Truth or Dare - The 90's called, they want their dumb movie back.

In the 1990's there was an onrush of stupid and unintentionally funny horror/slasher films like Scream, and I Know What You Did Last Summer. These weren't really horror films so much as they were cinematic recreations of spooky theme park rides that teenagers really wanted to experience, but didn't have the disposable income to shell out a ticket for. So instead of creating terrifying moments of tension with carefully crafted atmosphere and camera techniques, these films just bombarded its intended teenaged audience with loud jump scares, stupid & unsympathetic characters, and slasher villains that no one would remember after one hour after seeing the movie. Admittedly, I am not the biggest fan of slasher films, but I do have an appreciation for some of the better ones, like A Nightmare on Elm Street and the very first Friday The 13th film. Except, whereas those films had sympathetic characters and creative ideas that legitimately haunted its audiences, Truth or Dare just feels like a leftover idea from the 1990's that Hollywood completely forgot about until it was time to make something cheap and stupid to pay their taxes.

The story follows a group of college friends who spend their Spring Break together in Mexico. On their last day of the trip, they are accosted by a stranger to visit an old Mission outside of town for some drinking and a game of Truth or Dare. Once they all return home, strange and supernatural things begin to happen. They are all confronted by a mysterious entity and told to continue playing the game. If they don't tell the truth, back out of the dare, or refuse to do either, they will die. Now, it's a race to solve the mystery and defeat the supernatural threat before they all meet their untimely doom.

This is kind of an interesting premise. Taking an innocent game and turning it into a life or death situation with a supernatural twist. Except, whatever goodwill it might have had is instantly trampled over with horrible acting, aggressive musical cues, lame excuses for entertainment value, and a resolution that thinks it's dramatically tragic when it's really just contemptuous.

The most prominent weakness of this film, at least for me, is the presence of what has to be the most unintentionally hilarious attempt at making a cheap and "scary" demon. Whenever a character is possessed by the evil entity, it is visualized by...you know, I think it's better if I show you.

See what I mean? This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, frightening, intimidating, or even threatening. It's just hilarious. Every time this effect happened on screen, I could not contain myself from laughing out loud, occasionally muttering to myself "what even is this thing?" This is the kind of thing that belongs in a parody of a horror film, yet this movie wants you to actually be scared by this. This evil grin is so over-the-top and so cartoonishly ridiculous that even The Joker would tell you to take it down a notch. Somebody out there please make this into a meme. It's practically begging for it.

Another bit of torture from this film is the lack of compelling and sympathetic characters. I understand that in slasher films the characters are meant to be unsympathetic because they're really there to get killed off by the monster. Truth or Dare tries to present a potentially compelling lead character in Olivia (Lucy Hale), who is supposed to be the one reasonable person in the group and does her best to help others. Except, all of her good deeds throughout the film don't matter because she ends up making a decision at the very end that completely squanders any and all redeeming qualities she might have had. I won't spoil what she does, but I will say that I found it to be down-right insulting.

Even if you are the kind of person who enjoys slasher movies for the creative deaths, you're not going to get any satisfaction here. The kills in this film are boring, simple, and by the numbers.

This is a cheap, lazy, insulting, and aggravating piece of crap that not only deserves to flop and hard at the box-office, but it also deserves to be forgotten by the end of the weekend. If you're a horror fan, or just in the mood for something scary, stay far away from this movie. I dare you.

Is this movie worth seeing?
No.

Is it worth seeing in theaters?
No.

Why?
It's a leftover idea from the 1990's that should have stayed dead.

Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm, thank you for reading.