Believe it or not, I went into this movie thinking I was going to get another Wish Upon or The Bye-Bye Man. You know, something that has a ridiculous premise, but is so bad, it’s good. With a premise like a haunted game of truth or dare, how could this not be? The trailers made it look stupid (i.e. the bad CGI faces, the frantic yelling of “do the dare or die”) and, yes, in some sick way, I was excited. Unfortunately, Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare (apparently that’s the full title), did not deliver.
We follow some friends to Mexico on their “last spring break together” before graduation. Trust me, if you didn’t know that’s what this was from the first five minutes, you aren’t paying attention. They get drunk, have sex and then meet some dude named Carter, who takes them to an abandoned missionary to play truth or dare.
They get into the game and boom, Carter makes his intentions known; he needed people to keep this haunted game going. The film then starts to pick these kids off one by one, ala Final Destination, because some of them believe in the game, while others don’t. It tests friendships, loyalty and an all-around attitude of not giving a crap.
I mentioned Final Destination, a very fun horror movie, where you might not care too much about the characters, but you’re invested in how they are going to die and if they can escape it. It’s fun (and funny), scary and an over the top gore fest. This film had the opportunity to do something similar. Instead, we get deadpan serious acting who don’t realize they’re in a joke.
Not one of these people is interesting except the douchebag frat guy who is knocked off way too damn early (I didn’t spoil that, I promise). Speaking of spoiling things, the trailer literally gives away at least three deaths. Who thought this was a good idea? As soon as the fun frat guy (Robbie, I think his name was) popped up on screen and brightened my night, I knew he was dead, not because I’m smart and know how horror movies work, but because Blumhouse cut it into their trailer.
The characters literally have connections that are as surface level as you can get. Olivia and Markie are best friends but Markie is dating Lucas who also likes Olivia but Olivia and Lucas have no idea they have feelings for each other. Run on sentence? Sure. Stupider love triangle? Yes.
Then you have the frat guy who just tags along, Penelope (a day drinker but day and day drinker by night) and her boyfriend, Tyson, who is going to go to med school with money he makes from Adderall sales. Brad, the gay kid, who might actually be the most fleshed out character, is also there. But they’re all “great friends,” which explains why none of them except for Olivia seem to care when someone dies. They just move on.
The conflicting tones are just too much for me. Is it a comedy? Kind of. Is it horror? Kind of. Does it have great deaths? No. The PG-13 really hurts this film but honestly, even if it were R, none of the deaths were interesting enough to reach that Final Destination level of comedy-horror. There were scenes where this ridiculous premise shined, such as a very high-tension rooftop scene, but they come few and far between. All this had to do was fully embrace its stupidity, like the aforementioned Wish Upon, and we would have had a lot of fun. Instead, I weep.
I’ll give the film this, though. It made me laugh. No, not the way I wanted to, by laughing with the film as a comedy. But the writers snuck in some very funny one-liners that can elicit a chuckle. Some of them dealt with the deaths (“bad break”) and others were just some silly dick jokes, but they were enough to put a quick smile on my face. They also handled a very touchy subject about being gay and homophobia quite well. Just sucks it had to be in this movie.
Some people say I went into this movie with too high of expectations and those people are not wrong. I wasn’t expecting Black Panther or A Quiet Place levels of greatness here, but I was expecting the filmmakers to take something no one can take seriously and run with it, creating a dumb, fun time. Instead, they took it as seriously as John Krasinski did with A Quiet Place, and they failed on almost every level. Bad CGI, awful death scenes, horrendous acting from a who’s who of who the Hale (ha) are you and poor execution (okay, I’ll stop with the puns), puts Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare in the fail category. I’m telling you the truth and daring you not to watch it. Okay, okay, I’ll stop.
Grade: 1/10
