig with my cover band at the time. The cop let me go; I was somewhat intoxicated but had no idea where the lights were to turn on in the car. He switched them on for this daydreamer and said, “go home and learn where the lights are when driving at night.”
SEPTEMBER ISSUE IS ONLINE NOW WITH A SHORT STORY BY CHUCK FOSTER IN THE VEIN OF PERENNIAL FAVORITE EDGAR ALLEN POE! JUST CLICK ON THIS TO GET YOU THERE AND WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW!
Do girls play games? Yeah...they do...and quite well...
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