‘War Games,’ an independent film by Italian director Cosimo Alema, tells the story of a group of young men and women on a weekend trip to the countryside. Right from the start, you get a sense of the different personalities within the group: There are the sisters with lingering ‘issues,’ smouldering romances and rivalries.

Their goal is to find a nice, quiet backwater to engage in a friendly bout of airsoft, in which the combatants use life-like rifles loaded with plastic pellets.  

But little do the group know that the woods they have chosen are already occupied by a group of rather intense ex-soldiers, who have more deadly ways to blow off steam. They’re armed with real weapons, with which they like to hunt captured dogs. But the four-legged prey is getting boring, and, sensing an opportunity to act out their secret desires, they decide to hunt and kill the ‘pretend soldiers’ who have fallen into their lap.  

A lot of different techniques have been used in ‘War Games,’ all of which are intended to cause suspense and fear in the audience. Some of them are familiar, and used with a heavy hand, such as the technique of putting foliage or grass between the camera and the characters to make it look as though they’re being watched. Others are more subtle, and far more affecting: In one scene a character takes a break, after being eliminated from the game of Airsoft. In the background we hear a high-pitched noise, but it’s impossible to tell whether it’s a whistle or a scream.  

The film is set out in the woods, with some scenes taking place along a gravel track or in a bunker or in some old ruins. There’s nothing all that visually interesting about the setting. Adding to the blandness, the colour has been de-saturated to the point that everything is tinged with sepia tones. 

The soundtrack is diverse and often surprising. The more emotional moments are accompanied by strings and piano with mellow vocals. But later on, when the action is intense, we are subjected to an instrumental bedlam of human or animal screams, all submerged under a thick layer of distortion. This movie can be very hard on the ears, especially when it moves from a tranquil conversation scene to the point of view of one of the bad guys- the ragged, stilted sound of his breathing will almost certainly make you want to cover your ears. 

The protagonists are ‘just’ developed enough for us to care about them and to feel fear for them. The baddies are utterly irredeemable and not all that interesting. Even though we get to know a bit about them through scenes of dialogue, we never get a sense of what makes them tick, or find out exactly what their malfunction is. 

As an experience, War Games is shattering. It seems to know exactly what your expectations are, what your hopes are, and ruthlessly crushes them.    

Closing comments:

War Games doesn’t do anything spectacular, but nor does it fail in any given area. The story it tells us is convincing and harrowing, if not particularly compelling.