Films

«Truth or Dare», that's the question

4 reading minutes

written by Loris S. Musumeci · May 02, 2018 · 0 comment

Cinema Wednesdays - Loris S. Musumeci

«The game followed us.»

Ola Mexico! A bunch of friends arrive for a crazy vacation! Selfies The dream for students in their final year at university. On the last night of her stay in Mexico, the intelligent and serious Olivia (Lucy Hale) meets a charming young man. He says his name is Carter (Landon Liboiron). He's certainly good-looking, and it doesn't take much to seduce the vacationer. The party bar closes, but there's no question of stopping there for a last night that must remain unforgettable.

Carter suggests that Olivia and her friends continue to have fun in a place that he calls «great». Slightly tipsy, the youngsters head to an old monastery on a hill by the water, despite the strict prohibition against entering the estate. Everything is old. Everything is broken. Everything is dark. But there are chairs and bottles. Why not play truth or dare under Carter's suggestion? And the paranormal begins... quietly. The evening concludes with an argument, but nothing too shocking. Back at the university, however, things take a different turn. The game has followed the students. It imposes itself on them. It's demonic. In fact, it's no longer a game at all.

Stereotypes that kill the sense of reality

The codes are there. So is the plot. If Jeff Wadlow set out to make a horror film, he succeeded. The only difference is that, even if he has assembled the necessary elements to frighten his audience, Truth or Dare doesn't really frighten, and even becomes comical, not to say grotesque, at times. Indeed, the director was so intent on anchoring the characters and the situation in reality that he overdid the stereotyping.

The fact that Olivia and her friends go on vacation and «have a good time» is a good first element for creating fear, as every young person can relate to it to a greater or lesser extent. The fact that the horror is triggered by a game of truth or dare is even better. Who doesn't remember some teenage party, both anxious and excited by this game? The identification process, the ABC of horror films, is there. And yet, the game is so overdone and the characters so caricatured that it's impossible to resist. No,« says the sixteen-year-old looking for his or her first thrill at the movies, »frankly, I don't care about this story.»

Poorly exploited home videos

From a technical point of view, Jeff Wadlow has succeeded a little better. The use of images or videos taken as selfies during the vacations or amateur videos at the beginning of the film work rather well. Watching the young people's home videos, it's easy to believe you're there. The videos on Olivia's You Tube account also invite a sense of the real. Unfortunately, the director may have hit the nail on the head at both the very beginning and the very end of the film, but he doesn't exploit this promising avenue any further.

On the other hand, the cinematography of a horror film should be able to do without overly unreal special effects. By suddenly giving its game-demon-possessed characters red eyes and exaggerated clownish smiles, the film looks more like a Looney Tunes cartoon than a genuine moment of terror. The clumsiness is reminiscent of Grippe-Sou the Dancing Clown in the recent film It by Andrés Muschietti. The latter certainly had a better effect with horror fans, yet the transformation of his mouth into an alien's mouth was mocked to no end.

All right, a haunted monastery

As for the themes, we could have done without a few clichés we've seen a thousand times before. Okay, a monastery is haunted. Okay, its history is dark. Okay, there was a shady priest. All right, the nuns lived in squalor. All right, esoteric incantations. Okay, there's a demon. All right, there's everything else. All in all, it's not necessarily exciting. As for the film's pace, it fits in well with the young people's quest to free themselves from the spell that has overtaken them. Nevertheless, the ascendancy of anguish is confirmed, with the rules of the game becoming even more complicated.

Truth or dare? That is the question. The film is intended to frighten, of course, but also to question the value of truth, the value of a human life. But let's not be too quick to rejoice: there's nothing philosophical about Truth or Dare, which, in the end, doesn't fly very high and doesn't even achieve its goals. And beware of lies! If this review contains any, by unfairly devaluing this film, the worst consequences are yet to come, according to the game. Speaking of which, which do you choose: action or truth?