Death Count

Now, we are cooking with gas!

How do you like your horror?  Hopefully, extra gory because Death Count, directed by Michael Su (Bloodthirst), written by Rolfe Kanefsky and Michael Merino, and produced by Michael and Sonny Mahal, who previously gave audiences Attack of the Unknown, Art of the Dead, and Bus Party to Hell, delivers the gruesome and goopy mess thanks to a sinister executioner who really likes to play violent games with his hostages while the whole world watches via their devices.

"both terrifies and titillates its audience "


 

And they can’t get enough of his deranged demands.  

Forget about SAW or Hostel.  In a social media obsessed world, Death Count brings the noise and the warning.  Is this where we are headed in a social media obsessed society?  It might just be.  Starring Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs), Costas Mandylor (Saw IV), Robert LaSardo (Waterworld), Sarah French (Blind), Devanny Pinn (The Dawn), and Ben Stobber (Unwritten)., the tension mounts as the clock ticks down the time to each and every challenge by The Warden that these captives must perform.  

Confinement in the era of COVID-19 seems to be where modern horror is headed.  Death Count, smartly applying the idea of confinement via missing people who wake up in cells with no idea of how they got there, is the latest to take up arms and rewards viewers with the rules to a NEW and very SICK contest, involving just how many social media “likes” a person can get in a game of survival, hosted by a serial killer known only as The Warden.

The rules to The Warden’s game “And Then There Were” are simple: you can’t contact the outside world and you must follow the schedule.  It is all about what a person is willing to sacrifice.  With a bomb attached to the base of your skull, the threat is real as strangers in cells begin to wake up, with no choice but to play the game OR ELSE.  Death Count

And you’d be surprised just how many of them don’t wish to play by the rules.  Soon enough, heads are popped, guts are splattered, and limbs severed in gnarly kill sequences as the games demand more and more from the captives.  Meanwhile, the cops can't catch a break in their pursuit of just who is behind these sickening games.

Are you willing to do what it takes to get the most “likes” in the cyber world?  Should you fail to follow the rules, you will be eliminated immediately . . . 

. . . and it is all being streamed to a hungry audience.  With its message about our social media obsessed culture fully in place, Death Count both terrifies and titillates its audience as each task the strangers are prompted to do earns more likes and guarantees their survival . . . for now.

Begin your task or be eliminated.  Death Count is the world we live in.  The film is being released by Gravitas Ventures on July 19th in North America.  Stay tuned or else!

4/5 stars

Film Details

Death Count

MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime:

Director
: Michael Su
Writer:
Michael Merino; Rolfe Kanefsky
Cast:
Costas Mandylor; Michael Madsen; Robert LaSardo
Genre
: Horror
Tagline:
Time Waits for No One.
Memorable Movie Quote:
Distributor:
Gravitas Ventures
Official Site:
Release Date:
July 19, 2022
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:

Synopsis: Strangers awaken in individual holding cells with no memory of how they arrived. They realize if they don't acquire enough online "likes" in a timely manner, they'll die horribly at the hands of a sinister executioner.

Art

Death Count