Truth Or Dare (2018)

 

**This post contains spoilers**

The Story- During a spring break trip to Mexico, Carter (Landon Liborion) lures Olivia (Lucy Hale) and her friends into playing a seemingly harmless game of truth or dare. Olivia, her best friend, Markie (Violett Beane), her boyfriend, Lucas (Tyler Posey), Tyson (Nolan Gerard Funk), his girlfriend, Penelope (Sophia Taylor Ali), Ronnie (Sam Lerner), and Brad (Hayden Szeto) all join in on the game. But things take a dark turn, when Carter reveals the sinister consequences for the game: all players must fully participate, and death is the penalty for lying, or anyone who refuses to follow through on their dares.

The group lures another player named Giselle (Aurora Perrineau) out of hiding in an attempt to find more answers. Giselle mistakenly reveals Carter’s real name, but Olivia and the others are forced to deal with a bigger problem, when Giselle reveals an unknown rule for the game.

My Thoughts- Lucy Hale and Violett Beane carry the weight for the more serious and emotional side of Truth Or Dare with a pair of solid performances. Sam Lerner, Nolan Gerard Funk, and Hayden Szteo balance things out with comedy. Tyson and Ronnie are both narcissists. The big difference is, Ronnie is more of a goofball and a fool. Tyson has the bigger and more fragile ego, as he continues to forge prescription slips, while he also masquerades as a legitimate doctor. 

Aurora Perrineau deserves a lot of credit for her performance. The poor hygiene and the dirty clothes were a nice touch, but Perrineau perfectly encapsulates how the game can destroy someone mentally and emotionally. Giselle is broken and desperate. There’s a lot of similarities to Carter’s motivations, because Giselle wants her freedom from the game, by any means necessary. 

Follow the rules, or you die. Humiliation and betrayal? Yes, it can hurt, but if you refuse to play, certain death is the ultimate penalty. That’s truly terrifying for something that’s supposed to be nothing more than a silly kid’s game. 

Truth Or Dare takes things a step further by using the main character’s traumas, issues, and secrets for the truths and dares in the game. An already drunk Penelope having to drink a bottle of vodka, while walking the edges of the roof, because she has a drinking problem. Brad being forced to tell his strict father, Officer  Han Chang (Tom Choi), the truth about his homosexuality. And Olivia carrying the burden of  telling Markie about how her father tried to force himself on her, before he committed suicide. To add to that, an angry Olivia told Markie’s father that his daughter would be better off, if he was dead.

Sure, some of the truths and dares are just harmless fun at first. Ronnie backing out of a dare to show his “business” at a bar is a good example. But things quickly escalate to truths and dares that have more serious consequences. Truth Or Dare does a good job of matching the severity of the truths and dares with the actual gameplay. If the participants do manage to successfully complete either one, everyone is scarred one way or another, after everything is done.

The friendship between Markie and Olivia is, well it’s complicated. Olivia has feelings for Lucas, but she lied to Markie (Lucas is like a big brother to me!) about it. Olivia finally exposed Markie’s infidelity after a dare, embarrassing Lucas in the library. And to make things more awkward, Olivia lied about being forced into choosing to have sex with Lucas for one of her dares. There’s also the problem with Olivia carrying around the guilt of hiding the truth about the events that led up to Markie’s father killing himself. 

The tension, the anger on both sides, and the feeling of being betrayed by Olivia on Markie’s side plays a big part in the story. But maybe it’s all just too much? The drama between Olivia and Markie is overwhelming. Their story could’ve had its own movie. Hale and Beane did a fantastic job of making everything believable, but the ups and downs in Markie and Olivia’s friendship disrupts the story’s momentum. 

Truth or dare. The High stakes. You play, or you die. This is serious business, but the weird faces coming from the people, who ask the participants to choose truth or dare? Oh, boy. I get it. The people asking the questions are obviously possessed, so their faces look like “messed up Snapchat filters,” but I’d say it’s worse than that. The wide, red eyes, and the stretched cheek to cheek smiles? It just looks too silly. You’re about to ask someone to participate in a game that’ll determine, whether they live or die, but it’s hard not to laugh, when you see the supposed evil faces.

The story from Inez (Vera Taylor) about the game’s origins and the demon Calux possessing the game adds that essential sinister and dark layer to Truth Or Dare. It’s a tragic story. Inez wanted to punish the disgusting priest, who terrorized her and her friends, but Calux killed everyone, leaving Inez as the sole survivor. How did Inez survive? She performed a ritual, which included cutting out her own tongue.

The ending? Calux tells Olivia there’s no way to escape the game after Sam/Carter’s death. But Olivia can temporarily delay her next turn and Markie’s turn in the game, if she can find more players. So Olivia uploads a video to You Tube, inviting millions of potential players to play Truth Or Dare. It’s a clever and logical ending, that could leave things open for a future film. Was Olivia’s decision selfish? Yes, there’s no denying that at all. But if you put yourself in Olivia’s place, it’s understandable how someone could make that decision, when you’re young and facing certain death.

Truth Or Dare features a good amount of grisly images. Ronnie breaking his neck on the pool table dare, a possessed Tyson ramming his own pen into his head, and Inez’s severed tongue are some good notable picks. And Giselle lighting the innocent woman on fire at the gas station really worked to set the tone for the rest of the movie. After that scene, you’ll know this version of truth or dare is not a fun and carefree game. 

