Horror Movie Review: Stupid Games (2024)

A micro-budget horror with a simple premise transforms into a compelling and tension heavy watch. It’s Stupid Games, and it comes from directors Nicolas Wendl and Dani Abraham, who co-wrote the story with Tanner Adams.

Starring Cass Huckabay, Gage Robinson, Saad Rolando, Grant Terzakis, Alyssa Tortomasi, and Ashwini Ganpule. The story surrounds a trio of women and a trio of men, getting together for some dinner, drinks, and a game or two.

There’s a bit more to it though as Jaxon (Saad Rolando) and Celeste (Alyssa Tortomasi) actually hooked up a while back, and then she ghosted him. However, now and out of the blue, she has got in contact with him and invited him over for dinner. Though he has to bring two of his friends as her roommates Mia (Ashwini Ganpule) and Riley (Cass Huckabay) will be there.

Find two friends, not a problem for Jackson initially as Rex (Gage Robinson) is more than happy to come along. Alas, at the last minute, his other friend drops out leaving Jackson desperately needing a third. Its here he and Rex run into their building’s handyman, Stanley (Grant Terzakis) and manage to convince him to come along.

Arriving at the girl’s place, dinner goes well and everyone seems to be having fun, that is until the power goes out and it’s time to play some board games by candlelight. Snakes & Ladders? Monopoly? Mouse Trap? No, how about a game of Quest for Truth?

A new game that mashes together elements of other games and seems designed to get the players to open up about themselves, all while completing silly tasks. It is fun and everyone gets into it, even if there is a competitive edge as its girls vs boys. That is until some truths start to cause tension and the tasks start to get darker.

It speaks volumes about a film with a fairly mundane plot outline that Stupid Games ends up being so compelling. Something even more impressive when you take into account that a large part of this film is spent with the characters having dinner, drinks, and talking. Stupid Games takes its time, but it’s all the better for it, as it creates more and more intrigue and builds the characters to a believable level. Well written and well-acted characters give this story so much more life than it should have.

It’s a phenomenal example of commitment, not just from the actors, but the entire crew. Stupid Games notably looks and sounds great, and you can tell every penny was wringed out of a tiny budget.

As the game gets underway, the sense that the truth isn’t being told here grows, but what that means and where the film goes, is still a nice surprise. The final third of the film really ups the ante and horror is truly unleashed in an inventive way. That Stupid Games works from a more imaginative place, asking you to picture the horror rather than see it, is risky but this is one example of where it works really well. A load of poor effects would only diminish things, and your imagination can conjure up worse sights than the film would have been able to show.

All the build, and there’s a lot of it, could have meant that the payoff lacked no matter what, but happily, Stupid Games nails it. A highly impressive horror film that proves, once again, that budget is no limit to quality filmmaking.