Summary
A harmless game for money turns sinister…
My Thoughts
Would You Rather follows Iris (Brittany Snow, “Pitch Perfect”) a struggling 30 something making her way through life as best she can, the opening credits show her interviewing for a waitress job, and she explains that she's doing whatever she can to help save her brother who is near terminally ill if he doesn't get a bone marrow transplant. It's clear her whole life has been taking care of her brother since her parents passed away. Word spreads and she is called in to meet Shepard (Jeffery Combs) who offers her to completely pay for the best treatment for her brother, if she accepts his invite to dinner with 7 others so he can choose who to give this scholarship to. It all seems perfect until the dinner party takes a turn, the game is would you rather, and all their lives are at stake.
The last one standing gets the prize.
Honestly on paper the idea sounds like an obvious horror ploy, and it is, but I can honestly forgive the weak opening for what comes after, what the actual story lacks in substance, it makes up for in its carnage. This film rests very close to being torture porn, but is done with tasteful camera shots that shows the violence but doesn't hold on it, it's probably the safest torture movie I've seen, and while it won't appeal to most mainstream audiences (especially the dark, macabre ending), I definitely had a blast with this one. The violence is unrelenting, from the first somewhat mild round, to the increasingly more intense ones, such as beating the same man with a whipping stick, or stab the person next to you in the leg. It's a preposterous idea but the writing of the characters blends comedy and terror very well, creating an almost black comedy that I don't think many viewers got in their first viewing.
For a movie just barely over an hour and a half it really doesn't have a lot of time to spend with it's ensemble cast of characters, which is really too bad because some of them do seem genuinely interesting, but they're usually killed off before any more development can be had. Iris and Shepard, along with Sasha Grey's character are really the only ones with three dimensions, the others are just to up the body count. June Squibb even makes an appearance trying to get sympathy from the audience solely on her age, but I'm guessing you all know what fate she gets. This film would have benefitted with a stronger and longer script, there's just too many pacing issues that detract from the overall product. The first punch (kill) is thrown way too soon, it would have been nice to fully flesh out each character, especially our antagonist. This would've made a fantastic epic book, or an epic length horror film, but unfortunately it just turned out to be a pretty decent thriller, with some truly wonderful and sick ideas that should have been explored vastly more.
Would You Rather also does a good job at subverting the viewers expectations, which I appreciate as someone who can usually predict most horror cliches. I was actually fooled by one this time around, thinking the man from the beginning was actually going to save this group, but let's just say I was quite happy with the sudden twist of plot. It's just too bad that sort of magic doesn't happen throughout the entirety of this film, there are a few solid plot devices that are nicely placed to throw off the viewer, but there just isn't enough space or time for more glimmers of gold to make this a classic horror romp.
Overall Would You Rather is an above par horror/thriller but one that could have so much more if it had more confidence in its script and direction. The ideas are pretty great, but the execution is only fine, it gets bogged down by its own pretensions and would have benefitted with some breathing room to fully flesh out our characters, primarily the villain, but for what it's worth Would You Rather should satisfy horror junkies bloodlust, it just won't hold it.
I give Would You Rather 3 stars out of 5.
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