T.A.G.: The Assassination Game (1982) (Blu-ray Review)
DIRECTED BY: Nick Castle
STARRING: Robert Carradine, Linda Hamilton, Kristine DeBell
RATED: PG/Region: O/1:78/1080P/NUMBER OF DISCS 1
AVAILABLE FROM Synapse Films
There are some games where losing means you go home disappointed. Maybe you throw the controller, complain about the referee, or insist the other guy cheated.
Then there’s TAG: The Assassination Game, where losing means you get “killed” with a rubber-tipped dart and have to sit on the sidelines while everyone else keeps playing.
And naturally, because this is a horror movie, somebody eventually decides, “You know what? Fake murder isn’t enough.”
Directed by Nick Castle—yes, the same Nick Castle who played Michael Myers in Halloween—TAG is one of those wonderfully oddball early-’80s thrillers that takes a relatively harmless game and asks what would happen if somebody took it just a little too seriously.
Okay, considerably too seriously.
The premise is actually pretty damn fun. A group of college students participate in a game where they hunt one another with toy dart guns, and once you’re tagged, you’re out. It’s basically an organized version of “ducking behind a bush and shooting your buddy when he isn’t looking,” except everyone has agreed to the rules beforehand.
Unfortunately, one contestant apparently skipped the part where everyone agrees not to actually murder people.
The result is a surprisingly entertaining little thriller that mixes mystery, paranoia, and slasher elements without completely committing to any one of them. You’re constantly wondering who is next, who can be trusted, and whether the person sneaking around with a toy gun is actually carrying something considerably more dangerous.
The cast is also a lot of fun. You’ve got a pre-Terminator Linda Hamilton, long before she was kicking Terminator ass and making Sarah Connor one of the biggest badasses in movie history. She’s great here, and it’s fun seeing her in an earlier role before The Terminator turned her into an action icon.
Then there’s Robert Carradine, who brings his own charm to the proceedings. The cast gives the movie enough personality that you actually care about who’s going to survive, which is always helpful when the entire premise involves eliminating your friends one by one.
And then there’s Nick Castle behind the camera.
The fact that the guy who once wore the Michael Myers mask went on to direct a movie about college students hunting each other with toy guns is exactly the kind of bizarre Hollywood career trivia I live for. Apparently Castle decided that if he couldn’t be the guy stalking teenagers anymore, he’d just direct them doing it to each other.
The movie isn’t perfect. Some of the characters make decisions that would have them disqualified from the game for sheer stupidity, and there are moments where the pacing could use a little more ammunition. But the basic concept is clever enough to keep things interesting, and the early-’80s atmosphere gives it a nice time-capsule quality.
As for the release, Synapse Films has done this one right. They previously released a limited edition version, and this new edition is the wider release, so you’re losing some of the bells and whistles that came with the collector’s edition. But honestly, if you missed that version, you’re still getting a damn good presentation here.
The movie looks great, and Synapse has given it the kind of treatment you’d hope for from a label that knows its cult cinema. This isn’t a bare-bones “here’s your movie, now leave us alone” release. It may not have all the collector goodies of the limited edition, but the film itself is the important part, and it comes through looking damn good.
TAG: The Assassination Game is one of those movies that makes you wonder how many other perfectly innocent activities could be turned into horror movies if someone just took them way too seriously.
Hide-and-seek? Murder.
Dodgeball? Murder.
Musical chairs? Definitely murder.
But until somebody makes The Hungry Hungry Hippos Massacre (Oh yeah, they kinda did that already didn’t they?), I’ll happily take TAG. It’s a clever little ’80s thriller with a great premise, a fun cast, an interesting director connection to Halloween, and a solid release from Synapse Films.
Just remember: if your friend pulls a toy gun on you and says, “TAG, you’re it”…
Run.
Extras
- Audio Commentary with Director Nick Castle and Star Robert Carradine
- Original Theatrical Trailer
