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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 431904" data-attributes="member: 23">Truth Or Dare (2012) <img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBAr9cYRpw3VmAXyrQmVhAF0xcyQgOuGAfNeGRmP3JVVsu83J6h2aeimFaFBVksNNuURc2Yb1lv98VdTAAZC_cruTCNN2EEa42nK3QSxjBo35mJv0bQZkLhTElUIyPTfv2WO1-44YlPqMn/s1600/Truth-or-Dare-2012-Movie-Poster.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 571px" /> A random choice that I was hoping would kind of tick the silly slasher box I didn't get to do much of this October. In terms of setup that was certainly the case. We saw some of the "original sin", and it turns out someone knows what they did last summer. Not only this, he wants to know more and will do anything to get a confession. Beyond that it gets more into Saw territory. And with what I imagine to be a Hollyoaks tone thrown in since it's comprised almost entirely of a cast of twenty-somethings (I would have said This Life, but that might raise expectations) It's fairly character-driven, but this was challenging because all the characters are quite unlikeable. Most are quickly established as shallow, arrogant and hedonistic. Not to mention extremely selfish. Even the "nice" blonde girl enables them all (and she's really only nice when directly compared with the rest of her peers). Ten minutes in I considered aborting, what with the thumping soundtrack and annoyingly gobby douches as we followed their partying. Fortunately, this is the point making it more effective when the partying stops and things become tense and quiet. Once they were put into a life-and-death situation, we saw different colours to most that showed us who they were underneath (the key exception being the dark-haired girl, who was one-note beginning to end). I appreciated that it felt real-time, and that it got into the psychology of the situation. Even though there's the requisite 21st element of feminism towards the end, it's good to see a film in which the male characters begin completely unlikeable but are expanded as things go along, and certainly it's the male performers who fare best here. Alexander Vlahos is terrific as the conflicted, Stockholm syndrome stricken member of the group, while Liam Boyle - cute as a button - is equally convincing as an obnoxious party lad and someone who is facing up to himself while weakening through exsanguination. Tom Kane cuts a tragic figure as the misfit whose humiliation starts the revenge ball rolling. And David Oakes is intense, threatening and charming all at the same time. Reading up on the film afterwards, one recent reviewer - viewing it through a 2025 lens - criticised the film for homophobia, which isn't really something that crossed my mind as I watched. Yes, there is casual homophobic language sprinkled in occasionally. Partly it simply reflects how many young people spoke (yes even as recently as the early 2010s, and to pretend otherwise is revisionism) but there is also a payoff which hinges on establishing this culture. There are some horrific scenarios, but it stops short of torture porn. It's also very bloody, but, while it would be  shocking and jarring to see a scene from later in the film without context, the situation unfolds so organically that one becomes accustomed to it. It's far from the best of British cinema but for last night's modest requirements it was enough.</blockquote>

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