BLUMHOUSE’S TRUTH OR DARE

Name: BLUMHOUSE’S TRUTH OR DARE
Item: BLUMHOUSE’S TRUTH OR DARE
Author: Steph Manthe

"Dare You Not to Watch This One"

Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

TRUTH OR DARE is a horror movie about a group of teenagers playing a deadly, demon possessed version of the classic game. Olivia is pressured by her friends to go to Mexico for spring break. A stranger she meets invites them to break into an old convent with him to play truth or dare. Soon after, they realize that this truth or dare has life and death consequences because a demonic entity will kill them if they don’t play along.

TRUTH OR DARE is a mediocre spin on used horror tropes. There’s no originality to the bleak story, and the teenage drama and love triangles are a bit over the top. TRUTH OR DARE has a strong occult worldview that isn’t defeated by spiritual goodness in the end but instead wins by infecting the rest of the world. Add to the fact that the teenagers engage in sexual immorality, drunkenness and a smattering of cursing, there’s plenty for parents to object in the movie. Add to the fact that there’s some grotesque violence, especially for PG-13 standards, TRUTH OR DARE is excessive.

Content:

(OOO, LL, VVV, SS, N, AAA, D, MM)

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Very strong occult worldview where demonic entity torments people and makes them do dangerous things or else they’ll die, with evil winning despite some decent hearted teenagers trying to do the right thing;

Foul Language:

15 obscenities (including one f-word), three profanities, vomiting;

Violence:

Strong scary, and gory violence, hallucinations show very scary people throughout the movie, man falls off pool table and breaks his neck, girls hand is smashed with a hammer, man is forced by demon to stab a pen in his head, two teenagers are shot, man cuts his tongue out, man is forced by demon to slice his own throat, and a girl’s father committed suicide;

Sex:

Implied sex, and references to sex, one scene of depicted sex between teenagers, private parts are obscured, but woman bare back is shown, teenagers kiss, a nun says that a priest took advantage of the nuns, one teenager boy is gay and he kisses another boy on the dance floor, girls says her best friend’s father tried to take advantage of her, girl says she “bi-curious”;

Nudity:

A man is completely naked and barely hides his private parts, woman’s bare back is seen, teenagers where skimpy outfits that show lots of leg and cleavage;

Alcohol Use:

Moderate drinking by teens, and one is clearly an alcoholic;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No drug use, but one boy sells pharmaceutical prescriptions illegally;

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Lying and moral relativism.

More Detail:

TRUTH OR DARE is a horror movie about a group of teenagers playing a deadly, demon possessed version of the classic game.

Olivia is a good hearted, selfless college student who’s pressured by her best friend Markie to join their group of friends on a spring break trip to Mexico. While at a club, Olivia meets Carter, a nice boy who invites Olivia and the rest of the group to an abandoned convent. At the convent, Carter invites the group to play truth or dare. While playing, Carter reveals that he brought them there because he’s alright with letting strangers die. While running off, he tells Olivia that they have to answer, truth or dare, or else they’ll die.

The group is weirded out by Carter, but when they get home, Olivia starts seeing hallucinations of scary people around her asking her “truth or dare.” She answers truth and is then forced to yell in the library that her best friend Markie is cheating on her boyfriend.

The next person that is asked to fulfill the truth or dare question refuses to do so and ends up brutally dying. The group starts to realize that if they don’t play along with the game, they’re all going to die. As the game progresses, the truth questions become more personal and revealing and dares become more dangerous. Will they be able to stop the demon before it kills them all?

TRUTH OR DARE is a mediocre spin on overly used horror tropes. There’s not really any originality to the bleak story, and the teenage drama and love triangles are a bit over the top. The lead actress, Lucy Hale, is by far the most compelling of the performers, but unfortunately all her best qualities are diminished at the end when her character Olivia chooses to expose the demon to the whole world instead of making a sacrificial choice. While some of the scenes are thrilling and suspenseful, like FLATTENERS or IT (2017), it grows tiresome going friend to friend as the demonic entity torments everyone over and over.

TRUTH OR DARE has a strong occult worldview that isn’t defeated by spiritual goodness in the end, but instead wins by infecting the rest of the world. Add to the fact that the teenagers engage in sexual immorality, drunkenness and a smattering of cursing, there’s plenty for parents to object in the movie. Add to the fact that there’s some grotesque violence, especially for PG-13 standards, TRUTH OR DARE is excessive.

If we’re being truthful, Movieguide® advises all media wise viewers to skip TRUTH OR DARE.