THE CALLER I.D. WAS SHOWING ME a request for a favor was imminent. The only time I would hear from this friend was when he needed a favor; I was so used to his requests that they did not annoy me like they did in the beginning. We had been friends for roughly ten years, but the request calls started taking place around five years ago. At first, they were intermittent; he would call periodically to say hi or to make plans to get together between favor requests. But the past few years the social calls dropped off leaving only the request calls as our form of communication. Because of our long history, if I could help out I would; however, if it was not convenient for me then I did not. If I were to look at our relationship from outside of myself, I would say we were more like acquaintances instead of friends. Granted, I make a strong distinction between friends and acquaintances, but I cannot honestly tell you I know what is new with my friend or how work has been going for him. I tried making plans with him in the past, but he never could commit to a time and place; he would always tell me he would get back to me. He never did until there was something he needed.      YOU MAY BE WONDERING WHAT DOES it take for me to stop being friends with someone. The obvious answer is if I could not trust them. However, there have been times where I thought we were friends but found out only when it worked for them. I had a friend I would hang out with from time to time, either doing a dinner or play. One day I received a mailer that a play I really wanted to see was coming to a theater in my suburb. I asked him if he wanted to see it; he gave me an enthusiastic yes. I said I would check on tickets and get back to him. The ticket prices were reasonable and there were plenty of seats, so I called him back to figure out a date. Now here is the part that changed everything for me: in the middle of us checking our calendars while on the phone, he asked where the play was being performed. When I said it was near me, he immediately said he was not interested. I asked him why and he said he was not going to travel out of the city to go see it. It came to me in an instant; from our history, he was only available for the things that were close to him; I was only a friend if I drove down to him. Maybe you have experienced something similar? I hope nothing like the friends in this comedic, horror thriller.      DURING A GAME AMONGST A GROUP of friends, one of the guests is murdered. When the friends start to figure out who they can trust, their true colors begin to come out. With Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give, The Darkest Minds) as Sophie, Maria Bakalova (The Bubble, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) as Bee, Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby, Call Your Mother-TV) as Alice, Chase Sui Wonders (On the Rocks, Generation-TV) as Emma and Pete Davidson (The King of Staten Island, Set It Up) as David, this story was not something I was able to connect with easily. I could see the script was part satire and a take on the twenty something age group; but when they started playing the game, I lost interest. Plus, I did not find anything humorous in the script. I do not know if it was an age thing, but there was nothing I could relate to on some level. It was not until closer to the end of the story that I became interested. Overall, I was not a fan of this movie. There were several scenes with blood and violence.

2 stars