No, it's not that Truth or Dare movie: the one with Lucy Hale. This one came out a year earlier and is a lot more gruesome. I'm not going to lie, I was probably thinking this was the Lucy Hale movie whenever I added it to my watchlist. Oh well. I'm not sure which one is the superior option anyway.
The premise is easy to understand. The rules are simple. Most importantly, the idea for it is so insane that I never felt the need to stop and question things. Because, there's a lot to question. To start, the imbalance of Truth vs. Dare is immense. By the last round of the "game", it's all dares. You know, after someone had to cut off body parts, admitting to a pill addiction isn't so bad. This moved into torture porn by the end, which I wasn't crazy about. I don't find people in pain scary; just hard to watch.
This premiered on Syfy, which I found a little surprising. I didn't know Syfy could get that violent. Given that it's a glorified TV movie (presumably with a smaller budget), I think it missed a real opportunity: Why leave the house? Wouldn't this movie work so much better if it was told over a single night in a single location? A bunch of college students slowly get picked off, and by the end of the night, only one remains and the authorities are left without an explanation. The fact that this happens in several locations over a couple days really tamps down any rising tension.
This has a solid cast of scared young people. I was genuinely surprised by the gender breakdown toward the end. I fully expected there would be a "final girl", but I didn't expect the last three remaining would all be women. Also, I wasn't expecting the "non-hunky guy" to be the last of the young men to die. Oh, and props for getting Heather Langenkamp on board for a cameo.
Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment