Review: Truth Or Dare

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Until a terrifying film chronicling a deadly game of Spin the Bottle makes its way into theaters, Blumhouse's "Truth or Dare" is the most ridiculous game in town. With the recent success of "A Quiet Place" and the laudatory reception with which the upcoming "Hereditary" was met at Sundance, horror movies are once again making the case that they can be financially successfully works of artistic merit.

But not "Truth or Dare." This is one of the goofiest horror pictures I've seen in some time. The film opens in Mexico, where a young woman is hearing voices inside of a convenience store that tell her to light someone on fire. Shortly thereafter, a group of college students take a road trip to Mexico. Their group includes the brainy do gooder (Lucy Hale's Olivia), her bestie (Violett Beane's Markie), her pal's boyfriend (Tyler Posey's Lucas), a horndog (Sam Lerner's Ronnie), a gay pal (Hayden Szeto's Brad), a jerky medical school student (Nolan Gerard Funky's Tyson) and his girlfriend (Sophia Ali's Penelope). It's like "The Breakfast Club," but a version in which no one seemingly learns anything about each other or dances around a library.

At a bar, Lucy meets a mysterious guy named Carter (Landon Liboiron), who lures the group to a secluded and abandoned church, where they play Truth or Dare. As it turns out, a deadly round of the game had taken place formerly at the spot and - similar to the setup of "Final Destination," but minus the gore or thematically sound scenario - Carter must bring other people into the game to ward off his being chosen for another round.

As the film goes on, the game holds higher stakes - deep dark secrets are unleashed and dares become deadly. Those who opt out end up checking out, but in a bloodless manner because, hey, this is a PG-13 movie. The film is never particularly scary, especially when demonic forces take over the characters and give their face an annoyingly elastic look.

There's a particularly ludicrous moment in which the gang tracks down an elderly Mexican woman who once took part in a game with the demon that is tormenting the youths. For reasons I won't divulge, she can no longer speak, so there's an entire scene in which she is frantically writing down clues for the protagonists as they ponder ways to beat the game.

As ridiculous as the film's central concept is, "Truth or Dare" could have possibly been fun. But it's mostly a dreary entry into a long assembly line of movies about teenagers being picked off one by one by supernatural forces beyond their control. The truth is: you could do much better, considering the current and upcoming crop of horror movies.