Cards of Death (found slasher film; 1986)

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This article has been tagged as NSFW due to its pornographic subject matter.



Photos of a copy of the film that was sold online in 2008.

Status: Found

Date found: 25 Aug 2015

Found by: Unknown


Cards of Death is a 1986 slasher film directed by actor W.G. MacMillan, his first and only time directing a feature film. It is seen by some as the "holy grail of slasher films" by some due to its rarity. Shot on video in 1985 in California, the low-budget, English-language film was only ever released on VHS in Japan on Sony's "Exciting Video" sub-label in 1986 in limited quantities. The gore effects (provided by Bryan Moore, who has since provided special effects for 1987's Dolls and 2006's Underworld: Evolution) were in-your-face and over the top, and it is assumed that this was the reason that the film only ever received a commercial release in Japan due to the Japanese market being more accustomed to gore since the release of movies such as the Guinea Pig series at the time.

Plot

Cards of Death centers around a cult-like group in LA, spearheaded by a mysterious man known as Hog, that would hold gatherings to gamble with their lives. The group would meet, the males in rubber masks and the females in dominatrix gear, before a Tarot deck would be randomly handed out amongst the members, and a poker-like game would begin. The one holding the Death card at the end would be killed, with victims dying in a variety of graphic and imaginatively sadistic ways, such as a woman being crushed to death in a "shrinking" room. The person with the winning hand would win money, but also the responsibility of having to kill the loser within 24 hours, or else both of them would be killed.

The police are also involved in the film, trying to solve the increasingly frequent murders. The film is also said to contain elements of rape, masochism, drug use, vampirism (ie. a scene in which two nude female lovers make out next to a corpse, after having previously drank the corpse's blood from a wine glass), and a notable scene from the beginning of the film, in which a police officer has his nose sliced off.

Availability

While the film has been re-released, both the original and re-release versions of the film are very rare and are mostly owned by film collectors and reviewers, some of which provided screenshots.[1][2][3] However, on August 25, 2015, an unknown person uploaded a rip of the film on Women In Prison Films.

Gallery

A mirror of the film.

References