Keep those bets coming in people.

Directors should be required to stop making movies about dark web murder games until there is at least one verifiable instance of a murder game being played on the dark web. It’s not that the genre is played out, and it is, but it’s like the modern urban legend only nobody actually believes it’s real. And yes, I get that it’s a modern take on films of old like Running Man and Battle Royale because the concept of a future where these things are done out in the open is also played out and worn down. But this film came out in 2024 right after another dark web murder game, Self Reliance.

DarkGame was directed by Howard J. Ford, whose career has only gone downhill since he debuted with the 6.4 rated Mainline Run back in 1994. Unsurprisingly Ford directed a film with Tony Todd, who will do anything with a paycheck attached to it. Writers are Tom George (one other writing credit for Enemy Lines), Gary Grant (acted in Enemy Lines), and Niall Johnson (had nothing to do with Enemy Lines).

I’d like to note the breakout star of this movie; Andrew P. Stephen as the presenter. Stephen has been a stage actor since the early 90s and only very recently got into the screen period, starting with a character in 2023’s Silo and DarkGame being his first movie. You can tell Stephen is a seasoned stage actor because he is by far the most talented person in this film. His character is a ridiculous, over the top, energetic host of an illegal online show about killing people and the dude sells every second of it. He knows how to emote and sell himself to the audience.

This movie is about two people; one one side of the spectrum you have Ed Westwick as Ben Jacobs. Ed Westwick was Chad Bass in Gossip Girl, so he’s developed experience dealing in hostage situations. Ben and Cathy (Lola Wayne) are brought on to track down a game show being hosted on the dark web where people are being murdered. The victims are thrown into games of Russian Roulette where they must play or be violently murdered. Meanwhile Ben very obviously has a history around abductions which is why he immediately starts talking about how someone should kill the presenter.

On the other side you have Natalya Tsvetkova as Natia, who gets kidnapped and also she’s a mom who has a son and did I mention she’s a mom? Ben Jacobs has a pregnant wife who has absolutely no bearing on the film, and if you think the climax is that she gets kidnapped she doesn’t. They don’t even have a generic bit where Ben wraps up the case and gets to the hospital just in time to catch the birth of his kid.

The funniest thing about DarkGame is that the movie feels moderately grounded but maybe not in the way you’re thinking. My first thought on the film was that there’s no way with how covered the dark web is by the feds that they wouldn’t be aware of the show, and they literally find it before the first full episode even airs. You get the beats that you expect as the movie goes on. The cops are hilariously incompetent until they aren’t, you get that scene where the swat team shows up at the warehouse and you know the whole time it’s going to be empty because the film is only halfway over but the lead up is so damn long.

I feel a little bad for Rick Yale who plays Raymond Lorch. Lorch is a hacker who got caught by Jacobs and gets pulled in as the Hannibal Lecter “expert” to track down the killer. Now this is Yale’s first film so I’d like to blame this more on the writer/director than his acting talent. Lorch is like the inverse of Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal. His whole role in this film is to call the cops incompetent and rub his hands and smirk and laugh about the people he killed, and be all creepy talking about people getting killed. His character has no charisma or depth. He’s somewhere between Simon Rex’s “Dark Jokester” from Farce Wars (I’m taking two points off this movie for making me reference that film) and Jared Leto’s Joker.

This movie is about as by the books and generic as a Lunchables pizza, down to the final moment that feels like it’s a contractual obligation of every horror movie like this. The only reason to watch it is for the A+++ performance by Andrew P. Stephen, who steals the show from every other actor combined. I really hope Stephen keeps showing up in films as the bad guy, he’s only been in one film but I think he’s got a great talent for b-tier schlock.

Rating: C-