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TAG: The Assassination Game

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An obscure part of the John Carpenter multiverse, 1982’s Tag: The Assassination Game was written and directed by Carpenter collaborator Nick Castle, who also had the honor of playing “The Shape” in the original Halloween . And, despite being marketed as an ‘80s college comedy, it’s obvious Castle picked up a trick or two from his proximity to the famous slasher franchise as TAG is a surprisingly effective thriller that aims for Hitchcockian suspense way more often than laughs. A reporter on the school paper, Alex (Robert Carradine) proposes a feature on the campus “assassination” game in hopes of scoring with one of its star players, Susan (Linda Hamilton). But while they’re busy firing rubber darts, one competitor is really playing to win, racking up a body count not just on paper…but hidden in the back of his closet! Lifting several crew members from his Halloween days, Castle does a terrific job balancing the copious film noir references, relatively tame kill sequences and co-e...
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Laurin

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For any physical media collector how one organizes that collection is an intensely personal decision. Alphabetical by title? Grouped by genre? Year of release? Separated by director? Either way, shelving and rearranging new purchases is an important part of the process. But where do you put a film like Laurin (1989), director Robert Sigl’s slightly supernatural serial-killer period piece that slips between the cracks of easy description and seems to demand a category all its own. Essentially orphaned after the death of her mother, Laurin (Dora Szinetar) is convinced that her new teacher, Mr. Van Rees (Karoly Eperjes), is responsible for the disappearance of several children in the village. And her suspicions makes her a vulnerable target as the killer attempts to cover his tracks. A German film shot in Hungary with English-dubbed dialogue, Laurin feels out of step with reality from the get-go. Sigl mixes and matches visual influences ranging from Bava to Bergman almost indis...
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Shogun's Ninja

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Not every film is the result of personal artistic expression. Sometimes it’s difficult to disguise all the cooks in the kitchen juggling studio demands, passing fads and budgetary constraints. Shogun’s Ninja (1980) was released during a particularly tenuous time for Japanese cinema, with homegrown productions fighting for attention against Hollywood hits, the Hong Kong action craze and episodic television. That being the case, it winds up as one crazy grab bag of traditional chanbara, Jackie Chan-inspired stunts and desperate trend-chasing that appeals to no one – and everyone – at the same time! Set during the Warring States period of feudal Japan, Takamaru (Hiroyuki Sanada) returns from exile in China to extract his pound of flesh from Shiranui Shogen (Sonny Chiba), who murdered his family in bloody clan warfare. He’s joined by a cadre of surviving childhood friends and the daughter of a Shaolin monk who followed him on the journey back. But Takamaru’s training hasn’t prepared ...
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Lionheart / Death Warrant

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My name is Greg and I’m a JCVD apologist. Actually, there’s no official support group out there (not that I’m aware of, anyway), but it often feels like fans of the “Muscles from Brussels” should get together twice a month for a reassuring pat on the back. Putting the actor’s personal life aside, his filmography isn’t something the average Letterboxd user would brag about. But there’s something irresistible about the “go-for-broke” way Jean-Claude approaches every project; good, bad or brutally average, JCVD is always unashamedly himself. Lionheart (1990) finds him playing Lyon Gaultier, a deserter from the French Foreign Legion making his way to L.A. to visit his dying brother. Short on cash, Leo teams up with a street fight promoter (Harrison Page) and fights his way across the country, facing one badass after another, in hopes of providing financial support to his sister-in-law and five-year-old niece. Taking a kinder, gentler approach to the ‘90s action formula, director Sheld...
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Ping Pong

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Sports movies are rarely about the sports themselves. It’s the fuel that fires the competitors that gets most of the attention. Take Fumihiko Sori’s energetic table tennis film, Ping Pong , which uses all the trick shots and techniques involved in keeping a 1.6-inch ball on top of a 9-foot table as window-dressing for the story of two best friends whose approaches to the sport – and to life – couldn’t be more different. “Peco” Hoshino is a brashly overconfident hustler with raw skill but no discipline. “Smile” Tsukimoto is a misanthropic outsider with natural talent but no drive. Their bond as childhood friends gets complicated when an interurban tournament finds Tsukimoto casually rising to the top while Peco’s dreams seem to be swirling down the drain. As the competition heats up, the two find themselves settling into new roles to take on the star players from rival schools while struggling to come to terms with their own relationship. That summary might make Ping Pong sound l...
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Tetsuo: The Bullet Man

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In 1989, Shinya Tsukamoto’s Testuo: The Iron Man felt almost revolutionary. Picking up the body horror elements left behind by directors like David Lynch and David Cronenberg, the film fused together a distinctly Japanese take on cyberpunk with a hyperkinetic visual style that turned the movie into a rite of passage for a new generation of filmakers and fans. There was really nothing else like it. Fast foward a few years and Tetsuo's visual vocabulary would be adopted by Hollywood up-and-comers like David Fincher (the opening credits for Se7en ), Aronofsky's Pi,   and the Wachowski’s Matrix films. But Tsukamoto himself had less luck in furthering his influential franchise. After the release of a more narratively accessible, but less unapologetially punk, sequel, Tetsuo II:Body Hammer , the director brought things full circle with 2009’s Tetsuo: The Bullet Man , a one-hour-and-ten-minute refresher course on what made the original so memorable in the first place. Another n...
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Portraits of the Apocalypse

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Argentina is in the midst of a horror renaissance. Or, at the very least, one hell of a hot streak. Leading the charge is director Demian Rugna, whose one-two punch of Terrified (2017) and When Evil Lurks (2023) pushed the genre into traumatic new territory. But he isn't alone.  A growing wave of overlooked Argentine horror films is quietly haunting the various streaming services. Or you can skip to the front of the line with Portraits of the Apocalypse (2024), a zombie anthology that explores the rise of the undead through personal, spiritual, and familial perspectives. Split into four stories, the first segment, Murder at the Crime Scene , is a rough introduction. It drops viewers into the fractured psyche of a police officer struggling to clean up a gruesome mess before backup arrives. It's stylish, suspenseful, and intense, but the stakes are never fully established—unless something was lost in translation.  Rats is much more straightforward and showcases Argentina's ...
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