Stacy is a teenaged girl with sleep issues. She keeps seeing the same two young girls in her dreams. She is also playing with a Ouija board like program called Shall We Play. As her life begins to spin out of control thanks to bullying Stacy begins to see the girls in real life and her mental condition begins to break.
I am not certain what I think of SHALL WE PLAY. This is undoubtedly a dark little tale that chills the blood. At times we can't be certain what's real and what isn't, which is good. The question for me is that I'm not certain how the mixing of horror and teen pain works. While it actually does work creating a great wave of uncomfortable emotion I'm still trying to work out if it is for the right reasons. Is it for purely exploitive reasons or did the filmmakers have something more serious in mind? I don't know. And while I don't like that I don't know, I do like that the film has forced me to ponder the really stupid things that teenagers do to each other.
I know you are probably wondering whether the film is good or not as a horror film, and the answer is it is quite good. Keeping the audience off balance and uncertain which way is up, SHALL WE PLAY? pushes buttons and doesn't take the easy way out. We are made uncomfortable and even frightened by what we see. It is often chilling in all the right ways...
...and the chills don't go away so easily since the film is rooted in reality.
Recommended.
SHALL WE PLAY? plays tomorrow at Blood in the Snow. For details on how to watch it go here.
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