FILM GUTTER REVIEWS - WOULD YOU RATHER? (2012)

Dir. David Guy Levy, 93 mins

As strange as it sounds, the focus is too much on the game, and by skimping on the characterisation we do rather miss out on the emotional impact that we might have had. You’ll probably pass an hour and a half happily enough watching it,

While Saw was anything but the first, the success of that franchise did bring about a slew of ‘I want to play a game’ type movies that brought all sorts of groups of people together to destroy each other in the hope of escape or great riches. It’s always been a fairly hit and miss field, as real ingenuity and intelligent plotting is all too often thrown aside for much simpler shock and gore tactics. I’d even level some of that charge at the latter entries in the Saw series…

Of late we’ve seen Truth or Dare and Hide and Seek turned into much deadlier versions of what we would associate from our childhoods, so why wouldn’t Would You Rather? have had the same treatment?

The story is ostensibly about Iris, one of nine ‘lucky’ contestants to be invited to a sophisticated evening where they’ll all get to play a game, with fabulous (and desperately needed) prizes to the winner. Iris’s brother is extremely sick and, with them struggling to make ends meet anyway, she feels she has no choice but to go along with this bizarre invitation. The party is led by eccentric millionaire Shepard Lambrick, played by Jeffrey Combs in wonderfully over-the-top form – he’s probably the most fun thing about this movie.

The game itself is a simple game of Would You Rather, with contestants starting small – vegetarian Iris eating steak and foie gras for 10,000 dollars, for example. But soon enough it’s all electrocutions, icepicks, whipping rods, attempted drownings and limbs being blown off. The last one standing will land the prize at the end of it all – so who has the guts, heart and intelligence to pull it off?

The best way I could probably describe this movie would be middle of the road – there’s nothing patently awful about it, but equally there’s not much to make it a real standout offering. For all the charisma Jeffrey Combs brings to this pantomime villain bad guy, I find Iris very bland as a lead character – she seems to vanish for large spells of the film, and I found myself more interested in other players. Ex-soldier Travis and the nihilistic Amy stand out as two examples, but that does all bring forward another limitation – we don’t know anyone well enough, even Iris, to really care about what happens to them. The section establishing her situation at the very start feels rushed, like we just can’t wait to get to the twisted part of things, and there’s never enough given to get you really invested in anyone else.

That’s probably best epitomised by the fact I had already seen this one a few years back, but very little of it was really wedged in my memory for the rewatch. Bits of this are interesting, and some are even fun, but it has a slight sense of the throwaway about it. It won’t have cost a huge amount to make, it probably made its money back with a little splash of profit, and is still streaming away on Netflix UK happily enough. I can’t hate it, or be offended by it, but it’s certainly not the best of its category.

RATING: 5/10. You might have guessed where this rating was going to land before I got here. It’s a fun enough concept, and there are some likeable performances, as well as some performances that come over a little half-cooked. As strange as it sounds, the focus is too much on the game, and by skimping on the characterisation we do rather miss out on the emotional impact that we might have had. You’ll probably pass an hour and a half happily enough watching it, especially if you’re an afficionado of this particular sub-branch of horror. It’s more wry and twisted than it is flat out gory and bloody, so if you are a serious gorehound you might be better leaning towards something like Red Room or Vile. With all that said, it was entertaining enough, and I can’t say I really felt bored at any points, so it’s a firm thumbs in the middle all around.

Would You Rather? is streaming on Netflix if you’d like to take a look for yourself.

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