TRUTH OR DARE (2018) – Review

Ah, it’s another special Friday, a day to avoid black cats while walking around a ladder in order to see a new horror flick at the multiplex. On this thirteenth, we’re not getting another incarnation of Jason Vorhees, or Freddie, Leatherface, or Michael Myers (the Halloween guy, behave!). Nope this flick is in a part of “Scare City” that’s a bit more genteel than where those dudes do their mayhem. That’s because (speaking of the thirteenth) this movie’s rated “PG-13”, an area that’s more in the wheelhouse of the company known as Blumhouse. Just in case you were thinking they’ve gone all “respectable’ with their Oscar win (Best Original Screenplay) for last year’s smash GET OUT, here’s another movie for teens who love to see slightly older, very photographic young adults in jeopardy. And just so you don’t confuse it with that ancient 1990’s Madonna documentary, the studio’s moniker precedes the title in all the marketing with Blumhouses’s TRUTH OR DARE.

The frights begin with a scene of savagery down south of the border prior to the title card. Cut to a sun-speckled college campus just north of said border, probably California (USC Sunnydale, perhaps). Perky, bright-eyed brunette Olivia (Lucy Hale) is speaking into her laptop screen, imploring the followers of her You Tube channel to join her for Spring break at a Habitat for Humanity site. Not so fast. Her roommate and BFF Markie (Violette Beane) insists that Olivia join the gang on a Spring break trip to Mexico. As Olivia hesitates, Markie and friends agree to work at the next H4H project (“Twelve hands are better than two”). And so, they pile into the gas-guzzlin’ vehicle. Markie’s got her beau (for whom Olivia secretly pines) Lucas (Tyler Posey), there’s another couple, hard-drinking Penelope (Sophia Ali) and shady drug dealer (he’s got a prescription pad) Tyson (Nolan Gerard Funk), along with the closeted (from his clueless cop dad) Brad (Hayden Szeto). After countless selfies and cell phone videos, the group convenes at a beach-side bar for the last night of the “vacay”. Unfortunately Olivia bumps into obnoxious party dude (same school) Ronnie (Sam Lerner) just before she meets the mysterious hunk Carter (Landon Liboiron). Darn, it’s last call, but Carter knows a secluded place where they can keep the party going. Wow, it’s a super-creepy old run-down church. Inside, Carter suggests they play a game of Truth or Dare. He ducks out quickly as the game reaches an uncomfortable end. Or has it? Back at school, seemingly possessed strangers (with sunken dark eyes and Joker-like grins) continue the game with the group. Some find out the hard way that you’ll pay the ultimate price for refusing to play. Oh, and lying in “truth” mode gets you killed. As does refusing a “dare”. As the bodies begin to pile up, Olivia realizes the game is cursed and tries to convince her friends as she figures out a way to end the game before it claims them all.

The simple plot is pushed forward mainly by the tag-team efforts of the film’s two main actresses. Of course, the central heroine is Hale, her sharp-angled bobbed do’ and accented eye shadow making her resemble an anime star, who has the difficult job of not only figuring out the deadly on-going game, and then struggling to convince those around her of the deadly danger. Unfortunately her role is too “squeaky-clean” with almost new flaws or foibles. Most of those are loaded onto the Markie character played with great energy by Beane (so good as Jesse “Quick” on TV’s “The Flash”), Still reeling from her father’s demise, Markie throws herself at any man, even grinding up against a stranger on the dance floor mere feet from her dull-witted steady guy. She’s the story’s true “wild card”, threatening Olivia, then refusing to the ‘dare’ to smash her hand minutes later.. The others are mainly “creepshow cannon fodder”, popping up to display bad behavior, then pay for their “dirty deeds”. We’re left to wonder why Penelope boozes to extreme excess. Why’s her man Tyson nearly as big a jerk as that lunk-headed horndog Ronnie? Plus it trivializes Brad’s big decision subplot. And why does it seem that Carter wondered in from a more interesting recent horror flick, IT FOLLOWS (he should be wearing a T-shirt with “bait’ printed in blood-red letters across the chest).

This trite exercise is a real step down for director and co-screen writer Jeff Wadlow after his last theatrical feature five years ago, the flawed but often entertaining KICK ASS 2. Of course, he’s loaded this up with telegraphed scares, fake-outs, and sound manipulations, which is still more watchable than the mind-numbing vacation montage that precedes the fateful night. At least the writers thought ahead and inserted a new rule that there could be no more than two “truths” before a deadly “dare”, which makes some characters go for the danger to spare the next player. Plus, the “ghoulish grin” CGI effect is powerful the first couple times, but its repetition blunts its impact. Those death punishments have none of the “Rube Goldberg” zaniness of the FINAL DESTINATION franchise. By the third act, Olivia and her pals are hopping back and forth over the border so frequently that we wonder why the border security didn’t hold them for questioning. It all winds up back at the now crumbling church that’s falls apart much like all the big estates and mansions at the end of the Corman Price/Poe pictures from the 50’s and 60’s. The finale is so muddled and clumsy that the set-up for a sequel is laughable. The producers will discover that those playing this game of TRUTH OR DARE will probably pass on another round.

1.5 Out of 5