Director: Nick Simon
Writers: Thommy Hutson
Stars: Cassandra Scerbo, Brytni Sarpy, Mason Dye
Buy now from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2G0hwjJ
1 hour, 40 minutes
A girl walks into a Mexican gas station and sets a random stranger on fire while apologizing to her.
Two college girls are talking about their last spring break. Olivia volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, but Marky took her off the list so the six friends could all go on break togther. We get a “vacation in Mexico” montage as the credits roll.
Olivia meets a guy named Carter at the bar on their final night in Mexico. He “saves” her from a creep named Ronny at the bar. Carter knows a place they can go, but he takes them to an abandoned old house with a cooler full of beer inside. Ronny catches up to them, and not long after, Carter suggests the group play “Truth or Dare.”
Finally, it’s Carter’s turn. He chooses truth. “I needed to find someone with friends that I could lure here to play this game because I’m OK with strangers dying if it means I get to live.”
“Do the dare or you die, just follow the rules,” he tells Olivia before leaving. Then they all go home to the university cause break is over. Olivia starts seeing the phrase “Truth or Dare” everywhere. Strangers start coming up to her and asking her to choose.
Olivia finally chooses “truth” and shouts out that “Markie is constantly cheating with Lucas” in the very public library while Markie and Lucas are present. It doesn’t go well.
Ronny chooses “dare” and has to expose himself at the bar. At first he agrees, but then he changes his mind and falls off the table, breaking his neck. This goes out on video to everyone. Olivia sees the video and remembers what Carter told her.
Lucas gets the question, and he tells Olivia that he loves her, but he does believe that the “game” is real.
Markie gets one that tells her break Olivia’s hand. Olivia’s like “OK, you have to do it now,” and hands Markie a hammer. Markie does it!
Brad is up next. He chooses truth. He runs into his dad at the hospital, and tells him the truth; he’s gay and has been avoiding his father.
Next up is Tyson, who is interviewing for medical school. He choose truth, but lies about the answer. He takes out his lucky pen and drives it into his forehead.
Penelope tries to choose truth, but it won’t let her. As a dare, she has to walk along the roof of a building until she finished a bottle of vodka. She drinks it all and falls, but survives the fall.
They research a news article about the girl in the pre-credit sequence. She’s still on the run for setting that girl on fire, but the game didn’t kill her. She and Carter and her friends partied in the same Mexican church, and now it’s her turn again. The girl pulls out a gun to shoot Olivia, but Penelope jumps in front of the bullet.
They start researching that particular Mexican church. A priest was murdered there and not long after, there was a massacre. The only survivor was one young nun. Olivia gets a new turn, and she chooses dare, and the dare is to have sex with Lucas.
They track down the nun, and she explains how the nuns were abused by the priest. She originally summoned a demon named Calix, who “possessed the game.” Many of the nuns died in the game. The cost was she had to sacrifice her own tongue.
Brad gets killed in his next turn, and now only Lucas, Olivia, and Marky. Olivia has to go next, and she ends up telling Marky that it was her fault that Marky’s father committed suicide.
They track down Carter, and the whole group sets off to go back to the old church. They make Carter read the spell seven times. At gunpoint, Olivia orders him to cut out his own tongue. He does it, but before the spell is complete, Lucas kills him and then cuts his own throat.
Olivia makes a YouTube video explaining the game, and it sucks in thousands of new players.
Commentary
As usual in this kind of movie, the six main characters are mostly unlikeable with the exception of the main character, Olivia.
The movie gets to “the rules” right away, and starts with the actual plot quickly. This, however, means they have more time to drag things out, and people just don’t die fast enough. We watched the extended, unrated version, which was supposed to be extra-gory, but I still thought it was pretty tame. It just felt kind of long and slow.
The ending and the last-minute twist were good, but overall, the movie was pretty predictable and so-so.