Wanna Play a Game?

If you are a fan of “puzzle horror”, sort of akin to “Saw” (it was the series that came immediately to mind) or the more recent “Escape Room”, where particular characters are contending with clues inside some enigmatic building while a killer mastermind puppeteer pulls strings mysteriously in the shadows then perhaps “Play or Die” (2019), a Belgian horror film from Jacques Kluger will suit your fancy. Lucas (Charley Palmer Rothwell) is seductively “coerced” by a former lover who shows up at his home, Chloé (Roxane Mesquida, “Now Apocalype”), to return to a puzzle game called Paranoia. It seems they broke up and she “went away”, leaving him heartbroken. This Paranoia relies on participants’ skills at solving riddles/clues (such as relations with numbers and figures, like a swan or music like Swan Lake, codes and memory exercises), a website entry code “cracked” by Lucas at Chloé’s persistence, wanting him to take an active role as lots of money is promised the victors. Others their age (young adults seemingly quite competitive, intense, and maybe troubled) also are involved, meeting at a rave once they get past the first major Paranoia code, an arcade game in a room with a Streetfighter type “test” as the initial “start”, sending those who can win to this ominous, multi-room abandoned mental institution to complete a series of challenges where their very lives are at stake (of course). The other characters, such as the seemingly unstable Naomi (Marie Zabukovec) and the elusive, volatile Jablowski (Thomas Mustin), aren’t as defined as Charley and Chloé, but they are more or less victims to be shuffled in and out of the film when necessary as challengers in Paranoia to the main leads. And, sure enough, Charley’s back story plays a major part in Paranoia, the clues involved, and the outcome. The puzzle escape room traps are par for the course (I think most viewers will always expect Charley to answer the call when Chloé is beckoning results from his mental acuity and sharp, deductive genius when faced with traps such as her strapped to a bed while a platform of blades drops down every few seconds until pictures can be assembled together to reveal a code or a room is gradually engulfed in flames until a piano melody is recognized) with this sort of subgenre. Much like Saw, there is a voice connected to Paranoia, making demands, expecting results…or else. Charley, in one trap, is pulled by hands into a fade to black, moving to a room where he’s strapped to a chair, as electric shock gives him jolts unless he can solve a memory quiz…eventually he has to improvise as the shocks coursing through him make it difficult to remember anything, capitalizing on a “nurse” near him (told by the mastermind to finish Charley off). Most of the murders are off screen or implied (victims are found with a sharp object stabbed in their throats, with one such victim’s face pressed into a lit stove eye), as “Play or Die” really is more interested in the way the building is lit (bright, shiny colors, such as red and green are quite a popping aesthetic) and how Charley is specifically involved with the results (and inner workings) of Paranoia. He does seem to be a focal point of interest while Chloé is separated from him when a door locks between them and the others are scrambling in the background, themselves trying to rigorously upend the game’s architectural, labyrinthine maze of demanding clues/codes. But with details about the mother we see Charley speaking to (her picture at a bed no longer occupied, with Chloe later asking him how she died, clearly an indicator that this history will be not only be elaborated but is of the utmost importance in the conclusion's twist) obviously coming into play and Charley's own eventual "challenges" are exposed. Chloe does consider her error in judgment encouraging Charley to help crack the code in Paranoia, never quite anticipating their very lives at stake despite the game's mastermind asking them in sinister tone if they wish to continue or leave before getting started. And, yes, there is far more going on than Chloe (or the other participants) could have expected. The conveniences of the script and story's twist regarding Charley really hinges on particular decisions that must be made according to the mastermind's plan, so you will need to suspend your disbelief...and many who have watched it couldn't as it hasn't been well received critically. It could be because the ending really goes for that familiar French horror mindwarp psychological madness route with a twist that turns the formula of the plot on its head. The convention of the escape from the killer's puzzle death game, following the "hero" and his "girlfriend" as they try to avoid what the others involved cannot, has Charley engaged in combat with a figure wearing a "crazy mask", and it brings up unresolved issues inside him that explain a disturbing past burrowing out in the present. Grisly results are laid out in a forest on the outskirts of the institution (it does have a lobby with some eyepopping structural and ornate design) where victims have screwdrivers protruding from their necks, along with mangled, bloody wounds displaying the carnage left behind, results of a childhood gone horribly wrong. It could be that all explained at the end might interfere with viewer expectations, especially if they just want another "Saw" variation. For torture horror aficionados there is a forced teeth extraction scene, so I guess there is a bone or two thrown for you looking for that specifically. * * / * * * * *