Death Count is a bad movie, but not completely without interest for those in the wrong frame of mind. It’s a highly derivative slab of torture porn, sloppily thrown together by folks who’ve probably seen Saw and Cube too many times, but lack the wherewithal to put their own creative spin on things.
Even the basic concept - eight people trapped in individual cells who are forced to repeatedly mutilate themselves on the internet to earn the most “likes” from viewers in order to survive - has sort-of been done before, most notably in the sadistic (and somewhat underrated) 2008 horror thriller, Untraceable. However, this one has a fraction of the talent on either side of the camera.
Still, they manage to enlist Saw alum Costas Mandylor to play “The Warden,” a masked, hooded host (looking like a cut-rate Sith Lord) who lays down the rules before demanding victims to make horrifying choices in order to survive each round. Failure to comply means immediate elimination from the game. And like Jigsaw’s victims, these contestants were chosen for a specific reason (and sort of a goofy one, at that).
While the program is being streamed, Detective Casey (Michael Madsen) leads the cops in a race-against-time to find The Warden before more people die. It’s a fairly thankless role for Madsen, who mostly shouts stuff like “We gotta stop this!” as his partner searches for the location with a cell phone. Why his character is introduced with a bruised & bandaged face is anybody’s guess.
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| This is the last time she uses Booking.com. |
The entire movie exists as a clothesline on which to hang numerous, lengthy death scenes, and if not always convincing, they are often spectacularly violent. Any tension created by the film doesn’t lie in whether or not a particular dies, but how badly they will die. As such, there’s some sadistic fun to be had here for those who appreciate this sort of thing. And admittedly, most of these scenes are gruesomely effective, particularly since the victims are inflicting much of the torture on themselves.
The film culminates in a ridiculous climax that leaves the door wide open for a sequel. While the intention of turning its antagonist into another horror icon is obvious, The Warden is no Jigsaw and sticking stone-faced Mandylor in a metal mask doesn’t make him any more intimidating than he was after taking-over the torture tasks in the Saw franchise. But if nothing else, Death Count boasts enough on-screen nastiness to have most viewers squirming in their seats, ultimately saving the entire movie.
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