Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Truth or Dare’ (2017)

Written by Scott Edwards

​There are many things that you can do with your friends, but nothing seems to beat playing a game. While there are many more adult themed games that have hit the market, there are still games that do not cost you a dime to play. Truth or Dare was a great game while growing up, not only because of the silliness of the questions, but because you got to learn a lot more about your friends than any other game. While the game can get pretty intense, it is all about having a good time with your friends and depending on the mood and drinks involved, you may find out that you don’t know your friends as well as you thought.
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Arriving at Carter’s aunt’s house for their Halloween party, Alex, Tyler, Maddie, Holt, Luke, Jessie and Addison have no idea what is really happening. Knowing that Carter likes to have fun at his parties, they all want to keep it a little more low key than the previous year when Luke almost lost his scholarship after getting hurt. Seeing that his friends are having a hard time, Carter comes clean about the house not being his, and reveals that it is a haunted rental with a chilling past. Telling his friends about what happened in the house back in 1983 as seven kids lost their lives, he wants to play the game Truth or Dare and tape it to see what really happens.

While the group is at first hesitant about playing the game, they finally decide to give it a go. Putting down the ground rules of nothing dirty being written on the cards, Alex draws the first one and is told to make out with her best friend Maddie. Fulfilling the Dare, Maddie pulls the next card that seems a little off kilter and comes clean about sleeping with Alex’s boyfriend, Tyler. Pulling the next card, Tyler believes that the game is getting out of hand. Being told to put his hand on a stove burner, he will not comply and that results in a penalty from the house. As something unseen in the house forces his hand on the burner, the group is privy to the rules of the game and they will be forced to play three rounds over the next forty-eight hours and if they do not comply, they will be killed.

As the Dares continue to mount up, the group tries to work together as best they can, but when Addison refuses to come clean about a bad habit, she is penalized in the worst way, death. Leaving the house and getting everyone checked on at the hospital, Carter tries to explain what is happening to the group to the police, but nobody will believe him. As everyone goes their own way to get a good night’s sleep thinking that they have beaten the house, they are shocked when a video appears on their phones of Carter being the next victim. Seeing now that being in the house does not make a difference, the group tries to find help from the only survivor of the game that killed her friends so many years ago. With her only advice being that everyone has to work together, the group must try and find a way to survive the game as the Dares become far more deadly. 

Hearing about this movie from a friend, I did not pay much attention when it aired, but after seeing it, I was blown away by the story being told. Most of the time when I watch a SyFy movie, I find myself laughing most of the time and that did not happen when watching this, as it is deliciously creepy and twisted. With tensions rising in the house after cheaters are being exposed, the house or spirit takes over the game with its own rules. I really liked just the creepiness of the house as a whole and how the Dares were exposed was pretty epic as the group was forced to continue their game. With creepy Dares, very little Truths, exposing past mistakes, punishment for the guilty and a finale that will keep you guessing, this was a pleasant, yet creepy surprise that has been delivered to the airwaves. I must admit that it has made me reconsider my Halloween plans of playing games in a haunted house, as the movie tells you, you must do the Dare, or the Dare does you. Stay Scared.

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