''Truth or Dare'' is a 2017 American supernatural horror

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

directed by Nick Simon and written by Thommy Hutson and Ethan Lawrence. The film stars

Cassie Scerbo Cassandra Lynn Scerbo (born March 30, 1990) is an American actress, singer and dancer. She was one of the members of the all-girl pop band Slumber Party Girls in the CBS children's music variety series ''Dance Revolution''. In acting, she star ...

Brytni Sarpy Brytni Melicia Sarpy (born September 21, 1987) is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Valerie Spencer on the ABC network soap opera ''General Hospital''. Early life Sarpy was born on September 21, 1987, in California. Her father ...

Mason Dye Mason Andrew Dye (born July 15, 1994) is an American actor known for his roles in ''Teen Wolf'', ''Flowers in the Attic'', and in season four of ''Stranger Things''. Early life Mason Dye was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma. He grew up in Ada, Oklah ...

, Harvey Guillen,

Luke Baines Luke Baines (born 8 June 1990) is an English-born Australian actor. He is best known for playing the serial killer in ''The Girl in the Photographs'', the last film produced by Wes Craven, which opened at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festi ...

Ricardo Hoyos Ricardo Antonio Hoyos, Jr. (born November 27, 1995) is a Canadian actor. He joined the cast of '' Degrassi: The Next Generation'' for the eleventh season as Zig Novak and starred in the sequel series '' Degrassi: Next Class'' on Netflix. He has ...

, Alexxis Lemire, Christina Masterson as eight teenagers forced to play a deadly game of

truth or dare Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs, ...

by a vengeful spirit, and as

Heather Langenkamp Heather Elizabeth Langenkamp (born July 17, 1964) is an American actress. She is considered an influential figure in horror films and in popular culture, noted for her acting in several works of the genre and her behind-the-scenes work coordinat ...

as a survivor of the game from decades earlier. The film premiered on

Syfy Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...

on October 8, 2017. It received negative reviews from critics. The plot focuses on a group of eight college students who rent a haunted house on

Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...

that is said to be haunted by a vengeful spirit after losing a deadly game of truth or dare many years beforehand. The group decide to play the game and are forced to follow through in answering humiliating truths honestly, act upon each increasingly alarming dare asking them to do violent things to themselves or others, or face deadly consequences.

Plot

In 1983, Donna Boone tells her friend Johnny Milsner to jump off the roof to complete the game of Truth or Dare, causing him to roll off to his death. Horrified, Donna returns inside the house to find writing on a mirror telling her to pour acid on her head. After first covering her head in a paste of

baking soda Sodium bicarbonate (IUPAC name: sodium hydrogencarbonate), commonly known as baking soda or bicarbonate of soda, is a chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3. It is a salt composed of a sodium cation ( Na+) and a bicarbonate anion ( HCO3−) ...

and water, she does so, completing the dare. In the present day, a group of eight friends – Carter Boyle, Maddie Sotarez, Tyler Pemhart, Alex Colshis, Jessie Havnell, Addison Troy, Holt Thorne, and Luke Wyler – go to a house Carter has rented for a

outing. Carter, a film student who documents much of their experience on camera, tells the group that the house became haunted after seven teens played

in 1983 and all but one died horribly, and the survivor was never seen again. Carter persuades everyone to play Truth or Dare in the same house. Things quickly turn sour when Maddie is asked if she had sex with Tyler, Alex's boyfriend. Although she tries to lie, a mysterious group text forces her to tell the truth. Tyler's dare is to put his hands on a hot stove and is told to 'do the dare or the dare does you', and although he attempts to quit, a chair moves by itself and trips him onto the stove, severely burning his hand. The group angrily accuses Carter of fabricating everything, which he vehemently denies. An old-fashioned television displays a warning that the group has 48 hours to complete three rounds of the game. They try to leave, but the doors and windows close, trapping everyone in. Jessie, a

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. Di ...

, is dared to eat Tyler's burnt skin from the stove, and after eating one piece, the phone rings with the message for her to eat all of it. Holt is dared to grab onto exposed wiring. To keep him from getting

electrocuted Electrocution is death or severe injury caused by electric shock from electric current passing through the body. The word is derived from "electro" and "execution", but it is also used for accidental death. The term "electrocution" was coined ...

