Would You Like to Play a (Different) Game? – Game Show Survival Movies
If Saw, or the whole torture porn subgenre, isn’t your bag, then you’re probably not clamoring to so see Spiral this month. But there is a bevy of movies where characters play a game in which someone always has to die, all for ratings and the satisfaction of television executives and audiences (and in one instance, aliens).
If you want to satisfy your bloodlust without the traps of Saw, strap on your roller skates or hop on a motorcycle: here are some options to push your buzzer. No whammies in this list.
Round 1: I’ll Take 1975 for $300, Alex
Death Race 2000 (1975)
Directed by Paul Bartel
A cross-country race in which points are awarded for running over people. How do you even know who to root for when you have to choose between David Carradine, Mary Woronov, Martin Kove, Roberta Collins, and Sylvester Stallone?
Rollerball (1975)
Directed by Norman Jewison
Bread and circuses? Pfft. Try roller skates and motorcycles if you really want folks to give up their freedom to corporations. A classic in the survival action-thriller genre where you wonder if the people who made it had a crystal ball and saw the “not too distant future.”
Available on Showtime or for rent on Amazon
Round 2: Phone a Friend*
*best watched with a group
Game of Survival (1989)
Directed by Arman Gazarian
A bunch of guys in Mad Max duds (to make them believable as aliens?) wander around Hollywood and Griffith Park looking for an alien’s ball as part of a fight to the death scavenger hunt. I can’t say what’s less believable: that anyone in L.A. would give these guys a second look, or that dialogue like this exists in a movie. I suppose it’s the former; we do live in a world with Neil Breen movies now.
Deathrow Gameshow (1988)
Directed by Mark Pirro
Death row convicts are brought in to compete on the show “Live or Die” for a chance at survival or consolation prizes for their families. Horror comedies are not my favorite, but for those who do enjoy them, there is plenty of eye-rolling goofiness in every scene.
Blu-ray available from Vinegar Syndrome
The New Gladiators, aka Warriors of the Year 2072 (1984)
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Like Deathrow Gameshow, Warriors also uses convicted murderers for its competition, pitting them against one another in a gladiator battle with motorcycles instead of chariots, all for the sake of ratings. Though not a horror movie, it does come courtesy of Lucio Fulci, so you can expect plenty of gore.
Round 3: The Dating Game
The 10th Victim (1965)
Directed by Elio Petri
Based on the Robert Sheckley short story The Seventh Victim, a computer randomly selects one hunter and one intended victim from a pool of candidates. When Caroline, played by Ursula Andress (Dr. No, Casino Royale), is selected to hunt down and kill Marcello, played by a bleached blond Marcello Mastroianni (8 ½, La Dolce Vita), things start to get complicated in this stylish and quirky satire.
Bonus Round
The Prize of Peril, aka Le Prix du Danger (1983)
Directed by Yves Boisset
Based on another Robert Sheckley short story of the same name, this one is essentially the original The Running Man (1987). And while Richard Dawson’s casting as the host in the newer version is cheeky since he was an actual game show host, Michel Piccoli in The Prize of Peril is nothing short of perfection. If you enjoy this one, there is also a German TV movie adaptation of Sheckley’s story: Das Millionspiel, aka The Million Game (1970), though much more difficult to find.
Erica is the co-host of the Unsung Horrors podcast along with Lance Schibi. When the world is not on fire, you can find them weekly at Austin Alamo Drafthouse’s Terror Tuesdays. In the meantime, you can listen to their reviews of underseen horror movies here.