Truth or Dare - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Truth or Dare



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
The snarky, sarcastic, jokester in me really wants to lampoon this review. I could make a thousand jokes about what kind of “truths” I could tell, or “Dare” you to watch this movie. But I really can’t muster up the energy to do so, as the only “Truth” that this movie has in store for you is that it is mindnumbingly cliched and so generic that it can’t even muster up a modicum of creative energy. Blumhouse productions and Michael Blum has put out some interesting horror flicks over the years, Insidious, Split, Sinister, Get Out, the list goes on. HOWEVER, they are known for just as many misses over the years before, and I dare say that Truth or Dare rivals Ouija and Unfriended for being one of the most banal and bland horror movies I’ve seen in the last 10 years or so. It’s not that it’s so horribly written, so horribly acted that it’s revolting. It’s just that the movie is so cliched and derivative that you can’t even summon up an ounce of enjoyment out of the bland experience. It’s like eating Malt O’ Meal without any butter or sugar in it. It fills you up, it doesn’t taste nasty, but it’s so devoid of taste that you just can’t stand choking it down without tasting like SOMETHING.

Olivia (Lucy Hale), is a do gooder college student who has decided to give up her spring break trip to Mexico in order to volunteer at Habitat for Humanity. But wait! Her best friend Markie (Violett Beane) has called her in “sick” and canceled her best friends honest labor to go drink and party down in Mexico! Yay! Markie and the rest of their friends PROMISE that they will volunteer their time after the trip, but in the meantime it’s time to get drunk and make stupid decisions. This stupid decision comes in the way of a cute boy named Carter (Landon Liboiron) who talks the group into going to an abandoned mission and ends up coercing them into playing an innocent game of Truth or Dare. Well, after a few rounds Carter jumps up and leaves, warning Olivia that the game is not a joke, and that it will kill them if they stop playing.

Thinking that the boy is loco, Olvia, Markie and the rest of them head back to college, only to have mysterious messages of the game follow them. Weirded out, Olivia plays along, but it’s not until one of their friends decides not to do his dare that the evil side effects of the game are truly revealed to them. Now the 6 friends are trapped in a never ending loop, where each one HAS to do what the demonic spirit controlling the game tells them, or they forfeit not only the game, but their own life.

Truth or Dare is the epitome of bland uncreativity that is rife in horror films. The movie makes every cooker cutter cliché a stereotypical mess. Putting up the closeted gay guy, the partying young adults, a bad decision gone awry, and a sadistic demon who manipulates the victims in “horrific” ways. Sadly it is also the victim of the PG-13 rating, and even the advertised “Unrated Directors Cut” doesn’t do more than add 30 seconds to the runtime, and isn’t exactly super revealing either. Like usual, the victims are knocked off one by one (with the PG-13 bloodless deaths) until the innocent do gooder is the final one to make it out alive (or is she?). Even the twist at the end isn’t exactly hidden very well, and we all pretty much guessed the outcome before the movie was more than 20 minutes in.

Acting wise, this wasn’t exactly one of Michael Blum’s finest productions. Everyone is your stereotypical screaming young adult (who looks like they’re more like 30 than college age students), and the writing is so painfully cringe worthy that I actually ended up having a rather large belly laugh for the opening scene. Sadly the movie doesn’t devolve into “so bad it’s good”, or even be so bad that you actually feel bad for watching it. Truth or Dare just happens to be so banal, so boring, so derivative and devoid of creativity, that it’s inconsequential film making at its finest. Much like Ouija, I just can’t summon enough energy to feel any emotion towards the film except to think, “what was the point?”.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA (Unrated Directors Cut) / Rated PG-13 for violence and disturbing content, alcohol abuse, some sexuality, language and thematic material (theatrical)




Video:

Using the Arri Alexa digital camera system and reportedly finished at 2K for the final master, Truth or Dare gives a fairly typical looking encode for a 2018 film. That being a good looking movie that is revealing in all of the right ways, with good encoding methods, and very few flaws to speak of. The film shifts between bright interiors and dimly lit Mexican missions with great success. Fine details are usually sumptuous, with intimate clothing details and backgrounds alike looking more than adequate. There’s some mild softness and some washed out black levels in a few scenes, but overall the image is more than pleasing and gives us a very nice looking digital film. The movie will not stand up to some of the greatest encode, but I am more than happy with how Truth or Dare looks like on home video.








Audio:

Well, if it does ANYTHING really well, at least Truth or Dare was given a really fantastic sounding audio mix. Horror movies thrive off of super aggressive mixes with lots of bass for the jump scares, and Truth or Dare doesn’t skimp in that aspect of the movie. Dialog is always crisp and clear, but the surrounds and LFE levels are really what make this a treat to listen to. The tense score is filled with all sorts of chest pounding bass, and the surrounds give it a spacious feeling as we hear bar members scream in the background, rocks fall at the fateful mission, and the light ambiance of a big city come through loud and clear. There is a wide feeling to the track that really puts the audience right in the center of the movie, even if this is a “lowly” 5.1 mix instead of a fancy Atmos track.








Extras:

• Unrated Director's Cut Version
• Game On: The Making of Truth or Dare
• Directing the Deaths
• Feature Commentary with Co-Writer/Director Jeff Wadlow and Actress Lucy Hale

Final Score: ​

Truth or Dare isn’t a horrible horrible horror movie, but it’s not exactly something that’s ENJOYABLE either. It is mired in genre tropes, with bad acting, and almost zero creativity. I had a very difficult time mustering up any emotion whatsoever about the film, and consider it one of those movies that is cursed by not being overly good, or overly bad, resulting in complete apathy towards it. There are a few cool things in the movie for sure, but most of the time I was just waiting for the “Demon face” (watch the movie, you’ll see what I mean) to just go away, and the short 1 hour and 40 minutes to just END as quickly as possible. Universal gives us great audio and video specs, but once again is rather skimpy with the extras. Personally, this is a “skip it” type of film for me, and even genre fans will be hard pressed to get through the mediocre film.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, Violett Beane
Directed by: Jeff Wadlow
Written by: Michael Reisz, Jeff Wadlow, Christopher Roach
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish, French (Canadian) DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
Studio: Universal
Rated: PG-13 (Theatrical) / NR (Director's Cut)
Runtime: 100 minutes (Theatrical) / 101 minutes (Director's Cut)
Blu-Ray Release Date: June 17th, 2018

Recommendation: Skip It

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will skip it.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Michael, you need to go cleanse your pallet with something good my friend.

 

[Michael Scott]

oh, I've got some goodies this weekend, don't you worry