For about a month, every time I clicked on a YouTube video I was first forced to watch a commercial advertising the film “Truth or Dare.”
The commercial featured Lucy Hale, well known for her role as Aria in the TV show Pretty Little Liars, screaming at her male friend, daring him to cut his tongue out. The male character holds out his tongue, grips a knife, says something along the lines of “I can’t believe I’m doing this” and then — the screen fades to black.
I have to give credit where credit is due; this trailer freaked me out. I watched it all the way through once or twice, because it definitely caught my attention. However, every time after that I pressed the “skip ad” button as quick as I could.
This movie was extremely well advertised. From the advertisements, it was easy to tell the movie had a strange plot.
And it did.
Basically, life becomes a big game of truth or dare. Someone asks you “truth or dare?” you take your pick, you have to do the dare or tell the truth, and if you don’t, you die.
Released on April 13th and directed by Jeff Wadlow, the movie was produced by Blumhouse Production, which has had a few extremely successful past horror films, such as “Get Out” (2017), “Split” (2016), and “Sinister” (2012).
Compared to these, “Truth or Dare” was a major let down.
I have always been a really big fan of horror film plots. I don’t care too much about the jump scares or tension, but the plots fascinate me. Give a horror film a good plot and follow through with the acting and writing, and I am pleased.
“Truth or Dare” had the potential to be an amazing film based on its plot, but it didn’t come through when it came to the writing and the seriousness of the film.
The film wasn’t made to be serious enough. Every good horror movie needs to take itself seriously. “Truth or Dare” did not, as the writing and directing just did not mix.
It was hard to picture Lucy Hale as a character other than Aria in Pretty Little Liars, a teen drama/soap opera that, honestly, was scarier than this movie.
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The movie’s cast included Tyler Posey, Violett Beane and Sophia Taylor Ali.
All in all, the movie was mostly just a subpar story about a group of college kids that find themselves in a really serious game of truth or dare. The actors can’t be taken seriously because the writing can’t be taken seriously.
This is not a film that I would recommend for scary movie lovers.
Not at all.
At PG-13, this is a movie that I would recommend for teenagers who need something entertaining to see with their friends, but not scary enough (or well-done enough) to keep them up at night.
Timber Mabes is a culture reporter with the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @timbermabes.
