Best of the Worst: ‘Truth or Dare’ is Unintentionally Funny

Screengrab via Movieclips Trailers Despite "Truth or Dare" making a fair amount of money, the film was met with a 5.1 on IMDb and a small 16 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Angelisse Alvarez 

Contributing Writer

When the Blumhouse Production “Truth or Dare” was released in 2018, the extent of discussion surrounding the movie was majorly mocking.

It had its short moment of mass attention before disappearing from the conversation, and I decided to watch it this past January after nearly forgetting its existence.

The film is branded as horror while failing to deliver any scary content.

On top of being forgettable with weak context to a poorly executed plot, and its value in eliciting a good laugh when viewed with friends, I am reviewing this film as one of the Best of the Worst Movies.

If you want to experience a horror film conceptually similar but of genuine quality, I eagerly suggest “It Follows” (2014) before what has now secured a role among the court jesters of film, “Truth or Dare” (2018).

Directed by Jeff Wadlow, “Truth or Dare” centers around six college students who go to Mexico during spring break, agreeing to accompany a stranger to an abandoned church.

Once there, they play truth or dare. The stranger, Sam, eventually runs away while informing the movie’s lead, Olivia (Lucy Hale) about the friends’ new entanglement with the cursed game.

The game follows them home, and they are forced to continue playing while completing each dare to its fullest and revealing each truth in its entirety.

If they fail to do either, they die, and one of the only ways to rid themselves of the curse is to pass it along to others.

Olivia is in conflict with her best friend Markie (Violett Beane) throughout the film, primarily due to her feelings for Markie’s boyfriend, Lucas (Tyler Posey) which leads to laughable, the cheesy drama between the three that is worthless and arbitrary considering the demanding situation they are all in.

The characters die in ridiculous ways, and it is difficult to miss or mourn most of the characters as they are overwhelmingly uninteresting and bland.

A movie or tv show is almost impossible to enjoy without intriguing characters to follow and watch evolve in convincing ways.

With a budget of $3.5 million, the effects are abysmal, as the most notable feature of this film is what produced the majority of the film’s mockery across social media: the morphed grins that overtake a character’s face when they are occupied by the entities that force the continuation of the game.

There is nothing scary about these faces, and yet they were the movie’s selling point during the promotion.

Save for a select few, the acting skill in this movie is at the bare minimum, which heightens the flatness and unlikability of most characters.

What is supposed to be the only resolution to ending the curse is handled in an outrageously unnecessary way and only serves a purpose in extending a sorry attempt at tragedy and action.

The conclusion of “Truth or Dare” is also illogical, and its only purpose is to shock and suggest a sense of powerless urgency and endless hopelessness that is achieved pointlessly.

Little consideration was devoted to building strong context, plot, and resolution while more focus was directed into ensuring the movie was full of action and suspense to the very end, while this action and suspense were comedic and pitiful.

I would only suggest watching “Truth or Dare” (2018) with friends for the sole intention to laugh hard.

If you are looking to be scared in any capacity, you won’t be. If you are looking to experience some semblance of horror, you won’t.

What I can ensure, however, is that you will forget this movie exists just like everyone else has.

Email Angelisse at:

aalvarez4@live.esu.edu