By Geno McGahee
I had a feeling that I was in for a treat with the 1967 film GAMES because it starred James Caan and Katherine Ross and it was a horror movie. Ross was the star of one of my favorite horror films: THE STEPFORD WIVES. She has a very genuine look. She looks like the hot neighbor rather than a glossy actress and her performances are always sincere. It’s too bad that she didn’t do more horror. Caan has been in a lot of great films, but from a horror standpoint, MISERY was probably his big one. There was immediate chemistry between Caan and Ross and I was drawn in from the first scene.
Paul (Caan) and his wife, Jennifer (Ross), are into mind games and magic. They find great joy in playing with others and seem to have a loving relationship. They also have a fascination with death that brings them to much darker places. When the duo meets Lisa (Simone Signoret), things get interesting. Lisa appears at their door as a soap and perfume saleswoman, but she has an aura of mystery. She immediately clicks with Jennifer and becomes a houseguest when she collapses on the floor.
Lisa recovers and starts joining in on the games. They are using dark pranks to mess with people and each other. They go as far as to Jennifer pretending that she is cheating, Paul pretending that he’s a woman-beater and the group pretending that they are doing ritualistic sacrifices. The pranks go too far when they decide to mess with delivery man, Norm (Don Stroud), who was used earlier to mess with Paul. Jennifer and Paul hold Norm at gunpoint and tell him that he’s going to die. Norm begs for his life and Paul just smirks and fires, but they are blanks. There is laugher, but when Paul fires again, Norm drops and blood flows. There was a real bullet in the gun and now they must cover up a murder.
Paul hides the body in plaster, placing it among the other pieces of art that they own, but the ghost of Norm begins haunting Jennifer. She is seeing him all over the house and Lisa uses her psychic ability to sense the spirit, but is there another game being played and who’s playing who?
The story unfolds and there are some more twists and turns, leading to a fun conclusion with one final game being played. GAMES is a great horror/thriller that keeps you guessing to the very end. Caan and Ross were amazing as usual and Signoret was perfect for her role. She was unlikable from jump even when she was playing the role of a nice person. She had this dark vibe that she kept from the start of the film and increased as it progressed.
It was great to see Katherine Ross in another horror film. Once again, she was very easy to connect with and it was strange seeing Caan so young. He did very well, but I’m used to the Caan from MISERY. I highly recommend GAMES. It is a lot of fun.
Rating: 7.5/10