, Carter rushes at him with a blanket to push him from the wires. Luke is dared to smash his knee, which Carter does for him. Addison is asked if she's an addict. She insists that she isn't, and then tries to leave the house. A mysterious force shoves her off of the porch and onto an exposed pipe, killing her. At the hospital, the group tries telling the police what happened, but are met with skepticism. The next day, the ghost of Addison appears in Carter's dorm room and dares him to hang himself for two minutes, with a noose falling out of the ceiling. Carter tries to leave, but the ghost and noose capture him and hang him once his time runs out. After being sent a

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of the dare, Alex, Maddie, Tyler, and Holt race to Carter's room, but are unable to open the door in time. The four friends see a message that Round Two is beginning. Meanwhile, Alex's research into the haunted history of the house leads her to Donna Boone, the lone survivor of Truth or Dare in 1983. Donna tells them that the 'demon' running the game feeds on fear and pain, and that they will have to finish the game inside the house in order to survive. She also suggests sharing their dares to outsmart the demon. In his bedroom, Luke receives a dare to rob a gas station, and a gun appears on his bed. He pulls up at the gas station with Jessie on the passenger seat and attempts the robbery, but the cashier ends up killing Luke with a shotgun. Shocked, Jessie calls Alex to tell her that Luke was shot during the robbery, and Alex tells her to meet back at the house. Once Jessie returns, the group heads inside, and Tyler receives a dare to drink a liquid poison. He shares the dare with everyone and they all first drink soda, then drink the poison and vomit it up. Maddie receives a dare to pull two teeth out. Tyler, a medical student, extracts one tooth from her, and one from himself. Alex receives a dare to play three rounds of Russian roulette, with Alex surviving the first two and Tyler fatally shooting himself in the head on the third round. Holt receives a dare to be run over by a car, and confesses to the others that he once paralyzed someone in a hit-and-run accident, but escaped without consequence. Jessie tries to run over Holt's foot, but the car won't start, and when Holt opens the hood to fix the starter, the hood slams on his hand and time runs out. The car, driving itself, pulls him in reverse until he falls, then runs him over, crushing him to death. Heading back into the house, Alex realizes that the spirit is punishing them for their obsessions and sins. Jessie is dared to chain herself to a pipe in the cellar, but runs out of time and is devoured by a huge swarm of cockroaches. As Round Three begins, Maddie receives a phone call instructing her and Alex to remove seven living body parts. Between them, they remove an eyelash, hair, a fingernail, an earlobe, a finger, and a toe. As their last part, Alex chops off Maddie's foot with a

cleaver A cleaver is a large knife that varies in its shape but usually resembles a rectangular-bladed hatchet. It is largely used as a kitchen or butcher knife and is mostly intended for splitting up large pieces of soft bones and slashing through ...

. After completing the dare, they rush to the hospital, but a message appears on the car's

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

with Alex's final dare – "kill her". Maddie begs Alex to kill her, but Alex refuses, and intentionally crashes the car into a tree. An unknown survivor gasps for air after the screen cuts to black.

Cast

as Alex Colshis *

as Maddie Sotarez *

as Tyler Pemhart * Harvey Guillen as Holt Thorne *

as Carter Boyle *

as Luke Wyler * Alexxis Lemire as Jessie Havnell * Christina Masterson as Addison Troy *

as Donna Boone ** Taylor Lyons as Young Donna Boone * Jonathan Mercedes as Johnny Milsner

Casting

Scerbo was cast in the role of Alex after several auditions. She described the character as "smart, quick and driven."

Donna Boone

, a longtime friend of the writer Thommy Hutson, was approached to portray the grown version of Donna. Langenkamp's first steps before filming were to get a life cast of her face for Donna's disfigurement, which she found to add a lot of depth to Donna. She later had discussions with Hutson to add further characterization to the character, deciding that she did jigsaw puzzles to deal with her overt loneliness.

Release

The film premiered on

on October 8, 2017. , the film is estimated to have grossed $6,871 from DVD and Blu-ray sales.

Reception

The film received negative reviews from critics. It has a 0% fresh rating on review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on six reviews. Joey Keogh of '' Wicked Horror'' wrote that the film "is too safe to really commit to the darkness and instead leaves one wondering why it really needs to exist in the first place." Timothy Rawles of '' iHorror'' argued that the film shouldn't be dismissed, praising its acting, direction, and special effects. "''Truth or Dare'' is fun as soon as it reels you in and that's pretty much from the get-go," he wrote.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Truth or Dare 2017 horror films 2010s ghost films 2017 independent films 2010s teen horror films American ghost films American independent films American supernatural horror films American haunted house films American teen horror films CineTel Films films Films about games American films about revenge Films set in 1983 Films set in 2017 American horror television films Syfy original films Halloween horror films 2017 films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films