Sometimes a little good goes a long way. This is especially true in Hollywood when all it takes is a couple of well received movies for people to say a studio can do no wrong. The Marvel Cinematic Universe may be the best example, but it does not take a decade of hits to earn movie goers’ good will. After a strong 2017 that included Happy Death Day and Get Out, movie audiences were eager for Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare.
The story behind Truth or Dare is a simple one. A group of friends go to Mexico for a spring break and meet a mysterious stranger who convinces them to go to an old mission and play a game of Truth or Dare. Things go awry when the group returns home and the game seems to have followed them home with deadly results.
Horror movies filled with twenty somethings who like to party usually have one somewhat likeable character. This is not the case in Truth or Dare. There is a drug dealer, an alcoholic (though all seem to drink too much), and a guy who constantly sexually harasses the others. There are half hearted attempts to make the audience like some characters, but this is a very unlikeable bunch.
By far, the worst characters are Olivia (Lucy Hale), Lucas (Tyler Posey), and Markie (Violett Beane). Olivia and Markie are life-long (maybe; this is not explained well) best friends. Lucas is dating Markie and it does not take long for the movie to begin a ham-fisted love triangle.
The relationship between the three is the most frustrating part of the movie. Truth or Dare seems to be trying to create a constant tension with numerous revelations and twists involving the trio. Instead, the audience becomes confused and annoyed by the various decisions made. By the fourth time Markie and Olivia make up, it becomes clear that this was a fifteen-minuet story stretched into a two-hour movie.
Olivia, Lucas, and Markie are not the only ones poorly written. People constantly act out of character. Someone who has been selfish the entire movie doing the most unselfish thing possible and a ridiculously altruistic person willing to sacrifice everyone in the world to save a friend are just two examples. Truth or Dare does not ever seem to go more than five minuets before making the audience ask, “Why would they do that?”
Truth or Dare also suffers from poor dialogue. Silly one liners and action movie clichés are paired with nonsensical explanations that seem to be there just to fill time. The dialogue is so consistently bad that the editors seemingly got tired of taking illogical lines out. At one point an angry character walks into a room leading to this amazing exchange with her best friend:
“What are you doing here?”
“I live here.”
Truth or Dare is filled with laughable dialogue, bad acting, and awful characters. The movie only stops being cringy to give the audience a chance to laugh at it. Blumhouse had a great 2017, but Truth or Dare is the easy front runner for worst movie of 2018.
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