There
was a time when you had to deal with people if you wanted to play video games. Players
would put their quarters up to claim the next game and everyone would patiently
wait their turn, through common consent. These days, an arcade is a good place
for a technician like Oz (short for Osgood, not Ozzie) to hide from the world.
Yet, both a cute but neurotic woman and an evil mother board will find him in
Graham Skipper’s Sequence Break (trailer here), which screens
during the 2017 Fantasia International Film Festival.
Jerry’s
arcade-slash-stand-up arcade game wholesale business is on its last legs, but
one of their final customers happens to be Tess, who is really interested in
Oz. Much to his surprise, he starts seeing her romantically. They will have a
chance to spend a lot of time together while he minds the shop for Jerry. He
assumes his good-natured boss has already left to visit family, but he has
actually been murdered by a mysterious drifter who intentionally left behind a
sinister game board. After Oz installs it in a compatible cabinet, he finds the
game exerts a disturbing influence over players, both physically and
emotionally.
Sequence Break is a nice example
of an emerging loose ensemble of recognizable horror specialists and cult
favorites, who almost constitute a throwback to the glory days of the repertory
players featured Hammer and Amicus horror films. Skipper himself is better
known for starring in nifty retro films like The Mind’s Eye and Beyond the Gates, which also co-starred Chase Williamson, who is terrific as the
socially awkward Oz. He also develops some shockingly endearing chemistry with Fabianne
Therese, with whom he previously co-starred in John Dies at the End. (She also appeared in Starry Eyes with Noah Segan, who was also in Camera Obscura with Williamson and Mind’s Eye with Skipper. Get the picture?)
Given
its retro 1980s arcade aesthetic, Sequence
Break’s budget constraints are almost a blessing. The arcade setting and
the in-game graphics look absolutely spot-on. The small ensemble really works
well together, most definitely also including Lyle Kanouse as old Jerry. The
visual effects are basically in keeping with the retro eighties nostalgia, but
the practical cables-coming-out-of-throats effects are sufficiently gory and
gross.