TRUTH OR DARE REVIEWED
“Truth or Dare” is a typical off-season Blumhouse movie. The premise is strong enough for a horror anthology, but taking it past 90 minutes is a bit much. The opening with the gas station feels like it was made for a trailer, but it never adds up. Borrowing the structure of “It Follows”, this movie tries to take the rather cheap concept of “Truth or Dare” into familiar territory. Specifically, a bunch of girls and their gay friend getting scared out of their minds while on a Mexican vacation.
Eventually, they return back to the college campus where a weird demon pushes the It Follows style game of Truth or Dare upon them. Minority kids get shot by cops, the pretty girl reveals her molestation past and a dude whips his junk out on a dare. It’s a series of moments, but nothing really amounts to scary. Honestly, it’s the Post Final Destination effect of trying to induce gore terror. You lose narrative focus, as you try to give the audience the next big insane visual.
But, when the movie costs less than $4 million, you don’t get the visuals that New Line stuffed into the Final Destination movies. What you get is teenage actresses making a thin horror movie while their CW shows are on summer hiatus. I’ve seen better, but this will do for the younger ones.
FILM STATS
- 1 hr and 40 mins
- PG-13
- Universal
