Shocktober 2024: Fatal Games (Michael Elliot, 1984)

At the Falcon Academy of Athletics in Massachusetts (actually LA), a group of young athletes are training for the nationals, with the ultimate goal of being picked for the olympics. Not so fast, says javelin-throwing maniac who starts picking the athletes off one by one. But who can this masked murderer be?

This modestly-budgeted thriller was an effort to capitalize on at least two huge cultural phenomena happening at the time — the slasher movie and the LA olympics of 1984. It’s pretty bad, a ripoff of other similar movies, but not without some entertaining moments. Frequently unintentionally funny — not least when it comes to how the athletes are portrayed. These supposedly elite teens on their way to the olympics sure don’t act the part: they seem lazy and untrained, when they’re asked to ‘try harder’ they collectively groan like high-schoolers getting detention, and their coaches keep making them work on very basic stuff like how to properly get on and off the uneven bars, stuff I’m assuming you learn when you’re like 8.

The one-note killer refuses to use any other weapon than the javelin, leading to a number of hilarious scenes where the culprit is running around the training ground, javelin constantly raised in a throw pose. What a waste: the sports world with all its gear and gadgets would be ideal for inventive movie kills, the gymnastics alone — just look at the harrowing kill in Final Destination 5 (2011) — but the Fatal Games filmmakers seem content with just using the javelin over and over again.

(SPOILER) The movie ends with a transphobic twist, which unfortunately wasn’t uncommon at the time. Several slashers and thrillers in the late 70’s and early 80’s depicted trans people of all kinds as murderous psychos; Sleepaway Camp (1983) is perhaps the most infamous case. Since this particular twist weaves together trans panic, performance-enhancing drugs, hormones and the olympics there’s a sad and gross connection to be made to 2024, when these things are still being debated in the baddest of faiths. Dr. Runtime approved (87 mins).