2.5/5
Films revolving truth or dare games are a Hollywood staple. Films like American production Nerve (2016) or the 2012 British Film going by the same name have explored the territory in recent times. The present film is another addition to the formula. The twist here is that demonic possession has been added to the plot. The film also follows the precedent set by Final Destination films, where by the lead players try to cheat death by various ways only to find that it always stays one step ahead.Seven friends visit Mexico during spring break and are invited to a drinking spree after the bar closes. The stranger forces them to play the truth or dare game and later reveals to the film’s protagonist Olivia (Lucy Hale) that the game is very much real and that it will follow them home, before disappearing. After the vacation, Olivia starts hallucinating that someone is asking her to truth or dare. It doesn’t just happen to her but to other friends as well, proving fatal to some of them. They come to know that its roots lie in the deserted Christian Mission where they had gone drinking. It becomes a race against time to solve the mystery and uplift the curse, before the game consumes them all.
The film is called Truth Or Dare and it’s the truths that are more interesting, bringing skeletons out of everyone’s closet and driving a dent in relationships. The dare part of it is pure horror kitsch and doesn’t affect you really. We have seen enough films where people kill themselves or kill each other in various imaginative ways to develop an immunity of sorts to the trope. The film does have a kind of twist ending which is interesting. It sets up an interesting premise for a sequel with promise of more gore and mayhem. The production house Blumhouse which already has such franchises as Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and The Purge to its credit may follow up with a sequel, given the creepy laughter we hear during the end credits.
Acting by the ensemble cast, especially by Lucy Hale and Violett Beane, who plays her bestie Markie, is competent enough. The big letdown is the sound design as it fails to give you the creeps. The prosthetics too aren’t gruesome enough. Demon possession should look more ghoulish. The money shot in the film is a long sequence involving one of the actors walking on the roof while drinking straight from the bottle. You wish there were more cliffhanger moments like that, which really could have made this into a better film...
Trailer : Truth Or Dare
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