USA 2018
Opening May 10, 2018
Directed by: Jeff Wadlow
Writing credits: Jeff Wadlow, Michael Reisz, Jillian Jacobs, Chris Roach
Principal actors: Lucy Hale, Violet Beane, Tyler Posey, Hayden Szeto
Good-girl Olivia (Lucy Hale) and her friends go on Spring Break to Mexico. On their last night of partying, they end up at a creepy old church ruin where they play Truth or Dare. It is all fun and games until they come back home and the words “Truth or Dare” turn up everywhere Olivia goes. It seems like the game has followed them home and urgently wants to be played. The game turns out to be haunted; Truth or Dare becomes real and punishment for not saying the truth or for not doing as told on a dare is death. Actually, pretty easy rules to follow, if the truths and dares weren’t that dangerous to execute for the friends.
When the friends finally realize that this is serious and the first of the group dies, they stay together to help each other when it is their turn to play the supernatural game. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really go well, and heavily reduced in numbers, the friends try to put an end to this deadly game and go back to Mexico, where it all began. Will they be bold enough to do what it takes to stop this creepy game of truth or dare?
What looks like a Final Destination meets Scream meets any other teeny flick, is so much worse than that. The #Hashtag-Hashtag-game and super-cool 2018-lingo is sprinkled in, just a little more like chunks of unpleasant raisins on that ice cream of horror. The only really horrifying thing about this movie is the terrible love triangle and teeny-emotional rollercoaster the audience finds itself in. If only the characters weren’t depicted as so superficial, you might feel sad when they die, but there are just too many characters in the clique for the audience to feel any sadness or pity upon their deaths. (Karen M.)