DarkGame

"Darkgame" is a suspenseful ride that throws you into the murky world of online predators and hidden identities. While the film falters at times with a predictable plot that borrows from other films, it's the strong performances and intriguing characters that keep you engaged.

The story follows Detective Jacobs as he delves into a twisted online game where viewers pay to watch victims tortured. The investigation takes him down a rabbit hole of cryptic clues and shadowy figures, including the enigmatic Presenter (played with chilling relish by Andrew P. Stephen) who orchestrates the disturbing game.

Where Darkgame truly excels is in its atmosphere. The film masterfully captures the unsettling anonymity of the dark web, making you question who you can trust online. The interrogation scenes are particularly tense, with Detective Jacobs facing off against cunning suspects like Larch (brilliantly portrayed by Rick Yale), a character whose backstory hints at a deeper darkness.

However, the film's biggest weakness lies in its familiarity. The plot unfolds in a fairly predictable manner, relying on well-worn tropes of the genre. With a bigger budget, Darkgame could have delved deeper into the psychological motivations of its characters.

Here's where the film's true potential lies. Characters like Larch and The Presenter are far too fascinating to be relegated to the sidelines. While the film might not break new ground narratively, it lays the foundation for a captivating universe with untapped potential. If you're looking for a quick and suspenseful watch, Darkgame won't disappoint.

Disappointed! The idea of the film was good - executed in a miserable way.

Set design - meh Costume design - Bad Acting - more than enough room for improvement Script/ dialogue - a lot of cliché tech and law terminology Music/score - okay

Overall felt like a high school project, so I can imagine it would be convincing for 12yr olds.

It was like watching one of those fake prank videos on Facebook - just irritatingly pretentious.

The events are said to take place on the dark web - I'm confident that zero research was conducted regarding the etiquette and culture surrounding the dark web and 'red rooms'.

Same goes for law enforcement - their meetings are cheesy, the swat team are cringe and felt like I was watching a YouTube skit or a SNL sketch. I'm impressed at how little effort can be made into a movie that potentially had a great film writer.

Everything felt really vague! ... Not to be confused with ambiguity (in which case would be somewhat suspenseful) It is a watered down version of something that could've been tasty.

Everything felt a little too clean and 'on the nose' with no depth or character development.

It's like when Crime programs like CSI used to do that thing where they click one button to "enhance image" ... Like bruh 😆 that's the feeling I got when watching this - like we're just supposed to accept it haha.

Gave 2 stars because it MIGHT be funny if you're high.

For a British film especially, the writing is subpar and lacking any subtlety. It's like it was written by a 12 year old. There is a scene about a third of the way through where the large group of captives are all holding guns and 'forced' to play russian roullette while their 'captors' are standing around the room without guns, goading and mocking them. This tells you everything you need to know about this film. Why they decided to take a bunch of British actors and make them fake American accents & pretend they were in Portland USA rather than Bristol (the actual filming location) is beyond me. The end just inexplicably disintegrated into nothing.

Like another reviewer said, a movie for me is either I'm in or I'm out, in the first 15 minutes. This one, I was in! Kept me entertained. I particularly rated Rick Yale playing the convict, acting wise. Shame he wasn't in it more. Yeah, the plot may not have been the most original, but not many films are now. Hard to come up with an idea that hasn't been done in some capacity, by now. This one touched on some bizarre big brother come Saw concept. What I expect from a netflix flick now is a good standard of acting, a decent dialogue and a storyline that can keep me entertained. Not expecting every film to be an earth shattering unique, block buster. This one I felt had good pace from the start, to draw me in, was entertaining and definitely delivered an overall good effort, though slightly predicatable twists. Character wise, gave a fair bit of personality and background to help with the storyline to the main characters. Looking forward to potentially a sequel!

Firstly, this film is set in Portland Oregon but entirely shot in Bristol. It seems like all the actors are British and have to adopt American or Eastern European accents, which is clearly too challenging for them as everyone sounds ridiculous. Just make the film British and the dialogue won't sound so forced and awkward. Secondly it's a pretty poor execution of a tired idea. Full of silly montages of people "working" and no character development so you don't really care what happens to any of them. Sometimes films get made and you wonder how. Like, who said yes to this?

Give it a miss I think..