Truth or Dare Movie Review (Spoiler Free)

Cheap tricks, clichés & a plot that feels like it was stapled together from other scary features. Wadlow’s teen terror creates more laughs than screams.

Genre: Horror / Thriller

Director: Jeff Wadlow

Cast: Lucy Hale, Violett Beane, Tyler Posey, Hayden Szeto, Sophia Ali, Nolan Gerard Funk, Landon Liboiron, Aurora Perrineau, Sam Lernen & Tom Choi.

Run Time: 100 min.

US Release: 13 April 2018

UK Release: 13 April 2018

German Release: 10 May 2018

Written by Michael Reisz, Truth or Dare is the latest in a series of horror features based on children/teen games. Let me tell you straight away, this was not one of the movies I was looking forward to watching at the cinema, especially after the horrendous trailer released by the studio! Nevertheless, a friend of mine who likes any kind of horror flick convinced me to go see it with him in theatres and, to no surprise… I hated it! So here we are now. 

When a group of college friends play a seemingly harmless game of “Truth or Dare” while vacationing in Mexico, what starts as fun quickly turns disturbing when they realise the game has deadly consequences. Forced to keep playing as the dares become increasingly extreme, while truths become harder to hide, they struggle to survive the game.

As much as I despise this film, I need to confess that I did experience some mild form of entertainment, in all the wrong forms, of course. It made me chuckle during segments that are meant to be scary and, unfortunately, also bored the life out of me with unnecessary exposition-heavy scenes, as it basically spoon-feeds every second of the narrative to the audience. A shame, as Truth or Dare does start by showing some potential to be more than the annual cash-grab horror flick.

The worst part of this picture, however, is the fact that the writers didn’t know where to go with the story. Suffering from an identity crisis, it feels as if all horror clichés have been gathered during a brainstorming session, then, from there, the script was pieced together on the get-go. We have protagonists who are supposed to be in their late teens / early twenties (but look like models in their late 20’s), who play a children’s game and are, from there on, targeted in the order they played, by a mysterious entity. If it sounds familiar, it’s because it is! It is basically a mash-up of Ouija and Final Destination.

The dialogue itself is horrendous plus not organic at all. It partially sounds as if the actors are reading lines from an 80s cheesy high school drama series. While mean, the relationships between the characters are toxic and manipulative. You know you have a stinker in your hands when audiences start rooting for the deadly entity. 

This brings me to the characters, who are all terrible people. I have rarely seen a picture where the complete cast is as unlikeable as this bunch of young adults. They all don’t seem to care for one another, even though they are friends, constantly betraying each other or simply saying vile, mean things to one another behind their backs. It is as if the writers wanted to discourage viewers from feeling sympathy for any of the personas, because they were simply disposable. 

All male characters are one-dimensional meatheads that lack any sort of intelligence, are misogynistic, as well as unbelievably belligerent. The women ain't really better, though, backstabing each other every chance they obtain.

Protagonist Olivia, played by Lucy Hale from Pretty Little Liars fame, starts as the most likeable of characters, presented as ideally helpful. However, as soon as the first sign of threat reaches her corner, all morals are thrown out the window. Her final decision at the end of the movie is so ridiculously infuriating; it made me wish I could reach into the screen to snap her neck myself. 

Equally, there is nothing about the cinematography that distinguishes Truth or Dare from other random teen-horror flicks. Scenes look flat, missing an opportunity to create an original visual style. Even darker scenes are overlit. Then there is the cheap Snapchat opening title, which shifts the visual storytelling too much into a social-media focus. It is not that the camera work is bad; it's just terribly mediocre and uninspired.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the computer effects, which are abysmally cheap-looking. The fake smiley face, which - yes! - at first is unnerving at how unnatural it looks, gets so overused that it ends up being comical. Other effects used simply disrupt the flow of motion, as it doesn’t look as if it belongs in the movie.

Then there are the sound effects that overcompensate for lacklustre jump-scares or death scenes by using loud noises, making any of the noises easily predictable. The musical score ain’t any better, as it is terribly boring. 

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Verdict: Blumhouse's latest scary feature doesn’t really know what it wants to be. It is lacklustre as a horror, unintentionally comedic, plus the PG-13 rating hinders it from showing any excessive violence. All in all, this is one of the rare moments where the trailer was showing exactly what to expect. The characters are incredibly dislikable people, the ending is ridiculous, the plot barely exists, while the cinematography is simply mediocre. It’s a flick I never want to see in my life again, though it did make me laugh involuntarily. The only reason why I am giving Truth or Dare a 2.0 out of 10 is the mild entertainment I experienced, while making fun of it! Leave it! Save your money and see Isle of Dogs instead! 

Have you seen Truth or Dare? What did you think? Leave a comment, subscribe and thank you for reading.