Truth or Dare

The ultimate revenge game; Truth or Dare is a horror film made up from psychological and physical torture right from the opening party scene, until the grim and grisly end.  Directed by Robert Heath, and with a cast of upcoming actors such as Jack Gordon (The Devil’s Business) and David Oakes (The Borgias TV series), who give sterling performances, this film is really brought to life in realistic proportions.

During an end of term party celebration, a game of “truth or dare” takes place, which unintentionally leads to the humiliation of a vulnerable student.  Defenceless against the strength of his male classmates, and weak to the seduction of the females, geeky Felix (Tom Kane) is easy prey it seems. 

Months later, it is Felix’s turn to host a party at a hunting lodge on his not so feeble-looking country estate.  It turns out Felix is not only super-rich, and has an ex-army older brother, but he is also absent from his own party…

The story unravels and the truth is somewhat surprising.  Felix’s older brother, Justin (David Oakes), has a debt to settle – for his kid-brother’s suicide – and it appears that Justin is holding the five students entirely responsible.  Unfortunately, the repercussions of the minor incident (humiliating, but negligible) for which the students are being held accountable for, are a little too extreme to be serious.

The onslaught of terror that violates the students, who are tied up to the mercy of malevolent Justin, justifies the film’s genre.  Although touching on the “thriller” genre, Truth or Dare is not really alarming to the hard-core gore fan, and merely produces a few unique surprises in an otherwise fairly obtuse storyline.

It is the acting skills of the minimal cast that brings the quality to this film.  So much so, that although this contradicts what was just said in the last paragraph, the acting in fact brings the “obtuse storyline” to a level of realism, and it is that which adds the terror factor – the idea that Truth or Dare is actually plausible.

The gore comes thick and fast, and Justin plays the definitive villain: an ex-soldier with a serious sociopathic disorder – which is not initially exposed.  His clear combat training and the pleasure he gets from torturing captives/prisoners is evident, and even scarier is his cool, calm and collected manner – verging on the polite – which primarily lulls the students into a false sense of security.

The truth is: This film is only worth watching if the genre is a personal favourite, as it doesn’t really offer anything else.  But for the genre it is, it certainly ticks all the right boxes!

The dare is: I dare you to watch it!

Verdict: ●●

Jennifer Atkinson

Released on DVD and BluRay on 27^th August 2012.

Watch the trailer here: