Before The Hunger Games, The Belko Experiment and Squid Game turned deadly competitions into pop culture gold, TAG: The Assassination Game was giving college life a killer twist.
The 1982 film is finally getting another shot at finding an audience, with a new Blu ray release arriving Sept. 9, 2026, bringing Nick Castle’s overlooked thriller back into the spotlight.
The premise is one that we’ve seen before but not in this setting. A group of college students plays an elaborate game of assassination using rubber-tipped toy dart guns. Get hit, and you’re eliminated until only one player remains. It’s all supposed to be harmless fun until one player decides he isn’t interested in simply winning the game. He wants to eliminate his competition for real.
We’re pretty sure that wouldn’t make it through today’s campus orientation.
WATCH THE TRAILER FOR TAG: THE ASSASSINATION GAME BELOW
A Horror Connection Behind the Camera
TAG was written and directed by Nick Castle, who horror fans should immediately recognize as the man who portrayed Michael Myers in John Carpenter’s Halloween. Castle’s directorial debut demonstrates his ability to build tension around an unusual premise while keeping the film’s dark humor intact. The cast is another reason this release caught our attention.
The movie features a young Linda Hamilton in her first motion picture role, along with Robert Carradine, Perry Lang, Bruce Abbott, Kristine DeBell, Xander Berkeley, Michael Winslow, and Forest Whitaker.
That’s a pretty impressive lineup for a film that spent years sitting in cult movie obscurity.
What’s Included?
The new Blu ray includes an audio commentary with Castle and Carradine, moderated by Sean Clark of Horror’s Hallowed Grounds, along with the original theatrical trailer. The film receives a 1080p high-definition presentation in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio with English DTS HD MA 2.0 mono audio and optional English SDH subtitles.
Rated PG and running 91 minutes, the release carries a suggested retail price of $29.95 and arrives Sept. 9, 2026.
While TAG isn’t straight horror, its premise has always carried a pretty disturbing edge. Students voluntarily participate in a game where the goal is to “murder” their friends, only to discover that someone has decided to remove the pretend part from the equation. For a movie released in 1982, that’s a surprisingly dark idea.
And now, after more than four decades, TAG: The Assassination Game is getting a fresh lease on life on Blu ray.
