Movie review: Truth or Dare

THIS film had no favours from me from the start. The trailer had no impact, and the fact that the movie was a Blumhouse production did not help either.
Overall, I could not care less about the film, but it managed to surprise me.
Like any good and enjoyable horror or thriller movie, Truth Or Dare has a simple premise, simple rules, and a group of people who must do their best to survive it all. The movie had all the right boxes ticked.
However, to get to the good parts, you must first survive an introduction where a bunch of pretty young millennials went on spring break, and shot a montage of vertically-framed videos and photos. It was just about the most obnoxious thing about the movie.
The story begins on their last days of spring break. Because of hormonal and alcohol driven reasons, the group decide to follow someone they just met to a secret location in Mexico to continue their escapades.
It was then that they, with little convincing, started to play the game. Caught in the curse, they are haunted by a demon that possesses people and turns their faces into what the characters themselves described as a “messed up Snapchat filter”.
Basically, it makes people look like Jack Nicholson in 1989’s Batman.
The rules are easy to follow: Tell the truth or die, do the dare or die, and play the game or die.
It was so much fun watching the main characters and the game trying to outsmart each other, and I was impressed at how fast the group of friends figured things out.
It did not take them long to start using common sense, Google, and Facebook to help solve their problem. Nevertheless, the group still made some stupid decisions up till the end.
Although Olivia (Lucy Hale) was the main protagonist, it was Markie (Violett Beane) who took the brunt of the curse’s emotional abuse. She was so constantly the emotional victim of the game, that it was laugh out loud funny.
Truth Or Dare is the perfect movie to mock while watching (a la Mystery Science Theatre 3000) with a bunch of like-minded friends, and it is enjoyable too.
Power through the cringe-worthy millennial parts, and you will be fine.