Plot: Rachel and William are new to town and get invited to a games night by some neighbors. It’s all competitive fun, but they soon find out that they are no match for their new friends’ lust for the win.
I recently watched a 9 minute horror short film from writer/director Doug Cook called gamesmanship and it’s a perfect example of what you can do on a low budget but with a cast and crew of genuine talent.
Despite only being 9 minutes long there’s a lot packed into it with plenty of dark humour and some of the best gore effects I’ve seen this year.
The performances are solid and Brennen Kovic who plays Bill has genuine screen presence and I’m intrigued to see what he does next. He is trained in Ju-Jitsu, so it would be cool to see him in an action movie at some point.
I really can’t stress how chillingly effective the SFX are and as my brother can attest they leave nothing to the imagination on that front.
I did feel that we maybe didn’t need the mid-credits scenes as the way it ended was perfect however, it gave us some more gore which is no bad thing and horror fans will eat it up.
Overall, Gamesmanship is a cool idea for a horror short with nice touches of dark humour and it has phenomenal gore effects which will haunt you long after viewing.