Death Game

The story unfolds over one storm-lashed night in the mid-1970s. It captures the era's domestic anxieties and shifting gender norms amid urban life in the San Francisco area. The thunderstorm amplifies the sense of confinement and unpredictability that drives the night's events.

Set primarily in a single San Francisco Bay Area home during a stormy October night in 1975. The house becomes a claustrophobic stage where ordinary domestic life collapses into danger. The surrounding Bay Area landscape, including glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge, contrasts with the creeping threat inside.

🔒 Power dynamics

The home becomes a trap as two visitors seize control of the space and narrative. George's attempts to assert agency meet escalating manipulation, revealing how trust can fracture under coercion. The mock trial and ritualized punishment critique gendered power and domestic vulnerability.

🌀 Fear and coercion

Fear escalates as psychological torment mirrors physical abuse, turning ordinary hospitality into a nightmare. George's pleas, bargaining, and attempts to escape illuminate the fragility of safety when strangers invade the home. The film probes how fear can justify dehumanizing actions.

🎭 Madness and performance

Jackson and Donna transform normal civility into theater, staging rituals and wearing his wife's clothes to mock normal life. Their volatile games blur lines between consent, control, and cruelty. The dark humor and irony culminate in an abrupt, fatal twist that exposes the fragility of social masks.