truth or dare
DIRECTOR: jeff wadlow (true memoirs of an international assassin, kickass 2)
STARRING: lucy hale, tyler posey, violett beane, and hayden szeto
REVIEWER: lyall carter
★★
Olivia and her friends head to Mexico on spring break and play a game of truth or dare. Upon returning to college they discover that the game and all of its deadly consequences follows them home...
Horror films are experiencing something of a renaissance in the last year or so. From Get Out to this years A Quiet Place and Hereditary, film makers are doing something a little different with the whole horror genre. Truth or Dare is not one of those kinda movies.
Olivia, Lucas and a group of their college friends travel to Mexico for one last getaway before graduation. While there, a stranger convinces one of the students to play a seemingly harmless game of truth or dare with the others. Once the game starts, it awakens something evil - a demon which forces the friends to share dark secrets and confront their deepest fears. The rules are simple but wicked - tell the truth or die, do the dare or die, and if you stop playing, you die.
Truth or Dare follows the teen horror blueprint to the letter. If you've seen any teen horror film then you've seen this one right up to the relationship angst. For a horror its not that scary or gory for that matter with everything lining up like clockwork.
The acting isn't corny or over the top; they do a good job with the tale that they've been given. Its not that Truth or Dare is bad at all - its just far from original and not gripping stuff which any horror should be.
Truth or Dare doesn't bring anything new to the horror genre instead it plays the same old teen horror game.
★★
