TL;DR – While there are some conceptually interesting ideas here, the fact that everyone is playing a one-dimensional character greatly limits its potential.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Darkgame Review –

As the internet becomes all persuasive in our lives, we are becoming more and more accustomed to the negative possibilities that can exist. But whether real or imagined, one genre that has been populated on popular media is what would ancient Colosseum games look like in a modern era where anyone anywhere can watch on? Today’s review leans into that wholeheartedly as we delve into the world of the dark web.    

So, to set the scene, Detective Ben Jacobs (Ed Westwick) is a detective who is famous for finding two lost brothers who have been kidnapped. However, something new has come across his desk: a disturbing video feed from the dark web called Russian Roulette. A masked Presenter (Andrew P Stephen) is making contestants play games against each other. Only the loser meets a grizzly demise. Imagine Sam Reich with a murder kink and making a truckload of money from betting customers. One of those contestants was Fay (Sophie Rankin), who is one of the missing cases Ben was working on, so this is now personal. But when another person is kidnapped, Katia (Natalya Tsvetkova), only time will tell if they catch the perpetrators before more bodies drop.

While I am not sure that much of this film works, I did feel the general concept was solid. You have a murderer addicted to attention with some apparent tech skills able to motivate a bunch of moody incels into doing his business, facing off against a police force that is woefully underprepared for what is about to land on their desk. It’s a cat-and-mouse game, but for every failure, an innocent or two dies. That is a solid framework from which to build. Also, while the mask might be doing a lot of the heavy lifting, the main antagonist and even their goons have an appropriately menacing quality to them.

However, while this framework was sound, and even some of the endings almost came together, there was one significant flaw that permeated its way throughout the film. That issue was the characters. Now, I am not sure if this was an issue with the acting, the writing, or both, but every single person in this film comes off as one-dimensional. It’s almost comically one-dimensional. For example, it felt like Lisa (Rose Reynolds), the wife of the main character, woke up one morning and suddenly discovered her husband of many years was a cop. That is the only way anything that character does makes sense in this movie. Ben spends the whole film brooding like he is in the brooding Olympics, the captain’s (Anthony Ofoegbu) every conversation feels like he is five minutes away from giving himself a heart attack, and for the life of me, I am not sure what purpose Larch (Rick Yale) served here at all.

In the end, do we recommend Darkgame? Unfortunately not. While there is a good foundation here. It is almost like everyone is a caricature and not a character, and that makes the film a real slog to get through. Oh, it’s a minor pet peeve for a guy obsessed with looks and engagement. His streaming setup was quite lousy, with not a single stream deck to be seen. Have you watched Darkgame? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Darkgame, we would recommend to you Guns Akimbo.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Darkgame
Directed by – Howard J. Ford
Story by – Tom George
Screenplay by – Gary Grant & Niall Johnson
Music by – Imran Ahmad
Cinematography by – Louie B Collins
Edited by – Nikk Fielden
Production/Distribution Companies – Russian Roulette Films, Evolution Pictures, Gem Film Sales, Gravitas Ventures, Happyhour Productions, JogBits Productions, Principle Film Finance & Defiant Screen Entertainment.
Starring – Ed Westwick, Andrew P Stephen, Natalya Tsvetkova, Lola Wayne, Rory Alexander, Andrew McGillan, Miztli Rose, Rick Yale, Anthony Ofoegbu, Rose Reynolds & Caterina Gabanella with Polina Pushkareva, Joe Urquhart, Joseph Tweedale, Eamonn Fleming, Natasha Skutka, Sophie Rankin, Jack Stacey, Marc Danbury, Ikay Agu, Georgina Strawson, Susie Fugle & Nathaniel O’Shaughnessy
Rating: around an Australia: M;