The world lost filmmaker Albert Pyun in 2022 after a long battle with dementia and multiple sclerosis. Although he’s gone, his films live on and are even gaining traction, with new releases on the horizon. In 1991, he directed two films for Full Moon Entertainment. The first was Dollman, followed immediately by Arcade. Though it was filmed back-to-back with Dollman, it faced numerous setbacks before finally being released in 1994. Full Moon is continuing their recent trend of issuing HD remasters of their early releases, and Arcade is one of them.
Alex Manning (Megan Ward) isn’t just another moody teen in the suburbs; her mother’s suicide haunts her. Stuck drifting through grief, the school counselor just scribbles notes and calls it therapy. Looking to escape, Alex and her friends hit up Dante’s Inferno, a grimy local arcade where the new game, Arcade, is about to debut. A slick CEO hands out free copies like candy, desperate to push his VR game into homes across the country, unaware of the consequences. Arcade isn’t just another game; it thinks, it traps, it kills.
Built from stolen brain cells of a dead boy, the villain at its core is alive… and hungry. One by one, players disappear, sucked into a twisted digital prison, capturing their souls. As the line between reality and code blurs, Alex and her friend Nick (Peter Billingsley) turn to the game’s guilt-ridden programmer for help. Their only hope: jack back in and take the fight to Arcade before no one comes back out.
Arcade has its issues; sometimes, the pacing can be a bit off, and the CGI is obviously dated, but there’s a lot to really unpack and admire here. The amount of major talent on this picture is somewhat staggering. Megan Ward was a Full Moon staple at the time, and as always, is very relatable and charming. Then you add in names like Peter Billingsley (A Christmas Story) John de Lancie (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Seth Green (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), A.J. Langer (My So-Called Life), Bryan Dattilo (Days of Our Lives), and Don Stark (That 70’s Show) to sweeten the pot.
It doesn’t end there; the film was scripted by David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, Blade) and scored by Alan Howarth, who worked closely with John Carpenter on some of his most iconic films. The movie has pedigree, and while it may come off as low-budget junk to some, if you pay close attention, there’s much more going on. The story is quite deep with Ward’s character dealing with trauma, and the game is basically how she fights to get over it.
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The film was plagued by issues, taking it several years to complete. Disney even threatened to sue Full Moon after the release of the trailer and promotional materials when they noticed the design of the sky cycles closely resembled the light cycles in Tron (1982). They had to go back and redo all the CGI VFX. It should be noted that the original version (with those original effects) was released in some foreign territories, so it’s out there.
The bonus features on the disc are fantastic since you get to see many of the original effects in the Videozone featurette, as well as the VFX Reel. It also contains a commentary track, an interview with John de Lancie, and a collection of Full Moon trailers.
Arcade is far from a perfect film, but it has charm, heart, and excitement, which certainly works in its favor and is a welcome addition to the Full Moon line-up. It also serves as proof that Albert Pyun was a visionary, far ahead of his time.
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