Director
Albert Pyun
Cast
Megan Ward - Alex Manning
Peter Billingsley - Nick
A.J. Langer - Laurie
Seth Green - Stilts
Brian Dattilo - Greg
John DeLancie- Difford
During my teenage years in the 1990s, growing up in the hills of Oakland, California, we had our neighborhood video rental just like so many other neighborhoods.
Ours was called "California Video" located in the Lincoln Square Shopping Center on Mountain Blvd. It was next to a liquor store, a bank, and a travel agency. All these businesses surrounded the Safeway which is still there to this day, and is still the main attraction at Lincoln Square. Sadly, California Video is long gone, but the memories remain.
Anyways, among the well known titles that decorated the shelves by genre there were extremely obscure movies never released at a theater near you. Titles such as My Pet Monster (1986), Ricky 1 (1989), whatever movies Troma put out in the 80s and 90s, and The Search for Animal Chin (1987) - that had a young Tony Hawk in it, and starred the "Bones Brigade." Yeah! Remember them? The Bones Brigade! No, of course you don't unless you happened to have been a skateboarder back in the decade. Radical!
Well, the 1993 horror/ sci-fi movie Arcade feels completely like one of those very low-budget, truly obscure titles a few people may have stumbled upon at random, sitting in their local mom and pop video stores.
I'm sure this was a title many a person looking for something to watch on a Friday night often glanced over. Maybe a few 12-year olds who were drawn to the title and the cover art of a girl playing a virtual reality game (yeah- that was the future for 1993), and convinced their moms to rent it.
The synopsis on the back reads "There's a new game at Dante's Inferno, and the kids are dying to play it." Oh, I could definitely see the appeal of this straight-to-video, family friendly horror movie for those 90s kids.
While the 80s were a successful decade for video games both at home as well as the quarter machines where video games could be played, virtual reality offered a unique and different experience. It's no wonder virtual reality was thought to be "the wave of the future."
Though it didn't take off quite like people thought it would, virtual reality did make its mark. Just not quite the way the 90s anticipated.
Megan Ward plays a teenager, Alex Manning, who's suffering turmoil as she feels she hasn't dealt with her mother's suicide the way she believes she should have. Her mother shot herself in the head right inside her home. And since then, Alex blames herself. She lives with her dad who is still suffering a lot of remorse at losing his wife.
Alex and her boyfriend, Greg, along with their friends decide to hang out at the local arcade called "Dante's Inferno."
They've seen a bunch of ads for a new game release called "Arcade" and are eager to try it.
The game company's CEO, Difford (John de Lancie) is at Dante's Inferno to promote Arcade they night they all go to hang out.
He explains how it's virtual reality, and offers Nick (Peter Billingsley), one of the teens in the group, a free game.
He plays it, and when he's done, Nick tells the crew, "you gotta try this."
As Difford offers the kids free home consoles, they leave with him into another room to claim their swag. Alex's boyfriend stays behind and tries Arcade on his own.
The game shows itself to be cognisant, and traps him in the game.
Alex goes to find Greg, and assumes he just left without them. Confused, she heads home to call him but obviously can't reach him.
At home, she tries her free home console of Arcade. That's when she finds out the game is alive as it knows her name and tells her Greg is captive inside.
When she leaves the game and takes the virtual reality goggles off, she finds several hours have passed even though it felt like she was only playing for minutes..
Scared, though not convincingly so, she calls Nick and heads over to his place to tell him the game is alive. Of course, he doesn't believe it.
However, after later visiting their friend Laurie (A.J. Langer) it becomes clear to Nick that Alex was right.
He and Alex visit the gaming company and are able to talk directly to the game developer under the guise that they're looking for secrets to pass difficult levels.
As the teenagers keep digging into the game play, the developer admits to the company's immoral decision to use the human brain cells from a boy who had been previously beaten by his own mother when developing the game.
So, the teenagers along with the game's developer work to free the other teens held captive in the game by ultimately playing through each level and beating it. They all sneak into Dante's Inferno to challenge the game, and it soon becomes game versus players.
I never heard of Arcade until I stumbled upon the title doing a Google search for horror film suggestions.
I'm sure this was a title many a person looking for something to watch on a Friday night often glanced over. Maybe a few 12-year olds who were drawn to the title and the cover art of a girl playing a virtual reality game (yeah- that was the future for 1993), and convinced their moms to rent it.
The synopsis on the back reads "There's a new game at Dante's Inferno, and the kids are dying to play it." Oh, I could definitely see the appeal of this straight-to-video, family friendly horror movie for those 90s kids.
