Truth or Dare

"What sort of idiot chooses “dare” in a game of “truth or dare?” This issue is addressed in director Jeff Wadlow’s outrageously entertaining new horror movie, which made me nostalgic for my adolescence – reminding me of all those times when my friends and I played truth or dare, and ended up brutally killing each other. The characters – a familiar assortment of annoyingly attractive and personality-challenged college students – are locked into a diabolically real version of the game, controlled by a demon. If they refuse to play they die a hideous, Final Destination-inspired death, like falling face-first onto the tip of a pool cue."

"Well, not every Blumhouse joint can be Get Out, right? While the production company’s consistent track record of cranking out lucrative low-budget horror films — many of them smart, well-crafted — has been one of recent Hollywood’s most notable success stories, it’s just as evident that their brand can be home to a glut of low-tier dross like Truth or Dare. This one’s fundamentally a creaky remnant from the heyday of Final Destination/Ring cash-ins, upgraded to match the Black Mirror-age terrors of its present-day demo."

"The movie isn’t scary, it isn’t gripping, it isn’t fun, and it isn’t fueled by any sort of clever compulsion."

"Truth or Dare is the kind of film that must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but its initially appealing premise - what if a demon possessed a drinking game? - quickly falls to pieces under its own self-generated confusions."

"It does nothing to cleanse Mr. Wadlow of the lingering stench of his 2013 effort, "Kick-Ass 2." Even so, some setups can be unwittingly funny."

"The director, Jeff Wadlow, has a puppyish eagerness to impress, shock and entertain and as silly as the film might get, it’s never dull."

"My FitBit actually logged the experience as a 100-minute nap."

"The movie not only fails to represent the peak of the young Blumhouse shingle's output, but gets silly in ways that we've seen on screen for decades."

"...an overlong, uneven, occasionally unintentionally funny, weirdly toothless horror flick..."