Three years before Anthony Edwards was playing college assassination games with his friends in Gotcha!, Nick Castle—yes, Michael Myers himself—made his directorial debut with T.A.G.: The Assassination Game, starring Robert Carradine and Linda Hamilton. Now, this wonderfully bizarre slice of ’80s cinema is getting a standard-edition Blu-ray release courtesy of Synapse Films.
Ahh, the ’80s. A simpler time when college students could be assigned to hunt down their classmates with toy guns and suction-cup ammunition, all in the name of a little friendly competition. As ridiculous as that premise sounds today, I’d be lying if I said playing with toy guns as a kid wasn’t a hell of a lot of fun.
Susan Swayze (Hamilton) is an enthusiastic participant in T.A.G., along with other members of the student body. Loren Gersh (Bruce Abbott), however, takes the game to an entirely different level. He’s the campus champion, systematically taking out opponents without ever getting tagged himself. For Loren, this isn’t just a game…it’s an obsession.
That obsession takes a very dark turn when Loren is tagged by one of his targets, and something inside him snaps. Rather than accepting defeat, he changes the rules, trading his toy gun for the real thing. Suddenly, getting “assassinated” means exactly what it sounds like.
Susan has no idea that Loren has gone completely off the rails, while Alex Marsh (Carradine), who has a thing for Susan, innocently tags along with her during the game. He has no idea just how dangerous things are about to become.
T.A.G. initially plays like a breezy college comedy, but once Loren’s obsession mutates into outright psychosis, Castle shifts gears and turns the film into a surprisingly effective thriller. Admittedly, I’m more partial to Gotcha! and its globetrotting spy-thriller setup, but T.A.G. has plenty of charm of its own. Castle keeps things moving at a brisk pace, balancing the increasingly sinister premise with enough humor to prevent the film from becoming overly grim.
The cast also provides some fun surprises. A pre-Police Academy Michael Winslow gets the opportunity to show off his legendary sound-effects skills, while Forest Whitaker makes his feature-film debut in one of his earliest screen appearances.
For its Blu-ray debut, T.A.G.: The Assassination Game receives a new 2K restoration sourced from the original 35mm archival vault materials. The results are impressive, with a clean, sharp presentation that brings out plenty of detail in the film’s college setting. The DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio track is equally solid and more than adequate for the material.
While T.A.G. may have been overshadowed by the more recognizable Gotcha!, it’s an entertaining and increasingly dark little time capsule of ’80s college culture. If you’ve never seen it, Synapse Films’ new Blu-ray provides a great opportunity to discover one of the decade’s more unusual forgotten thrillers.
Bonus Materials:
- Audio Commentary with Director Nick Castle and Star Robert Carradine
- Original Theatrical Trailer
