Darkgame – 2024
Darkgame is about a gameshow, discovered by the police, on the dark web. You know that part of the internet that the average surfer never sees or reaches. It’s hard to say what the truth but there have been going rumors for years that underground organizations are using it for everything from selling drugs to hiring hitmen. There have also been plenty of movies dealing with online torture where the highest bidder gets to decide what happens to the victims, These are often depicted as very sadistic violence, and the ones you least expect participate in the bidding. So, in that aspect, Darkgame is certainly not unique.
It’s also not the most terrifying film out there. The violence is sick and gruesome but more is out of camera (which, for me, creates a stronger and more revolting feeling). There are movies that show off everything and have that kind of philosophy. Those movies tend to be categorized as extreme films and they certainly have their charm. Darkgame is more focused on the police work and the cat-and-mouse game the antagonist is playing with the police.
Chatroom
I like movies where a chatroom is central and where a live stream is used to broadcast horrific crimes to a paying audience. Maybe It’s my fear of what technology can become if we’re not careful and is up for debate. It’s easier to spread the torture to paying customers doing it online I guess but if these red rooms do exist somewhere in the world I think that there was a market for such things long before the internet was a thing too. That brings up the debate if real “snuff-movies” really exist. Some are convinced that they do, others haven’t seen any evidence of it. And, of course, as you all know, it depends on how you define the snuff movie as a concept. If it has to be a commercial film or not and so forth.
That there are sick and twisted individuals out there who record torture sequences for their own and others’ pleasure is clear. How they’re distributed? Not so much. If they were distributed via a live feed the security around the apparatus would be enormous not to get caught. Or in parallel, the methods of discovering and tracking them might be abysmal. Let’s just agree that in the world of movies, horror, and thrillers, this phenomenon may exist.
Thriller
Darkgame is first and foremost a thriller. There is some gore in it but if you’re a gorehound, you’ll be disappointed. It’s not that kind of movie. But there is some terror to be sure. People held captive and murdered on camera (for the chatroom viewers) are pretty horrifying. The script is not very surprising for the most part and the acting is ok. It’s not great but not really bad either. Some parts could do with an improvement. But what I like about this movie is that it manages to keep it interesting. Even though the script isn’t very innovative, there are still some surårises along the way and it’s easy to put yourself into the captivity situation.
There are some really charismatic characters in there too. I like what they did with Darkgame, I would like to see more efforts on this subject for sure!
