Game Over: TRUTH OR DARE (2018) Review

A group of college friends go to Mexico for spring break where they are lured to an abandoned church and play a game of truth or dare. When they return home they realize something evil has come back with them and isn’t finished playing the game. Now they must play the game or die.

Truth or Dare is a PG-13 teen horror film that is exactly what you’d expect it to be. Silly teen drama, over-the-top, and plenty of clichés. However, despite this the movie is extremely fun from beginning to end. The events actually start up pretty quick and once the games begin it’s one truth or dare after the other. Some the dares are pretty thrilling, a rooftop scene was pretty intense, and the truths that are revealed tear the friends apart even in the dire circumstances. The laughs in the film didn’t work for me at all, and it goes to some pretty great lengths as far as revealing rules about the game and the origin of the spirit coming after them. On top of this it does have some plot holes, but to its credit it does put up a fight to try fill some of them up, even it doesn’t always work.

In terms of characters, some are pretty cardboard cut-outs like Tyler Posey’s leading male character, Lucy Hale’s good girl character, and the cocky asshole played by Sam Lerner. Violett Beane’s character Markey was a character I feel should have been given a lot more to do other than storm out of the room crying every time she hears a truth she doesn’t like, and with that brought up some groan-worthy teen drama. What sucks is that Markey has so much edge to her when she wasn’t all about her drama and could be a total bad ass, so I wish more focus had been given to that side of her instead of all her drama between Hale and Posey’s characters. For the most part though the characters are developed well-enough. The performances are passable, but it’s really Hale and most especially Beane who turn in the most standout performances. The biggest thing I praise the movie for is its dark ending. While I did love that the ending was dark, it was actually clever in how it ties into events and conversations that happen very early on in the movie.

Truth or Dare probably won’t be remembered in the future and it is far from an all out good movie, but if you want to watch a fun horror film that is entertaining from beginning to end with a couple of thrills and a hot cast, this one will do the job.

–Cody Landman

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