Adults play a beloved game from their youth, but they find the stakes now much higher than they had been in high school. Even deadly. An unusual dark action and suspense packed tale, which turns very dark at the end, of jaded adults fighting to regain their childhood.
Synopsis:What if a game you enjoyed playing as a teenager in high school was now being played years later by adults? When Patrick and Emily, with their twelve year old son Joseph, move into an upscale suburban neighborhood they find their new neighbors acting extremely weird toward them.
The reason is revealed one night at a backyard cook-out. Patrick and Emily have moved into a house previously owned by a couple who were members of a team playing Dart Wars. As next-door neighbor Walter explains, the game played by him and his wife in high school was so enjoyable they have begun an adult version of it. They invite Patrick and Emily to take the place of the people who moved away. Emily is all for joining in, and Patrick reluctantly goes along for her sake.
As the game gets underway, Patrick and Emily quickly learn how seriously everyone takes it, and to what lengths they will go to win. Patrick is promptly eliminated, leaving him alone as Emily plays on with Walter and the others.
Feeling abandoned, Patrick soon grows jealous of the time his wife spends playing the game with Walter, and at the extremes she goes to in order to survive. Pierce, the captain of the opposing team, offers Patrick the chance to re-enter the game by secretly joining his team, giving Patrick the chance to bring the game to an end. As Patrick spies on members of his former team, including his wife and Walter, he learns of all the many games that are REALLY going on.
Then Pierce offers Patrick a way to win his wife back away from Walter. A deadly way. After an over-the-top battle royale takes place, bringing the game to its conclusion, Patrick finally learns what is actually at stake.
This dark story is inventive, intense, and unpredictively quirky, with a guaranteed surprise ending. And a moral – ‘Life goes on, but games end’.