PLAY DEAD (2025)

3 stars

Seven Tales. Digital. 9th March

Alison awakens in a basement. She has blood on her hands and a wound in her side. There are other people, who appear to be dead, on the ground around her.

She has an old flip phone – is this supposed to indicate this is set in the past – and uses the screen light to look around. Tries phoning but doesn’t get through. Dragging herself across the floor to the stairs. Partway up the stairs … her phone dies.

When she hears noises from above — she rushes back to where she was and pretends to be dead. A large man thuds down the stairs and flicks on the light. Goes to his work bench. He has a sewn together mask on, which he fixes and pulls back on. Leather … or maybe skin? He picks up one of the other females and slings her body over his shoulder and leaves.

What kind of situation has she found herself in? What is the masked man up to? Can she escape before he realises she is still alive?

This is an Argentinian production with a cast of unknowns – which is usually better in these kinds of films. The problem here is nothing really happens. There is no setup so the audience is in the dark for much of the time – we just get our hulking kidnapper/killer coming up and down getting bodies, with Alison trying to figure her way out, when she’s not playing possum. Some things that occur stretch credulity somewhat.

It is quite atmospherically shot but there is nothing particularly original here with shades of TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, PSYCHO and MANIAC among others. There is a twist in the tale at the end.