Utterly forgettable, if truth be told
Games of spin the bottle and truth or dare have been a rite of passage for generations of teenagers keen to explore their burgeoning sexuality.
The good-looking protagonists of director Jeff Wadlow’s horror thriller risk losing more than their dignity when they are drawn into a high-stakes game of honesty and forfeit in an abandoned Mexican monastery.
Olivia (Lucy Hale) is poised to spend her final spring break before graduation working for a charity until she agrees to accompany best friend Markie (Violett Beane) and her boyfriend Lucas (Tyler Posey), Penelope (Sophia Ali) and her boyfriend Tyson (Nolan Gerard Funk), and their gay pal Brad (Hayden Szeto) to Mexico for a week of partying to excess.
At one beach bar, Olivia meets handsome stranger Carter (Landon Liboiron). He invites the group to a late-night drinking session and later to play a game of truth or dare.
But it transpires Carter has lured them into a deadly real-life game of concealment and consequences.
Truth Or Dare reserves one satisfying narrative bump for the final scene, but otherwise the two-dimensional characters are easy fodder for slaughter.
Our lack of sympathy for the students extinguishes dramatic tension and the plot spins wildly out of control when the screenwriters reveal the origin of the evil.
In truth, Wadlow’s film is mildly diverting but instantly forgettable. I dare you to disagree.