Midlands Review of The Game
midlandsmovies • June 5, 2020
The Game
Directed by Nisaro Karim
2020
Five Pence Productions
A digital loading screen opens up new film The Game from prolific filmmaker and actor Nisaro Karim. Shot during the UK coronavirus period, the film is a 7-minute trip into a lockdown scenario with plenty of intrigue and a few surprises.
Establishing the film at a boarded-up house, we discover a blindfolded man taped to a chair with security surveillance, some petrol and a nearby gun in the room. A computerised voice announces the “game begins” which echoes the Saw horror franchise and we wonder what sick amusement or torture may occur.
The man has a balaclava on but uses a mobile phone which makes a connection to a headset worn by another man – who is similarly tied up in a different room.
We are then shown the ticking of a clock next to a homemade bomb hinting at their perilous situation and a suitably mysterious soundtrack helps set the intriguing tone.
The Game is certainly a low budget film but given the current constraints, the filmmaker has made the most of household items and its enclosed location. It’s fair to say that often it is these kind of limitations where greater creativity can occur.
Without actors, a whole team to arrange and zero budget, this short is most interesting because of its use of technique to make up for this. Handheld camera mixes with static shots and point-of-view sequences. And super low angles and extreme close-ups also keep the visuals interesting and varied.
These are all heavily limited of course, but are used well to tell the story without much fuss. Some Post-it notes and the suburban semi-detached location do give away its homemade origins, but you know what, the basic filmmaking technique is more than here.
The film continues as the second man escapes from his binds, heads into a crimson corridor and eventually ends up behind the door where the other man is situated.
And The Game ends with a number of surprises and a few visual effects thrown in too. The film changes the serious tone to something a little more ironic at its conclusion with a nod and a wink to our current predicament. A loading wheel hints upon the virtual nature of the story and the ending acknowledges the ups and downs of boredom during this quarantine period.
In the end let’s not shy from the fact that The Game is an incredibly low budget short. However, in its favour is how often it overcomes much of that with a strong use of film technique with shot choices and an understanding of the limitations. All of this bodes well for future post-lockdown films from Karim when more resources are available when lockdown is (game) over.
Michael Sales
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