Truth Or Dare Review

Truth or Dare

Year: 2012
Studio: Corona Pictures
Director: Robert Heath
Stars: Jennie Jaques (Shank) , Jack Gordon (Heartless), David Oakes (The Borgais), Jason Mava (Anuvahood)
Language: English (UK)
Length: 1:31
Sub-Genre: Kidnapping, Torture, Thriller, Mystery

Plot: A group of friends attend a birthday party for an acquaintance, and find themselves at the mercy of a maniac out for vengeance, who forces them to play a party game with dire consequences.

Review: Truth or Dare (also known as Truth or Die) is a stylish movie, that follows a group of young friends who are invited to a birthday party for an acquaintance a year after and eventful party, in which one of the couples ended their relationship. The story has several problems, the first of which, is the reasoning of all the friends even attending this party, as none of them being especially close to the birthday boy. Then, after they are shot kidnapped and torture is being applied (in the form of the famous party game from which the film gets it’s name), the characters are still unrealistically defiant. The path of the story, is unexpected, if not entirely enjoyable. Likeable characters not faring as well as the shallow, unpleasant ones. I particularly didn’t like the ending much at all.
The acting is mostly very good, with flaws which may be more the fault of the writing. They all deliver their lines well, but don’t convey any real sense of terror or shock that the situation would dictated. One character is shot in the leg and has a couple of fingers blown off, but remains the calm leader, hardly acting injured or in shock until nearly the end of the movie. One exception is Jennie Jaques, who plays Eleanor. She conveys the most range of emotion the best of this group of young actors, and overall probably the best performance.
As far as practical effects, they are done very well, although it’s not overly graphic. Mostly stab wounds, and other bloody injuries. The most notable one is one character has acid dumped on them and the makeup of their scalded flesh is done very well. Very little if any cgi was used.
The production values were high on this and it has a distinct visual style. While I tended to like the way the film is presented, I feel some people may not appreciate it. It comes down to personal taste. In my opinion, the way it is shot is one of the film’s strong suits.
In the end, it just isn’t very remarkable. The movie looks great, and has a lot of things going for it, but the story drags it down for me and leaves me with an unsatisfied feeling. It is not a particularly bad movie, it’s just flat, and ends up being pretty average.

Reviewer: Boss Butcher Trailer: N/A
Date: 9/12/2012 DVD: Amazon
Rating: 5/10 Blu Ray: N/A
Recommendation: Possible Rental Social Media: Twitter