Death Count (2022) - Should have been about half an hour long

Sometimes you watch a film and think, 'Yeah, I can see what they were going for.' It's just a pity they didn't pull it off.  I like the idea of 'Death Count' - it tries to be a satirical social commentary on our addiction to 'likes' on social media.  Eight people awake to find themselves prisoners in an online game where they must perform grisly tasks on themselves for the internet's amusement.  The one who gets the least amount of 'likes' gets... well, it's a horror movie, so it's not good for the loser of each round.

The problem is it's dragged out too long.  One plus side is that there's a decent amount of gore if that's all you're looking for.  The budget means the gore isn't top notch, but if you're forgiving of the lack of finance behind the production then you may be okay on that one.  However, it still doesn't take away from the fact that if you took the excessive bodily mutilation out of the film and trimmed it down by half, you could - sort of - be left with a lesser episode of 'Black Mirror.'

Michael Madsen is in it, too.  Once upon a time that might be a selling point, but his character feels crowbarred in simply because he's the only face you'll recognise.  He looks typically bored, but he's head and shoulders over the 'antagonist' of the piece.  This mysterious masked figure oversees the goings on and he's bad.  We know he's bad because he dressed like a bad guy (albeit one with a low budget for his wardrobe) and he talks like a bad guy.  Every line he says comes from a 'super villain's handbook.' He really his quite painful to watch when he's on screen.

If you're going to get anything out of this you'll have to severely suspend your disbelief to go with it.  The fact that this online 'show' seems to be known to the entire world, yet only the local police department seem to feel the need to investigate is a major plot drawback.  If you're really in the mood for some low budget torture p**n then this might fill an hour and twenty five minutes if you can find it for free on a streaming service.

4/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back