Truth Or Dare - movie review

Truth Or Dare

Plot: A harmless game of Truth or Dare among friends turns deadly when someone -- or something -- begins to punish those who tell a lie or refuse the dare.
Cast: Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, Violett Beane
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Certificate: 15 (strong threat, violence)
Runtime: 1hr 40 mins
Release Date: Friday 13th April 2018

Blumhouse. We trusted you. We all trusted you. Sure, you've had a couple of bumps as you started out (The Purge, the Paranormal Activity sequels) but you seemed to find your stride soon enough. Last year you released the Academy Award winning, Get Out, and despite not winning me over, the incredibly successful, Split. Everyone saw you as pioneers of the horror genre and looked to you as a beacon of hope, but then you had to go and release Truth Or Dare; a hundred minute list of everything NOT to do in a horror film. How could you do this to us Blumhouse? HOW?!?!

Never cough in the library.

Where do I even start with Truth or Dare? Everything that is wrong with the today's treatment of the horror genre can be summed up in this 100 minute traumatic experience. The basic premise follows a group of teenagers on a holiday to Mexico that are inexplicably involved in a deadly game of Truth or Dare that follows them home. The rules; upon your turn, you will be asked "Truth Or Dare?" by a cartoonishly, grinning figure. You must complete the task otherwise you die in a ridiculously exaggerated fashion. Basically, this is just an exuberant take on the Final Destination franchise but with a party game slapped in the centre. I was never confident of this premise. The idea of using a party game (that either kids play in the playground or young adults play when inebriated) becoming a sinister and threatening McGuffin for a horror film cannot be taken seriously. It gets even more ridiculous when the demon of the film that has taken possession of the game, possesses others giving them a devilish smile with the clear intention of scaring the audience. When it first happened, the screening I was in burst into laughter as a friend of mine leaned over and exclaimed that they look like someone just farted and wanted to let everyone know about it. Whoever thought that technique would be in any way effective should never be let near a film set again. As for scares, there aren't any. I don't mean that the scares failed to unsettle me but that I actually don't think that there was a solid attempt to scare the audience. As can be expected, there were a couple of jumpscares here and there but even they were mercifully lacking because the screenwriters prioritised a farcical supernatural mystery. Truth or Dare might have gotten away with murder if it had gone for a more tongue-in-cheek tone like Happy Death Day did but instead, what we're subjected to is Jeff Wadlow stabbing us in the gut over and over again whilst the cast through books of generic horror clichés at our heads.

He didn't take losing at pool well.

FACT: The menacing grin that comes with the killing Truth or Dare force is nicknamed the Willem Dafoe grin, and is in part inspired by his menacing smile and the facial disfigurement of the Gustavo Smile.

Speaking of the cast, I'm impressed that Wadlow and Blumhouse have managed to find a group of actors as talentless as this. That was a little harsh but hardly any of them make a positive impact. They either crash and burn or are so forgettable that you hardly even remember who they were. Some of the main cast members have had success in popular teen based TV shows (Teen Wolf, Pretty Little Liars, The Flash) but if they're looking for this to be their big break into Hollywood, they are sorely mistaken. Lucy Hale struggles to take on the lead role as she spends her time flailing about in a detestable role. Tyler Posey and Violett Beane appears to have mistaken the set for a model shoot as they pout and pose for every other shot. The only character who is given a shred of development is portrayed by Hayden Szeto who impressed in his debut role in The Edge of Seventeen. In Truth or Dare, Szeto is doing what he can with what he's been given but he can't quite redeem everything. Everyone else is a colossal douchebag that deserves to die in the most painful way imaginable. To make matters worse, the screenwriters give these actors the most ear-scrapingly painful dialogue to recite proving that they have no clear indication how teenagers behave in life and on social media. When you have characters typing into Google, "Mexico Truth or Dare" in the hope of researching information about one specific police case, you start to think that those that wrote the film have no earthly idea how the world works. The film initially moved along at reasonable pace but as soon as the mystery begins to unravel, we slam on the brakes and every single second feels as if it's being dragged out across numerous days. I lost count of times where I checked my watch praying for this torture to meet its swift end. As we reach the ending, where the screenwriters eventually give up and scribble a conclusion down giving the audience the middle finger in the process, I just sat back in my seat pondering existence and if this was actually a film made with honourable intentions.

Graffiti has become very specific.

If you're looking for a thrilling, exciting and terrifying experience at the cinema, go and see A Quiet Place. If you're looking for an encyclopaedia on how to fail making a horror movie, an infuriating experience and possibly the funniest movie of the year (albeit unintentionally), then I reluctantly request Truth or Dare. What's next though? A possessed game of Twister?!?

My Verdict: 2/10

What did you think of Truth Or Dare? What is the dumbest horror premise? Sound off in the comments below.

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