“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes” is a phrase often used as a warning that one should heed as cautionary. Co-directors Nicolas Wendl and Dani Abraham embody this infamous adage by creating cinematic suspense in the indie horror, Stupid Games. Equal parts psychological thriller and paranormal fright film, Stupid Games is a modest yet highly executed feature that thrives off of its tight-knit cast, well-balanced screenplay, and smart use of light and shadow.

Dinner Party From Hell

It’s late one night as two friends, Jaxon (Saad Rolando) and Rex (Gage Robinson), make their way over to Celeste’s (Alyssa Tortomasi) apartment, Jaxon’s on-again, off-again hookup buddy. Jaxon and Celeste’s relationship recently went through a rough patch after she ghosted him for weeks but now she seemingly wants to make amends by inviting him and his friends over for a dinner party. Celeste is adamant that Jaxon bring two, and only two, friends with him to balance the ratio for her two roommates. When the third friend cancels en route to the party, Jaxon and Rex get desperate. Not wanting to break their promise to the girls, the guys recruit Stanley (Grant Terzakis), a man they find in the apartment building, to accompany them to the dinner party.

Once the guys arrive, Celeste, her roommate Riley (Cass Huckabay), and their friend Mia (Ashwini Ganpule) greet them. The night starts innocent enough with couples pairing off organically. Just as the group gets into lively conversation over glasses of wine, the apartment loses power. The girls assure the guys that this happens frequently and suggest they stop dinner and play board games by candlelight until the electricity turns back on.

Watch the Stupid Games trailer here.

Darkness Brings The Demons

They settle on a game that seems innocent enough. However, the guys quickly start to notice strange, unexplainable glimpses of paranormal activity throughout the apartment. Then–like a record scratch–the girls’ facade suddenly strips away,  uncovering their ulterior motives as the night descends into madness and witchcraft. The only way to end the chaos and break the spell is to finish the game but the question of who will make it out alive remains to be seen.

Stupid Games, written by Tanner Adams, takes place predominantly in a single location over the course of one night. This intimate setting further adds to the foreboding claustrophobia of the evening’s events. The composer behind the evocative and eerie score, Darren Wonnacott, crafts heightened tension, especially during the board game scene. The film’s theme, a minor-note simple melody, is darkly unsettling and completely enjoyable. Cinematographer Christian Klein uses the film’s themes of darkness to his advantage as he incorporates beautiful shadow work into nearly every scene. The orange hue from the street lamps to the wax candles surrounding the interior of the apartment clearly sets the tone that audiences are in for a nighttime nightmare.

Takeaway

Similar to classics like Jumanji and Practical Magic, Stupid Games shows how evil can lurk in unexpected places. It also stands as a cautionary tale to think twice before agreeing to participate in any stupid games, or a stupid prize may be the least of your worries.