Pretending to do research for his newspaper, college student Alex Marsh teams up with the somewhat older Susan Swayze, who he long admired from afar. Susan participates in The Assassination Game, in which every player tries to shoot another with a toy dart gun, until only one remains. While doing his best to win her over, and helping her finding her targets, Alex discovers that this year the Game may be more serious than most contenders realize...
        Considering that every bad 80's slasher movie ever made seems to have a cult following these days (including, God help us all, the Sleepaway Camp trilogy), I find it highly ironic that a well-made, suspenseful, and entertaining film like this is now virtually forgotten. TAG has a great premise. It has some great b-movie talent including Robert Carradine, Bruce Abbot, erstwhile porn starlet Kristine DeBell, and a young Linda Hamilton. It was even directed by Nick Kastle, the man who played the Shape in the original Halloween. The problem with this movie, no doubt, was that, much like the original Halloween, it contained little blood and gore. After Friday the 13th in 1980 this was just not permissible (Halloween itself probably would have sunk like a stone had it been released five years later).