Truth or Dare?: A Critical Madness (1986)

Very best movie i ever watch

I'll tell you why so serious

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Having recovered from a nervous breakdown, it seems that Mike has bounced back. He has a beautiful wife, he's made great strides in his career, and has been reaping the benefits of his success. Mike's life is shattered when he discovers his wife with another man..she was Jerry's secretary and he knew Mike personally.Seeing people who aren't there, he is ordered by a figment of his imagination to slice his chest, pull out his tongue, and cut his finger off. Mike is more than a bit disturbed. He is later released by a mental hospital, and you better believe Mike will be motivated to find Jerry and his ex-wife Sharon, determined to get revenge. He's later placed back into the hospital, having hallucinogenic images of people he commands to destroy themselves during a game of "truth or dare", the same kind of game Mike participated in with an imaginary hitchhiker girl who told him to damage himself with a hunting knife.He wears this weird "Iron Man" copper mask he made in the machine shop after tearing open his face with a knife. Soon Mike is able to escape when he surprises an orderly stabbing him in the eye with a stick, and is able to free himself from the hospital after dropping a security guard, commandeering another's car. This sets of a mindless rampage as Mike kills anyone that reminds him of those who he feels contributed to his current mental state of disrepair, whether it be a mother and her baby(he smashes through a baby stroller and backs over the woman making sure she's dead! Why such a hostile act? Because she reminded him of his mother!), a kid in a park(the boy reminded him of himself and so he assaults the kid with a chainsaw to the face!), a policeman, and even three innocent people sitting on a bench awaiting a bus! The guy has serious issues. Where Mike finds the time to collect all his weapons is anybody's guess. He smashes a complaining neighbor's(he run into her garbage cans, strewing trash all over her yard!) face with a spiked club! The scene where he shoots the bench people with a machine gun is enough to warrant this slasher movie a cult following. You have keystone cops, a bungling mental hospital which continues to find ways to let this lunatic out to endanger society, the accidental murder and burning of a drunk in a shack(one cop thinks Mike is in there so he proceeds to shoot and set the shack on fire instead of any attempt to arrest him!), lingering shots of the luscious Mary Fanaro(as Sharon)naked in bed with Jerry(Bruce Gold)or in the shower lathering her nude flesh, woeful attempts to develop sympathy for Mike's condition, constant unintentional hilarity as Mike murders innocent people in gratuitous fashion(there's one long shot of the kid, attacked in the face by the chainsaw, spitting up blood and twitching;the scene showing the bloody baby carriage that had been mowed over; the crude, belligerent punk whose car is caused to wreck after the victim almost hit Mike, set on fire then shot by the machine gun), and John Brace(as Mike)in competition with Eric Freeman(Silent Night, Deadly Night 2)for worst performance in a slasher film ever as the mentally unbalanced psychopath. How director Tim Ritter incorporates the game of "Truth or Dare" in the plot really feels forced as if he had already established the title in his mind before writing the script based on it's supposed marketability. The showstopping highlight, if there aren't many to choose from, would have to be the head explosion when a fictitious patient plants a grenade in his mouth at Mike's command and the other nutcase cutting off limbs, bleeding out because he was dared to(both patients just appear in Mike's white-walled cell as he spins around, swept up in a deranged mania).

