Once a year, I hit a critical wall. It usually happens when I get overwhelmed with screeners (which is starting to happen a little) in late November. I just watch too much stuff too close together and stop writing almost entirely. It happened this year largely due to my focus on physical media. I have such a stack of blu-rays and 4Ks to watch along with screeners for awards consideration and movies I watch that podcasts cover and movies I just want to watch for fun, that it shut me down. I keep watching stuff I plan on reviewing, but when I try to start writing about it, I think, “Who cares? Hardly anyone is reading this, and what’s the point, anyway?”
These thoughts are true, but writing about this shit does bring me satisfaction, believe it or not. And covering more physical media has led to my most productive year since starting this blog in 2009. Usually, I can get past those intrusive thoughts about the point of it all because when you start asking what the point of something is you can take that all the way to the extreme truth that nothing has a point once enough time passes. So I wallow in that for a month or so (or two years, if you check my productivity in 2016-17), and then that fact brings me back. If nothing really matters, then why not go ahead and write some bullshit about a movie no one has heard of. With that in mind, I’m back, and here are my thoughts on Tag: The Assassination Game.
Tag is a movie I almost skipped checking out until I saw that it was directed by The Shape himself, Nick Castle. That, coupled with an early performance from Linda Hamilton, led me to watch it. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it to be all that engaging aside from the intriguing premise of a college dart gun game turned deadly. The only thing keeping it interesting was off screen elements.
First off, there’s the change in the culture since Tag was released in 1982. College kids running around with realistic guns shooting each other just feels different after so many mass shootings. It didn’t ruin the movie for me, but it was certainly on my mind.
Nick Castle’s involvement intrigued me because of his association with John Carpenter. I was glad to see a Carpenter reference with the dude running Tag named Carpenter. It’s ridiculous how often his name is used in horror-type films as an homage or whatever, but it’s earned here. And listening to the commentary with Castle and Robert Carradine (more on him next), Castle revealed that the studio wouldn’t let him direct the film until Carpenter wrote a letter to them vouching for Castle’s ability.
I normally wouldn’t listen to the commentary for a film that underwhelmed me, but the inclusion of Carradine interested me. Robert Carradine committed suicide earlier this year while in a mental health facility receiving treatment for a years-long condition. I had morbid curiosity about when they recorded this and what his mental state was during it. After a few comments from the commentary moderator about some recently deceased cast members, it’s clear that it was recorded in 2024. Carradine seemed like he was in good spirits for the session, joking around quite a bit.
The commentary is the sole special feature on this new release, which also features a great transfer of the film. Clearly, this one wasn’t for me, but I’m sure there are some nostalgic fans out there who would love to get an upgraded version of the film.