A man who receives very little acknowledgement for his hard work decides to get things to change by kidnapping a young woman and holding her captive until he sees results to his plans. Unbeknownst to him, things are about to take an unexpected turn or two. Evil Games is written and directed by the mind behind 2016’s White Coffin, Adrian Garcia Bogliano. Here he builds another kidnapping story but with much different characters and reasoning. In Evil Games, the story is seen from the kidnapper’s side as he takes the time to build his story, his background, and his reason for doing this before getting to the kidnapping itself.
The characters build have just enough depth to be cared for by the viewers and they work in relation to each other, but most of them do not have much in terms of background or reasoning which does cause some lack of care while watching. The lead character is played by Francisco Barreiro who turns in a performance that works for his part, giving off the right amount of frustration and determination. His performance anchors the film and his representation of his character’s struggles hit some chords while his solution to them is something that differentiates him from most people. Playing his victim and giving one hell of a performance, especially in the last third, Daniela Soto Vell shows that she can take a lot and give a lot.
Her performance has a good arc and, even without much background besides who she is, she does keep the attention and bring a lot to her part. The film has a particular look with everything feeling and looking grey. This look is shot well however with cinematography by Dario Goldgel and it gives the film a very defined look. The film looks good and the grayness gives the film something extra as it adds to the story and characters in way. Additionally, each section of the film has subtle changes in how it’s shot which works well for it. Also adding to the look of the film are the special effects which are juicy and properly gross with just one sequence looking a tad off at first but then it looks right, so it’s easily forgivable.
Evil Games, aka Scherzo Diabolico in its original Spanish, is a thriller that eventually takes a turn into flat out horror with some gross effects and good performances. The story evolves at a good pace and shit hits the fan at the last third, giving a good payoff to the whole film and giving it a surprising turn or two while still making sense on the whole. Or course, this ending is surprising unless you have read a lot about the film beforehand, so keeping oneself as spoiler-free as possibly is definitely a good thing here.