There’s also a decent message about friendship involving Olivia and Markie. After everything they went through, Markie and Olivia’s bond was stronger in the end. After all the lies and keeping secrets from her, Olivia chose to make the hard decision to protect Markie. It’s a story about what happens, when friends are pushed to their limits for trust and betrayal, and how different people react, when you reach the point of no return for forgiveness. 

Truth Or Dare has the right ingredients, but it’s a horror film with some noticeable problems. Why would you follow a complete stranger (Carter/Sam) to an abandoned church in a different country? Trusting Carter is an irreversible mistake that has deadly ramifications throughout the movie. And Truth Or Dare’s biggest problem is, it’s just not scary at all. There’s the one decent scene with the homeless man (Andrew Howard) ambushing Olivia to pick truth or dare, but that’s about it. 

There’s also too many unintentionally funny moments, when things are supposed to be serious. Truth Or Dare has a solid cast, and a premise with a lot of potential. But it’s a movie that has one too many misfires, and it joins the already crowded pack of so-so mainstream PG-13 horror films.

Rating- 4/10

 

Project Almanac (2015)

**This post contains spoilers**

The Story- David Raskin (Jonny Weston) finds plans for an unfinished time machine developed by his deceased father, Ben (Gary Weeks) in the basement of his house. David forms a team with his best friends Adam (Allen Evangelista) and Quinn (Sam Lerner) to help him finish building the time machine, while his sister Christina (Virginia Gardner) records everything. And in a strange twist of fate, David’s dream girl, Jessie (Sofia Black- D’Elia) joins the group.

Eventually, the completion of the time machine is a success, but one careless mistake sets off a series of catastrophic events.

My Thoughts- David using the Terminator movies as an example to explain time travel? Brief footage from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure? Yep. It’s definitely a time travel film, but the found-footage POV brings a refreshing perspective to Project Almanac.

There’s a strong attempt at a good sense of realism for how they approached time travel. David warns everyone about the serious physical risks of using the machine, and I’m glad they didn’t go too over the top with trying to make the time machine itself some fancy looking high tech machine. David and Ben’s time machine looks homemade. They needed to use Jessie’s Prius battery for more power, and the group shopping for parts at an Ace Hardware was a nice touch.

Project Almanac feels more unique because of the found-footage POV, but it’s also a double-edged sword here. There’s way too much of the voyeurism stuff throughout the movie. Too many scenes with the camera sitting still recording conversations, using the camcorder for hidden camera moments that different characters aren’t supposed to see, and everything during the Lollapalooza stage of the movie feels like a big vlog from  a social media influencer. Voyeurism routinely kills any kind of momentum they’re trying to build, and you’ll have to wait until the tail end of the movie for a consistent pace.

It’s only a matter of time before the usual time travel movie tropes kick in. The group uses the time machine to win the lottery, Christina wants revenge on a bully, and Quinn enjoys having the chance to finally be one of the cool kids in school. But David sparks a series of chaotic events, when he secretly uses the time machine to go back in time for a shot at a second chance with Jessie at Lollapalooza. David finally gets Jessie to be his girlfriend, but his decision results in a domino effect with natural disasters, brutal accidents, and deaths.

There’s a part in the movie, where David introduces the strict rules for time travel to the group. The first rule? No one for any reason is allowed to time travel or “jump” alone. As soon as David introduced this rule, you had to know someone would break it, and David was a top candidate to do it because of his feelings for Jessie. 

After David’s failed attempts to cherry pick certain events from the past to fix his mess, he finally realizes he has to destroy the time machine to reset everything back to normal. David had to make the tough choice, knowing he would sacrifice his relationship with Jessie if he did it. The butterfly effect is always a crucial foundation for any time travel film, but Project Almanac’s approach to it kills a lot of the suspense here, with a predictable step by step process.

Project Almanac hits every time travel movie checkpoint you would expect, but there’s also a solid story with a good amount of emotion. When David goes back in time to destroy the time machine, he finally gets a chance to say goodbye to his father before he dies in a car crash. Quinn pleaded with David to find another way to fix things without destroying the time machine, because he didn’t want to lose his status as the big man on campus at school. That might sound ridiculous, but I do get Quinn’s point of view. Quinn, David, and Adam are geeky kids. At that stage of your life, depending on your mindset, being one of the cool kids in high school is a big deal.

David made a lot of mistakes, but he’s a good hard working guy. He wanted to find a way to pay for his tuition at MIT without his mother, Kathy (Amy Landecker) selling the house, or having to overwork herself to pay for it. And he wanted to finish building the time machine to honor his dad, a man who died when David was still a small child.

There’s a solid heartfelt story here, with a cast of likable characters. Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D’Elia, and Sam Lerner delivered solid performances, especially Weston. There’s a strong sense of urgency during the finale, when David finally realizes he’s made a huge mistake, and Weston’s believable panicky and distraught hysterics are fantastic. 

Project Almanac is a decent enough time travel movie, and it also works as a coming of age story with the high school life side of things. The problem is, the found-footage POV gimmick is the only unique aspect for Project Almanac, and there’s noticeable problems for how they use it. I pointed this out earlier, but once David decides to go back to Lollapalooza alone to fix things with Jessie, it’s just too easy to see where the story is going and how the ending will play out.

Rating- 5/10