Tim Ritter is another of the multitude of directors that emerged during the post-Halloween abyss of low-budget horror and went on to build a career within a niche sub-genre. He is something of a legend amongst his ilk because he directed and produced his first feature at the tender age of 16. Much like Fred Olen Ray, David DeCoteau and Dennis Devine; Ritter has built a decent catalogue of self financed B-Movies that have allowed him to express himself and convey his cinematic vision to audiences across the globe. His films are notoriously gratuitous and he is amongst the extremist exploitation directors currently working in American film. Truth of Dare was his second feature and since its release in the mid-eighties, the film has garnered a relatively large cult following. Its success opened up the chance for two sequels, and Ritter has worked continuously ever since. Mike Strauber returns home from work one day to find his wife in bed with his best friend, Jerry. Visibly traumatised, Mike heads to the beach to clear his thoughts. After contemplating suicide, the emotion seems to trigger a violent schizophrenia in his mind and he begins suffering aggressive delusions, which make him play truth or dare with imaginary characters from his warped mind. Before long Mike succumbs to the grips of insanity and begins a violent trail of revenge on the society that he feels has outcast him. Truth or Dare is a tough movie to judge. It has moments to be credited and moments of flagrant ineptness. Firstly, the performances are heinous from start to finish and John Brace is hilarious as the wild-eyed Strauber. The cast looked as if they were offered no guidance from an experienced dramatic adviser and they fall astoundingly short of delivering anything even remotely convincing. There are gaps in the plot that are large enough to swallow the Sahara dessert and the continuity is like something from a fairytale, with weapons and convenient props appearing as if on command. There are many schoolboy errors throughout the feature, which demonstrate a lack of experience from the production team and especially from the teenage director. The movie starts astoundingly well and almost immediately sets a high standard, which unfortunately it fails to consistently maintain. With that said, Truth or Dare is a memorable, powerful feature and it is one that deserves a stronger reputation amongst the slasher elite. Ritter came out with an intention to shock and he succeeded successfully in making a film that approaches areas that other more competently financed features would never have dared. In today's climate of extreme political-correctness and constant fear of audience offence, this movie is a fine example of a time when media was brave enough to voice an individualistic opinion. The copper-masked maniac commits a few of the most gruesome acts ever filmed in slasher cinema. Three elderly pedestrians are randomly machine gunned whilst waiting at a bus stop and a cheery child is bloodily slashed to death with a chainsaw! By far the most shocking scene sees a pram-pushing mother and her baby gorily rundown and killed by the maniac (he even goes as far as to reverse back over them); and for the father of a nine-month old child, it's a tough scene to watch. Despite Mike's extreme malevolence, the story initially builds sympathy for his journey into insanity. No matter how strong a relationship may be, everyone can have moments when they feel insecure and panic-stricken if they suspect that their love is not equally shared. How would you feel if you came home to find your partner in bed with your best friend? I doubt that many of you would put on a copper-mask and go on a killing spree, but kudos to Ritter for approaching a subject that sympathetic viewers can relate to. There's something frighteningly realistic about the scenes that see Strauber recollect memories of his relationship and realise that he should have picked up on the fact that his partner was betraying his trust. The opening is brilliantly handled and demonstrates the potential of a young filmmaker with a relevant message to convey. Like many eighties slashers (Killer Party, Terror Night, Scalps etc), Truth or Dare suffered a nightmare production. Rumour has it that the producers became anxious once realising that Ritter was only 18 years old and they eventually pulled the plug, which meant that the final version of Truth or Dare is not the director's initial vision. Ritter has said that many of the plot holes are filled within the missing footage that's gatherinmg dust somewhere in a producer's cupboard and having seen the effect that a plagued production can have on a feature (Moon in Scorpio anybody?) Ritter deserves the benefit of the doubt.Although technically the film fails to impress, it excels in its power to shock and it has a subtle political comment on the Reagan cost-cutting era of the eighties. I really enjoyed watching Truth or Dare and I feel that it's an excellent time-capsule of a cinematic period that will never be repeated. It starts well and despite a dip in its mid-section, the film ends with the flamboyance that was so flagrantly evident in its launch. Considering the fact that Ritter was only eighteen at the time and has grown into a key player and sponsor in the world of B-movie production, this is an excellent example of his ideas. On a side note look out for Backstreet Boy AJ McLean in the small film-part that he wishes he could erase from existence!

I rented this movie quite some time ago (I think I was in High School) and watched it by myself and laughed so much I actually got a sore throat. Well, I new I had found a true B movie gem. I instantly had to show it to some of my friends and we all loved it. We still watch this movie to this day. Basically, the story line goes as is, there is a man called Mike Straber who is climbing up the ladder with his job and has a beautiful girlfriend. Well, he comes home one day to find his girlfriend screwing his best friend. This leads up to some classic dialog with his girlfriend telling him "Mike, just find some good friends". All this then gets a little bit sappy when Mike starts wandering around in his car and goes to the beach. It's here that he decides he is going to kill himself. Instead, he thinks back to when he was a kid and how he used to cut his arms up playing truth or dare with the other kids. Well, thus starts something that never stops. After severely mutilating himself he is taken to the hospital and put in an asylum for a year and when he is released the first thing on his mind is to kill his ex. From here on in enjoy the ride. This movie gets so ridiculous and absurd you can't take your eyes off the screen. Although, the gore in the movie is rather low budget I wouldn't have any other way. And the dialog in some scenes are truly memorable. One particular scene in which Mike has been slashed open and some people call the police. A detective comes to investigate and discovers Mike lying on the ground. So the first thing he says to the people who called the police is "He's been cut... badly". Classic trash. Highly recommend. 8 stars

Tim Ritter's 16MM debut (shot in North Palm Beach, Florida) is a sloppy mess, but it's a low-budget attention getter nonetheless. Mike Strauber (John Brace) is a successful married man who once suffered from a nervous breakdown, and now is going insane after discovering his sexy wife (Mary Fanaro) has been cheating on him. Mike leaves the house, picks up a busty redheaded hitchhiker (Kerry Ellen Walker) and heads to a campground for the night, where the two play a twisted version of Truth or Dare by campfire. He dares her to pull out her eye with a corkscrew...and she does!! Then she makes him cut off his finger, slash open his chest and rip out his tongue before disappearing.He's found and rushed off to "Sunnyville Mental Institution" where he is eventually released due to "overcrowding". He heads back home to kill his ex-wife, but is captured again and rushed back to SMI where gory Truth or Dare games are played with other patients. All of the TorD game participants turn out to be delusions of Mike's deranged mind, an odd metaphor for insanity in general, I guess, and a means for lots of self-mutilation.By the films end a head is blown off with a grenade, arms and legs are hacked off, a face is slashed up, a baby in a stroller is run over, a little kid is chewed up in a drive-by chainsawing, an old woman is clubbed on the head, Mike takes a semi-automatic rifle to three unlucky people waiting at a bus stop and much more. It's really just a bunch of violent nonsense, but it's pretty entertaining and the gore FX are fine.Followed by several direct-to-video sequels starting with WICKED GAMES (1993). Also available is (was?) TRUTH OR DARE?-THE RETROSPECT TAPE, hosted by the director.