Last Updated on July 30, 2021
PLOT: While celebrating spring break in Mexico, a group of friends end up playing a game of truth or dare. Unfortunately for them, they decide to do it in a cursed mission where an evil spirit is looking for a few new players.
REVIEW: Are you ready for it? You know the deal, a bunch of attractive young people die off because of a curse or some other nonsense? We’ve seen it all before. Now TRUTH OR DARE may be a slight improvement over say WISH UPON or FREIND REQUEST, but it desperately tries to be FINAL DESTINATION and IT FOLLOWS… it's not. It may not succeed at being either – or really even at being a good horror flick – but at times it's damn entertaining. Sure you will know every single beat, and every single step the characters take, but you will find a ton of laughs spread throughout. This flick comes very close to a "so bad it’s good" time at the movies, you may actually want to spend a few bucks and see it with an audience.
While on a fun in the sun trip to Mexico, a group of college age kids decide to live it up. While Olivia (Lucy Hale) was supposed to go on a humanitarian mission, her best friend Markie (Violet Beane) convinces her to join their friends on a final spring break celebration before graduation. Things get strange when they meet a young man named Carter (Landon Liboiron) who appears to be quite taken with Olivia. After some convincing, the group heads off to an abandon mission where they decide to play a game of Truth or Dare. They soon discover that playing this innocent kids game will cost them their lives when an evil entity takes over and begins to haunt them when they return home.
I won’t lie, it gets a bit frustrating having to sit through a ton of these PG-13 teen horror flicks with spooky spirits and dumb college kids, it’s nearly impossible to get excited about another one. While I’d never call TRUTH OR DARE a good movie, it is certainly better than some. For one, the actors and the script seem to be very aware of the kind of ridiculousness they are in. There is nothing terribly clever or inventive here, but director Jeff Wadlow is at the very least attempting to inject some fun into the obvious script. You have something for everyone here. How about a dumb romantic triangle? Check. Bloodless kills that are mostly laughable? Check. Dumb characters doing dumb things? Check. A truly scary movie? Okay, maybe that is a tad too much to ask.
As much as I found the script insanely goofy, I was at times entertained by all the nonsense. Look, there is nothing scary or frightening here. Aside from a couple of jump scares, it’s pretty light on that. Even still, I did enjoy the slight suspense when it comes to whether or not the person in jeopardy would actually survive the game. However, it is a bit hard not to make a comparison to something like FINAL DESTINATION which had a lot more payoff when it came to the red stuff. The kills here have a little tension, but it usually turned into a chuckle. This is especially true when each of the characters are confronted by the demon who seemingly possesses somebody nearby. It’s really hard to get freaked out when somebody has this huge idiotic smile on their face and they demand an answer to “Truth or Dare?” I mean seriously, the audience was cracking up whenever that happened.
The best thing I can say about this flick is that I enjoyed the cast more than I expected. Lucy Hale is a charming lead, but it is Violet Beane that shines. Considering they throw every single dramatic acting situation that you’d find in acting school at her, she manages to pull it off better than you’d expect. As far as the rest of the cast is concerned, Tyler Posey, Sophia Ali, Nolan Gerard Funk are enjoyable enough. I did however really like both Hayden Sizeto – who was fantastic in EDGE OF SEVENTEEN – and Hemlock Grove star Landon Liboiron. Considering most of the characters in this current trend of PG-13 supernatural teen horror are just awful, I found myself sort of caring what happened to Olivia and pals.
TRUTH OR DARE is mostly ridiculous, but it’s occasionally a fun (dumb) flick. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a good film, but at least it has the sense to not take itself too seriously. Sure it is by the books without an original bone in it’s cinematic body, but you may actually enjoy yourself. Director Jeff Wadlow hasn’t reinvented the wheel, but his take on college kids doing stupid things is aware enough that you can forgive some of that and just enjoy the ride. If you are looking for something special when it comes to scares, you can definitely find something far better, and a lot more quiet, than this currently at a theatre near you. However, if you want to see a dumb flick with your friends and not take things too seriously, you might even have a a smile worthy experience. And that is the truth… but I wouldn't dare you to see this one.
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