The latest effort from horror hit factory Blumhouse (Happy Death Day, Get Out) is would-be franchise-starter that eventually crumbles under the weight of its own convolutions.
Lucy Hale (the giant-eyed star of Pretty Little Liars) stars as Olivia, one of a group of fresh-faced teenagers who head down to Mexico for a final blowout before heading to college. Following a debauched evening of partying, they end up in the ruins of an old mission where their new pal Carter (Landon Liboiron) suggests they play a game of the titular sleepover staple.
Carter seems to be taking the whole thing a bit seriously and warns the friends that they should too. They don't, seemingly without consequence, and head back to the States to carry on with their lives. Once at college, strangers around the individual friends start becoming temporarily possessed by an unknown force which engages them in further rounds of truth or dare, and there are deadly consequences if they don't follow through.
Some degree of thought has been put into deriving tension from the character relationships here, but they don't hold up to much scrutiny. In fact, very little does in this film, which is constantly adding new rules to its set-up to support what happens next. Selecting "truth" requires characters to blurt out a shocking secret at an inopportune moment, but then later the same result comes about from selecting "dare". The motivations of the force driving this game are frustratingly obtuse - does it want to kill these people or embarrass them?
Truth or Dare initially suggests potential for some macabre Final Destination-esque death scenes, a potential that ultimately goes disappointingly unfulfilled. The film is clearly proud of its cheaply audacious ending, but again, it doesn't make a huge amount of sense.
