So…. Truth or Dare is a new horror movie that doesn’t really suggest itself as anything new, original, or worth watching. I guess if you hadn’t seen the half dozen to a dozen other movies (some not too old) that it liberally borrows from, you might find it original. I hardly think you’d find it scary though.
So when a bunch of 30 year old college seniors get roped into a game of Truth or Dare in an abandoned Mexican mission (as happens), they are possessed by an evil spirit that makes them play truth or dare once they get home. If they won’t tell a truth or refuse a dare, it possesses them and forces them to kill themselves in allegedly unique and creative ways. Too bad the demon just makes up rules to the game as they movie goes on… but whatever…
Hey, it’s kind of like Ouija (or any other haunted spirit board movie) except the demon is literally haunting the concept of truth or dare. Since, you know, the game doesn’t exactly have a board, a pair of dice, or anything you actually play with. So beware the concept of an evil spirit who haunts ideas. Hey, that’s kind of like the Bye-Bye Man. And you say you’ve seen a movie where people are haunted by a manifestation of death that kills them in inventive ways and it was called Final Destination? You don’t say!? The movie also borrows heavily from The Ring (and its remake Rings), It Follows, Friend Request, and a few others (some of which borrow from each other, to be fair).
The film is also deeply not remotely scary and even has alleged cheep jump scares that were clearly not shot to be scares… they just added that tortured violin sound to try to spruce things up. The bigger problem though is the way the evil thing manifests… through a supposedly creepy grin on the faces of those it possesses (in order to say “Truth or dare” to the current victim). It’s not scary and its more amusing… and it doesn’t help one of the character IN the movie says it looks like a cheap Snap Chat filter.
There is a bit of promise in the ending. It does build off its character’s motivations and lands with a surprisingly dark vibe. So kudos on the last thirty seconds of the film. Maybe we’ll get a Truth or Dare 2: The Truthining….
And the final nail is that I references Final Destination above. Not a great series of movies but they were rated R and they earned it with explosive death scenes. This movie wants to be like that… the deaths are meant to be shocking in a particularly evil and malicious way. But the PG13 rating gets in the way and neuters even the possibility of at least being a good splattery movie.
So, yeah, don’t see this movie. There’s no point. There’s much better movies that it borrows from and some of those are actually pretty bad too (but better… well… except for Bye-Bye Man).
Score: 61