“Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare” is the“Showgirls” of post-“Scream” slasher movies: it’s not campy nor emotionally involvingenough to be more than the sum of its ungainly parts. This isa PG-13-rated horrormovie where college seniors are persecuted by a haunted version of Truth or Date, a party game that’s more menacingthan Twister, but not as dangerous as Spin the Bottle. There are ways to make such a campy premise—play by the rules, or be forced to embarrass yourself and/or hurt somebody—work, either through sincerity or capable snarkiness. The makers of “Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare” attempted the former option by trying tomaketheir hormonal protagonists just sympatheticenough that we carewhat happens when they try to impale themselves on a pool cue, or gouge out aneye with a fountain pen. Unfortunately, director Jeff Wadlow (“Kick-Ass 2,” “Cry Wolf”)and his three credited co-writersdon’t go far enough towards either of their film’s primary impulses—humanizing their immaturesubjects and/or making them die amusingly sadisticdeaths—making “Truth or Dare” feel like a genremovie that’s at war with itself.
Let’s start from the assumption that you should care about the teensin “Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare” if you want to enjoy the spectacle of watching them play a potentially life-threatening slumber groupactivity. There are, admittedly, a handful ofscenes that serve to up-end our canned expectations of who these twenty-somethingsare, and what theirpre-graduation lives are like. But many of these assumptionsare based on superficial generalities, ones that would be better applied to a fluffier teen sex comedy set inhigh school.Several stock typesvie for ourattention. Our heroine is, of course, reservedOlivia (Lucy Hale), a moral-minded, smarter-than-averageblank slate who getsroped into one last pre-college spring breakbyher flirtybest friend Markie (Violett Beane). Markie brings along a number of their mutual best friends, including Ronnie (Sam Lerner), a leering but harmless horndog,and Brad (Hayden Szeto), a mostly indistinctsupporting characterwhose most salient trait is that he’s openly gay.
Brad and Ronnie are the most revealingly under-developed meat puppetsin the film. Their peersare alsotreated like human-shaped props,since they also primarilyserve tohold up the film whenever an expository line must be said or a co-lead’sassumptions challenged. The sketch-thin nature of these characters isn’t asoffensive or bothersome: hot guy Lucas (Tyler Posey) is a prize for Olivia and Markie to fight over—though he does have a cuteone-liner that suggests otherwise—and dickish law student Tyson (Nolan Gerard Funk) has all of the bite, and in-your-face attitude of a garden variety jock, a quality that’s mildly amusing given his chosen area of study.
But Ronnie is a one-note joke who screams “no homo” before heis teased with the possibility ofgiving another guy a lap dance. As with Lucas, Ronnie has a moment where he suggests that he’s capable of growing out of his adolescent need to hit on any woman in sight. But isn’t college—or, at least, the version of college we often seen in movies—the place where young adults are supposed tolearn who they are (or maybe who they want to be)? Why then is this soon-to-be-college gradneither villainous, nor good enough to warrant more than just a second of reflection? Shouldn’t he—or, more accurately,Wadlow and his fellow co-creators—know what he is either going or tryingto become?
And what about Brad? The poor kid’s queerness is almost exclusivelydefined byhis fear of coming out to his police officer father. The reaction that Brad’s dad gives him after he comes out is supposed to be unexpected, but it’s not, really, once you consider the confusing paternal tone that defines “Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare.” If this movie were a parent, it’d be the confusing cool dad who tries to rap with the kids about the dangers that they’re going to face in the real world—despite the fact that those dangers are obviously cool dad’srose-tintedmemories of the perils that he faced back when he graduated from college.
In this mixed-up, none-too-bright context, a sentient game ofTruth or Dareis amessed-up parenting tool. These bright young thingsare gonna learn to be truthful to themselves, doggone it, even if it means hurting themselves or others during the learning process. Because apparently, stabbing yourself in the eye when you fail to come clean in a job interview is a fitting punishment. And surviving trauma—like considering ways to come clean to your best friend about your not-so-secret crush on their boyfriend—builds character.
“Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare” is not that different from sadistic horror movies likethe “Saw” and “Final Destination” films, franchisesthat alsofocus on a group of imperiled everypeoplewho are faced with aperversely life-affirminggauntletthat challengestheir shared misapprehensionthat they’re going to live forever. Once again, the joke is on our heroes, but this time, every cruelpunchline is seemingly pulled at the last minute. We’re supposed to like these victims, not gasp in horror and delight when they’re compelled to die campy—but bloodless!—deaths by an evil game you play when you’re kinda bored andkinda hormonal, but not imaginative or bold enough to do much about it.
Still, it’s fitting that this confusedand confusing horror flick is the first film produced by Blumhouse with the company’s namein the title.Blumhouse isthe studiothat recently earned prestige for their crucialrole in helping comedian-turned-filmmakerJordan Peele make “Get Out,” one of the best American horror films of recent memory. They’ve alsoproduced Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKLansman,” whichwill screenin the main competition at this year’sCannes Film Festival.
Blumhouse is alsothe company that continues tocrank out increasingly derivative sequels to polished, but unchallenging programmers like the “Insidious,” “Paranormal Activity” and “The Purge” films.“Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare” iscloser to its title company’s more formulaic horror films, but at times, its creators seem to struggle to say something more. Then the moment passes, and Wadlow’s film goes back to being a slasher moviewhose cruelty only ostensibly serves as a form of fatherly kindness.