While the 80s were a successful decade for video games both at home as well as the quarter machines where video games could be played, virtual reality offered a unique and different experience. It's no wonder virtual reality was thought to be "the wave of the future."
Megan Ward plays a teenager, Alex Manning, who's suffering turmoil as she feels she hasn't dealt with her mother's suicide the way she believes she should have. Her mother shot herself in the head right inside her home. And since then, Alex blames herself. She lives with her dad who is still suffering a lot of remorse at losing his wife.
Alex and her boyfriend, Greg, along with their friends decide to hang out at the local arcade called "Dante's Inferno."
They've seen a bunch of ads for a new game release called "Arcade" and are eager to try it.
The game company's CEO, Difford (John de Lancie) is at Dante's Inferno to promote Arcade they night they all go to hang out.
He explains how it's virtual reality, and offers Nick (Peter Billingsley), one of the teens in the group, a free game.
He plays it, and when he's done, Nick tells the crew, "you gotta try this."
As Difford offers the kids free home consoles, they leave with him into another room to claim their swag. Alex's boyfriend stays behind and tries Arcade on his own.
The game shows itself to be cognisant, and traps him in the game.
Alex goes to find Greg, and assumes he just left without them. Confused, she heads home to call him but obviously can't reach him.
At home, she tries her free home console of Arcade. That's when she finds out the game is alive as it knows her name and tells her Greg is captive inside.
When she leaves the game and takes the virtual reality goggles off, she finds several hours have passed even though it felt like she was only playing for minutes..
Scared, though not convincingly so, she calls Nick and heads over to his place to tell him the game is alive. Of course, he doesn't believe it.
However, after later visiting their friend Laurie (A.J. Langer) it becomes clear to Nick that Alex was right.
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| Megan Ward, Peter Billingsley, and Norbert Weisser. |
As the teenagers keep digging into the game play, the developer admits to the company's immoral decision to use the human brain cells from a boy who had been previously beaten by his own mother when developing the game.
So, the teenagers along with the game's developer work to free the other teens held captive in the game by ultimately playing through each level and beating it. They all sneak into Dante's Inferno to challenge the game, and it soon becomes game versus players.
I never heard of Arcade until I stumbled upon the title doing a Google search for horror film suggestions.
What caught my interest was its cast. It stars Peter Billingsley (A Christmas Story), Seth Green, A.J. Langer (The People Under the Stairs), Megan Ward, and John de Lancie ("Q" from Star Trek: The Next Generation.)
Its biggest problem is the lack of emotion. Despite the game kidnapping Greg and, well, being alive, Alex barely has any emotion when she finds out Greg is trapped in the game, that the game is evil and self-aware, and she goes to tell Nick. She acts as though she went over to Nick's place to tell him she lost her favorite lipstick.
The story line seems very loosely based on Disney's Tron. If a film student with access to a green screen and an early version of Apple Paint wanted to make their own movie similar to Tron, but totally not Tron, this movie would be it.
The story line seems very loosely based on Disney's Tron. If a film student with access to a green screen and an early version of Apple Paint wanted to make their own movie similar to Tron, but totally not Tron, this movie would be it.
It does try to tell an interesting tale of SciFi thrills. It just doesn't quite accomplish that. It's too scripted, and that gets in the way. Billingsley looks bored have the time, and sometimes has a look on his face that says, "why am I here?"
The bad acting that's sprinkled through this film lasts all the way to the end, making the climax laughable and underwhelming.
And, sadly, it's a movie that hasn't aged well. Arcade is a victim of its time as far as the story line and effects go. The CGI is very primitive, but I admit it is a bit fun to watch
Director Albert Pyun directed SciFi/ action thriller movies such as Cyborg with Van Damme, Radioactive Dreams, The Sword and the Sorcerer, and even the 1990 version of Captain America. So this movie fits into is line of story telling.
I can understand the reasoning for any cult followings this movie might have. It may have been something to watch for young teen gamers back in the 90s. It has some nostalgic charm to it. Otherwise, it's a schlocky 90s bore.
The bad acting that's sprinkled through this film lasts all the way to the end, making the climax laughable and underwhelming.
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| Megan Ward. |
Director Albert Pyun directed SciFi/ action thriller movies such as Cyborg with Van Damme, Radioactive Dreams, The Sword and the Sorcerer, and even the 1990 version of Captain America. So this movie fits into is line of story telling.
I can understand the reasoning for any cult followings this movie might have. It may have been something to watch for young teen gamers back in the 90s. It has some nostalgic charm to it. Otherwise, it's a schlocky 90s bore.
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