Review: ‘Truth or Dare’ disappoints audience

New horror film provides more laughs than screams

Courtesy+of+Blumhouse+Productions.+

Courtesy of Blumhouse Productions.

The latest horror movie from Blumhouse Productions creates a suspenseful plot as an innocent game of truth or dare turns into a gruesome path of destruction. “Truth or Dare” was released in theaters on Friday, April 13 to fairly negative reviews. Despite the negative reviews other fans might find the movie amusing.

Seven friends, Olivia (Lucy Hale), Lucas (Tyler Posey), Markie (Violett Beane), Tyson (Nolan Gerard Funk), Penelope (Sophia Taylor Ali), Brad (Hayden Szeto) and Ronnie (Sam lerner) follow a stranger, Carter (Landon Liboiron), into an abandoned building and play a well-known game called truth or dare. When it’s Carter’s turn, he reveals a deadly secret to the group. On their way home the game starts to become more than childish nonsense.

It follows the known plot of a horror movie with a few “jumps scares” but it’s not as scary as traditional horror movies such as “Insidious: The Last Key.” “Truth or Dare” closely follows the terrible CGI (special effects) in the now famous DC comics of “Justice League.” The intimidating smiles in “Truth or Dare” imitate the famous joker smile seen in “Batman Beyond,” and rather than provide the same sense of fear that Joker’s does, the smiles merely serve as such a glaring detachment from reality. Viewers will be prevented from fully immersing themselves within the movie, as the horrendous smiles bring more humor than terror to the audience.

A good score can make or break a movie, but the soundtrack for “Truth or Dare” brings suspense. “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” composer Matthew Margeson is fairly familiar with horror movies, having scored the highly divisive 2017 horror flick “Rings.” The song called “Break Olivia’s Hand” builds up the tension while the scene comes closer.

Camera angles are vastly important for all movies, and in particular horror flicks. In the scene when Ronnie slips on a pool ball and dies, the camera angle helped make the shots as gruesome as it should be.  

All horror movies have to follow a particular formula to be successful. They need to have grand jumpscares, flawless special effects and a terrifyingly suspenseful score. “Truth or Dare” fails two out of these three items. This, coupled with the fact that the attempts to be scary end up being more humorous, cause “Truth or Dare” to fall short in more ways than can be forgiven, thus earning it a 6/10 because of its predictable nature.