Director: Giles Alderson
Writer: Giles Alderson, Jonny Grant (Screenplay)
Starring: Bart Edwards, Richard Brake, Richard Short, Alexandra Evans, Robert Maaser, Mitchell Norman
Plot: A rare family night for Jay takes a brutal twist when he awakens in a basement with three other prisoners. As their vengeful captor runs riot, Jay engages in a twisted battle to solve the puzzle to his past and save his family’s future.
Tagline – He’s Been Waiting
Runtime: 1 Hour 37 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Dare starts when Jay (Edwards) a family man is taken in a home invasion, which sees him locked up in a basement with Adam (Short), Kat (Evans) and Paul (Schutzmann) who are routinely put through torture by a masked man.
Thoughts on The Dare
Characters – Jay is a business family man that is often away on business more than he should, he ends up being taken in a home invasion, locked in a basement with three other people, he tries to plan an escape, despite getting warned by the rest about the dangers involved. Adam and Kat are the other too awake victims that show the warnings and usually have to go through the suffering for Jay’s mistakes. The masked killer slowly prepares each thing he will do to them, he is bigger, more powerful and cast an imposing presence over everyone else. Credence is a man that has been training a young boy to get rid of evil, he is strict and usually ends up punishing him for his failures.
Performances – When we dive into the performances, Richard Brake gives us the most captivating of the cast, as you want to see what this strict sadist person is willing to do, everyone involved with the room doesn’t have much to work with through the film, just playing into the generic figures of who might be the victims.
Story – The story here follows four people trapped in a basement who have an imposing figure put them through torturous punishment, while we get flashback to what drove this man to become the way he is. This is a story that doesn’t seem to give us any characters to have any sympathy for, as it shows that the potential victims are part of a sadistic revenge plot, which has more plot holes than could be imagined to reach the levels of how everything unfolded, with twists that just don’t seem to connect enough, leaving us watching a story that would rather focus on the blood spilled over the story unfolding.
Horror/Mystery – The horror in this film focuses on the torture that the victims are being put through, with most coming from camera that hides away the complete graphicness of everything, with the mystery being about why the people have been selected.
Settings – Most of the film takes place within the basement, the four walls the four people have become familiar with, along with the flashbacks which does have a more open world that does seem to be closing in around the younger version of the killer.
Special Effects – The effects are focused on the actual injuries, though we don’t seem to see any aftermath on them.
Scene of the Movie – The escape.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Cheap final scene.
Final Thoughts – This is a blood soaked revenge thriller that focuses more on the blood and gore, than giving us characters we can actually care about.
Lionsgate UK presents twisted horror The Dare on Digital Download 5 October and DVD 12 October
