People have their preferences when it comes to watching horror movies. Some people like to acknowledge the tradition of marathoning them during Halloween, the scariest holiday of the year, and the perfect time to sit back and watch creepy flicks with their favorite beverage and candy obtained by trick-or-treating. Some people, like myself, believe that any time you choose to watch horror films is the perfect time.
However, I will admit that this current Chicago weather – cold rain, rumors of snow (why?), and bristling low temperature – is reminiscent of the brisk autumn weather that we receive during Halloween.
I digress. We’re here to talk about horror movies. This past weekend, I went and saw two recently released movies in theaters: Jeff Wadlow’s Truth or Dare, and John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place. Goes to show, I explored both sides of the horror spectrum.
This week, I will be reviewing these two horror movies, and it is here that I will add my trusty disclaimer: It is guaranteed that there will be spoilers for the plots of both Truth or Dare and A Quiet Place.
You have been warned!
Without further ado, let’s dive into these horror films!
TRUTH OR DARE
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 16%
Okay, yikes.
This rating was almost enough to have me question going to the theater at all.
Truth or Dare was released on April 13, and it was produced by Blumhouse Productions.
This surprised me a great deal.
Blumhouse Productions is famously known for creating decently performed films on low budgets, and we’ve received some notable horror movies from them.
Some honorable mentions include: Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Purge, Happy Death Day, Split, and the widely acclaimed and Oscar-worthy Get Out.
Their consistent output of horror films has garnered a pretty impressive following, and a lot of these films have inspired multiple sequels to be released due to their success.
On top of increasing ticket sales to their films and critical receptions from decent reviews to those preaching high praise, Blumhouse also provides horror fans with movies that introduce radical, original, and thrilling stories.
Clearly, Blumhouse has made a name for themselves for releasing some pretty great and phenomenal movies.
So, what happened with Truth or Dare?
Yes, they had some significant big names to their celebrity roster, with stars such as Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) and Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf) leading the cast.
But even they weren’t enough to save the film from descending into, what I consider, a cringe-worthy teen horror film.
Let’s start at the beginning.
Truth or Dare follows a group of college friends as they travel to Mexico for their spring break – and already, it’s transitioned into a typical horror setup.
These friends demonstrate their own sets of personal issues and dilemmas that they are plagued with, likely to garner some form of sympathy from the audience.
While in Mexico, they meet a stranger named Carter (Landon Liboiron), who had stepped in to assist Olivia (Lucy Hale) when she was being harassed by Ronnie (Sam Lerner).
Carter leads them to the abandoned castle that is shown in the trailer, where they decide to play a game of Truth and Dare around a campfire.
Ooooh. Roll credits.
The game starts off simple enough, with the typical truths of people attempting to lightly stir up drama within friendships and relationships, and the typical dares of having these friends make out with each other.
Then it becomes Carter’s turn, and he chooses truth.
His question: “Why are your intentions with Olivia?”
His response: he chose her out of everyone else in the bar not because she was in need of help, but because she appeared trustworthy, had friends, and was easy to lure into a deadly game.
The group is then told that the game is cursed, and that Carter has now passed the curse onto the college friends.
Rules are simple: you play the game, you tell the truth, you perform the dare… and you won’t die.
Olivia and her friends dismiss this warning, but it lurches back into the forefront of their minds when Ronnie fails to complete a dare, and audiences witness what happens to those that do not partake in the game.
Ronnie’s face twists up into a wide, sneering smile as whatever entity haunting the game possesses his actions, and he slips off the pool table he was standing on top of, breaking his neck and back.
What follows next is a long, grueling series of truths and dares that rips the group apart and rips the group apart.
Honestly, by the end of the constant stream of mangled bodies and ugly truths, my mind was weary and so done with this film.
The twist, if there was one, comes when the surviving group meets with Giselle (hello namesake!), who was a participant in a previous game.
Giselle reveals that her friend Sam was the only other survivor in her group, and that he actually was the true reason why the game came into the real world when he destroyed the ruins of the mission in which they played the game in.
Giselle is then killed through the game when she fails to complete her dare in killing Olivia, it’s eventually revealed that Sam is actually Carter, and that the only way to finally end the game is to follow a ritual in which a participant sacrifices their tongue.
This plan ultimately fails when Lucas takes his turn at the game and refuses the dare he is given: choosing either Olivia or Markie to get killed by him.
This leads to carnage of death, and the ritual is left incomplete with Olivia and Markie as the the sole survivors of their game.
But wait. One more catch.
They are then forced to recruit as many players as they can to the supernatural game via YouTube video, just so that they have a chance at living.
