i must have seen a different film!!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

At the Falcon Academy of Athletics, a crazed killer is using a well-aimed javelin to bump off the school's most promising young sportsmen and women.Given the wide range of sporting apparatus readily available to the lunatic in Fatal Games, it's a shame that the victims only ever meet their fate skewered on the sharpened point of a javelin: although it makes for a reasonably gruesome demise, the novelty soon wears off.Thankfully, the repetitive nature of the film's kills is easily offset by the excess of female nudity, which is shoe-horned into proceedings at every available opportunity: a character gets topless for her boyfriend, girls are regularly seen showering in the changing rooms, 'final girl' Annie (Lynn Banashek) enjoys a naked massage (but not as much as the masseur!), and, in the film's most gratuitous scene, a totally nude victim is chased all over the school by the maniac after being interrupted taking a sauna. All that nekkidness certainly helps to make matters a lot more enjoyable.Throw in an unscrupulous doctor plying the athletes with steroids and hormones, a coach having a lesbian affair with her student, a cool, lo-fi synth score and a lousy 'Eye of the Tiger'-style theme song (Take It To The Limit), plus a delightfully bonkers motive for the killer, and what you have is a reasonably entertaining piece of '80s slasher silliness. I may be in the minority, but I found it a lot more fun than Graduation Day, that other '80s slasher featuring high-school athletes.6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

A gymnastics school, Massachusettes Falcon Academy of Athletics, is haunted by a psychopath. You can see how athletics is of great importance to the school as a whole. The Nationals on the horizon offer Olympics hopes. The faculty aren't fond of each other and we soon learn that the physician(..and his nurse, who objects to his decision to up the dosage) in charge of the kids is giving them improper doses of drugs to reinforce their athletic abilities despite the possible criminal ramifications which could result if caught in the act. The coaching staff come under fire when their students begin vanishing, medal winners whose potential of bringing the school a reputation diminish with each murder.Killer, in black jump suit and hoody, thrusts his/her javelin all the way through the victims, attacking each when they are practicing alone, mostly at night after hours. We see, in one instance, where a girl is saved while swim-training, because her boyfriend shows up in the nick of time(..though, we see later what happens when he isn't there to rescue her due to an injury he suffers while training). The javelin is certainly an interesting weapon of choice and is put to good use in this one.Lynn Banashek is Annie Rivers , a fine gymnast whose grades outside of the academy are faltering due to her commitment to athletics. Juggling both is a problem and her father wishes for her to dedicate herself to education because gymnastics won't last for a career. You know Diane is the "final girl" because she's the most established character of the cast along with being the most virginal and innocent. Annie is an example ofthe negative reaction to "medication" given to her, side-effects of the steroids(stomach spasms) they've been taking at the insistence of their coaches. Sally Kirkland has a lucrative role as the nurse who attends to the athletes when they suffer bumps, bruises, injuries, etc.Swimming coach and her female student lover(..although, their relationship isn't explicitly presented which is a crying shame). Physical therapist whose hand massage of Diane goes a little too far into an "inappropriate region". Sue Ellen running for her life naked throughout the empty halls of the school, the killer interrupting her sauna rest. Naked girls in the showers. If it weren't for these gratuitous elements(..and the violence), Fatal Games would be an after-school special dealing with young athletes(..and the coaching staff as well) and the numerous challenges that accompany competing for the Olympics, hoping to realize that dream. The performances could be horrendous because the cast was chosen for their athletic abilities, than acting prowess. The reasons for the murders is a doozy! It's quite a psycho-sexual twist.

...Fatal Games would be their campy offspring! Students attending an athlete academy are getting speared by a mad javelin thrower!Other than the clever choice of weapon, Fatal Games doesn't add anything new to the slasher genre. It follows a very routine plot, which at times becomes quite repetitious and the cast is pretty weak. It has a completely dated 80's style - the cast even wears leg warmers! The javelin murders (hah, good alternate title!) are fairly gore-free and I dare say darkly funny at times. The revelation of the killer's identity is surprising though the motive is pretty silly. There's also plenty of female nudity on display though, if that's how you get your kicks.Over all, clichés and cheese abound but it's still not the worst of its kind.* 1/2 out of ****

Low-keyed 80's slasher with one tiny little difference compared to the rest of them. The irritating victims all go to a school for sport athletes instead to an ordinary high school. Hardly original, is it? Whilst the girls and boys preparing for the Olympics and the doctors pump them full of steroids, some demented loser is practicing his/her javelin techniques on student targets. It's a rather interesting modus operandi for an 80's killer, resulting in some nicely gory – albeit very cheesy – sequences. I don't know whether you're meant to guess along for the killer's identity, because the given clues are lame and very implausible, but it's a fun enough movie without intellectual red herrings and numerous plot twists. I was in an undemanding mood today, anyway! The humor doesn't really work, there's absolutely no tension or atmosphere and the acting performances are – as to be expected – pretty damn terrible. Oh well, at least "Olympic Nightmare" is never really boring and, since athletes need to take showers regularly, there's also quite a lot of gratuitous nudity. The denouement is a real hoot!