B Movie Night- Deathrow Gameshow


The Running Man meets Police Squad.

Deathrow Gameshow is the camp shadow of Arnie’s murder-as-television-show action movie. Set in (then) present day Los Angeles its satire on the cheapening effect of celebrity culture quickly veers off into gurning performances and Zucker/Abrahams style sight puns.

Chuck Toedan is the host of Live Or Die, the gameshow where death row inmates get the chance to win a stay of execution- or on screen death. Shallow and sociopathic, Toedan is finally beginning to feel the strain. So, when he- and secretly buxom morality campaigner Gloria Sternvirgin- are trapped in his office by a mafia hitman it’s all too much for him, and he has to do what he does best one last time before getting out.

This is a silly little film, which can’t decide just what it wants to be- OTT satire or just a goofy farce with an odd premise. It would have benefited from further work on the script, and a bigger budget, but as it stands it’s a clunky but entertaining little piece.

This is another film from the region 1 Rare Cult Cinema DVD I got recently.