This ending of Truth or Dare, when it finally arrived, felt extremely cheap and like a weak cop-out, and it left me with a feeling of “Okay… so what was the point?”
Seriously, the scariest part of the entire film was the sinister grin each player had when it was possessed by the supernatural entity, at one point regarded as a “messed up Snapchat filter.”
I can think of a few genuine Snapchat filters that are scarier than what they gave us, to be perfectly honest.
Truthfully, the concept of having a horror movie based off the game Truth or Dare may have had merit, but at the same time it was delivered in an unoriginal way, and just left me tired after less than two hours.
Sorry, Blumhouse, Hale, and Posey; I have to agree with the 16% rating on this one.
Hopefully, this does not demean the true potential and success that Blumhouse Productions and the participating celebrities have demonstrated.
This movie may not have panned out, but I still have hope that we’ll receive some great movies yet!
A QUIET PLACE
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 95%
We then move on to the other side of the horror movie spectrum, and that is the performance of John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place.
Before I delve into the review, let me summarize my feelings about this film in a few words: Go. See. It.
Seriously, this movie was incredible.
There is a reason why the rating for it is so high, and that multiple celebrities have spoken up about the successful film.
Do yourself a favor and watch this film while it’s in theaters, you will not regret it!
Now back to our regularly scheduled review.
When I heard that John Krasinski had written, directed, and was starring in a horror film, I admit that I was a little dubious about the end result of the film.
I was familiar with Krasinski through his humorous interpretation of Jim Halpert on the television series The Office (2005-2013), so I was curious about how he would fit into a more serious role.
It turns out, surprisingly and exceedingly well.
Krasinski, as well as his real-life wife Emily Blunt, both star in A Quiet Place, which depicts the story of a family maneuvering and surviving a post-apocalyptic world invaded by alien creatures that are blind but have astoundingly good hearing.
Make a noise, and you die within seconds.
Krasinski and Blunt, playing Lee and Evelyn Abbott, adapt their lives around this new threat, keeping their family safe by implementing new and creative methods to keep their everyday activities quiet.
These methods include shaping pathways made out of sand to and from town, using large leaves as dinner plates, and using sign language to communicate with one another, just to name a few examples.
The use of sign language does more than just communicate efficiently and silently, though; Millicent Simmonds plays the Abbotts’ deaf daughter Regan, and was the initial reason the family knew how to speak sign language before the creatures arrived.
The use of noise, or lack thereof, is what truly captivated me about this film, along with the stellar performances of each of the actors involved.
Just as an example, whenever the camera focused on Lee, Evelyn, or younger son Marcus (Noah Jupe), the noise was compatible with what a person with hearing deals with everyday.
However, when the camera focused on Regan, the movie’s sound became muffled and distant, shutting out the noise that with people hearing are so accustomed to having.
It was a subtle, yet incredibly effective, way of introducing the differences in how sound is experienced between the characters.
Krasinski is a thematic genius.
Life was unkind to the Abbott family; on top of having to live in fear of accidentally making noise, they live with the trauma of losing their youngest boy, Beau, who had been killed by one of the creatures after setting off a toy rocket ship.
The aftereffects of this trauma is subtly laced in the rest of the film, especially when it’s revealed that Evelyn is pregnant.
This was one aspect of the film that I was the most terrified by: having to give birth in a world where a child crying could get it killed.
Once again, though, the ingenuity of the Abbotts allowed for them to create a soundproof room that Evelyn would go into once it was time for her to give birth.
Life goes on, and further family dynamics are revealed.
Marcus, having been witness to his little brother’s death, was now petrified that any time spent away from home would get the family killed.
It was just heartwarming to see Krasinski stepping into the role of a father that worries about his children’s safety, but is not overwhelmingly protective to the point where he forbids them to leave the family home.
Lee understands that it is inevitable that his children will have to care for themselves, and instead of sheltering them, he teaches them.
Regan, all the while, struggles with her innate deafness and her strained relationship with her father, who she believes hates her because of her disability and unintentional role in Beau’s death.
This is certainly not the case, but it was enlightening to see how simple, everyday problems and beliefs can plague us at any moment of our lives.
Without spoiling too much of the film, since I firmly believe that this is an ordeal that should be personally experienced in the theater, I will say that once the climax of the film arrives, you will find yourself holding your breath along with the Abbotts as they fight to keep themselves quiet.
Especially when the creatures inevitably find themselves stalking through the house in search of the family.
On top of being spooked throughout the film, I also suggest to bring tissues; there will be an instance or two where you may cry.
Prepare yourselves for an influx of emotions in the entirety of A Quiet Place.
Gisselle Lopez
Features Editor