I would like to take a moment to give Blumhouse Productions all the kudos. This is a company that clearly loves the horror genre and has stayed true to their concept of producing microbudget horror films. Their latest release, Truth or Dare, cost a mere $3.5 million to make and cleared that by the end of its opening night. With its estimated $19 million opening this weekend, the film could have its wheels completely fall off in the weeks ahead but it won’t matter because Blumhouse and its parent company, Universal Pictures, is laughing all the way to the bank.
The track record for the quality of a Blumhouse horror production has been surprisingly high. Even some of their lesser fare has their share of fans and since they cost so little to make, they always net some kind of profit. While I would love every film they release to be Get Out, I know that’s not always going to be the case. Truth or Dare falls into the category of Happy Death Day where it’s completely entertaining in the moment but it likely won’t be remembered years down the line. I will say that Truth or Dare does tap into a bit of nostalgia that made the teen horror films of the late 90s and early 2000s so much fun. Take a high concept premise, throw in some pretty faces, inventively kill off those pretty faces and don’t overstay your welcome. Needless to say, Truth or Dare isn’t reinventing the wheel but it’s passable entertainment on a Friday night.
The premise takes a group of high school seniors (played by actors who range in age from 21 to 32, as is the tradition for the genre) on a Spring Break trip to Mexico where drinking and dancing lead to an ill-advised game of Truth or Dare conducted in an old monastery. An uninvited demon crashes the game and, when the friends return home, they find that the game has traveled with them. Now, they’re haunted by text messages and visions that demand they continue to play. The rules are simple: refuse to tell the truth, you die, refuse to do the dare, you die, refuse to play the game, you die. The “truths” are, of course, deeply personal. The “dares” are life-threatening or painful. And, as an added twist, there’s a limit to the number of “truths” that can be chosen before a “dare” is forced on a player.
The closest comparison to Truth or Dare is the Final Destination franchise. Beyond the first movie, those films became more about how inventive the kills would be and what order would its attractive cast be dispatched first. That DNA flows through Truth or Dare and that’s honestly what makes it fun for much of its running time. You’ll learn not to accept a dare to show off your “business”, as one character puts it while standing on a pool table because everything from the pool cue to the balls could cause your demise. There is also another dare that involves a character that has to walk the ledge of her roof and finish over half of a bottle of vodka. Keep in mind she’s already wasted so this could very well have an unfortunate outcome. The dares get more aggressive as the film progresses and some actually get pretty clever as the demon possessing the game isn’t just interested in murder and mayhem. Like the real game, both the truths and the dares are exploited to split up the group be getting deeply personal. My personal favorite involved the game knowing that one of the girls is in love with her best friends boyfriend so it dares her to sleep with him. I mean if you have to stay alive, it’s a sacrifice you just have to make.
The primary performers do suitable jobs filling their roles. There are attempts are character building and while two of these situations works (the love triangle leads to some dark humor within the game, while a character coming out to his father sets a chain of events in motion that actually resonate) the others feel forced in order for us to care about everyone involved. They’re mostly playing types rather than characters but they do what is asked of them. Three of the leads come from popular TV shows so they get the most exposure (Lucy Hale from Pretty Little Liars, Tyler Posey from Teen Wolf & Violett Beane from The Flash) while everyone else has the task of patiently waiting around to be killed off. Cast chemistry is pretty good and they come off as real friends but there isn’t anything poignant about their interaction.
The biggest fault with the film is when it takes a break from having fun with its premise and tries to explain the mythology behind why the demon is haunting the game. I guess the film had to provide some explanation but a lot of time is wasted as we head to the climax with needless backstory. The only upside to some of these sequences is that how to end the cycle of the game is profoundly over the top and the characters ask someone to do the deed as if it’s a simple task (all I’ll say is it involves chanting a ritual, a knife and removing a part of your body). Kudos to Lucy Hale for asking the character in question to do this with such conviction because she sells it as if it’s not a ridiculous act for someone to commit.
The film makes up for the meandering of the climax with a bit of cleverness that ends the film. It’s a dark method of survival that made the audience I saw it with collectively agree that would likely do the same. A lot of the film rides this line of dark humor and fun that makes it an entertaining watch. In the world of horror, there is room for everything. Last week we got an artful exercise in tension and atmosphere with A Quiet Place and this week we get the dumb, but fun, “dead teenager move”. It may not be high art but it gets the job done.
